Did Booth's leg develop gangrene?

[Wild Bill]

In my book, The Assassinator, I had Booth's leg amputated before he stood trial for shooting the President because it showed the beginnings of gangrene. But I do not recall any single eyewitness who mentioned that it began to smell of the peculiar odor that marked the beginnings of gangrene before he was shot at Garrett's Farm. It is an interesting theory, though. After all, witnesses said that the leg was turned black by the time Booth reached Garrett's.

As for Mexico, It was in much turmoil in 1865. Neither Juarez not Maximilian really controlled the whole country. In many ways they did not even control the areas in which they supposedly ruled. Booth probably could have joined up with one of the many organized and disorganized groups of Civil War refugees from the North or South who ventured across the border to avoid the results of the war. Even after Queretaro and Maximilian's execution in 1867, Juarez only nominally controlled Mexico. One of his generals, Porfirio Diaz came the closest to controlling Mexico completely from 1876 to the Revolution of 1910. Even then, it was not unusual for American mercenaries to cross the border at the beck and call of mining interests, with or without the approval of local governing bodies. Many Arizona Rangers (they operated much like the more well-known Texas Rangers) did this in league with local power artists and the Rurales who policed local areas.