Escape speculations

[BettyO]

Quote:Gene, I've seen old tobacco barns, too, and you're right about the boards not being tight against one another. In the case of the barn in question, I've read somewhere that some of the Garrett's neighbors had furniture and stuff stored in that barn, and that clutter may have hindered Booth had he tried to kick some boards loose and scoot out of there.

I agree with you both and Laurie. Old tobacco barns or curing sheds have spaces between the horizontal wall boards to aid the air ventilation curing. My uncle grew tobacco for years and he had two tobacco barns on his property - same concept....they had wide spaces between the slats for drying. There was furniture from neighbors stored in Garrett's barn - NOT tobacco as it was early spring and it would not have been harvested yet. Supposedly the neighbors were afraid of Union raiding parties and had stored their "valuables" there for safe keeping in case their farms and homes were raided - nothing as to what would have happened IF Garrett's home had been raided; and it most definitely was!) I would imagine that Booth's body had deteriorated quickly, much as any corpse lying out in the open even though Booth's was covered. Flies and other organisms have a way of getting into things no matter what. Rigamortis would have set in within two hours, I believe.