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[Wesley Harris]

There's definitely plenty of assassination knives. The National Park Service has "the" knife on display. But wait, 30 years ago, they had a completely different blade on display as "the" knife. Then there's about six other knives associated with the assassination investigation, three of which are almost identical to "the" knife originally displayed at Ford's. The knife labeled as Atzerodt's at Ford's is most likely Herold's, which was found in the room at the Kirkwood House where Herold left his. At his death, Booth may have had one, two, or three knives with him, depending on which account you believe. What police today consider a relatively simple matter--maintaining the "chain of custody" to permit later identification of an item--was a foreign to 1860s criminal investigation.