The Booth Deringer pistol

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Abraham Lincoln was shot with a small .44 -caliber single shot Deringer pistol. This pistol was 5.87 inches (14.9 cm) long (overall length), 2.79 inches (7.1 cm) wide, with a 1.62 inch (4.1 cm) barrel and only weighed 8 ounces (226.8 gram). Why would John Wilkes Booth have carried only such a small Deringer (and of course a knife), if he wanted to assassinate Lincoln (or was ordered to execute him ???) Such a “monumental event”, known as the crime of the 19th century, such a small pistol. That sounds to me as very odd. Was it actually Booth’s weapon?

It was found on the floor of the state box. As far as I know there circulate two different stories.

First story: the Deringer was found by William T. Kent, a government official, working in the Office of the Paymaster General. Kent and Dr. King came to the box approximately 3 minutes after the shot fell. Dr. Leale and Dr. Taft were there already, examining Lincoln. Kent gave Leale his knife to cut Lincoln’s shirt and left the state box shortly afterward. Later in the evening he missed his room key and returned to the state box, thinking that he had lost it when he gave his knife to Dr. Leale. He found the Deringer on the floor of the theatre box. It was immediately assumed it was the weapon Booth had used to assassinate the president. Kent gave the Deringer in the morning of the 15th to Lawrence A. Gobright, a reporter of Associated Press, who handed it over to the Metropolitan Police, where Kent it later identified as the pistol he had found.

The second story says that Lawrence Gobright found the Deringer when he was searching for his lost watch.

There is a third story! The story of chief stage carpenter James J. Gifford. He claimed to have found (in the morning of April 15) a Deringer pistol at Ford’s Theatre, and this pistol had the name J. Wilkes Booth engraved on the butt plate. Thinking that it was the murder weapon he put it in his pocket, feared turning it in to the authorities and kept his mouth shut. Two years later he showed the pistol to George K. Goodwin (owner of the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia) and told him how he found it. He later gave the Deringer to Goodwin, and when Goodwin died in 1882 the pistol was given to his business partner, George Plowman. Plowman informed the press in 1901. The Deringer Goodwin found was smaller than the .44-caliber Deringer used by Booth to shoot Lincoln. It was a .36-caliber Deringer, with a 1.5 -inch (3,8 cm) barrel and an overall length of 4 inches (10,1 cm).

I know that Deringer pocket pistols were during the 1860s always sold in matched pairs (for approximately $25). Could it be possible that the .44-caliber Deringer and the .36-caliber Deringer were sold as a pair? But why two different calibers? Could it be possible that Booth carried TWO Deringer guns on April 14 and that the second gun fell from his clothing during his escape from the theater? Gifford said he found the gun “backstage”; Plowman said it was found in "the wings" of Ford's Theatre; Plowman's grandson said it was found "in or near a trash barrel."

Maybe Gifford's story is a lie and the .37-caliber Deringer found is a forgery. But as far as I know it was sold for almost $80,000 and that is a pretty large sum for a forgery, I think.

   

Here are 7 questions:
(1) Why had Booth armed himself with a tiny single-shot .44-caliber Deringer?
(2) Who found the .44-caliber Deringer, Kent or Gobright?
(3) Was the .44-caliber Deringer indeed Booth’s weapon?
(4) If Booth bought the .44-caliber Deringer, he bought a matched pair. Is it known what became of that (possible) second gun?
(5) Was Booth prepared to use the .37-caliber Deringer on the evening of April 14, 1865, if needed?
(6) Why does the second gun have Booth’s name on it, if it didn’t belong to Booth?
(7) Did the bullet removed from Lincoln’s head match with the .44-caliber Deringer?

BTW-1: I found two different spellings: Deringer and Derringer, and I learned that Deringer refers to a pistol manufactured by Henry Deringer, and the use of Derringer refers to a pocket pistol of any make.

BTW-2: I’m not a weapon expert, but am I right if I say that the bullet that killed Lincoln was a .41-caliber bullet, which was fired by the .44-caliber Deringer?

A lot of questions I know. But I'm very curious to know your opinions!
In the meantime: Happy X-mas and an awful successful 2017 for all of you !