The Booth Deringer pistol

[STS Lincolnite]

(12-29-2016 06:49 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Does anyone have an opinion on this question - what would have happened had Cobb steadfastly denied Booth the right to cross the bridge? Would Booth have taken out a pistol and shot Cobb on the spot?

Interesting question Roger.

I guess I would think Booth might point the gun at Cobb and somehow try to quickly subdue him or even beat him into submission/silence. But I don't think that his first choice would be to just outright shoot him. Firstly, because the noise of a shot on the bridge may attract unwanted attention (even with the revelry in the city). Also, although Booth was undoubtedly a murderer, in his own mind at least, he did have a sense of honor. He felt Lincoln was a tyrant and that he was therefore justified in shooting him. Although I do believe Booth would do whatever he felt he needed to be done to make his escape (up to and including shooting Cobb if necessary), I think he would exhaust the other options before he would just shoot someone who was essentially an innocent.

Of course, all that being said, maybe I'm giving Booth too much credit and the adrenaline and the emotions of the moment would cause him to just act/react - shoot first and think about it later.