Booth's visit to the Surratt Boarding House after the assassination

[John Fazio]

William:

Please get better; we need you.

Booth to the boarding-house after the assassination? Almost certainly not. He was in much too much of a hurry to get out of the city to take the time and risk to stop there. Furthermore, he had no reason to. He had already stopped shortly before he went to the theater, about 9:00, to confirm the results of Mrs. Surratt's trip to Surrattsville. In his book, Weichmann said expressly that though he could not be certain of the identity of the 9:00 visitor when he came and then left quickly (because he was upstairs and could only hear footsteps), he later found out that it had indeed been Booth, thereby confirming his supposition.

Where did he obtain the pistols? Possibilities are infinite and certainty unobtainable, so we must be satisfied with probabilities because that is usually all we have. In my opinion, Booth planned for the possibility of failure, because he had to. He told Mathews that he was to deliver the letter to the National Intelligencer only after 10:30 if he, Booth, did not previously reclaim it. He would have reclaimed it, obviously, if he had not been successful the previous evening. Furthermore, he came within an inch of failing when Rathbone had a hold of his outer garment. Rathbone might have held on, thereby spoiling everything for the actor. Eckart or Lamon almost certainly would have hung on, and Booth had no idea who would acompany the President. Consider, further, as far as things going wrong, that everything that could have gone wrong with the other conspirators DID go wrong, even to the mis-firing of Powell's revolver, probably a 1 in 100 possibility. So, because things could have gone wrong and Booth knew it, it strikes me as possible, maybe probable, that he had a revolver, possibily two, on his person to meet any eventuality. Perhaps in his boots; more likely in his belt, nicely concealed by his coat. He could afford to (and did) discard the deringer, which is why he used it, but he would need his pistol or pistols, so he would not use them unless he had to. More likely, however, he had the pistols in a saddlebag, together with his extra hat (per Kauffman). Maybe the bay mare came with a bag, maybe it didn't, but even if it didn't, one could easily have been obtained from the stable he had behind the theater. But the most likely source of the guns, and one which no one has yet mentioned, surprisingly, is that Herold brought them to him when they met at the foot of Soper's Hill. Or perhaps Booth already had one and Herold brought a second one. Of the three possibilities mentioned, I believe this one to be the most likely.

No one in the Mudd household would have given the two fugitives guns.

We need to be careful about fanciful theories that do not comport with evidence, reason (common sense) and our understanding of human nature. Such are the theories of Eisenschiml, Shelton, Balsinger and Neff, et al. We need to be wary, too, of potboilers and bush-league scholarship, such as the assassination "history" that was published last year for public consumption, but which is so error-ridden that it represents a step backward in our quest for truth. The notion that Booth stopped at the boarding-house after the assassination, that Herold was there too and that he held Booth's flighty horse, is in this category. Why not have them all taking shelter in the basement playing cards while their pursuers thundered off on a wild goose chase?

Personal to Jerry Madonna: Please let me know what you have on Stringfellow making his escape from the boarding house a few weeks before the assassination. I have a special interest in Stringfellow.

Thanks to all of you for the benefit of your views and insights.

John