Thomas Jones

[Dennis Urban]

Re: Booth & Herold at Adams Tavern, Newport MD
Now that I spent a recent day with Rick Smith in and around the areas of the Booth escape route in southern Charles County, read Bill Richter's proposed timeline with the visit to Adams Tavern, and considered the horse disposal issue discussed above, I am more curious than ever about certain elements of this scenario.

I find the Owens statement given to Col. Henry H. Wells in Bryantown to be completely plausible. Such a detailed statement given a short time after the assassination contains facts that could only have been known by a participant rather than gathered from other sources over such a brief time period. Samuel Cox Jr is alleged to have led Booth and Herold to Newport on April 20, but why the detour going east and away from the river crossing point? Certainly Cox Jr was someone who would likely have known such a
route. Perhaps an earlier meeting up with Thomas Jones was the objective but this detour was away from Huckleberry rather than towards it. Very curious.

Regarding the killing and dumping of the two horses and tack in the swamp, I wonder who was the original source for the disposal of these animals. Blood on the Moon (page 160) attributes the information to Cox Sr telling Jones he saw Herold lead the horses into the swamp and later heard two gunshots. In his short 1893 book, Jones says Cox "heard the pistol discharged" (page 82), later searched for the horses and could find no trace of them. I question these accounts because Cox Sr would not want to be seen anywhere near the pine thicket (recall he did not take them there himself) and I doubt if he could have heard such shots from Rich Hill. I believe the horses lived out their days in a neighboring farm of a cooperative accomplice.