My Journey on Lincoln's Assassination

[Susan Higginbotham]

(10-25-2018 03:16 PM)mikegriffith1 Wrote:  

(10-17-2018 07:10 AM)davg2000 Wrote:  

(10-16-2018 06:19 PM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  And why did the fake Booth not surrender?

Excellent question!

He did try to surrender. He dropped his crutch, dropped his weapon ("arm"), and started walking toward the front door of the barn, as he had been asked to do. This is what Conger said he did. How is that not surrendering? If you drop your weapon and start walking toward the door as you've been asked to do, how is that not surrendering?

By the way, lest anyone think that by "arm" Conger meant the body part, "arm" was a very common synonym back then for gun. In fact, if you read Conger's testimony, you'll see that he used the terms "arm" and "arms" for gun and guns numerous times. If you read the entire trial transcript, you'll find dozens of instances where "arm" and "arms" were used for gun and guns.

Quote:I have to say, when a conspiracy theory starts to involve convenient doubles who are content to die in someone else's place and the massive planting of evidence, it's probably time to find a new conspiracy theory.

No one is saying that. No one has ever said that Boyd, or whoever the poor man was, knew he was going to be killed in Booth's place.

And what did Lafayette Baker mean when he told Loreta Valesquez that he intended to get Booth's body "dead or alive, or a mighty good substitute for it" (Theodore Roscoe, The Web of Conspiracy, p. 427, quoting Valesquez's 1876 memoir)?

Conger's statement, as quoted by you in the other thread, says nothing about Booth following instructions or otherwise expressing a wish to surrender. As for dropping the arm, in the same line of testimony, Conger goes on to claim that he told Baker that Booth had shot himself, which suggests that the "arm" Conger saw him drop wasn't his carbine.

In any case, the man in the barn had a chance to unambiguously surrender at the same time David Herold did. If the man wasn't Booth, why didn't he take that opportunity?

As for Velazquez, my understanding is that her "memoir" has been discredited, and had its doubters even in 1876.