My Journey on Lincoln's Assassination

[AussieMick]

(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.

Sorry Mike, you cannot simply say 'he did try to surrender'.

The only certainty we have of what happened is that a fire was started and then a person was shot.

We dont know how much smoke there was (Filling the barn? suffocating the man? blinding him so that he couldnt see where he was stumbling?). We dont know (as far as I'm aware) where Conger was standing and what he could see, where Corbett was and what was going thru his mind, how much light there was in the barn ( the fire was lit from outside), we dont know how vigorous the fire was burning, what the person did when the fire began and whilst the fire was burning (choke? crawl away? cover his head? immediately advance to the door? where was the fire? near the door?), we dont know how easily the person could move with or without a crutch, nor even how near he was to the door before he was shot, nor whether he was shot standing up or kneeling or crawling or stumbling.

I'd suggest that neither Conger's (you called him a 'henchman' in one of your posts and I'd agree) nor Corbett's (he was mentally unstable and had reasons for wanting to justify his shooting) statements can be relied upon.

If the person had a broken leg (coincidentally just like Booth did) and dropped (accidentally? ... if he threw it away, why would he do that?) his crutch ... IMO he would have then picked it up or at least bent to do so ... but neither Conger nor Corbett say that.

So ... I dont think anybody can reasonably say 'he did try to surrender'. We just dont know.

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Apart from anything else, I think it would have been a high risk (and stupid) process to conspire claiming that a man other than Booth had been shot in the barn. You'd be relying on a lot of people to say the right thing and keep their mouth shut about the process.

There would be a continuing risk that the 'real' Booth (who had never been an introvert or hermit) might make himself known or be discovered. The only safe option would be to have him killed ... and Booth would be aware of that. Very difficult to keep all that secret.