Drawing of Booth Body

[mikegriffith1]

(11-02-2018 02:56 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Check your facts -- Booth remained at the Garrett farm and did not go on with Herold, Jett, Bainbridge, and Ruggles. The soldiers and Herold dropped Booth off and headed for Bowling Green. Jett was going to take Herold along to the Star Hotel with him, but after stopping at The Trap(pe), they met up with Jesse Gouldman (whose family owned the hotel), and upon learning Herold's identity, Jesse convinced them not to take him to the hotel. Instead, Herold rode along with Bainbridge to the home of Virginia Clarke. By coincidence, both Herold and Bainbridge knew Mrs. Clarke's son James.

In the late-afternoon of the next day, April 25, Ruggles and Bainbridge came back to Garrett's farm and dropped off Herold. A short time later, Ruggles and Bainbridge came galloping back to announce that a Union patrol had crossed into Port Royal. They then skedaddled into the woods. Booth called to the Garrett boys to get his pistols and then headed into the woods. Herold just stood there for awhile - probably ready to give up.

The 16th NY rode right past the farm, intent on getting to the Star Hotel and Willie Jett, but taking time to make inquiries at The Trap. The rest is history whether you wish to believe it or not.

This is the same tale that the military commission put forward, and there are huge holes in this version of events. This tale is based on numerous assumptions that are in turn based on questionable, suspect testimony that was solicited or accepted by a commission that used clearly bogus evidence, evidence that would be laughed out of any credible court on the planet in our day (e.g., the magical floating letter and the magical fireplace letter). Rather than reinvent the wheel, for a more factual and logical version of Booth's flight and movements, I would refer interested readers to chapters 20-22 in Guttridge and Neff's book Dark Union, to chapters 19-21 in Theodore Roscoe's book The Web of Conspiracy, and to chapters 4 and 5 in Dr. Robert Arnold's book The Conspiracy Between John Wilkes Booth and the Union Army to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln.

If the body recovered from Garrett's barn had been Booth, Luther Baker would not have taken off with the body for several hours; long-time friends of Booth's would have been called to the Montauk to identify the body; Dr. Merrill's presence and findings on the Montauk would not have vanished from the official record; the body on the Montauk would not have magically sprouted freckles on its face; the body on the Montauk would not have looked so different from Booth that Eckert did not want any photos taken of it; Dr. May would not have declared that never had a body's appearance changed so drastically from how it looked in life; Dr. May would not have said that the body's lineaments (distinctive features, especially of the face) bore no resemblance to Booth's; the people who viewed the body on the Montauk would not have been "shocked" at the body's lack of resemblance to Booth; several photos would have been taken of the body on the Montauk; at least a few of the people, certainly at least one of the doctors, who "identified" the body would have noticed at least one or two of the scars that Booth was known to have on his face and right arm; Colonel Cobb, the one person to come to the Montauk who had known Booth for years, would have been allowed to view the body, instead of being turned away with a bogus excuse; people on the Montauk that day would not have felt the need to invent--decades later--unbelievable, contradictory, and mutually impeaching tales about seeing the JWB initials on the body; the body viewed in 1869 would not have had hair that was a foot longer than Booth's hair; the body at the 1869 viewing would not have had serious damage on or just below the left knee; and the body at the 1869 viewing would have had two fillings instead of just one.