Booth escape route north

[Troy Cowan]

On post #60 Jenny said, "John Wilkes Booth. James William Boyd. Same initials. Both had tattoos on their hands (where's the proof for Boyd? JWB's beloved sister Asia vividly recalls in her memoir that John took India ink and tattooed himself)".

So Jenny, you believe that it is a "fact" that Booth had a tattoo. I find it surprising what people accept as fact. Prior to Lincoln's assassination no one said Booth had a tattoo. No one saw or described the tattoo.

In 1848, when John Wilkes Booth was ten years old, using India ink from his school supplies he drew JWB on the back of his left hand. Booth's sister said, “He had perfectly shaped hands, and across the back of one he had clumsily marked, when a little boy, his initials in India ink.”1 His sister was upset with him because it would not wash off. Others have claimed it was tattoo, but it wasn't. As the skin grew outward, the dead skin and the initials in India ink would fall off. Soon it was totally gone. John Wilkes Booth had no tattoo.
1 Asia Booth Clarke , The Unlocked Book, (Faber and Faber, London, 1938), 60.



Jenny you said, "Boyd falls in with Herold by some strange chance, and they go to the Garrett's together. Boyd acts just like Booth: entertains the kids, eats dinner with the family, mentions the assassination. All by chance."

Jenny, you have it all confused. Boyd was introduce to Booth by Samuel Cox. Boyd showed Booth and Harold where to hide in the pine thicket. Boyd told Booth that for $300 dollars he would take them to Mosby's troops. At the ferry crossing Booth split up with Boyd and Harold. Boyd and Harold went to buy Booth a new pair of shoes and Booth went to the Garrett's. At the Garrett's, Booth entertained the kid, ate dinner with the family and slept in the house that night. The next day he left for his farm and Izola.
That night, Boyd and Harold came to the Garrett's looking for Booth. They were told that Booth had left that afternoon. Being tired, they were taken to a corn crib to sleep. Later that night, Union troops surrounded the barn and mistakenly killed Boyd instead of Booth.