Booth's diary and missing pages

[Cliff Roberts]

(07-17-2014 10:34 PM)richard Wrote:  I spoke with a friend who is forensic document examiner (a retired Michigan State cop) and we believe the missing pages from Booth's diary can be retrieved at least in part. We've petitioned Ford's Theater to allow us access to the diary but were denied. The testing is non invasive, but would require about 2 weeks to perform a complete set of tests but they don't want the diary out of public view. Talk to the FBI and they have the equipment to run the tests themselves but said they're only investigation criminal matters. Any suggestions on how to get the Park Services to reconsider our petition? Reply: lassin@sbcglobal.net

Hi Richard! Some years ago, the FBI conducted a series of tests on the diary, one of which examined the stubs of the missing pages to see if any writing could be discerned on the torn edges. I believe they found traces of handwriting on some of the edges, but no complete words. I seem to recall a finding that the missing pages were torn out at different times and not all at once, but I'm going on memory alone here. The entire FBI report is available at the FBI website.