Booth's Gun Questions

[STS Lincolnite]

(03-27-2015 09:18 PM)Wesley Harris Wrote:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmqlCus5_Ig

This is an episode of "Brad Metzler's Lost History" with an account of the supposed theft of Booth's pistol from Ford's Theatre. I wrote an article for America's Civil War
magazine on this story back around 1997. The producer for this History Channel show called me a few months ago for more information but I didn't have anything not already mentioned in the article. It is the basis for the episode but my article is not anywhere as sensational and misleading (and inaccurate).

The general outline they give of the story is reasonably accurate but they embellish it quite a bit. The Booth portion is about halfway through the video.

Wes, I saw that episode when it aired on television and I was thinking about you and your expertise the whole time. Particularly when the gentleman from the FBI talked about the strange "rifling" in the barrel that you had mentioned in another thread.

The way the derringer is mounted in the new exhibit at the Ford's Theatre Education Center, one can get a much better and closer look at the barrel and the weapon itself. No pictures allowed however - otherwise I would have snapped a few and posted.