Mudd Descendants visit Fort Jefferson NP

[Dave Taylor]

(07-30-2015 01:06 PM)John Fazio Wrote:  Laurie:

As to where Booth spent the night, it has often been written that no one knows. It is known only that he did NOT spend it in his hotel room in the National. If he spent it in Washington, what was he doing at the Maryland side of the Navy Yard Bridge in the morning with Herold? Demond said that he recognized Booth as the actor and that when he said to Booth that he recognized him, he acknowledged that he was Booth and that his companion was Herold. He went on to say that Augur's aide had conversation with Booth, that Dana's orderly came and said they were "alright" and that the entire Maryland-side detail expressed surprise when they saw them again crossing from Washington that night inasmuch as they had seen them earlier that day. Sounds pretty solid to me. If Booth spent the night in Washington, he would have had to rise early and then cross the bridge to Maryland for a rendezvous with Herold. Seems unlikely.

John

John,

Allow me to quote you something that I read in a book by an intelligent man. I've made a few substitutions to it which I hope you'll permit me.

Quote:"Entirely too much emphasis is laid by [Fazio] on eyewitness statements that support [his] conclusion and entirely too little emphasis is placed on eyewitness statements that do[es] not support [his] conclusion and on Booth's own words..."

You, John, wrote this yourself in your book when discussing Kauffman and Timothy Good's theory that Booth may have broken his leg in a fall from his horse and not at Ford's Theatre. However, I think it is very obvious that you suffer from the same bias you accuse them of.

Demond's accounts were the products of Fins Bates' manipulation and were stated more than 30 years later!!!! Why, in the name of Pete, do you even attempt to defend them? They are the lowest form of evidence that exist and yet you cling to them as gospel truth, dismissing all logical, and far more supported, alternatives. The only truth we can possibly give to Demond is that he was one of the guards on duty on the Maryland side of the bridge and that he saw Booth pass over. That's all that can be truthfully believed in any of his accounts. Everything else comes from Bates' constant baiting and is entirely suspect.

So much evidence points to the fact that Booth WAS in Washington on the night of April 13th/14th. Heed your own words, John, and consult Booth's writings. On April 14th, at 2:00 AM Booth wrote a letter to his mother from his hotel room at the National. He was there! The letter is addressed from Washington. For your unnecessarily treacherous theory to hold true, then Booth would have had to have been in Washington at 2:00 am, left in the wee hours of the morning, and then returned with Herold later. If that is the convoluted route you want to follow then my question to you would be, how did Booth know the mythical password to cross on the night of the 13th/14th? Don't you see, by using Demond's accounts as your foundation, you have nothing but a house of cards, John. I understand you are a lawyer and a d****d persistent one at that, but even you have to concede that Demond is likely very wrong.

You are a good researcher, John and I commend your knowledge of sources for your points, however, you are blind to anything other than your theory. You suffer from the same confirmation bias that you project onto others. As a lawyer you would argue your points indefinitely, believing that if you can convince others of your way, that would, by default, make your points true. But history doesn't work that way. We need to be objective when assessing a source or evidence, particularly when they support our own beliefs. And, most of all, when reporting on evidence that we believe supports our beliefs, we must, as responsible historians, preface that it is impossible to ever "prove" our points. We can provide evidence to why we came to our conclusion, but to claim our own interpretation is the only possible interpretation is the mark of a fool.

I do not believe you to be a fool, John, but I tire of reading your posts and your inability to acknowledge that the interpretations of others are just as valid and possible as your own. I tire of watching you browbeat people into submission and portray everything you espouse in your book as gospel and iron clad proof. I worry that those who are unfamiliar with the topics you discuss are reading your interpretations as the only interpretation and are therefore believing theory to be fact.

History is, and always will be, theory. We were not there and even those who were there interpreted and recalled the events based on their own life experiences and beliefs. History will never be set in stone and no one person can claim to know exactly how historical events played out.