What if Lewis Powell's gun had fired?

[MaddieM]

(09-09-2012 08:41 AM)Claudine Wrote:  

(08-30-2012 09:00 AM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  

(08-30-2012 08:53 AM)BettyO Wrote:  Possibly at that juncture, Powell was more or less wanting to just get out of the house and away. He may have known he had failed and was just concerned with getting out.

Betty, why do you think Powell tried to cut Seward's throat rather than stab him in the heart?

Thanks for asking this question. I've asked myself the same: Why didn't Powell just stab him in the chest? Don't get me wrong but if I would be an assassin and find myself in that situation as Powell found himself, I probably would try to stab into the most accessible target. A target I cannot miss. The body. Maybe Powell stabbed Seward in the face because of the tons of blankets around Sewards body. I don't know. BettyO wrote: "He simply just began to strike wildly and randomly [...]" - Wildy, yes. But randomly? Didn't Powell try to cut Sewards throat? This seems to me quite targeted. I imagine to stab someone in the head, in the face is a very cruel act. Powell surely panicked but I guess there was also pure hatred involved. Not against Seward personnaly, of course, but Seward must appeared to him as the incarnation of everything Powell had fought against in the preceding years. And he didn't want to fail. I think in that very moment Powell really wanted to kill Seward.

Such clumsy attempts at killing speak to me of someone who had never done it.