Booth's Diary

[L Verge]

(01-14-2018 10:33 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(01-13-2018 10:28 PM)JMadonna Wrote:  Any knowledge on how long Booth had the notebook in his possession (months?) before his death?

Jerry, here is what the late Dr. William Hanchett wrote:

"It should be remembered, first of all, that the little book (it measures six inches high by three and one-half inches across and is one inch thick) was published by James M. Crawford of St. Louis as a pocket diary for the year 1864, and was thus not the sort of volume that a true diarist would carry in 1865. Booth had a niece in St. Louis, Blanche De Bar (Booth), and played an engagement there January 12-16, 1864, when he probably obtained the book."

http://www.heritech.com/pridger/lincoln/..._diary.pdf

Roger - Thank you for posting this information as to where the so-called diary originated. As Mr. Hall and Mike Kauffman pointed out hundreds of times when narrating our Booth tours (and other assassination experts have pointed out), this book was not designed as a diary - it only ended up that way in the final days. It was something that Booth - and many men of the day - carried with them as an APPOINTMENT book in the days before electronics led us to our multi-purpose phones.

That Booth likely purchased this at the beginning of the 1864 year only reinforces this fact to me. The "missing pages" that have caused so much concern over the years were likely torn out by Booth as he completed engagements and the pages became full of useless information. Years ago, a patron on one of our tours even proposed the possibility that Booth himself used some of the papers for hygiene "when nature called!" Actually, we laughed, but then realized that there might be some truth to that.

I would have very serious doubts that those pages ever contained material relevant to the "true masterminds" behind Booth's plot. Secretly, I wish they did and that Judah Benjamin would be exposed -- but that ain't gonna happen! If the FBI did not uncover secrets or invisible ink notations in the remaining book, we're going to have to continue searching trunks in attics or secret vaults in D.C. (or England, if I want to expose Judah).

As for the link that Roger posted here: If you have not read the article, please do so and make sure to read the footnotes. One thing you will find with the writings of many of the real experts in the assassination field is that their footnotes and endnotes are often history lessons in their own right.

One final thought that I will never prove: Everyone seems to want to invent further conspiracy in the fact that the book was not presented at the time of the 1865 Conspiracy Trial. Is it possible to consider that Booth was already dead and, therefore, not on trial during May and June. Thus, the "diary" was perused by Stanton and others and found to contain nothing that would be useful in hanging those on trial or in proving the Confederacy guilty. In fact, to me, Booth's writings (though perhaps skillfully crafted) seem more to exonerate the Confederacy and place the final blame on him alone. If the book did not contain evidence that they could use, shove it back in a drawer.