Booth's Escape Route

[Laurie Verge]

Gene, There are days when I live on antacid!!!

As for Come Retribution, I applaud you for plowing through the book. The main author, Gen. William Tidwell, wrote the first ten or so chapters as an espionage textbook, so to speak. When I first met him, he told me that the French Resistance during WWII used the Confederate system on which to base many of their operations. It astounded him that the Europeans would know more about espionage tactics in our Civil War than Americans did.

Since his background was in Army intelligence, CIA, and spooky stuff, he set out to remedy the situation. Hence the high detail and boring aspects of the first part of that book. Once it got into the application of that stuff as related to the assassination, I think you'll agree that it got easier to read -- and because you did plow through Come Retribution, it made April '65 easier also.

I think Betty will agree that you had to know the personalities of the authors in order to better understand the text. I could recognize immediately where Tidwell stopped writing and Hall took over and the Secret Line material of Dave Gaddy came in. One of the great things about my being involved in the assassination field has been the chance to get to be friends with so many of the highly learned people in the field. When you know their personalities, their thoughts and writings are more easily understood.

Just a comment in reference to Come Retribution: Please don't write it off the reading list based on its complexity. One person I know who fancies himself an assassination expert frequently commented that the book was only good for use as a doorstop...