Did Booth have another pistol?

[LincolnMan]

Help me out gang! It seems I remember reading somewhere that Booth actually had another pistol. I do recall it looked similar to the one he used but smaller. I think the article said he carried it on him with the other pistol. Sorry I don't remember more. Am I dreaming this or did someone actually claim this?

[Craig Hipkins]

Bill,
I recall something about this but forget the source. I believe it had something to do with a matching set of pistols. That may be the case, but I believe that if Booth had two derringer pistols at Ford's that night he would have surely used one on Major Rathbone. I suppose that it is possible that he carried two pistols. Those percussion caps were sometimes known to be faulty, and if it misfired he would have had a back up. If I were Booth set on doing this evil deed I would have carried two pistols...but Booth was Booth and who can tell what his reasoning might have been.

Craig

[LincolnMan]

I'm going to try and locate the source if I can. I'll be reporting back on my findings...hopefully. I would have carried two myself!

[L Verge]

There's a story somewhere about a derringer found on the stage at Ford's with Booth's name engraved on the butt of it? Maybe I'm dreaming it???

[J. Beckert]

No, you're not. It's in the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum. James Gifford supposedly found it backstage somewhere on the 15th. The whole story, which I do not know, and the pistol itself, smell fishy to me.

[LincolnMan]

Yes, I found the article. See Civil War Times Illustrated, Volume XIII, Number 9, January 1975, Page 20. The article is Booth's Other Pistol by Hamilton Cochran. It says that a Mr. James J. Gifford found the weapon and it had the name J. Wilkes Booth engraved on the butt plate. He found it at Ford's on the morning of the 15th. Gifford was a stage carpenter. According to the article, Gifford thought he had the murder weapon and feared turning it in to the authorities. It is a smaller derringer than the actual murder weapon used. He held on to it for years. It wasn't until 1901 that anything was said about the weapon. By then, Gifford had died and it belonged to a George Plowman. Plowman also thought that it was the murder weapon. The story continues but is too long to repeat here. The author of the article now owns the weapon himself (at least as of the date of the writing). He concludes the piece by speculating about the weapon. Did Booth carry two pistols? If he didn't, how did it get into Ford's theater-and on April 15th? Why does it have Booth's name on it-if it didn't belong to Booth? It sounds like the author believes-but can't be positive in the end- that Booth brought both weapons to Ford's. He suggests it either fell from Booth by accident or Booth tossed it aside. Still, he ends: "Unfortunately the answer will never be known. It is buried in the Booth family plot among the bones of the self-appointed executioner of President Abraham Lincoln."

[J. Beckert]

That's the story. It makes me wonder why Booth would have his name engraved on one pistol and not the other. It smells bad to me.

[LincolnMan]

Yes, me too. What do the other Forum members think? One other thing the author states is that no money had been made off the weapon-building his argument that it must be genuine.

[Craig Hipkins]

Bill, Joe

I agree, especially if the pistols were a matching set. Who has there name engraved on a gun anyway? I suppose there are some people that would do this.

Craig

[Wesley Harris]

The "Ripley's" pistol is not a match to the one picked up in the box and now on display at Ford's Theatre. The one at Ford's is a .44 caliber and Ripley's is a .36 caliber. They would not have been sold as a match pair as Deringers typically were.

After the assassination, a number of Deringers (capital D because that's the manufacturer's name) popped up as having been found at the scene or nearby. The pistol now at Ripley's was reportedly found back stage, supposedly dropped by Booth when he jumped to the stage. Others were heralded as having been found out back, down the street, and on Booth at his capture. There's at least a half a dozen stories. Obviously most of them are fakes.

Could Booth have had a second pistol on him? Quite possible. It's hard to imagine he would take on such a mission of such magnitude with one bullet. Is the Ripley's pistol authentic? No way to know. Why would he carry pistols of different calibers? But the two Colt revolvers found on his belt at his capture were also of different calibers.

[LincolnMan]

Wesley: most informative, thank you. I personally don't find it a problem that Booth might have carried two pistols and that they may have been of different calibers. I wonder if the pistol at Ripley's is the same pistol owned by the author of the article mentioned in this thread?

[Wesley Harris]

(07-29-2012 08:58 AM)LincolnMan Wrote:  Wesley: most informative, thank you. I personally don't find it a problem that Booth might have carried two pistols and that they may have been of different calibers. I wonder if the pistol at Ripley's is the same pistol owned by the author of the article mentioned in this thread?

Yes, the Ripley's pistol is the one Hamilton Cochran wrote about. Ripley's purchased it about ten years ago for about $70,000. They kept it in a vault for some years before deciding to display it. It's in the Ripley's museum in New York City.

[LincolnMan]

Wesley: thanks for tracking it down. I'm a little saddened that it is there. If it is actually a weapon that belonged to Booth-it would seem to be in the wrong place. Of course, the problem is that it can't be proven to be so. I wonder what the various scholars have thought about it.

[Wesley Harris]

(07-29-2012 09:53 AM)LincolnMan Wrote:  Wesley: thanks for tracking it down. I'm a little saddened that it is there. If it is actually a weapon that belonged to Booth-it would seem to be in the wrong place. Of course, the problem is that it can't be proven to be so. I wonder what the various scholars have thought about it.

The academic historians have largely ignored the details of the assassination. That's why most of the books that delve into the criminal aspects of the assassination are written outside of academia. Also the reason I'm writing a book on the weapons used by Booth and his conspirators. Just like in a standard criminal investigation, the physical evidence like the weapons can tell us much about the suspects. For example, my research has convinced me that that Booth and the other conspirators were generally inept with firearms.

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I will be discussing the Ripley pistol and other weapons associated with the assassination at the Surratt Society's 2013 Annual Lincoln Assassination Conference. TOOLS OF THE ASSASSINS, Part II: Fables, Fallacies, and Fakes. Watch http://www.surratt.org for details.

[LincolnMan]

Excellent Wesley!