The Booth Deringer pistol

[loetar44]

Abraham Lincoln was shot with a small .44 -caliber single shot Deringer pistol. This pistol was 5.87 inches (14.9 cm) long (overall length), 2.79 inches (7.1 cm) wide, with a 1.62 inch (4.1 cm) barrel and only weighed 8 ounces (226.8 gram). Why would John Wilkes Booth have carried only such a small Deringer (and of course a knife), if he wanted to assassinate Lincoln (or was ordered to execute him ???) Such a “monumental event”, known as the crime of the 19th century, such a small pistol. That sounds to me as very odd. Was it actually Booth’s weapon?

It was found on the floor of the state box. As far as I know there circulate two different stories.

First story: the Deringer was found by William T. Kent, a government official, working in the Office of the Paymaster General. Kent and Dr. King came to the box approximately 3 minutes after the shot fell. Dr. Leale and Dr. Taft were there already, examining Lincoln. Kent gave Leale his knife to cut Lincoln’s shirt and left the state box shortly afterward. Later in the evening he missed his room key and returned to the state box, thinking that he had lost it when he gave his knife to Dr. Leale. He found the Deringer on the floor of the theatre box. It was immediately assumed it was the weapon Booth had used to assassinate the president. Kent gave the Deringer in the morning of the 15th to Lawrence A. Gobright, a reporter of Associated Press, who handed it over to the Metropolitan Police, where Kent it later identified as the pistol he had found.

The second story says that Lawrence Gobright found the Deringer when he was searching for his lost watch.

There is a third story! The story of chief stage carpenter James J. Gifford. He claimed to have found (in the morning of April 15) a Deringer pistol at Ford’s Theatre, and this pistol had the name J. Wilkes Booth engraved on the butt plate. Thinking that it was the murder weapon he put it in his pocket, feared turning it in to the authorities and kept his mouth shut. Two years later he showed the pistol to George K. Goodwin (owner of the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia) and told him how he found it. He later gave the Deringer to Goodwin, and when Goodwin died in 1882 the pistol was given to his business partner, George Plowman. Plowman informed the press in 1901. The Deringer Goodwin found was smaller than the .44-caliber Deringer used by Booth to shoot Lincoln. It was a .36-caliber Deringer, with a 1.5 -inch (3,8 cm) barrel and an overall length of 4 inches (10,1 cm).

I know that Deringer pocket pistols were during the 1860s always sold in matched pairs (for approximately $25). Could it be possible that the .44-caliber Deringer and the .36-caliber Deringer were sold as a pair? But why two different calibers? Could it be possible that Booth carried TWO Deringer guns on April 14 and that the second gun fell from his clothing during his escape from the theater? Gifford said he found the gun “backstage”; Plowman said it was found in "the wings" of Ford's Theatre; Plowman's grandson said it was found "in or near a trash barrel."

Maybe Gifford's story is a lie and the .37-caliber Deringer found is a forgery. But as far as I know it was sold for almost $80,000 and that is a pretty large sum for a forgery, I think.

   

Here are 7 questions:
(1) Why had Booth armed himself with a tiny single-shot .44-caliber Deringer?
(2) Who found the .44-caliber Deringer, Kent or Gobright?
(3) Was the .44-caliber Deringer indeed Booth’s weapon?
(4) If Booth bought the .44-caliber Deringer, he bought a matched pair. Is it known what became of that (possible) second gun?
(5) Was Booth prepared to use the .37-caliber Deringer on the evening of April 14, 1865, if needed?
(6) Why does the second gun have Booth’s name on it, if it didn’t belong to Booth?
(7) Did the bullet removed from Lincoln’s head match with the .44-caliber Deringer?

BTW-1: I found two different spellings: Deringer and Derringer, and I learned that Deringer refers to a pistol manufactured by Henry Deringer, and the use of Derringer refers to a pocket pistol of any make.

BTW-2: I’m not a weapon expert, but am I right if I say that the bullet that killed Lincoln was a .41-caliber bullet, which was fired by the .44-caliber Deringer?

A lot of questions I know. But I'm very curious to know your opinions!
In the meantime: Happy X-mas and an awful successful 2017 for all of you !

[RJNorton]

Kees, regarding question 2...Tony Pitch (They Have Killed Papa Dead) writes that Kent returned to the box because he had mislaid his rooming house key, found Booth's pistol when his foot brushed against it, gave it to Gobright, and Gobright turned it in to the police. I believe Tony Pitch's account is the one I am most familiar with.

[J. Beckert]

Question # 1 - while the pistol itself may be small, .44 cal is a very large round.

[loetar44]

(12-18-2016 05:53 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Kees, regarding question 2...Tony Pitch (They Have Killed Papa Dead) writes that Kent returned to the box because he had mislaid his rooming house key, found Booth's pistol when his foot brushed against it, gave it to Gobright, and Gobright turned it in to the police. I believe Tony Pitch's account is the one I am most familiar with.

Thank you Roger, I think this is the most accurate story. Never heard before that Gobright lost his watch in the state box.

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(12-18-2016 06:10 PM)J. Beckert Wrote:  Question # 1 - while the pistol itself may be small, .44 cal is a very large round.

Thank you. Do you mean by saying “.44 cal is a very large round”, that a .44 cal has a slug with a diameter (the diameter of the bullet) of fourty-four hundredths (44/100’s) of an inch, or 0.44 * 25.4 = 11.176 milimeters or 1.12 cm. Yes, that’s pretty BIG !

   

and is it right to think that the slugs (bullets) were in 1860's not perfect spheres, and that's why the slug was .41 cal and not exactly .44, because that has a risk to jam.

[J. Beckert]

If the weapon was .44 cal., as stated, a .44 cal round, even if imperfect, would have no trouble being discharged with a load of at least 20 grains of powder. A smaller round could be used, but I'd think that would require a patch of some sort to make up the difference. I have .44 cal Navy revolver and squeezing that ball in makes a tight fit.

[L Verge]

(12-18-2016 08:01 PM)J. Beckert Wrote:  If the weapon was .44 cal., as stated, a .44 cal round, even if imperfect, would have no trouble being discharged with a load of at least 20 grains of powder. A smaller round could be used, but I'd think that would require a patch of some sort to make up the difference. I have .44 cal Navy revolver and squeezing that ball in makes a tight fit.

I think your best replies on this, Kees, will come from both Joe and Wes Harris of this forum.

P.S. Somewhere and sometime, I read (or wrote about) a story that Booth's deringer pistol was given to him by an acquaintance after the man witnessed an altercation between Booth and an angry husband. Also, wasn't it unique in that it had a rifled barrel?

[Eva Elisabeth]

Kees,your first question had always been mine, too - with the emphasis on the single shot. He was a good marksman, yet this was an extraordinary situation and Lincoln not alone in the box. Something could have gone wrong, the one shot misfired, and then? I wouldn't have dared to rely on a knife only. (I don't know anything about that business however. )

Wasn't such pistol a "lady's" weapon?

[loetar44]

(12-18-2016 08:45 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Kees,your first question had always been mine, too - with the emphasis on the single shot. He was a good marksman, yet this was an extraordinary situation and Lincoln not alone in the box. Something could have gone wrong, the one shot misfired, and then? I wouldn't have dared to rely on a knife only. (I don't know anything about that business however. )

Wasn't such pistol a "lady's" weapon?

Eva,

I’m not a firearms expert, but I once read or heard that a .44-caliber Deringer was difficult to c ock for a woman, just using the thumb of the shooting hand alone, but I’m not sure if this is accurate. Further I can imagine that Booth choose that weapon, because it was small and concealable, but powerful enough to do the job. Not sure about that too.

[Jim Garrett]

As to question 4, he could have bought just one. A seller could have broken up the pair.

[J. Beckert]

I personally feel Booth was armed with another pistol. He was seen at the Garrett'swearing a holster and gun belt and there's no evidence he picked that up along the way. I can't see him going on a mission like his with one pistol that he didn't even take with him to reload. He had no idea what he'd encounter in his flight.

While it is small, that's more than enough gun to do the job and was perfect for the purpose. His only intention was to kill one man. Being the escape would contain a 10+ jump, he could afford to drop that one and leave it behind and not be encumbered by a bulky six shot pistol.

[RJNorton]

(12-19-2016 08:40 AM)loetar44 Wrote:  Further I can imagine that Booth choose that weapon, because it was small and concealable, but powerful enough to do the job.

I scanned this image from Twenty Days. The caption reads, "This shattered skull of a soldier who died at Bull Run shows what the autopsy found had happened to Lincoln's skull. The bullet struck this soldier in the side of his head, yet big cracks appear across the forehead. The President was struck in the back of his head, yet the orbital plates of both eye sockets has been cracked by 'contre-coup,' or transmitted force, the phenomenon which causes breakage at points opposite the point of impact. The description of the Bull Run soldier's skull appears just above Lincoln's case history in the official record 'The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion,' in a discussion of 'cases of alleged fracture by contre-coup after gunshot injury of the skull'."

[davg2000]

A black powder shooter once explained to me that a .41 caliber ball would work for a .44 caliber barrel because the wadding in the load would make up for the difference.

[loetar44]

(12-19-2016 09:14 AM)J. Beckert Wrote:  I personally feel Booth was armed with another pistol. He was seen at the Garrett'swearing a holster and gun belt and there's no evidence he picked that up along the way. I can't see him going on a mission like his with one pistol that he didn't even take with him to reload. He had no idea what he'd encounter in his flight.

While it is small, that's more than enough gun to do the job and was perfect for the purpose. His only intention was to kill one man. Being the escape would contain a 10+ jump, he could afford to drop that one and leave it behind and not be encumbered by a bulky six shot pistol.

I once read (don't remember where) that also a Deringer pistol was found on Booth (after he was shot at Garrett's farm) and I remember (but not sure) that it was suggested that this Deringer was one of the matching pair which were in Booth’s possession, since the Deringer pocket pistols were sold as pairs in the 1860s. I think it is absolutely not true that a Deringer was found on Booth! As far as I know the firearms which were found on him were a Model 1860 Spencer carbine, serial number 24304; a .36 caliber Colt Model 1851 Navy revolver, serialnumber 117808; and a .44 Colt Model 1860 Army revolver, serialnumber 20407. All weapons were not used.

[STS Lincolnite]

(12-18-2016 08:36 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I think your best replies on this, Kees, will come from both Joe and Wes Harris of this forum.

P.S. Somewhere and sometime, I read (or wrote about) a story that Booth's deringer pistol was given to him by an acquaintance after the man witnessed an altercation between Booth and an angry husband. Also, wasn't it unique in that it had a rifled barrel?

I agree with Laurie on who would have the best info regarding Booth's derringer.

Several years ago Wes spoke at the Surratt Conference and addressed a couple of relevant points so I hope he chips in here too...and corrects me if I am not remembering his talk correctly (I did take some notes but they are not where I can get to them at the moment).

1) The caliber. I seem to remember Wes saying that there would be something with the wadding that would account for the a .44 caliber pistol firing what was likely a .42 caliber ball, with some lead loss accounting for smaller mass/size when measured. Wes had the exact measurements in his talk and a very well reasoned explanation for all.

2) Rifling. Wes believes (along with one of the world's foremost firearms experts) that the derringer did not have a rifled barrel in spite of a more modern FBI report stating that it did. He contends that the grooves that can be seen from the exterior are decorative only. Rifling was intended to help the accuracy of firearms over a long distance. It would seem unlikely that rifling would be necessary in a gun intended solely for short range use and with such a short barrel. Even if rifling was present it would be inconsequential.

I will try to track down the rest of my notes from Wes' excellent talk and see if there is more there to add to the discussion (or make corrections in case my memory is faulty! ).

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(12-19-2016 10:03 AM)loetar44 Wrote:  I once read (don't remember where) that also a Deringer pistol was found on Booth (after he was shot at Garrett's farm) and I remember (but not sure) that it was suggested that this Deringer was one of the matching pair which were in Booth’s possession, since the Deringer pocket pistols were sold as pairs in the 1860s. I think it is absolutely not true that a Deringer was found on Booth! As far as I know the firearms which were found on him were a Model 1860 Spencer carbine, serial number 24304; a .36 caliber Colt Model 1851 Navy revolver, serialnumber 117808; and a .44 Colt Model 1860 Army revolver, serialnumber 20407. All weapons were not used.

I have never read any account stating a derringer was found on Booth after he was killed. The various trial transcript accounts, though they do vary to some degree, do not to my recollection ever record a derringer as being in Booth's possession at Garrett's farm.

While derringers may have been sold in pairs from a "dealer" in the 1860s there doesn't seem to be any evidence that clearly shows that is where Booth obtained the derringer he used to shoot Lincoln. He could have borrowed it or it could have been given to him by a friend. He could also have bought if from a pawn shop, a random acquaintance, or anyone off the street for that matter. While there likely was a twin derringer, that doesn't mean Booth purchased them together or even ever had the other in his possession.

I am curious about the derringer that Gifford had. Is it possible that was a "stage gun" that Booth might have used in one performance or another? That may explain how it came into Gifford's possession.

[loetar44]

(12-19-2016 10:12 AM)STS Lincolnite Wrote:  I have never read any account stating a derringer was found on Booth after he was killed. The various trial transcript accounts, though they do vary to some degree, do not to my recollection ever record a derringer as being in Booth's possession at Garrett's farm.

While derringers may have been sold in pairs from a "dealer" in the 1860s there doesn't seem to be any evidence that clearly shows that is where Booth obtained the derringer he used to shoot Lincoln. He could have borrowed it or it could have been given to him by a friend. He could also have bought if from a pawn shop, a random acquaintance, or anyone off the street for that matter. While there likely was a twin derringer, that doesn't mean Booth purchased them together or even ever had the other in his possession.

I am curious about the derringer that Gifford had. Is it possible that was a "stage gun" that Booth might have used in one performance or another? That may explain how it came into Gifford's possession.

After some Googling I found at the "Believe it or Not" website at
http://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/booth-derringer/

again the info that a Deringer was found on Booth after he was shot at Garrett's.

The article "Fireball Run & John Wilkes Booth’s Derringer" says: "After a massive manhunt, Booth was gunned down in a farmhouse in Virginia. On his body was a second identical matching derringer, etc."

Don't know how "historical reliable" this site is, or if it is (with respect) a "fun site". Anyway, the video and photo's of the Deringer which Gifford found are in my opinion very nice!