Did Booth have another pistol?

[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.