Did Lincoln pick up Maj. Rathbone amd Miss Harris?

[John Fazio]

Mr. (Ms.?) Beckert:

We all know that there are few things about the assassination that are not problematic.

I cannot imagine why Ms. Harris would say Laura Keene was not in the box, inasmuch as the evidence putting her there with her pitcher of water is solid (though not the manner in which she got there, nor who escorted her). Perhaps she held a personal grievance against Keene. What is the source of that exclusion, incidentally?

The evidence is solid that Booth was in and out of the theater many times that evening. Buckingham has it at five times; Reck puts it at six. Sessford, the ticket taker, noticed it too. Booth may well have been seen in the dress circle, but because nothing happened incident to the first trip to the box, no notice was taken of it. Query: How did he get past Forbes for the first visit? Perhaps he took advantage of Forbes's absence for a brief period. Perhaps a confederate detained him, as Marc Anthony was detained when Casesar was assassinated. Or perhaps he showed him the same authorization he later showed him. In that case, his peaceful exit from the box would establish his bona fides for the second, fatal visit. Speculative, I know, but so much of the matter is. Another possibility, given the wide disparity in the descriptions of the entry for the fatal visit (some saying Forbes was the guard; some Parker; some saying there was no guard; some saying Forbes argued with him; some saying no argument; some saying Forbes took the writing inside the box for checking; some saying he just let him pass; some saying Booth just pushed the door open with his knee, etc.), is that the two visits were conflated by some. In support of this possibility are other disparities (one report has the pistol being fired as much as five minutes after Booth's passage beyond the outer door; another report says a few seconds.)[/size][/font]

Despite the difficulties, I am comfortable with Ms. Harris's account of the dry run. She had absolutely no reason to invent it. On the contrary, it reflected poorly on her and Rathbone, which is why she did not mention it in her second account.

John

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Mr. (Ms. Beckert):

I forgot to add that the reason no one else reported the intrusion is probably that no one else saw it. Ms. Harris's position in the box enabled her to see Door No. 8 from her peripheral vision. The Pres and Mrs. Lincoln wee looking opposite from Door No. 8. Rathbone might have seen the "peek in", but apparently didn't, or perhaps he thought silence on the point was best inasmuch as someone might ask: Why didn't you inquire as to how the presidential party's security was breached by a perfect stranger?, thereby casting a degree of culpability upon him.

I am not troubled by the silence of others on this point

John