One more post, on one broken leg.

[wsanto]

(09-01-2013 08:58 PM)SSlater Wrote:  I do not see a need to determine "when". Booth broke his leg, and I do not criticize others who wish to know. My thoughts go this was:
Booth jumped to the stage. He may or may not have broken his leg. (No examination was made.) If he damaged the leg in any way, his heavy boot kept the leg functioning, as if it already had a splint. Then, somewhere en-route to the Surratt Tavern, his horse stumbles and falls and aggravates the sore leg. Lets say that they take the boot off - Bingo, a broken leg. Herald was not aware of the previous jump, so he rightly assumes that the horse broke the leg. They put the boot back on and the hills still ring from the profanity that was generated by the boot being put on. Off they go......
This is no more fiction in this depiction, than in all the guesses that have gone before. However, this suggestion allows each camp to be correct and it is very possible to have gone down as described. I can't prove you to be right, nor can you prove this to be wrong.

What evidence do we have that the horse even ever fell?---
Herold said so? Booth and Herold told others the horse fell during their escape to explain his broken leg? Booth's pants were muddy?

There were no witnesses to the horse fall. Herold is a liar and lied in his statements to investigators. Mudd is a liar and lied in his statements to investigators. Booth and Herold were lying to everyone in creating the cover they were rebel soldiers returning home. Maybe (IMO probably) they were lying about the horse fall. I bet none of those folks believed the horse fall story when the full story of the assassination became known.

Was Booth lying in his diary? Not really--he was confessing to the murder and making his case. He embellished some small facts but was mostly telling the truth. Why would he lie about breaking his leg in the leap rather than just say he broke his leg later in the escape?

This can-we-all-just-get-along theory that Booth broke his leg in the leap and the horse fall made it worse is the least likely thing that happened.