One more post, on one broken leg.

[RJNorton]

(09-25-2013 12:37 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Is it not possible that JWB (if it was him) had drilled the hole already before he learned the Grants wouldn't come?

Eva, I think there is some guesswork involved in putting an exact time on all of Booth's movements on the 14th. All I can tell you is a summary of what I have read in various books. I think most (if not all) of them are in agreement that Booth found out about Grant first, then did the carpentry. On average, the books have Booth talking to Mathews about 4:30 to 5:00 P.M., and he sees the Grants' carriage go by. He then rides up real close and stares at Grant. Then he rides to the Willard Hotel, where the Grants were staying, and finds out they are departing Washington. Then, sometime later during the 5:00 P.M. hour or within 6:00 P.M. hour, he does his carpentry at Ford's. Certainly what you ask is possible, Eva, but the time frame I have read puts the carpentry after the discovery.

P.S. In her memoirs, Julia Grant wrote, "Afterwards, as General Grant and I rode to the depot, this same dark, pale man rode past us at a sweeping gallop on a dark horse - black, I think. He rode twenty yards ahead of us, wheeled and returned, and as he passed us both going and returning, he thrust his face quite near the General's and glared in a disagreeable manner.' Mrs. Ruckner said, 'General, everyone wants to see you.' Grant replied, 'Yes, but I do not care for such glances. They are not friendly.' "

(Julia Grant also maintained that the dark, pale man...assumed to be Booth...had stared at her when she had lunch at the Willard Hotel.)