The Booth Deringer pistol

[wpbinzel]

Assuming that the "Booth Deringer pistol" was the weapon used to kill Lincoln, I have another question to which we will probably never know the answer for certain: Who loaded Booth's gun?

It seems unlikely that Booth did it himself as no loading supplies were found in his room at the National Hotel (at least they are not on any inventory of things found in his room that I have seen). It would seem probable that Booth would want the gun to be loaded by a professional and with fresh gunpowder, and, at some point on April 14th, visited Benjamin Barker's Pistol Gallery on "the NE Corner of 11th and Pennsylvania Avenue." When questioned, Barker initially "denied all knowledge of ever having known Mr. Booth," but it appears that Booth was a regular there since December 1864. Another witness had Booth at Barker's Gallery on April 10th and 11th. (See: Edwards & Steers, The Lincoln Assassination The Evidence, p. 479.) In a 2013 post on this website, Mr. Loux wrote: "Booth honed his shooting skills at Floyd & Edward Pistol Gallery" in Boston on April 6, 1865 as well. (See: http://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussio...d-678.html .)

Consequently, it would seem probable that Benjamin Barker (or someone else at his Gallery) loaded the gun that killed Lincoln.