Booth's Day on April 14

[Eva Elisabeth]

(01-05-2017 08:49 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(01-04-2017 08:48 PM)Dennis Urban Wrote:  I suspect Rathbone saw JWB at some point just before he took the shot

Dennis, you are not alone.

Thomas Mallon, in his historical novel Henry and Clara, writes that Rathbone saw Booth out of the corner of his eye and had about 5 seconds to react. But Rathbone sat there frozen. He only reacted after the shot. Mallon seems to argue that Rathbone felt guilty about not reacting in time, but at the same time he "allowed" Booth to shoot Lincoln because he wanted "to hurt all the old men who'd made the war."

In Worst Seat in the House, Caleb Stephens writes, "And sitting directly opposite of Booth's entry door increases the likelihood that Henry Rathbone actually encountered Booth prior to the trigger being pulled."

However, Rathbone himself denied this. He said, "When the second scene of the third act was being performed, and while this deponent was intently observing the proceedings upon the stage with back towards the door, he heard the discharge of a pistol behind him, and looking around saw through the smoke, a man between the door and the President."

IMO Rathbone's denial of doesn't prove anything. It is a pretty human trait to try to not possibly get involved into anything inconvenient/get blamed for not acting immediately.
   
Somehow I feel he wouldn't necessarily have admitted in case it was the way it was.