Human Memory and History

[RJNorton]

(08-11-2020 06:13 PM)RobertLC Wrote:  Tim Good also raises concern about human memory on page vii in the preface of his book, We Saw Lincoln Shot, One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts.

Bob, I think this is one of my favorite accounts of how Booth escaped from Ford's Theatre. At 10 P.M. on Saturday, February 11th, 1928, Mrs. Nelson Todd, who said she witnessed the assassination, said: (on radio station WOR)

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"Few people know how badly Booth was hurt by his fall. I had read accounts and seen pictures of him hobbling off the stage to make his escape. This is as false as the story that he shouted "Sic Semper Tyrannis."

"Here is what did happen, and I think I am the only person that knows how Booth made his escape. Knowing Booth, it was only natural that my interest was keen enough to attract my attention back to the stage even though I know Lincoln was assassinated. When Booth's spur caught and threw him to the stage he broke his leg in a terrible way, so that the bone actually protruded through his trousers and smeared the stage with blood. Naturally he couldn't move. Laura Keene leaned over and patted his head. Then to my amazement I saw a rope swing out, evidently thrown by some confederates, lasso him and whisk him into the wings. That was the last time I ever saw John Wilkes Booth."