What if Booth Escaped?

[jonathan]

I think if he had fled to Mexico or South America he may never have been caught. I think people would have known he was there, it just depends on how the citizens and government of the country he was in felt about it. Could they have been bothered to extradite him to the U.S.? I think if he had stayed in the U.S. he certainly would have been caught eventually, but the question is how long would it have taken? Suppose he managed to stay underground in the deep south or out west, and it took 30 years to root him out of there? What would the government have done? I suppose justice would still have to be served, but would he have hung? Life in prison? I really have no idea, as I know virtually nothing about how the law works in these different scenarios. Personally, I believe that if he had stayed in the U.S., he would have been caught in relatively short order, less than a year at least, possibly within weeks of when he actually was caught). With the war over, I imagine there were still plenty of Southerners ready to get on the good side of the "new" government, and I think Booth's ego would have sold him out by making his whereabouts common knowledge locally wherever he was. After making an initial escape into whatever part of the country he was in, he would have let his guard down and that would have sealed his fate.