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Through Five Administrations
08-09-2014, 05:14 AM
Post: #19
RE: Through Five Administrations
(08-08-2014 03:37 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  It has just crossed my mind that even if there had been a guard at the door of the Presidential Box at Ford's that night, Booth would have gained entrance simply by presenting his card.

(08-08-2014 03:59 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Charles Forbes obviously did not see Booth as a threat that night. Would Parker have sensed danger? I personally doubt it. I don't condone his actions, but I don't think he would have turned Booth away either.

Toia and Laurie, I tend to agree that Booth would have made his way into the box no matter what. But, for what it's worth, Crook lays out a different scenario in his book. Before I quote Crook on the scenario, he also points out that the Ford's doorkeeper, John Buckingham, said that a chair had been placed in the passageway behind the State Box for Parker to sit in. If true, why wasn't Parker sitting there? Did Lincoln himself tell Parker to go find a seat where he could see the play? Or did Parker leave on his own? No one knows. Parker escorted the presidential party to their seats; thus he would have seen the chair Buckingham said was there for him in the passageway.

Crook surmised that once Booth got by Forbes he still would have to deal with Parker (had he been sitting in the passageway). His scenario:

"Had Parker been at his post at the back of the box - Booth still being determined to make the attempt that night - he (Parker) would have been stabbed, probably killed. The noise of the struggle - Parker could certainly have managed to make some outcry - would have given the alarm. Major Rathbone was a brave man, and the President was a brave man and of enormous muscular strength. It would have been an easy thing for the two men to have disarmed Booth, who was not a man of great physical strength. It was the suddenness of his attack on the President that made it so devilishly successful. It makes me feel rather bitter when I remember that the President had said, just a few hours before, that he knew he could trust all his guards. And to think in that one moment of test, one of us should have utterly failed him. Parker knew that he had failed in his duty. He looked like a convicted criminal the next day. He was never the same man afterward."
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Messages In This Thread
Through Five Administrations - Gene C - 08-06-2014, 08:44 PM
RE: Through Five Administrations - L Verge - 08-07-2014, 07:22 PM
RE: Through Five Administrations - Gene C - 08-07-2014, 11:34 PM
RE: Through Five Administrations - L Verge - 08-08-2014, 09:55 AM
RE: Through Five Administrations - Gene C - 08-08-2014, 10:32 AM
RE: Through Five Administrations - L Verge - 08-08-2014, 12:52 PM
RE: Through Five Administrations - L Verge - 08-08-2014, 03:59 PM
RE: Through Five Administrations - RJNorton - 08-09-2014 05:14 AM

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