My Journey on Lincoln's Assassination

[mikegriffith1]

(10-16-2018 02:36 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(08-16-2018 04:12 PM)mikegriffith1 Wrote:  that Booth was not shot in Garrett's barn

Mike, do you have an explanation for Booth's diary being found in the possession of the man caught and killed at Garrett's?

First off, like so many other traditional assumptions about this case, the assumption that the diary was found on the man in the barn deserves a bit of scrutiny and does not hold up well under examination. How do we know that the diary was found on the man in the barn? Is it not very odd that Lt. Doherty said nothing about the finding of a diary on the body, and nothing about the other items that were allegedly found on the man? He said nothing about any of these items being found on the body--not in his report and not in his testimony. Not one word.

Second, as Dr. Arnold notes, the diary could have been planted on the body quite easily, or the planter could have simply pulled it out of his own pocket and claimed that he had just found it on the body.

But we do not really even know if any of the items that were allegedly found on the body were actually on the body at the farm. They could have been given to one of Lafayette Baker's two henchmen on the search party, Conger or Lt. Baker, ahead of time and simply handed over to the War Department with the claim that they were found on the body. Dr. Arnold suggests that Jett gave these items to Conger when they met shortly before the confrontation at Garrett's farm.

Third, the amount of damning evidence supposedly found on the body is nothing short of amazing, and rather suspicious--too pat, too convenient, too much. Anyone trying to escape with his life is not going to be carrying around a bunch of evidence that identifies him as the suspect. If a suspect is going to shave off his mustache to try to avoid being identified, why in the devil would he carry around a bunch of evidence that identified him?