"Alias Paine"

[J. Beckert]

I really don't put much stock in anything that can't be proven with regard to the assassination with the one exception that the CSA was involved with Booth early on. Even if it was a rogue tangent unofficially run by Judah Benjamin without the official blessing of Jefferson Davis, I still believe it was there. The travels and contacts Booth made sew it up for me. When I say early on, I mean in Oct., 1864, a mere 6 months before the act, Booth goes to Montreal and immediately upon his return, knows to contact Dr.'s Queen and Mudd - two southern sympathizers in Maryland. The money trail accompanies my thinking in regards to this, also. He puts his very successful and profitable acting career on hold. His plans for kidnapping become a train wreck and still determined to be the savior of the south, he turns his plans to assassination. He does this with no contact (that I can see) with the CSA he was involved with a short time earlier. To me, he decided this on his own, most likely after his emotions were set afire by Lincoln's speech on April 11th. and he took things into his own hands, still believing that he was still operating with the best intentions and blessings of the CSA. Being cut off from the Gov't. that was by April 14th. in tatters, he makes his "great and decisive" blow, hoping that it's not too late for the CSA to regroup somehow and if not turn the tides, at least buy some time. Nothing can be proven, but like I said, I can't see it any other way. Makes sense or no?