Useless, useless

[LincolnMan]

There was also a song "Useless In Disguise" from around 1968 or so.

[Gene C]

The "Lucy, Lucy" theory is pretty hard for me to swallow.

I agree Laurie. I have another exciting theory. Booth wasn't saying useless, useless. He wasn't saying Lucy, Lucy. He was trying to say Ulysses, Ulysses as a last minute attempt to implicate General Grant in the conspiracy. Booth was mad at Grant for not being at the theater that night, so he tries to implicate him in the assassination at the last minute.

And it wasn't Booth shot in the barn or Herold captured. It was Boyd and Henson. Booth and Herold woke up in the middle of the night and got out of the barn to attend to a call to nature, just seconds before the troops showed up. They stayed in the woods to see what would happen, and the wrong guys got caught. Booth and Herold managed to make their escape while everyones attention was on Boyd and Henson. Boyd was in intense pain and his comments were hard to understand and rambling

Now excuse my while I go get some more flu medicine, this stuff is staring to wear off.

[RJNorton]

His words were actually unintelligible. This had nothing to do with his being shot. It had everything to do with the lasting effects of the arsenic trioxide which Herold put in Booth's whisky at Lloyd's. Hope the flu medicine worked, Gene.

[Jim Garrett]

John Wilkes Booth was actually saying......."Toothless....Toothless" referring to one of the elder Garretts

[Jim Page]

Someone stop me . . .

[BettyO]

John Wilkes Booth was actually saying......."Toothless....Toothless" referring to one of the elder Garretts

Or to Powell.......! Forgive me......

[jonathan]

You guys are a hoot. Now if you could just work grits and moon pies into the thread somehow.

[GARY POPOLO]

I have read and agree with most of you about what Booth said as he was taking his last breath. But I believe that here was a man so obsessed with killing Lincoln and saving the south that nothing else mattered. Also in doing that make himself what he had always wanted a hero that would be remembered through all of time. He could not believe that his plan had fallen apart and he would only be known as the man who killed Lincoln and no more than a criminal to the same people he thought would love and immortalize him for his deed. In the end Looking at his hands and saying useless useless. I believe Lucy was never in his thoughts. He had just lost all he believed in and lie dieing on a dirty porch in a town little known to anyone. Far from the theater life of luxury he had known helpless and USELESS.

[MaddieM]

You guys are a hoot. Now if you could just work grits and moon pies into the thread somehow.

I'm eating scrambled eggs and pretending their grits.. if that's any help?

[Laurie Verge]

For y'all to come up with the analogies that you just did shows TRUE GRITS and OVER THE MOON, PIE IN THE SKY thinking! How's that for getting grits and moon pies into the topic??

With apologies to Gary, who really posted a very good thought.

[BettyO]

I'm eating scrambled eggs and pretending their grits.. if that's any help?

Maddie -

I'm buying you a box of grits and mailing it to you! You GOTTA try this! HA!

[RJNorton]

In the end Looking at his hands and saying useless useless. I believe Lucy was never in his thoughts.

Gary, I wonder how serious JWB ever really was about Lucy. I just have trouble picturing him as a settled, married man. Certainly he knew he could never marry Lucy after assassinating the president. When I read the notes/letters he wrote to other women, I just wonder if he could have really settled down with one.

[Joe Di Cola]

Ruthless, ruthless---in reference to his pursuers and the person who shot him

[jonathan]

For y'all to come up with the analogies that you just did shows TRUE GRITS and OVER THE MOON, PIE IN THE SKY thinking! How's that for getting grits and moon pies into the topic??

With apologies to Gary, who really posted a very good thought.

Niiiice Laurie, nice.

---

In the end Looking at his hands and saying useless useless. I believe Lucy was never in his thoughts.

Gary, I wonder how serious JWB ever really was about Lucy. I just have trouble picturing him as a settled, married man. Certainly he knew he could never marry Lucy after assassinating the president. When I read the notes/letters he wrote to other women, I just wonder if he could have really settled down with one.

This is what I wonder also. Booth was a young, attractive, famous man, who could have had just about any woman he wanted. And I believe he did have pictures of FIVE women on him when he died, right? I suppose there is a point to be made about being on his death bed and his real feelings coming out, but I just have a very hard time buying it. I think Booth was a womanizer, and as such would never have become that attached to any one of them.

[Bill Richter]

Right--never underestimate the power of the right woman, fellas.