James P. Ferguson, owner of a restaurant next to Ford’s Theatre, sat in the dress circle (balcony level) directly across from the state box. He claimed, “I saw a flash of the pistol right back in the box.” Ferguson described President Lincoln's head as leaning slightly forward and turned somewhat to his left at the time of the flash. Many others would report hearing the sound of the shot, though some audience members did not hear it over the roars of laughter at the play. Even Major Rathbone, sitting in the box itself, did not know Booth had entered. He heard the report from the gun and only saw Booth through the smoke after the shot was fired.
As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
This post is still disturbing to me as I looked at the forensic evidence in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
I will not examine conspiracy theories in it made no sense how the events worked together to expose Mr. Lincoln as explained below in the quotes. Instead I'm looking at the evidence and it bothers me emotionally as it is troubling.
Below you find the two people who left their posts so that John Boothe walked into the room the President sat and shot him. He had scoped the place out and had it prepared. It was the Grassy Knoll of Texas.
Officer John Parker
Charles Forbes
Lincoln’s party arrived at the theater at around 9 p.m. The play, Our American Cousin, had already started when the president entered his box directly above the right side of the stage. The actors paused while the orchestra struck up “Hail to the Chief.” Lincoln bowed to the applauding audience and took his seat.
Parker was seated outside the president’s box, in the passageway beside the door. From where he sat, Parker couldn’t see the stage, so after Lincoln and his guests settled in, he moved to the first gallery to enjoy the play. Later, Parker committed an even greater folly: At intermission, he joined the footman and coachman of Lincoln’s carriage for drinks in the Star Saloon next door to Ford’s Theatre.
John Wilkes Booth entered the theater around 10 p.m.. Ironically, he’d also been in the Star Saloon, working up some liquid courage
Instead what the Lame Cherry is examining is the reality that President Lincoln had his head slightly lowered, and turned and John Boothe executed a very good shot with a derringer pistol. It entered the back of Lincoln's head, went over the reptile brain so the heart and lungs functioned, and caused enough pressure to push his eye out.
This is the evidence noted. I will explain more on the other side.
Nothing happened to Parker. He was not even reprimanded. It seems that he was rewarded with continued employment as a police officer.
You might ask, how did Parker get the job of protecting the president?
There were three police officers selected to guard the Lincoln family.
1) William Crook was a competent police officer who guarded the president at the theater. On the night of Lincoln’s assassination, he was given the night off.
2) Thomas Pendel was a competent police officer who would guard the president if William Crook wasn’t available. On the night of Lincoln’s assassination, Pendel was relieved of the president’s security detail.
3) John Parker was assigned to take Pendel’s place. Parker was an incompetent police officer, and he now had the job of protecting the president at the theater.
Parker’s job during the play was to intercept people wanting to get access to the president. If a person had a good reason to see the president, Parker would allow them to enter the hallway leading to the president.
Once inside the hallway, standing outside the president’s box, was Charles Forbes. Again, anyone wanting to see the president had to get permission from Forbes before being allowed to see the president.
A little before ten o’clock, Forbes left his post and went to Parker and asked if he would like a drink. Parker accepted. They went to the tavern to have a drink. John Wilkes Booth was in the tavern when Forbes and Parker walked in. Booth took his cue, finished his drink, and headed for the theater.
When Booth went to the hallway leading to the president’s box, no one guarded the entryway. He went inside the hallway, and no one was there standing at the president’s door.
Booth closed the hallway door and picked up the brace behind the door that Ned Spangler had prepared. He put one end of the brace on the door frame and set the other end into the slot carved into the wall. With the brace firmly in place, Booth had uninterrupted access to the president.
Booth was successful at killing the president and Parker and was not even reprimanded. Parker kept his job as a police officer. Two years later, the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, was fired. Shortly after Stanton was fired, Parker was found asleep on the job, and he was immediately fired. Since Parker kept his job until Stanton lost his job, it is believed that Stanton was protecting Parker.
When one examines the chair, one can understand that when the President was shot, he did not slump forward in the chair. He did not convulse nor did he fall out of the chair. The blood soaked top of the cushion shows that the President was shot and most likely by muscle reflex, he sat back into the chair and as the brain part which linked to the soul part of Abraham Lincoln had been destroyed, he ceased being that person instantly and the blood drained from his skull out, down his neck and spread out to between his shoulders.
There are no dark stains as the blood was in the damp cloth of his jacket and seeped into the chair cushion.
The amount of blood was probably a pint and shows that the physicians who appeared were there in a short amount of time, and they immediately had the soldiers carry the President's body across the street to the rooming house where he would expire early the next morning.
Lincoln’s bodyguard, Ward Lamon, was diverted out of town to Appomattox. Before he left Washington, Ward told Lincoln not to attend the theater. On the morning of the assassination, Lincoln had no plans to attend the theater. His plans changed after reading the morning paper. Lincoln’s killers placed a carefully crafted article in the newspaper saying Lincoln was attending the theater that night and the public was looking forward to seeing him. Once Lincoln saw the article, he felt he must attend.
Noah Brooks was a newspaper correspondent and a good friend of Abraham’s. He came to the White House on April 14 just before the Lincolns left for the theater. Abraham told Brooks the reason he was attending the theater. Lincoln told Mr. Brooks,
“it had been announced in the morning papers that this distinguished party would go to the theatre that evening, Mrs. Lincoln had insisted that they ought to go, in order that the expectant public should not be wholly disappointed.”
After reading the paper, Lincoln decided to go. Once the killers knew Lincoln was going to attend the theater, the plan to kill him could go forward.
Except for a bulging eye, the President must have appeared relaxed as his body was, and I would conclude that one of the doctors probably shoved the eye back into the socket for appearances sake as it would be a simple act.
The clothes and linens of the bed were blood stained, but not soaked. The President did not bleed out, but in brain injury like stroke, the brain swells and then depresses on the brain stem which then causes breathing and heart to stop.
This is what killed the President. Richard Nixon in a stroke had brain swelling and that is what caused him to expire in a like manner.
It is troubling in what was a happy moment, was such a shocking tragedy, and then the President sank into a relaxed state which he was often recorded by visitors into being.
God forbid this ever happens again.
Nuff Said
agtG
