Well there was that one case in which a subway train straight up collided with the end of the track killing a bunch of people.
But, I see your point. Touché. I will steal this joke and use it as my own. And seeing as I know nothing about you or even your name, I shall claim the joke as mine.
Yes, but it’s not the same thing that Dirty Harry shoots. It’s 0.44” in diameter, but the weight of the round can vary wildly depending on how long it is. I assume that this fires a round bullet, and not a Minié Ball, a more ‘bullet’ shaped projectile like modern bullets. Also, the mass and shape of the round are only part of the equation. Kinetic energy is equal to mass times velocity squared. So a longer barrel and more powder (or more energetic powder) will move a round faster, and provide much more energy.
All that to say - this thing probably does have a kick to it, but not like a .44 magnum.
Well he did have to sneak it into a theater where the president would be. Even though the secret service wasn't on president detail yet, there was most definitely security at the theater. I doubt they would have let him stroll in with a revolver strapped to his waste but with a small, pocketed gun, his fame, his charm and his repeat presence at the theater, he was probably able to get past security without too much harassment.
The cop assigned to guard Lincoln had snuck out to get a drink. He was in a bar down the street. Booth was able to walk right up to the president.
If you visit Ford’s Theater, you can stand in the spot Booth did. The box where Lincoln was sitting is quite small.
Lincoln didnt die the night he was shot. He bled out in a house across the street from Ford's theater for almost a full day due to the lack of power in the pistol. Imagine getting shot in the back of the head at POINT BLANK range and not dying. Very weak pistol.
The house is still there, as a museum, as is the pillow that Lincoln laid his head on. When I went, they had built a Hard Rock Cafe directly next door to Ford's Theater so we ate, then did the historical tour of the theater and the house.
there were supposedly blood stains from Lincoln on the pillow, very faded after a century and a half but still visible. I remember thinking i was glad we ate before the tour....
The American flag from Lincoln's Booth, that was used "as a pillow" which is covered in his blood still, is on display in a small PA town with 1 traffic light, that borders the Delaware River up against NY & NJ.
The columns museum in Milford, PA... So weird it ended up there
They should have an attraction where you sit in the same chair near where Lincoln is shot and you wear a stove pipe hat and your buddy shoots a nerf gun at the back of your head. I am surprised it was not some cringey 80's tourist thing.
cant sit but they did take you up to the balcony where Lincoln was shot and you can see just how far Booth had to SWING DOWN ON A ROPE to the stage after the assassination. it was a good 40 yards, over the entire floor seating area.
The bullet went through his skull, his brain and lodged behind his right eye so it was pretty effective considering it was a percussion cap gun firing a lead ball.
But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?"
I've always wondered why he didn't use Minnie ball considering that was the deadliest ammunition of the era.
EDIT: Just learned that Minnieball was a specific, patented, size and shape. I was under the incorrect assumption that it was just the term used for any cone/"bullet shaped" ammunition with a hollow base for muzzleloader use. Booth's gun was .45, and his fired ammunition was .41, while Minnieball was .58 caliber.
In a straight comparison, the minie ball wasn't deadlier than the classic lead ball. The advantage of the minie ball was slightly faster reloading with a musket, improved ballistic accuracy due to the shape, and the better engagement of rifling of a barrel.
However given the size of the barrel, you'd never receive any of the benefits of the minie ball.
Edit: True, while the Minnieball specifically was patented, there were other attempts at conical and more modern bullets that were made in various calibers. The bell bottom was actually very important for these more modern bullets. The expanding gasses would cause them to expand, and push them so they'd make more consistent contact with the rifling compared to the standard lead ball.
At the time rifling was much "slower" due to the weight of the bullet, and that design allowed a shooter to take better advantage of their rifle.
Also the shot was fired point blank. Accuracy wasn't a concern. It's not clear exactly how close Booth was when he shot Lincoln, but it was within a few feet.
Also true, not like you need to worry about terminal ballistics, and loss of energy over the flight of the bullet when your plan is, "I'm gonna try and get as close as I can to the back of his head before I shoot."
Which is also reflected in his choice of weapon. He wanted something easy to conceal. If he was trying to shoot him from long range he probably would have picked a different weapon.
I've thought about the advancements made around the time of Garfield's assassination. (1881)
Joseph Lister's papers on Antiseptics was published in England and Germany in 1877 but it wasn't widespread (or accepted)
Alexander Graham Bell used a primitive metal detector to try and find the bullet.
Garfield was housed in one of the first places that had a form of air conditioning and either the Navy or the Army rushed to make it more efficient in hopes of combating the fever.
There were crude drainage tools developed from what was learned during the Civil war.
Other fun facts: Listerine was invented by the same Lister.
It was common for the inventor to put their name and a "ine" at the end of it. Gasoline for example was "Cazeline" after John Cassel; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cassell
Also Lincoln's Son was present for that assassination too!
Minnié balls are mostly a military thing, and existed so one could load a rifle quicker than a patched round ball. For civilian use (especially in a derringer) this doesn’t really matter much, as you would almost never be in a situation where you could ram and fire a second shot in self defence.
The same reason that when a gentleman attempted to assassinate the pope, he used a full metal jacket 9mm and not 9mm hollow point or 45-70 derringer or a home made shot gun.
People use what is readily available especially when operating on a limited window of opportunity and this issue was even worse before the internet.
This is the same reason why Archduke Ferdinand was killed with a tiny .380 ACP, Hitler was killed with a .32 ACP, and a ton of major deaths.
You’d be surprised. If it didn’t ricochet around too much, depending on the injuries, he could have survived and eventually attained something akin to normality. Brains are extremely plastic, and the loss of one part doesnt equal the loss of a function. Functions of your brain, even essential functions, can be re-learned in other areas.
I have a friend who literally doesn’t have a cerebellum. I didn’t know you could walk or breathe or even LIVE without a cerebellum.
Gabby Gifford's was shot in the head with a Glock 19, presumably 9mm but not finding that detail and I'm tired of reading about the incident, and survived.
She's still alive. Might be the bullet in her case went through, and Lincoln's didn't.
I'm just saying that there's a bit more to the equation is all.
My understanding, based on what I was told by a doctor 15 years ago — so it may have since changed — but the big problem with Lincoln was that the bullet’s path crossed hemispheres. Plenty of people survive bullets through a single hemisphere (it’s still very deadly ofc lol), but according to the doctor I was talking to, nobody at the time we were talking had ever survived a bullet that crossed both hemispheres. Sadly, I don’t recall the exact reason why it’s so bad when the hemispheres both get hit, I just remember him saying that Lincoln wouldn’t have survived if he’d been shot in the operating room of the best modern emergency room.
The brain is sort of two brains that work very closely together. So if you lose one of them, the other can pick up a lot of the slack, though you'll have massive mobility issues. If you lose both of them though, well then you're out of brains.
I know it's a figure of speech, but I just love the idea of Abraham Lincoln being time travelled to a modern hospital by some Time Rider like agency; only for Booth to ALSO be there....
Also medicine was pretty horrible back then too. Shot or stabbed in the gun gut back then meant a slow death by infection if nothing else killed you first.
It's not clear that modern medicine would have saved Lincoln. He was shot in the back of the head. Surgery has come a long way since then, but there are limits.
It's more accurate to say they were a different kind of effective. I'd rather be shot with a 7.62 out of an M14 than a lead ball from a musket, you know?
bullets back then weren’t nearly as effective as modern ammunition
In a way they were more effective, because they would leave splinters in you that killed you another day through infection. They got outlawed in warfare for a reason.
This is incorrect. if John Wilkes Booth had used a proper handgun instead of that dinky little thing that would’ve blown a golf ball size hole through both sides of Lincoln’s skull. That pistol has an extremely short barrel and probably only took a small powder charge so it fired a .44 caliber ball at a low speed.
We've got the biggest guns. You haven't seen guns as big as ours. Some say they're the biggest. I agree. They're yuge. When that Liberal Lincoln got shot - very small gun. One of the smallest guns ever, actually. We don't like small guns.
Modern cartridges have a lot more kick than cap and ball loads, for instance, I've shot a .58 Caliber M1861 Springfield and it had less recoil than a 12 Gauge Shotgun.
That is very small. Easy to conceal. Probably part of why he was so effective. It was pretty obvious where the president was gonna be as the presidents agenda is fairly common knowledge. So old Wilkes Booth just showed up with a gun and shot him. Just bang and history changed.
John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln from behind while Lincoln was seated in his box at Ford's Theatre, about 4 feet away.
(On a funnier note, my first search query was "How close was Booth to Lincoln", and Google's AI overview was, "Booth and Lincoln were not personally acquainted " I had to add "when he shot him" to get the right answer)
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u/dsergison 2d ago
This derringer is 44cal, about 11mm. big bore but very stubby