# No mustache, no broken leg, all silence, could John Wilkes Booth have gotten away with it? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 9, 2026, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913 "2026-09-09T03:03:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913/1 "2026-09-09T03:03:32Z")
Suppose Booth had no broken leg, managed to escape the theater, shaved off his mustache, cut his hair, changed his clothes and got away swiftly and as far away from Washington DC as he could and spoke of the shooting to no one, how long could he, in the 1860s, have escaped detection? It was a time of no surveillance cameras. He was a famous actor, but the loss of mustache and change of hair and clothes can do a lot for a man. He would have had to stash a lot of cash or other tangible wealth somewhere he could access because he’d need it for his new life as an ordinary laborer in Chicago or something. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913/2 "2026-09-09T03:09:22Z")
Unlikely. The Army was quickly mobilized, as was the Secret Service. Dude was dog-food. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913/3 "2026-09-09T03:14:34Z")
Booth getting away with it would have to assume a drastic change in personality. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913/4 "2026-09-09T03:54:29Z")
Booth was well known, as noted above. Newspapers had printed engravings of him in theatrical roles. Critics and fans called him “the handsomest man in America”. There’s a well-known picture of him without a mustache, where he’s playing in a production of _Julius Caesar_ with his brothers. John Wilkes Booth Photos | [LincolnConspirators.com](http://LincolnConspirators.com) [John Wilkes Booth Photos | LincolnConspirators.com](https://share.google/A5xluOU94slGkqNBu) ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913/5 "2026-09-09T13:29:54Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > The Army was quickly mobilized, as was the Secret Service. No. The Secret Service had been authorized by Lincoln _earlier that day_, and its role was to police currency counterfeiting. Presidential protection started in 1901. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913/6 "2026-09-09T13:38:07Z")
It wasn’t just Booth, there was the rest of the conspiracy too. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913/7 "2026-09-09T13:57:31Z")
Yes. The Secret Service was a spy agency in the Civil War, and would have been activated to that end after 30 days or so. Alan Pinkerton ran it. Yes, the detective. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913/8 "2026-09-09T13:59:53Z")
That’s exactly what I was thinking myself. Even if nobody at Ford’s recognized him, the other members of the conspiracy would have identified him pretty quickly. (He was the only one of them who actually managed to get his mission accomplished, in spite of some significant bungling.) Once it’s known who did it, it would have been game over. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913/9 "2026-09-09T14:20:40Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Alan Pinkerton ran it. You’re referring to Army Counterintelligence, which is still in existence, and operates under the Dept. of Defense. The Secret Service ran under the US Treasury, and is now under Homeland Security. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913/10 "2026-09-09T14:37:17Z")
For clarification, my question wasn’t so much about whether Booth would have been known to be the shooter (that would have been quickly known), but rather, whether, in the 1800s era of no Flock cameras, Internet, etc. a guy like Booth could have slipped into the 37 million population of the United States, gone far away, with significantly altered appearance, and avoided capture for life. After all, bin Laden took many years to catch in the modern era, although that was also a quite different situation. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913/11 "2026-09-09T14:38:22Z")
Got it. My bad. I’ll go sit in the corner now… ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913/12 "2026-09-09T14:42:54Z")
Wouldn’t shaving an entire mustache have added significant time to the escape in those pre-safety razor, pre-brushless shaving cream days? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913/13 "2026-09-09T14:45:18Z")
Maybe he could have done the shaving, haircut, etc. prior to the shooting. Although that might raise questions as he was entering the theater, “Hey John, what did you do to yourself.” ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913/14 "2026-09-09T14:51:38Z")
If Booth had had a coherent escape plan (instead of hiding out among rebel sympathizers in rural Virginia), he could have gotten out of the country, to Cuba and/or the U.K., like a couple of Confederate cabinet members, Benjamin and Breckinridge, who were the only ones to avoid capture (Jefferson Davis and former Postmaster General John Reagan were caught while fleeing Union pursuit). The Wikipedia entry on Booth notes: "Historian [Dorothy Kunhardt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Kunhardt "Dorothy Kunhardt") writes: “Almost every family who kept a photograph album on the parlor table owned a likeness of John Wilkes Booth of the famous Booth family of actors.” So his was a very famous face. Tough not to be noticed eventually. Unlike former Confederate officials and military, Booth would never have gotten amnesty. ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913/15 "2026-09-09T15:04:56Z")
It would be like Tom Selleck or somebody very well known today. He could have gone West, out to Utah or Nevada or someplace really off the beaten path but the odds are anywhere else he would have been recognized, unless he wanted to be a serious recluse. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913/16 "2026-09-09T15:39:28Z")
No. During the Civil War, the Civilian Intel was run under the name Secret Service. It later evolved into the modern law enforcement group. READ A BOOK! ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913/17 "2026-09-09T18:07:37Z")
Please provide a source. > [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > READ A BOOK! 🙄 Please tell me what book would provide information that Allan (spelled with 2 Ls) Pinkerton ran an organization that later became the Secret Service. Maybe [this link](https://www.secretservice.gov/thoseothersecretservices) would be enlightening: > [@](#): > > The War Department “Secret Service” during the Civil War or early detective agency ‘secret services’ are not the United States Secret Service formed within the Treasury Department on July 5, 1865. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913/18 "2026-09-09T23:14:52Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > Please tell me what book would provide information that Allan (spelled with 2 Ls) Pinkerton ran an organization that later became the Secret Service. > [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > During the Civil War, the Civilian Intel was run under the name Secret Service. > It later evolved into the modern law enforcement group. That line is technically correct. The term Secret Service" was _informally_ applied to Civilian intelligence- which included, but by no mean limited to- the Pinkertons. The Secret Service- by that name- was formed on July 5, 1865, to handle counterfeiting. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913/19 "2026-09-09T23:23:05Z")
No, the line “It later evolved into the modern law enforcement group.” is simply false. My link to the US Secret Service’s website draws the distinction, as there were several groups going by “Secret Service” during that time, and none of them became _the_ Secret Service. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2026, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913/20 "2026-09-10T12:43:18Z")
The scraps and distillations of ALL of them became the Secret Service. Similar , but not the same. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mustache-no-broken-leg-all-silence-could-john-wilkes-booth-have-gotten-away-with-it/1032913.md?page=2)