From the Radio Free Michigan archives ftp://141.209.3.26/pub/patriot If you have any other files you'd like to contribute, e-mail them to bj496@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu. ------------------------------------------------ The Lincoln Conspiracy ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ By David Balsiger and Charles E. Sellier, Jr. ***************************************************************** * * * Did John Wilkes Booth act alone in the assassination of * * Abraham Lincoln or was he a pawn of higher-ups? * * * * Was the man shot at Garrett's farm and identified as John * * Wilkes Booth actually Booth, or was he a substitute? * * * * Why was the existence of Booth's diary hidden until long * * after the famous 1865 Conspiracy Trial, and when revealed, * * why had 18 pages been cut? Who removed those 18 pages, and * * when? * * * * A surprising collection of newly discovered (c. 1977), * * unpublished, historical documents answers these and many * * more questions, solving the most famous political * * assassination mystery in American history. * * * ***************************************************************** --------------------------- Part 1 ------------------------------ The massive cover-up effort by government officials to prevent the American public from ever learning the real truth about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, suppressed evidence which presumably had gone to the graves of those connected with the murder conspiracy, is now [c. 1977] surfacing and answers many of the questions still surrounding Lincoln's assassination. -- Was there an organized government conspiracy to get rid of Lincoln? -- Why, despite countless threats and known plots, did the War Department not provide Lincoln with adequate protection? -- Why did so many invited guests refuse to accept Lincoln's invitation to Ford's Theatre on the night of April 14? -- Why was the President's single bodyguard absent from his post during the murder, and never punished or even questioned? -- Why were all the escape routes out of Washington closed except the route Booth used? -- Who, for hours after the murder, blacked out commercial telegraph lines from Washington? -- Why was the existence of Booth's diary hidden until long after the famous 1865 Conspiracy Trial, and when revealed, why had 18 pages been cut out? -- Who removed those 18 pages, why and when? Traditional historical writers have perpetuated a cover-up by *unquestioningly* relying on 1865 government data and documents as if they were gospel. In writing this book, Balsiger and Sellier have adopted the premise that official government statements from that time might not be true. Instead, the authors' approach to re-examining the Lincoln assassination was to try to locate local private unpublished document collections in the possession of the heirs of significant Lincoln era decision makers. They reason that if official government statements from that time are, in fact, true, then they can be authenticated through papers in private collections. The documents used by the authors to re-construct events that took place before and after the assassination include secret service documents, congressmen's diaries, old letters, book manuscripts, deathbed confessions, secret cipher-coded messages, and purported missing pages of the John Wilkes Booth diary. Among the experts consulted during the writing of this book were: 1) Dr. Ray A. Neff, a professor at Indiana State University [c. 1977] and author of a scholarly book on Lincoln entitled *Wounded in the House of Friends*. 2) Dr. Richard D. Mudd, grandson of Dr. Samuel Mudd who was sentenced to life in prison as a Booth co-conspirator. 3) Theodore Roscoe, author of *Web of Conspiracy*, which suggests that the Secret Service may have been indirectly involved in the assassination. Among the primary sources used in the writing of the book, probably the most sensational and valuable document consists of the missing Booth diary pages, discovered in 1974 by Americana collector and appraiser Joseph Lynch. The authors acquired a full transcript of the contents of the missing pages and had the contents evaluated by historical experts, but have not [c. 1977] been able to acquire copies of the actual pages to authenticate the handwriting. The recently discovered [c. 1977] pages from Booth's diary delineate Booth's involvement in the conspiracy plot with trusted Lincoln friends, Confederate leaders, War Department Secretary Stanton, and northern businessmen. In this book, the authors have attempted to re-construct as accurately as possible the conspiracy events prior to the assassination and during the following cover-up. What you are about to read is a synopsis of their unraveling of the most shocking political assassination in American history. ------------------------- End Part 1 ---------------------------- --------------------------- Part 2 ------------------------------ Normally, a state of war heightens and centralizes the power of the ruling group. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton held a great deal of power during the Civil War. "The War Secretary controlled the nation's military news through the nationalization of the wires. He also controlled the transportation system. Under his direction... control over private citizens was almost complete... Lincoln himself was denied the right to see telegrams that came into the War Department in cipher to be decoded." Moreover, Stanton was not noted for speaking well of Lincoln. He had referred to him as "the original gorilla," a "long-armed baboon," and as "that giraffe." The authors, Balsiger and Sellier, state that a raid planned at that time (1864) by Lincoln, Stanton, and others associated with Lincoln's presidency gives evidence of an atmosphere of plotting and distrust within that small group. The "Dahlgren Raid," as planned by Lincoln, had as its ostensible purpose the freeing of Federal prisoners being held in Richmond, Virginia, at that time the capital of the confederacy. In addition, Lincoln wanted posters to be placed everywhere along the path of the raid promising amnesty to any confederates who would take the oath of allegiance to the Union. According to the authors, however, and unbeknownst to Lincoln, the true purpose of the Dahlgren Raid was to assassinate confederate president Jefferson Davis and his cabinet. Besides Stanton, certain operatives of various special police forces, including the newly formed secret service, were also aware of the true nature of the plan. Prominent among these operatives was "Col. Lafayette Baker, a man of highly questionable integrity, [who] headed the North's National Detective Police (NDP), an undercover, anti-subversive, spy organization under the direction of Secretary of War Stanton." The Dahlgren Raid failed and its leader, Colonel Dahlgren, was killed. On his body, the confederates found two documents. One document directed that Dahlgren and his soldiers were to free federal prisoners being held near Richmond. "The second document, unsigned, seemed to be an order: 'Once in the city [Richmond], it must be destroyed, and Jeff Davis and cabinet killed.'" When this news became widely known in the confederacy, southerners were furious. "Gen. Robert E. Lee... officially asked his Union counterpart, Gen. George Meade, if the Union's true motives were contained in the papers." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The authors claim that John Wilkes Booth met with a Colonel William A. Browning, secretary to future (2nd term) vice- president Andrew Johnson during the summer of 1864. They claim that Booth worked as a special envoy for secret peace negotiations being attempted at the time. "Booth quietly made the trip to Richmond with proper military passes issued by both Union and Confederate governments." Unfortunately, while on his mission in the south Booth saw proof that the Dahlgren Raid had had as one of its goals the murder of Jefferson Davis and his cabinet. Infuriated by what he had learned, Booth resigned from his assignment as special envoy. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Committee on the Conduct of the War research files. } { Dr. Richard D. Mudd Collection, Saginaw, MI } { } { Benedict, Michael Les, *A Compromise of Principle: The } { Politics of Radicalism* (W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1974) } { } { Unpublished Voluntary Statement of Michael O'Laughlin, } { April 27, 1865, originally in the Benn Pitman Collection, } { Cincinnati, OH Ray A. Neff Collection } { } { Barbee, David Rankin, "The Murder of Mrs. Surratt" } { (Speech at the Emerson Institute, Washington, D.C., } { Feb. 25, 1950). Margaret K. Bearden Collection, } { Rochester, NY } { } { Missing Booth Diary Pages. In the private collection of } { Stanton descendants. Released in 1976 through the efforts } { of Americana appraiser, Joseph Lynch of Worthington, MA } ------------------------- End Part 2 ---------------------------- --------------------------- Part 3 ------------------------------ Because the great drama of the Civil War takes center stage, most people are not as aware that in "...1864, the Union was close to dictatorship." "All the elements were in motion: transportation and communications were nationalized, the writ of *habeas corpus* suspended. Military tribunals had replaced civilian trials... Dictatorship was an evil lurking behind the scenes. [However] the name of the would be dictator was not discernible to the public." The previously mentioned National Detective Police (NDP) constituted a force of 2,000 "detectives" which acted as a law unto itself. Under the leadership of the already mentioned Lafayette Baker, it operated without judicial constraint under the direction of Secretary of War Stanton. "Baker held authority... because a highly placed Lincoln cabinet official [Stanton] had set in motion all machinery necessary to become dictator of the nation." "But first, Abraham Lincoln had to be removed from office." During the summer of that year [1864], Lincoln faced mounting dissension within his own political party. A powerful faction within his party, known as the "Radical Republicans," did not want Lincoln to seek re-election. That summer a group of them introduced the Wade-Davis Bill to the 38th Congress. The Wade-Davis Bill was "...a version of postwar reconstruction diametrically opposed to the President's proposal." Lincoln favored a "soft" peace plan, "designed to bind up the nation's wounds with all possible speed so that the nation could move forward and leave the events of the tragic war behind." Since the president had the right to pardon, Lincoln reasoned that he could offer a general amnesty to all who would take a loyalty oath to the Union. However, "under the Radicals' Wade-Davis Bill each seceded state was to be treated as a conquered country... [The Radicals were] demanding Rebel property be confiscated and proposed that the conquered South should be considered a prize of war." [B.R. -- Thus, a *lot* of money was at stake in the argument.] This was a tough time for Lincoln. He was up for re-election and it was the general opinion that there was little chance of his being re-elected. The war was dragging on and the casualties were multiplying. In addition to the dissent within his own political party, there was the constant threat of assassination. During that summer of 1864, there were incessant rumors of assassination plots. The authors assert that during that summer of 1864, in Maryland, "...a group of planters had gathered to discuss ways of ending atrocities [by Federal troops] in the counties of Prince Georges, St. Marys, and Charles. Among the Maryland planters were Patrick C. Martin... Dr. William Queen, and Dr. Samuel Mudd." The authors contend that at this meeting a plot to kidnap Lincoln was discussed and that it was suggested that John Wilkes Booth would be a good person to bring in on the plot. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Benedict, Michael Les, *A Compromise of Principle: The } { Politics of Radicalism* (W.W. Norton & Co. New York, 1974) } { } { Lamon, Ward Hill, *Recollections of Abraham Lincoln* } { (University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1895) } { } { Schlesinger Jr., Arthur M. *History of American Presidential } { Elections, Vol. II, 1848-1896 (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1971) } ------------------------- End Part 3 ---------------------------- --------------------------- Part 4 ------------------------------ "Near the end of September, 1864, Patrick Martin [, organizer of the previously mentioned southern Maryland planter's meeting,] met with John Wilkes Booth." As a result of this meeting, "Booth received instructions to meet [Confederate agents] Clement Clay and Jacob Thompson in Montreal." Booth arrived in Montreal on October 17th or 18th of 1864. John Wilkes Booth is a shadowy historical figure. While ostensibly an actor, he is known to have smuggled medicines and other contraband into the south. For example, at one time Booth "obtained 1,000 ounces of valuable quinine, hid the contraband medicine in a trunk, and sent it by blockade runner to Richmond." Booth was also involved with other smugglers from that time, including Confederate courier John Surratt and a childhood friend named Michael O'Laughlin. One of the front operations they used for their activities was the Chaffey Company at 178 1/2 Water Street in New York. Another key figure operating out of this address "was Lafayette Baker [head of the previously mentioned National Detective Police (NDP)] who began using Chaffey's in July." Instead of turning in confiscated contraband to the military commissary, Baker began using the Chaffey Company to sell it to interested buyers. This was especially true for cotton which had risen from 10 cents/pound to $1.00/pound. "A single bale was now worth more than $1,000, and a seized shipment of several bales could be quietly sold for a tidy sum. At the rate Baker was making deposits, his account would hit $150,000 by the end of the year." While in Montreal, Booth was recruited by Confederate agents Clay and Thompson to organize the kidnapping of Abraham Lincoln. John H. Surratt, Jr. was suggested to Booth as a good man to help in his organizing efforts. When Booth returned to Washington, "$12,499.28 had been transferred from the Bank of Montreal to Booth's account at the Chaffey Company in New York. This was, to the penny, what Daniel Watson, a Tennessee cotton speculator, had deposited in the Bank of Montreal on July 4 for some unknown reason." "Booth wrote in his diary, 'I am to find and send North 15 men whom I trust. The messenger brings me $20,000 in gold to recruit them. I'm to start at once.'" It is somewhat suspicious that "the messenger who brought the gold was connected with the Union's Judge Advocate General's Office." In addition to the kidnap plot that Booth was involved with, "another highly secret plot was developing inside the government in Washington... A hint of the Northern plot was turned up by NDP operatives." Members of Lincoln's own party, including Radical Republicans were plotting to "have him kidnapped and kept out of sight until fake charges... [were] arranged to impeach him." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Brennan, John C., "General Bradley T. Johnson's Plan to } { Abduct President Lincoln," Chronicles of St. Mary's County } { Historical Society, (Leonardtown, MD) Vol. 22, Nov. 1974 } { } { Weichmann, Louis J., *A True History of the Assassination of } { Abraham Lincoln and of the Conspiracy of 1865*, ed. Floyd } { E. Risvold, (Alfred E. Knopf, New York, 1975) } { } { Roscoe, Theodore, *The Web of Conspiracy* (Prentice-Hall, } { Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1959) } { } { Clarke, Asia Booth, *The Unlocked Book: A Memoir of John } { Wilkes Booth* (G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1938) } { } { Gray, Clayton, *Conspiracy in Canada* (L'Atelier Press, } { Montreal, 1957) } { } { Peterson, T.B., *The Trial of the Assassins and Conspirators* } { (T.B. Peterson and Brothers, Philadelphia, 1865) } ------------------------- End Part 4 ---------------------------- --------------------------- Part 5 ------------------------------ On November 8, 1864, Abraham Lincoln received 55 percent of the popular vote and was returned to office. One of the things which helped him win re-election was that the Union army had won timely victories. He was also helped by the military vote itself. He received 116,887 military ballots as compared to 33,748 cast for the Democratic candidate McClellan. "Lincoln had pressured commanders to furlough soldiers home in time for the election." Around this time, the National Detective Police (NDP) had made progress in its investigations into possible kidnap plots against Lincoln. "The secret police had also discovered [John Wilkes] Booth's involvement." The authors mention a Confederate Major Marsh Frye who they claim was a double agent. They claim also that Booth's wife had been working with this Major Frye as a spy and courier for the Confederacy but that she was unaware that Frye was in reality an agent for the Union. Another informant cultivated by the NDP at the time was one "James William Boyd, prisoner of war... [who had] been a captain in the Rebel secret service." The authors mention in passing that this Captain Boyd had the same initials as John Wilkes Booth. [B.R. So at this point we have a lot of loose threads. It will be interesting to see where they lead.] According to the authors, Booth also met with John Surratt around this time. "Booth's diary claimed they joined together and began recruiting men for the [planned] kidnapping." In the Fall of 1864, Booth made a trip to Richmond where he met with one Judah Benjamin, a British lawyer, Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens, and Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy. "Out of this meeting came detailed instructions for Booth. An order for $70,000, 'drawn on a friendly bank,' was also handed the actor." "Though on opposite sides of a civil war, the Northern speculators and the Confederate politicians had a common commodity problem. The speculators needed cotton. The south needed meat. The Union's blockade prevented cotton from leaving the South." After the 1864 election, Booth met with banker- financier Jay Cooke at the Astor House in New York. Cooke's brother Henry was also in attendance and spoke highly of the aforementioned Judah Benjamin. This was a curious circumstance in that Mr. Benjamin was one of the top men in the Confederacy whereas Cooke was one of the bankers financing the Union side in the war. Also in attendance at the meeting were "Thurlow Weed, Samuel Noble, a New York Cotton broker, and Radical Republican Zachariah Chandler, Michigan senator." "In his diary Booth later recorded, 'Each and every one asserted that he had dealings with the Confederate States and would continue to whenever possible.'" According to the authors, the link between most or all of these groups was economic. Due to the Union blockade of the Confederacy, the South, northern speculators, and the British were all suffering. Because the South could not export its cotton, mills in Britain and France were shutting down. The blockade also cut off Northern moneymen from lucrative investments in the cotton trade. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Andrew Potter Papers, Ray A. Neff Collection, Marshall, II } { } { Missing Booth Diary Pages. In the private collection of } { Stanton descendents. Released in 1976 through the efforts } { of Americana appraiser, Joseph Lynch of Worthington, MA } { } { Baker, Lafayette C., *History of the United States Secret } { Service* (L.C. Baker, Philadelphia, 1967) } { } { Mogelever, Jacob, *Death to Traitors* (Doubleday & Co., } { New York, 1960) } ------------------------- End Part 5 ---------------------------- --------------------------- Part 6 ------------------------------ According to the recently recovered Booth diary pages, while in Montreal near the end of 1864 Booth saw National Detective Police (NDP) head Lafayette Baker in the company of Confederate agent Nathaniel Beverly Tucker. Later that day, Booth met with Tucker and Canadian Confederate secret service chief Jacob Thompson. Booth delivered coded messages to each of them and Thompson gave Booth a satchel containing $50,000 in bank notes. He was to deliver $20,000 of this money to Senator Benjamin Wade, co-author of the previously mentioned Wade-Davis Bill. Thus, if the missing Booth diary pages are to be believed, we have evident collusion between Radical Republicans and the Confederate secret service. Furthermore, some connection between the head of the Union's NDP and the southern secret service seems likely. [B.R. -- Yet this all hinges on the veracity of the recently recovered (c. 1977) Booth Diary Pages. The mystery deepens in that I am writing this in 1993; whatever became of the 18 pages that were recovered? Were they authenticated? Were they published?] Around this time (December 1864), one of Lincoln's most trusted bodyguards, Ward Lamon, tried to warn Lincoln that he was in great danger. When Lincoln shrugged off Lamon's warning, Lamon threatened to resign stating that the President's life was sure to be taken unless he were more cautious. The NDP also tried to warn Lincoln of the danger he was in. Twice they notified Secretary of War Stanton that a plot was underway to kidnap Lincoln. The authors furthermore claim that a Major Thomas Eckert, a member of Stanton's office in the War Department, also had knowledge of the proposed kidnapping of the president. Booth returned to Washington, carrying the previously mentioned satchel containing $50,000. He delivered portions of this money to Senators Conness, Wade, and Chandler of the Radical Republican faction of Lincoln's party. According to NDP chief Lafayette Baker's notes, Senator Conness was involved with at least one of the upcoming kidnap plots. The authors contend that there had to be some hidden person/persons linking the Radical Republicans (who were seeking to control the Union and to ravage the post-war South) with the Confederate secret service. The plan of the Radical Republicans was to "seize control of the executive branch... [and] control reconstruction." Why the Confederate secret service would team up with them is not clear. Superficially, these two groups should have had nothing in common. Around this time Secretary of War Stanton personally ordered that Federal prisoner Captain James W. Boyd (initials J.W.B., same as John Wilkes Booth) was to be delivered to the Provost Marshal in Washington, D.C. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Lamon, Ward Hill, *Recollections of Abraham Lincoln* } { (University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1895) } { } { Eisenschimi, Otto, *Why Was Lincoln Murdered?* (Little, } { Brown and Co., Boston, 1937) } { } { Lafayette Baker's Unpublished Cipher-Coded Book Manuscript, } { 1868, Dr. Ray A. Neff Collection } { } { "Maryland Historical Magazine, Vol. 68, "Martin Family," } { Fall 1973 } ------------------------- End Part 6 ---------------------------- --------------------------- Part 7 ------------------------------ Among Booth's earliest recruits in the plan to kidnap Lincoln were Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlin. Booth and O'Laughlin had been involved in a smuggling ring early on in the war. They had helped ship contraband quinine, morphine, and other medicines to the South. "O'Laughlin believed Booth had been in charge of the operation but knew the actor had had the help of men in the government." Besides Arnold and O'Laughlin, Booth recruited David Herold, George Atzerodt, Edward Spangler, and Lewis Payne into his kidnapping team. The original plan was to capture Lincoln when he was on one of his frequent unguarded trips from the White House to the Soldiers Home. Later, however, Booth decided on a more dramatic location for the kidnap attempt -- Ford's Theater. On the night of January 18, 1865, all was in readiness. Lincoln was expected to attend a performance at Ford's Theater that evening. "Everything was ready -- two sets of handcuffs, gags and ropes. The stage lights were to be killed on cue. A vehicle with side curtains was stationed in the alley behind the theater." Unfortunately for the plotters, the night was stormy and Lincoln decided to stay at home. The leaders of the bankers and speculators plot to kidnap Lincoln decided to replace Booth with a military man because they decided that a civilian would not be the best person to handle the actual kidnapping. All Booth could learn at first was that he had been replaced by a Rebel officer, a "Captain B." Captain James William Boyd "bore a resemblance to John Wilkes Booth, whose initials he shared." Boyd had served as head of the Confederate secret service in West Tennessee before being captured in August 1863 by members of the National Detective Police (NDP). After being imprisoned for months, he finally succumbed to NDP pressure and became a Rebel turncoat. For awhile, Boyd was "paid $90 a month and, in return, reported on prisoners' activities and plans." However, when his life became endangered because the other prisoners had grown suspicious of him, he was released from Federal prison and given a new assignment. He was sent "on a mysterious mission that would take him to Canada, then Mexico." The authors mention in passing that Boyd suffered from an old wound. "Boyd's leg near his ankle had continued to give him trouble. A bone and muscle infection had developed from the wound that had never healed properly." Besides the change in leadership from Booth to Boyd, the "speculators, with Captain Boyd as their leader, appeared to have a new strategy... They were not going to take Lincoln to Richmond, but to Bloodsworth Island in Chesapeake Bay and 'legally' dispose of him." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Lee, Thomas C., "The Role of Georgetown's Dr. Samuel A. Mudd } { in the Lincoln Conspiracy," Georgetown Medical Bulletin, } { May, 1976 } { } { Pitman, Benn, *The Assassination of President Lincoln and the } { Trial of the Conspirators* (Funk & Wagnalls, New York, } { 1954) } { } { Wilson, Francis, *John Wilkes Booth: Fact and Fiction of } { Lincoln's Assassination* (Houghton Mifflin Co., New York, } { 1929) } ------------------------- End Part 7 ---------------------------- --------------------------- Part 8 ------------------------------ In early March of 1865, inside "the nation's governmental centers and in New York, the country's financial heart, many were not happy." "Power plays were going on behind almost every office door; tremendous pressures were building. There was no end to the intrigues, lies, deceits, and double-dealing." For the turncoat Rebel agent, Captain James William Boyd, the sense of intrigues surrounding him was so great that he was unsure of exactly who his real leader was. "He had the impression the mastermind was not one, but a number of highly placed men working together on a daring plan." Whoever it was that was running things had sent Boyd on a journey through Maryland, headed south. In Maryland, wherever "he stopped, he asked discreet questions concerning roads through the area." For John Wilkes Booth, the urgency of achieving success in his kidnap plot was mounting. It became more and more apparent that the North was going to win the war. Therefore it was increasingly important that the South have *some* sort of advantage, from whatever source. Booth became more desperate to kidnap the president. He hoped that somehow the South could "yet snatch victory from defeat." "It looked as though Grover's Theatre would offer the best opportunity to attempt the abduction on March 15." Booth assembled his team of recruits and prepared to make a kidnap attempt. However, on March 14th the President became so ill that the cabinet met in his bedroom. Because it seemed unlikely that Lincoln would go to the theatre the following day, the kidnapping attempt was called off. When the Grover's Theatre kidnapping attempt was called off, some of the co-conspirators had gone to Ford's Theatre to see a performance of *Jane Shore*. During the intermission, Booth briefly visited the "Presidential Box," a special area reserved for president Lincoln when he attended the theatre. In the early morning of March 16th, Booth met with his recruits. One of them had received word that Lincoln would be visiting the Seventh Street Hospital-Soldiers Home. Booth came up with another plan. On a portion of the road that the President was to travel, the plotters would ride out of the woods and surround Lincoln's carriage. However, when they tried to carry out their plot later that day, the carriage that they surrounded did not contain Lincoln. "Booth's third kidnap attempt had now failed." The following morning, Booth was visited in his Washington hotel room by Colonel Lafayette Baker, head of the National Detective Police (NDP). Booth may have been understandably panicy that the formal head of the Union's secret service was paying him a visit. It may have been that he was fearful that his attempts at kidnapping the President had been found out. However Baker's mission that day was to deliver three sealed envelopes from (respectively) Jefferson Davis [President of the Confederacy!], Judah Benjamin, and Clement Clay. One of the messages that Booth received directed him to pay Baker a sum of money. After Baker had received the money from Booth and had left, Booth was probably astonished. He immediately sent a note by special courier to Confederate agent Judah Benjamin in Richmond. He then went to the office of Radical Republican, Senator John Conness. Conness had been connected with NDP head Baker as a member of a vigilante group in California during the 1850's. He calmed Booth's fears and assured him that Baker could be trusted. Not long after this meeting with Senator Conness, Booth received a reply to his message to Judah Benjamin in Richmond. It said that Baker was to be trusted. "Word now came to Booth that the President would pass a certain spot on Saturday, March 18. Booth and an unknown number of conspirators waited seven hours. When the President did approach, he was escorted by a squad of cavalry." Booth called off this fourth kidnapping attempt. Following this latest attempt, NDP head Baker and a Lt. Col. Everton J. Conger called on Booth. Booth did not record the topic of this second meeting with Baker. Booth attended another of many Washington parties. At this party, he was approached by Senator Conness who informed him that he was expecting information shortly as to Lincoln's planned movements within the Washington area. "Booth thought Yankee politicians were beyond belief. Their only interest was money. They had no patriotism, no personal honor. They were cowards, hiding behind their office, spouting hypocrisy." On Sunday, March 19th, Conness forwarded to Booth information on the next kidnap possibility. "The conspirators rushed to the location named. And waited in vain... The President did not appear." "On Monday, March 20, the conspirators made a sixth attempt at a kidnap. About the time the President was supposed to pass the ambush site, a warning was given Booth that the kidnapping was expected. Booth ordered his men to scatter, sure he had been betrayed." Later that evening, Booth and two of his gang waited for Lincoln in another spot by which Lincoln was supposed to be travelling. When a horseman with a group of soldiers approached, Booth fired a shot and the President's hat flew off. One of Booth's companions, Lewis Payne, also fired twice but missed. Booth and his companions "spurred furiously away, the President's armed escort thundering after them... Within a couple of miles the conspirators had eluded pursuit." Shortly thereafter, Booth was visited by the previously mentioned Lt. Col. Conger. Conger carried orders that Booth was to halt his efforts. Booth refused. Conger then told Booth that "If you make another move without orders, you and your friends are going to be found in the Potomac." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Missing Booth Diary Pages. In the private collection of } { Stanton descendants. Released in 1976 through the efforts } { of Americana appraiser, Joseph Lynch of Worthington, MA } { } { Captain James William Boyd Letter to Moe Stevens, Boyd Papers } { Ray A. Neff Collection } { } { Oldroyd, Osborn H., *The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: } { Flight, Pursuit, Capture and Punishment of the } { Conspirators* (Privately Published, Washington, D.C. 1901) } { } { Arnold, Samuel B., *Defence and Prison Experiences of a } { Lincoln Conspirator* (The Book Farm, Hattiesburg, MS, 1943) } { } { John Surratt Lecture at Rockville, Maryland, December 6, 1870 } { (Evening Star, Washington, D.C., Dec. 7, 1870) } { } { Major Thomas T. Eckert Letter to Col. Lafayette C. Baker, } { April 22, 1865. In the private collection of Stanton } { descendants. Released in 1976 through the efforts of } { Americana appraiser, Joseph Lynch } ------------------------- End Part 8 ---------------------------- --------------------------- Part 9 ------------------------------ On Monday, April 3, 1865, Richmond fell and the Confederate cabinet fled the city. "For Booth, time had about run out." On Saturday, April 1, he left Washington for New York where he met with Northern cotton speculators. Booth informed these people his apprehensions that their plot was about to be betrayed by NDP head Lafayette Baker. At the end of the meeting, "Booth was instructed to return to Washington to wait for orders." On Thursday, President Lincoln had authorized Gen. Godfrey Weitzel to give permission to the "gentlemen who had acted as the Legislature of Virginia in support of the Rebellion" to meet and take measures to withdraw that state's troops from fighting the Union soldiers. "Secretary of War Stanton saw the action as allowing Virginia lawmakers to proceed as though nothing had happened, setting a precedent for all future insurgent legislatures to reconvene and be recognized." Needless to say, this would severely curtail the postwar plans of Radical Republicans and Northern businessmen for "reconstruction" in the South. "The authorization had Washington in an uproar." On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant. "Lee's action, as supreme Confederate Commander meant the war was over." With the end of the war, Booth now expected that Northern politicians and their business friends would strip the South bare. He also wrote in his diary that "I believe that [Major] Eckert, [Lafayette] Baker, and the Secretary [of War, Stanton] are in control of our activities." There were at least three good reasons that Stanton could be behind Booth and his plotters: (1) Removing Lincoln would assure that Stanton would continue as War Secretary, (2) Under the proposed "reconstruction," the "War Department and the Secretary of War would be vital in a military occupation of conquered states." Thus, Stanton would wield tremendous power during the proposed "reconstruction." Lincoln opposed this planned despoliation of the South, and (3) By remaining in power, Stanton could further his own ambitions to be president. It has already been shown that Stanton disliked Lincoln. Stanton even went so far in his audacity to *countermand* Lincoln's order to Gen. Weitzel which had given the Legislature of Virginia permission to reconvene. Lafayette Baker notes in his unpublished book that "That's the first time I knew Stanton was one of those responsible for the assassination plot." Baker even feared that he himself would be used as a "sacrificial goat" [i.e. a "patsy"] by Stanton. Booth also was apprehensive about what the hidden forces plotting against Lincoln might do to Booth himself. In his diary he wrote, "If by this act, I am slain, they too shall be cast into hell, for I have given information to a friend who will have the nation know who the traitors are." At the White House, Lincoln's trusted bodyguard, Ward Lamon, had obtained a special pass from the President which allowed him and an unspecified friend to travel from Washington to Richmond. On the night before Lamon left the capital he urged the President not to go out after nightfall, especially not to the theatre. Meanwhile, Rebel turncoat Capt. James William Boyd had been acquiring horses in southern Maryland. While there, Boyd had learned that one Thomas Watkins had attempted to sexually assault the wife of one of Boyd's colleagues. Boyd went and shot Watkins in the back of the head. Although the Federal government was aware of what Boyd had done, it did nothing. "His [Boyd's] freedom was more important to someone than having him tried for murder." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Missing Booth Diary Pages. In the private collection of } { Stanton descendants. Released in 1976 through the efforts } { of Americana appraiser, Joseph Lynch of Worthington, MA } { } { Lafayette Baker's Unpublished Cipher-Coded Book Manuscript, } { 1868, Dr. Ray A. Neff Collection } { } { Shelton, Vaughan, *Mask for Treason: The Lincoln Murder } { Trial* (Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, PA, 1965) } { } { Shutes, Milton H., *Lincoln's Emotional Life* (Dorrance and } { Co., Philadelphia, 1957) } ------------------------- End Part 9 ---------------------------- -------------------------- Part 10 ------------------------------ According to the authors, Booth's plan after having carried out the abduction of Lincoln was to go to Europe. They state that Booth had arranged for extensive bank credits in England and France. Yet as Booth's desperation grew, the original kidnapping plot gradually became an assassination plot. On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, workers began preparing the "Presidential Box" at Ford's theatre because they had received word that Lincoln would be attending the theatre that night. To get to the Presidential Box, one needed to pass into a single small antechamber whose entrance would be constantly guarded. Booth had learned that the President would be attending the theatre. According to an unpublished, voluntary statement by Booth's friend, Michael O'Laughlin, Booth met O'Laughlin in front of Ford's Theatre at about 7:45 pm that evening. Booth was upset. O'Laughlin quotes him as saying, "Everything's gone wrong! The major sent word that he would not be here... The major with the President has refused to go through with it... Everyone wants to call it off again. I refuse. It must be done tonight!" That morning, there had been a cabinet meeting at the White House. At that meeting, Stanton had again argued for the Radical Republicans plan of "reconstruction." At the meeting, Stanton again pushed for this plan which favored that the "...South be treated as a conquered nation and ruled by military occupation." However, as already noted, Lincoln opposed this plan for harsh treatment of the former Confederacy. What is more, Lincoln's political strength was at a high point. "He had kept his pledge to keep the Union intact. He had freed the slaves. To date, he had won everything for which he had fought." Lincoln would be a powerful opponent to the hopes for a postwar pillaging of the South. That evening, one of Lincoln's bodyguards, John Parker, was late in arriving. Nonetheless, the President allowed William Crook, another of his bodyguards, to go home without waiting for Parker's arrival. As Crook was leaving, Lincoln said to him, "Good-bye, Crook." According to Crook this was unusual in that Lincoln had heretofore always said "Good night, Crook." At about this time, in the early evening of April 14, 1865, while Lincoln was preparing to leave with his wife for Ford's Theatre, his death was *already* being reported in scattered parts of the country: *** In St. Joseph, Minnesota, located over 80 miles from the nearest telegraph, the news was circulating that the President had been murdered. *** That morning, residents of Booth's hometown of Manchester, New Hampshire, "were speaking in the past tense of Lincoln's assassination, discussing the event as if it had already happened." *** At 2:30 pm, a writer on the Middletown, New York *Whig Press* asserted that he had been informed that the President had been shot. *** The *Newburgh Journal* confirmed the reports in the *Whig Press* regarding Lincoln's having been shot. Thus, from 12 to 4 hours *before* the actual assassination, it was already being reported. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Unpublished Voluntary Statement of Michael O'Laughlin, April } { 27, 1865, originally in the Benn Pittman Collection, } { Cincinnati, OH Ray A. Neff Collection } { } { Roscoe, Theodore, *The Web of Conspiracy* (Prentice-Hall, } { Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1959) } { } { Weichmann, Louis J., *A True History of the Assassination of } { Abraham Lincoln and of the Conspiracy of 1865*, ed. Floyd } { E. Risvold, (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1975) } { } { Bishop, Jim, *The Day Lincoln Was Shot* (Harper & Brothers, } { New York, 1955) } { } { Eisenschiml, Otto, *In the Shadow of Lincoln's Death* } { (Wilfred Funk, Inc., New York, 1940) } ------------------------ End Part 10 ---------------------------- -------------------------- Part 11 ------------------------------ One of Lincoln's bodyguards, John Parker, arrived at Ford's Theatre before Lincoln and checked out the lobby, the stairs to the "dress circle," and the presidential box. The Lincoln party, consisting of Lincoln, Mrs. Lincoln, Maj. R. Rathbone, and his fiancee, Miss Clara Harris, arrived at the theatre after the play, "Our American Cousin" had already begun. They were accompanied by Lincoln's personal aide, Charles Forbes. After the presidential party had been seated in the presidential box, guard John Parker commenced to stand guard at his assigned post. However, after a short while, Parker moved from there to an empty seat at the front of the gallery from which spot he could watch the play. Lincoln's back was now totally unguarded. But Parker soon grew bored with the play. He went downstairs to the lobby, went outside, and walked up to the presidential carriage. Inside, the driver was sleeping. Parker woke the driver and asked him if he would like to join him for a beer at the nearby Taltavul's Star Saloon. The driver accepted the invitation. "As the two men passed through the theatre doors on their way to... [the saloon], they saw [presidential aid] Forbes who had left the presidential party alone in the box. Forbes joined Parker and Burns [the driver] at the bar." As the play progressed, Parker, Forbes, and Burns enjoyed their beers in the saloon. Booth entered the theatre, climbed the stairs, and entered the presidential box. "Booth took a quick step from the antechamber, crossed the three or four feet to the President's back, and quickly extended the pistol. Lincoln started to turn his head to the left. The derringer's explosion ripped through the laughter." "The assailant dropped his pistol and sprang toward the box railing. Rathbone thought he heard someone cry, 'Freedom!' Booth cried, 'Sic semper tyrannis!' Thus always to tyrants." Major Rathbone jumped up and grappled with Booth. Booth made a slash with a large knife towards the major's chest. Rathbone deflected the blow with his left arm and was badly cut between the elbow and the shoulder. "Booth vaulted over the railing to the stage apron a dozen feet below... [Upon landing, he found that] the fall had snapped his [Booth's] left tibia about two inches above the ankle." Nonetheless, Booth was able to stagger towards the backstage exit, mount a horse, and ride off. Doctors in the audience examined the President's wound and pronounced it fatal. "The President's eyes showed evidence of brain damage. The bullet had gone in the left side of the head, behind the ear near the top of the spine. There was no exit wound." "Fingers, thrust into the wound, could not touch the bullet. From the patient's slightly protruding right eye, the doctors correctly concluded the 44 caliber ball had entered behind the left ear and lodged in the brain just behind the right eye." At Secretary of State Seward's home there had also been an assassination attempt. At the Seward mansion, five people had been attacked. Among those attacked was the Secretary of State. The assailant "...sprang upon the defenseless secretary in the bed. The knife... [ripped] Seward's right cheek, the right side of his throat, and [slashed] deeply under the left ear. So much blood spurted, it seemed his throat must have been cut." As the city grew hysterical over the news of the assassination attempts, rumors of all sorts spread. Amidst all the uproar, Booth "galloped toward the Navy Yard Bridge which crossed the Eastern Branch of the Potomac. The further shore was Maryland. Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic were to the east. Richmond was 100 miles south. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Gerry, Margarita Spalding, *Through Five Administrations: } { Reminiscences of Colonel William H. Crook* (Harper and } { Brothers, New York, 1907) } { } { Bishop, Jim, *The Day Lincoln Was Shot* (Harper and Brothers, } { New York, 1955) } { } { Eisenschiml, Otto, *Why Was Lincoln Murdered?* (Little, } { Brown, and Co., Boston, 1937) } { } { Ferguson, W.J., *I Saw Booth Shoot Lincoln* (Houghton } { Mifflin, Boston, 1930) } { } { Existing Pages of the John Wilkes Booth Diary on display at } { Ford's Theatre National Historic Site, Washington, D.C. } ------------------------ End Part 11 ---------------------------- -------------------------- Part 12 ------------------------------ Shortly after Lincoln was shot, L.A. Gobright, an Associated Press representative in Washington, put a short bulletin out over the commercial telegraph saying that the President had been shot. "The AP man filed a second telegram... The morning edition of the *New York Tribune* read, 'Our Washington agent orders the dispatch about the president stopped. Nothing is said about the truth or falsity of that dispatch.'" "Before details of the night of terror could be flashed from Washington to morning newspapers, the commercial telegraph went dead... Within 15 minutes after the murder, the wires were severed entirely around the city, excepting only a secret wire for government use..." The authors state that this destruction of telegraph service could only have been accomplished by someone who was an expert about the telegraph. "Only someone familiar with telegraphy, working inside the main terminal area, could have so effectively sabotaged the news wire." After having been shot, the dying Lincoln had been taken across the street to a boardinghouse owned by William Peterson. In the back parlor of the house, Secretary of War [B.R. They now call this cabinet post the Secretary of "Defense"] Stanton set up a temporary seat of government. "Here, virtually a dictator, Stanton took control of the situation and the nation." Stanton began issuing orders to close escape routes out of the city. Eventually, the only road not closed by Stanton was the road leading south from Washington to Port Tobacco. "Booth's act had caused a virtual blockade of the whole Atlantic coast from Baltimore to Hampton Roads, Virginia, yet the assassin slipped through because the closings had been piecemeal, beginning in the least likely direction and moving slowly toward the route Booth was most likely to have taken." "In all wires issued from the War Department during the night of April 14, this route [south from Washington to Port Tobacco] was not once mentioned...[Yet] it was the one obvious route that should have been instantly and tightly closed." In the back parlor of the Peterson house, statements by witnesses to the shooting were taken. James Tanner, a Union corporal who knew shorthand, recorded these statements. In Tanner's words, "Within fifteen minutes, I had testimony enough to hang Wilkes Booth." Yet Stanton sent no messages to the newspapers or to the military leaders identifying Booth as the assassin. By this time, Booth was well south of Washington and headed east toward Benedict's Landing where a ship of British registry, flying Canadian colors, was waiting for two "crewmen." A second ship of British registry, also flying the Canadian flag, was waiting at Port Tobacco. For Rebel turncoat Captain James William Boyd, the murder of Lincoln was not good news. "Booth's shot wrecked his plan to kidnap Lincoln on behalf of the Northern speculators. If his name became involved in the Booth plot, Boyd was in great danger." Boyd decided to flee. He packed his gear and headed for Maryland. "About 6 a.m. Saturday morning, White House guard John Parker, who had vacated his post and allowed the President to be shot, showed up at the Washington police station with Lizzie Williams, a drunken streetwalker, in custody. She was released by the precinct captain." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Eisenschiml, Otto, *Why Was Lincoln Murdered?* (Little, } { Brown and Co., Boston, 1937) } { } { Shelton, Vaughan, *Mask for Treason: The Lincoln Murder } { Trial* (Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, PA, 1965) } { } { Dewitt, David M., *The Assassination of Lincoln and Its } { Expiation* (MacMillan Co., New York, 1909) } { } { Roscoe, Theodore, *The Web of Conspiracy* (Prentice-Hall, } { Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1959) } { } { Bishop, Jim, *The Day Lincoln Was Shot* (Harper & Brothers, } { New York, 1955) } ------------------------ End Part 12 ---------------------------- -------------------------- Part 13 ------------------------------ Senator William M. Stewart of Nevada rushed to the Kirkwood House and found the vice-President "...in a drunken stupor. His clothing was disarrayed. Mud matted his hair." After being made presentable by a barber and sobered up by a physician, Andrew Johnson was sworn in as the 17th President of the United States. In his inauguration "speech," Johnson declared that "The course which I have taken in the past in connection with this rebellion must be regarded as a guarantee for the future." This meant that Lincoln's proposed policy of amnesty for the South was finished. Johnson would give his support to those planning to treat the defeated Confederacy as conquered enemy territory. "Radical Republicans were delighted. Everything that Lincoln had fought for could be presumed dead along with the late President." Some of them even went so far as to declare that "Lincoln's death is like a blessing from heaven." After having his broken leg tended to by Dr. Samuel Mudd (who apparently had no idea whose leg he was treating nor that Lincoln had just been assassinated), Booth and a companion (a former smuggler named Ed Henson whom Booth had joined up with early in his flight from Washington) disappeared into the nearby Zekiah Swamp. After about three hours of trudging through this desolate wilderness, they approached a farm owned by Col. Samuel Cox. Cox hid the fugitives in a pine thicket about two miles from his house and sent for his foster brother, Thomas A. Jones. During the just finished Civil War, Jones had "...nightly rowed the two mile crossing of the Potomac to, or from, Virginia with persons who wanted to cross the river unnoticed." Jones promised Booth and Henson that he would get them across the river as soon as possible. Back in Washington, Stanton assigned NDP chief Lafayette Baker to get Booth. Booth's rash act had thrown the carefully laid plans of those higher up in the hierarchy of power "...into a cocked hat." Stanton feared that unless the pursuit and capture of Booth was brought to a speedy finish, that his and his colleagues' kidnap plots would be incidentally exposed by the ongoing investigations. Booth's shooting of Lincoln had come as such a surprise to Stanton and his friends that they were terrified that their own plots would be uncovered. NDP chief Baker knew that his boss [Stanton] preferred that Booth not be taken alive. If Booth were to live long enough to talk, there was a good possibility that he would implicate those higher up in the conspiracies surrounding Lincoln. Baker's NDP found Booth acquaintance David Herold "Drunk under a tree." Baker persuaded Herold to serve as a guide for his detectives. If Herold would lead them to Booth, Baker promised that he would overlook Herold's early involvement with Booth in what had started out as a kidnap plot; if Herold would lead them to Booth, Herold would not be hung. Herold agreed to help them locate Booth. The agencies gathering evidence in the hunt for those guilty in the assassination of Lincoln were overly zealous. One early witness, John Lloyd, an alcoholic, "...was denied all liquor for 48 hours. In addition, he was hanged from a tree by his thumbs for those 48 hours." Another early detainee, Louis Weichmann, was "...given a choice of hanging as a conspirator or testifying against those accused." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Weichmann, Louis J., *A True History of the Assassination of } { Abraham Lincoln and of the Conspiracy of 1865*, ed. Floyd } { E. Risvold, (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1975) } { } { Kunhardt, Dorothy Meserve and Kunhardt, Philip B., *Twenty } { Days* (Harper & Row, New York, 1965) } { } { Mudd, Nettie, *The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd (Neale } { Publishing Co., New York, 1906) } { } { Jones, Thomas A., "J. Wilkes Booth: An Account of His Sojourn } { in Southern Maryland After the Assassination of Abraham } { Lincoln," *The Amateur Book Collector*, Sept. 1954 } { } { Bearden Papers. Margaret K. Bearden Collection } { } { Shelton, Vaughan, *Mask for Treason: The Lincoln Murder } { Trial* (Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, PA, 1965) } ------------------------ End Part 13 ---------------------------- -------------------------- Part 14 ------------------------------ In southern Maryland, David Herold and two NDP detectives headed for the farm of a Col. Frank Beale. It had been reported that Boyd, the double agent, might be hiding there. The reports proved correct, and Boyd was taken in tow by the search party. Neither Boyd nor Herold felt any loyalty towards the NDP and the Union, and both planned to escape from the NDP detectives at the first opportunity. When the search party neared Port Tobacco, at night while the detectives were sleeping, Boyd and Herold made their escape. They were able to steal three pistols, a Spencer carbine, and three fully loaded magazine pouches before escaping. Shortly thereafter, both pairs of fugitives, Booth and Henson and Boyd and Herold, "...were within a short distance of each other near Port Tobacco." Both pairs of fugitives planned to cross the Potomac river to escape pursuit. "Boyd and Herold went to a Colonel Hughes' place... arriving about daybreak on April 19. They were heading for a place west of Mathias Point to cross the river. Boyd's right leg was festering and so sore that he was reduced to using a crude crutch." On the night of Friday, April 21, Booth and Henson were able to get across the Potomac river. Boyd and Herold had already crossed the Potomac the day before. Sometime Saturday night, Booth and Henson had arrived at Gambo Creek but then had hurriedly moved on, headed for a crossing at Port Conway. In their haste, they left behind Booth's coat, his diary and other items. Booth and Henson as well as Boyd and Herold, in separate pairs, each reached Port Conway on Monday, April 24. Meanwhile, back in Washington, about 2,000 people had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the Lincoln assassination conspiracy. Among the "wanted" posters being issued by Secretary of War Stanton and the NDP, one carried a picture of David Herold that had been taken while he was in preliminary custody after the assassination (i.e. when he had cut the deal with NDP chief Baker to help them capture Booth). In fact, the "...Herold photo had his handcuffed hands cropped off so the public wouldn't know that he had [actually already] been arrested earlier. The Herold frame- up was under way." During the frantic and chaotic search for whoever was proclaimed to be the guilty parties, several innocent people were killed by overzealous detectives. "In the throngs of trigger-happy hunters... it was the detectives and military men, immune from prosecution, who did the killing....[For example] two civilians named Frank Boyle and William Watson were shot 'because they resembled Booth.' The secret police even disposed of the two bodies." On Friday, April 21, a Lt. Lovett and a squad of cavalry returned to the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd. After questioning him further, they rode off. However, "On Monday, April 24, an officer with three soldiers took Dr. Mudd to Washington. He would not return home for many years to come." [B.R. Dr. Mudd was another victim of the hysteria surrounding the assassination of Lincoln. To my knowledge, he has either recently, finally, been granted a full pardon (posthumously, of course) by the Federal government, or there is currently a great deal of pressure that he *should* be granted such a pardon.] The pursuing Federal investigators had engaged the services of a Native American (a.k.a. "Indian") scout in their hunt for Booth. On Sunday, April 23rd, this Native American scout, Nalgai, returned to Washington. He carried with him two brandy bottles, "...an ulsterette with bloodstains, a pistol, a compass, a wallet containing $2,100 in Union currency, several letters of credit on Canadian and British banks, and pictures of six pretty young women and a horse." He also brought back Booth's diary. At first, detectives Andrew and James Potter were quite happy to have recovered Booth's diary. However their happiness turned to dismay when they began reading Booth's documentation regarding his meetings with certain powerful and well-known individuals. Among the personages mentioned by Booth were financier Jay Cooke, his brother Henry Cooke, political boss Thurlow Weed, and NDP chief Lafayette Baker. Booth had also written about his meetings with "...Jefferson Davis, Judah Benjamin, Montgomery Blair,...'The Secretary,'...[and] Senator Wade." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Andrew Potter Papers, Ray A. Neff Collection, Marshall, II } { } { Unpublished Voluntary Statement of Dandridge Mercer Green, } { April 30, 1865, National Archives, Ray A. Neff Collection } { } { Col. Lafayette Baker's Letter to Edwin M. Stanton, May 5, } { 1865. In the private collection of Stanton descendants. } { Released in 1976 through the efforts of Americana } { appraiser, Joseph Lynch } { } { Capt. James William Boyd Letter to Moe Stevens, Boyd Papers. } { Ray A. Neff Collection } { } { Existing Pages of the John Wilkes Booth Diary on display at } { Ford's Theatre National Historic Site, Washington, D.C. } { } { Missing Booth Diary Pages. In the private collection of } { Stanton descendants. Released in 1976 through the efforts } { of Americana appraiser, Joseph Lynch of Worthington, MA } ------------------------ End Part 14 ---------------------------- -------------------------- Part 15 ------------------------------ According to a diary kept by Representative George Julian of Indiana, he was present at a meeting which took place at the War Department on Monday, April 24, 1865. Present at this meeting, according to Rep. Julian's diary, were a Major Eckert of the War Department, Secretary of War Stanton, Senator Zachariah Chandler of Michigan, and Senator John Conness. Also "present" at the meeting was Booth's recently recovered diary. The subject of discussion was the potentially disastrous effect that the publication of the information in Booth's diary would have and the need to keep that information top secret. To give an idea of the potentially explosive effect the dissemination of the information in Booth's diary would have had, the authors quote excerpts from the so-called Missing Booth Diary Pages (i.e. the 18 missing pages released under the Freedom of Information Act during the mid-70's): Excerpts from the Missing Booth Diary Pages: *** "With Jay Cooke at the Astor Hotel, I met Thurlow Weed, Sen. Chandler, and a Mr. Bell who said he was a friend of John Conness... the speculators in cotton and gold would do anything -- including murder -- to make the amount of money they have..." *** "...[Senator John] Conness said he would supply the new passwords every six weeks..." *** "...Thompson gave me $50,000 in bank notes with instructions to take $15,000 to Sen. Conness... and to leave in a sealed envelope $20,000 in notes at the home of Sen. Wade..." *** "...[NDP Chief Lafayette] Baker comes and brings with him Col. Conger. I told Baker to have him leave because I did not know him, and talking to too many people can be dangerous..." *** "...no matter who speaks for [NDP Chief Lafayette] Baker, I do not like him and will not trust him... I believe that Baker and Eckert and the Secretary are in control of our activities... and this frightens me..." According to Rep. Julian's diary, those present at the meeting (except for Rep. Julian himself) feared for their lives if the information in Booth's diary ever got out. Rep. Julian had favored the overthrow of Lincoln by Constitutional means. In his diary, Julian wrote, "It was disgusting to see those men grovel in fear because of their immoral activities." He further quotes Stanton as saying, "...we either stick together in this thing or we all hang together." Indiana Representative George Julian also noted in his diary that the question arose as to what would happen if Booth were captured alive. Keeping the diary a secret was one thing, but how would they keep Booth from telling what he knew? According to Rep. Julian's diary, Stanton declared that Booth would not be tried in open court. Stanton then ordered that the Booth diary be put in his safe and that under no circumstances was it to be released to anyone. Because NDP Chief Lafayette Baker did not trust Stanton, he organized a special unit with its purpose being to capture Booth alive at all costs. Apparently, Baker feared that Stanton might release selected portions of Booth's diary which implicated Baker whilst secreting other portions which implicated Stanton himself. The authors do not directly say this, but apparently Baker planned to use Booth as a bargaining chip in case Stanton were to turn on him. Scattered forces were converging on Port Conway. "If John Wilkes Booth lived to tell his story, the nation's biggest scandal would wash over Washington like garbage scattered by a tornado." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Rep. George Julian Diary, April 1865. Ray A. Neff Collection } { } { Missing Booth Diary Pages. In the private collection of } { Stanton descendants. Released in 1976 through the efforts } { of Americana appraiser Joseph Lynch of Worthington, MA } { } { Andrew Potter Papers, Ray A. Neff Collection, Marshall, II } { } { Roscoe, Theodore, *The Web of Conspiracy* (Prentice-Hall, } { Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1959) } { } { Unpublished Voluntary Statement of Dandridge Mercer Green, } { April 30, 1865. National Archives. Ray A. Neff Collection } ------------------------ End Part 15 ---------------------------- -------------------------- Part 16 ------------------------------ "On Thursday, April 20, Dandridge Mercer Green stopped sawing a piece of timber to stare at two men coming toward him. One was a stranger, the other Green recognized as James William Boyd, hobbling along on a crutch." Boyd arranged with Green for him and his companion to be hidden at Green's farm. Boyd and Herold, his companion, stayed hidden at Green's farm until Sunday, April 23, when they were able to hire a wagon driven by one Charlie Lucas. They had the driver take them south toward Port Conway. Charlie Lucas's father, Willie Lucas, had driven the same wagon in the same direction earlier that day. What is more, his father had also carried two men, one of whom also had a hurt leg and walked with a crutch. >From Port Conway, Boyd and Herold crossed the Rappahannock to Port Royal in Caroline County, Virginia. They continued south to a farm owned by a Mr. Garrett. There, they were met by Mr. Garrett, whose religion required that he welcome strangers. Garrett welcomed Boyd and Herold into his home. "Luther and Andrew Potter's NDP search party reached Culpeper Court House late that afternoon. They asked about a man with a crutch... and soon picked up the trail." However, unbeknownst to them, they had picked up the trail of Boyd and Herold. "Booth and Henson... moved toward Fredericksburg, well behind the detectives, who had overrun their quarry." According to Captain Boyd's Papers, in the Ray A. Neff Collection, Boyd had a tattoo on his hand that read, "J.W.B." [B.R. The authors keep throwing in these cryptic statements and then abandoning them. As I noted before, the style of the book involves a lot of loose threads that one hopes will eventually unite.] Boyd and Herold stayed the night of Monday, April 24, at Garrett's farm. The next day, Boyd and Herold became panicy when a troop of Union cavalry thundered past the farm. The suspicions of Garrett's son, Jack, became aroused and he asked that Boyd and Herold leave. A compromise was worked out and Boyd and Herold moved themselves to Garrett's barn. However, Jack Garrett was still suspicious of the two men. Fearing that they might try to steal horses from the barn, Jack Garrett locked them in the barn that night (Tuesday, April 25). Meanwhile, the troop of cavalry that had frightened Boyd and Herold arrived in Bowling Green at about midnight. They interrogated one Willie Jett who they knew had helped to ferry a man with a hurt leg across the river earlier that day. They went so far as to threaten to kill Jett unless he told them where the man was. Jett told them that the man they sought was probably hiding at the Garrett farm. The troop of cavalry doubled back and arrived at the Garrett farm at about 4 a.m. on Wednesday, April 26, 1865. They surrounded the house and commanded the occupants to come out. When Garrett and his family complied, they were roughly questioned until they divulged that Boyd and Herold were still locked in the barn. Among the federal troops were a Lt. Luther Baker and Lt. Colonel Everton J. Conger, an aide to NDP chief Lafayette Baker. Garrett's son Jack was ordered to unlock the barn and to tell the men inside to come out. Garrett did as he was told, but Boyd refused to come out. The authors cite a source which claims that Boyd called out, "Who are you? What do you want? Who do you want?" The authors assert that no answer was provided to Boyd's questions. Conger yelled to the men inside that he was going to set fire to the barn. At this point, David E. Herold agreed to come out and was taken into custody. Boyd was steadfast in his refusal to exit from the barn. According to the authors, Conger went around the side of the barn and set fire to it. "It caught instantly. He saw the man inside swing up his rifle toward the flames." "Conger glanced around. Nobody could see him. He reached for his revolver and took careful aim. Suddenly the loud crack of a pistol from the other side of the barn was heard. The man inside the barn fell forward. [Lt. Luther] Baker rushed in, followed by young Garrett, and grabbed the prostrate man." "Conger, Garrett, and Baker dragged Boyd's body away from the burning barn, across the farm lane, and onto the grass under a stand of locust trees." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Andrew Potter Papers. Ray A. Neff Collection, Marshall, II } { } { Pitman, Benn, *The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the } { Trial of the Conspirators* (Funk & Wagnalls, New York, } { 1954) } { } { Unpublished Voluntary Statement of Dandridge Mercer Green, } { April 30, 1865, National Archives, Ray A. Neff Collection. } { } { Captain Boyd Papers. Ray A. Neff Collection. } { } { The Wilhelmina Titus (grandaughter of Capt. James William } { Boyd) monograph. Ray A. Neff Collection. } { } { Luther Baker Speech delivered in 1932 at Lansing, Michigan. } { Richard D. Mudd Collection. } { } { Colonel Lafayette C. Baker's memo-letter to Edwin Stanton, } { April, 1865. In the private collection of Stanton } { descendants. Released in 1976 through an interview with } { Americana appraiser, Joseph Lynch. } ------------------------ End Part 16 ---------------------------- -------------------------- Part 17 ------------------------------ While Boyd lay dying under a stand of locust trees near the Garrett barn, the fiction that Boyd was really Booth was given birth. Someone asked, "Who shot Booth?" A Sergeant Boston Corbett declared that *he* had shot "Booth" through a crack in the barn. The reason why Corbett would claim that he had shot Booth is perhaps that he was demented. Corbett was an alcoholic who had sworn off booze when he had "found God" sometime before the war. His newfound beliefs were so powerful that in 1858 he had castrated himself when he was tempted by two prostitutes. Thus, one could say that Sergeant Boston Corbett was a bit "off." This may explain why he declared that it was he who shot "Booth." Conger rode away to the nearest telegraph station so that he could get the news to Washington that "Booth" had been shot. "Twenty minutes after Conger left the scene, Boyd was dead. His body was wrapped in an old saddle blanket." An old army ambulance was obtained and the body of "Booth" was placed inside. The driver was ordered to drive the body to Belle Plain. In Belle Plain, the body was loaded onto the *John S. Ide* "...and placed under guard until the ship could build up a head of steam for the trip upriver. According to the Andrew Potter Papers, it was at this point that it was discovered that the body was *not* that of John Wilkes Booth. It was known that Booth had shaved off his mustache while at Dr. Mudd's, yet the body thought to be that of Booth had a "long shaggy mustache." What is more, Booth's mustache was black whereas the mustache on this corpse was red. It became obvious that the troops had mistaken *Boyd* and Herold for *Booth* and Herold. "In Washington that morning, Lafe Baker received a coded cipher from Conger: 'Booth has been shot to death near Bowling Green. Herold is a prisoner... Body follows. Conger.'" "With Booth dead, the secret service [a.k.a. NDP] chief's part in the Lincoln conspiracy could never come out. Booth couldn't talk. Herold would keep his mouth shut on pain of death." Shortly thereafter, Conger's telegram declaring that "Booth" had been shot began to cause an uproar. The news had been leaked to the press and the newspapers were spreading it throughout the city: "John Wilkes Booth, who shot President Lincoln the night of April 14 in Ford's Theatre, has been killed. His body is being returned by steamer to Washington. Government authorities this morning shot Booth while he was trying to escape from a farmer's barn near Bowling Green." But of course it was not Booth but Boyd who had been shot dead. "Lt. Doherty, Luther Baker, and Lt. Col. Conger picked up *Boyd's* trail and followed him to Garrett's farm. No one there had ever seen Booth. Boyd was shot because they thought he was Booth. [My emphasis, B.R.]" And, after the false news of Booth's death had been spread far and wide, Baker found this out. The problem was augmented by the fact that Herold was still alive, knew Booth well, and was beginning to tell whoever would listen that Booth had not been shot at Garrett's farm. When Stanton learned of the situation, he ordered that Herold be stopped from talking immediately. To accomplish this, he commanded that Herold be isolated from the other prisoners. According to the Andrew Potter Papers, after Stanton had given things some thought he hit upon the idea of letting the country continue to believe that it was Booth who had been shot dead at Garrett's farm. "Booth will be forgotten if we continue to let the nation believe he's dead. If we admit that we killed Boyd by mistake, and continue the hunt for Booth, he might be captured alive." And if Booth were captured alive, then he might tell all that he knew. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Andrew Potter Papers. Ray A. Neff Collection, Marshall, II } { } { Luther Baker Speech delivered in 1932 at Lansing, Michigan. } { Richard D. Mudd Collection } { } { Weichmann, Louis J., *A True History of the Assassination of } { Abraham Lincoln and of the Conspiracy of 1865*, ed. Floyd } { E. Risvold, (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1975) } { } { Roscoe, Theodore, *The Web of Conspiracy*, (Prentice-Hall, } { Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1959) } { } { Peterson, T.B., *The Trial of the Assassins and Conspirators* } { (T.B. Peterson and Brothers, Philadelphia, 1865) } ------------------------ End Part 17 ---------------------------- -------------------------- Part 18 ------------------------------ On Thursday, April 27, Stanton received a telegram informing him that the remains of "Booth" had been placed aboard the Union ironclad *Montauk*. He was also told that the body of "Booth" was decomposing rapidly. Stanton immediately ordered that no persons were to be allowed aboard the *Montauk* "...unless under the joint pass of the Secretary of War and Secretary of the Navy." An Identification Commission was formed, headed by Stanton's aide, Thomas Eckert. "The mock inquest would formally identify Boyd's body as that of Booth." "Witnesses summoned aboard the *Montauk* had one lack in common: none knew Booth well. None of Booth's relatives or accused conspirators were called, although most were in custody on the adjacent [Union ironclad] *Saugus*." "None of the witnesses were surprised that the face had a mustache, since apparently none had been told that Booth had shaved off his mustache at Dr. Mudd's [on April 16th]." A summons was sent to a Dr. John Franklin May by the "inquest." Because some time earlier Dr. May had treated a man calling himself Booth for a neck tumor, he was ordered to come to the *Montauk* to help identify the body. Dr. May informed the "inquest" that he had treated someone claiming to be Booth about 18 to 24 months previous. When Dr. May first viewed the corpse, his immediate reaction was, "There's no resemblance in that corpse to Booth, nor can I believe it to be him." Sensing perhaps that this was the wrong thing to say, Dr. May then asked if there was a scar on the back of the neck. Dr. May then described what the scar would look like if it were present. The Surgeon General, who was also in attendance, immediately declared that Dr. May had described the scar as well as if he were looking at it. "In Dr. May's verbal and written statement, there is no mention that he actually examined the scar for positive identification, and the bullet, of course, had made a bloody mess of Boyd's neck." Dr. May finally stated to the "inquest" that, "I am enabled, imperfectly, to recognize the features of Booth." When asked if he recognized the body as Booth's, Dr. May replied, "I do recognize it, although it is very much altered since I saw Booth. It seems much older and in appearance, much more freckled than he was. I do not recollect that he was at all freckled." "Booth was 28, famous for his ivory, perfect skin, free of blemish. Boyd, on the other hand, was 43, with reddish-sandy hair and a tendency to freckle." In the official transcript of the proceedings, "The next half dozen words of Dr. May's reply were carefully inked out... [and new words] were added." Dr. May was dismissed and returned home. He immediately penned a statement in which he declared, "Never in a human being had a greater change taken place from the man whom I had seen in the vigor of life and health than that of the haggard corpse which was before me... The *right* limb was greatly contused and perfectly black from a fracture of one of the long bones of the leg." But Booth had snapped the *left* tibia, about two inches above the ankle. "Dr. Mudd's formal statement on April 21, 1865 read, 'On examination, I found there was a straight fracture of the tibia about two inches above the ankle.'" Before the body was disposed of, a photographer named Alexander Gardner was brought in and told to take only *one* picture. After doing so, Gardner was escorted to a darkroom by a War Department detective who had orders not to leave Gardner's side until the plate was developed. When the plate was developed, the War Department detective took possession of both the negative and the positive. "It would be impossible for anyone else to duplicate the picture." NDP chief Lafayette Baker confiscated the picture and the plate. "The government officially denied that any picture had been taken of the corpse. But the Gardner photograph later ended up in the personal possession of Secretary of War Stanton." "Booth's" body, which was in reality Boyd's body, was placed in a rowboat. Lafayette Baker and his cousin, Luther Baker, rowed out to the old Arsenal Penitentiary. The body was carried to a convict's cell in which, beneath a stone slab, a grave had been dug. The corpse was lowered into the grave, the stone slab was replaced, and Lafayette and Luther Baker got back in their rowboat and departed. The Arsenal Prison became the sepulchre "...for the mortal remains of the man who had become 'John Wilkes Booth.'" * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Eisenschiml, Otto, *In the Shadow of Lincoln's Death* } { (Wilfred Funk, Inc., New York, 1940) } { } { Roscoe, Theodore, *The Web of Conspiracy* (Prentice-Hall, } { Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1959) } { } { Oldroyd, Osborn H., *The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: } { Flight, Pursuit, Capture and Punishment of the } { Conspirators* (Privately Published, Washington, D.C., 1901) } { } { Luther Baker Speech delivered in 1932 at Lansing, Michigan. } { Richard D. Mudd Collection. } { } { Andrew Potter Papers, Ray A. Neff Collection, Marshall, II } ------------------------ End Part 18 ---------------------------- -------------------------- Part 19 ------------------------------ In the Spring of 1865, the legality of military court martials for civilians was a case then pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. "It was apparent to Stanton and the other government officials in the cover-up that they must rush the military trial of the accused Booth conspirators before the high court ruled, for the judges seemed certain... to declare military tribunals illegal for civilians when civil courts were functioning [as they then were]." It was fairly obvious that constitutional guarantees of trial by jury would force such a ruling. Accordingly, the government rushed to announce the formation of a special "Court of Military Justice" that would decide the fate of the accused Booth conspirators. "Bias was evident." A witticism of the time was that "The Court of Military Injustice has been organized to convict." The defendants in the case faced several disadvantages. They were unable, at first, to obtain lawyers to represent them. There was no higher court to which they could appeal. All the prisoners were denied the most basic sanitary needs. "Technically, the prisoners were allowed visitors. Actually, they were denied even religious counselors... To see a prisoner, a pass had to be signed by [both] Stanton and Secretary of the Navy Welles. There were no visitors." On April 23rd, jailers received the following instructions from Stanton: "The Secretary of War requests that the prisoners on board the ironclads belonging to this department, for better security against conversation, shall have a canvas bag put over the head of each and tied about the neck, with a hole for proper breathing and eating, but not seeing..." "The bags were padded with one inch thick cotton. A ball of extra cotton padding covered the prisoners' eyes to cause painful pressure on the closed eye lids. Sight and sound were cut off, a mental torture that never ceased for the devices were to be worn 24 hours a day." Dr. George Loring Porter, prison physician, complained to Stanton that "The constant pressure of those thickly padded hoods may induce insanity." [B.R. This seems to me like a type of constant sensory deprivation was being imposed on these civilian prisoners.] Two of the prisoners turned state's evidence to save their lives. A detective who had been placed in the cell of a Louis Weichmann "...wrote out a statement that he claimed Weichmann had made in his sleep." Weichmann was ordered to sign the statement, "...or face prosecution as one of the conspirators." "A Col. Foster demanded that John Lloyd -- Mrs. Surratt's drunken tenant at Surrattsville -- make a statement." This is the same Mr. Lloyd who earlier had been denied liquor and hung by his thumbs for 48 hours until he had given a previous "statement." Col. Foster gave the new "statement" to Lloyd and demanded that he sign it, explaining that the first statement was not "full enough." Several witnesses with unsavory backgrounds were paid for offering pre-arranged testimony. For example, "Sanford Conover... was to claim he was a newspaper correspondent for the New York *Tribune* and had... learned of plots to burn certain Northern cities, to poison municipal water supplies, and to spread yellow fever in the North by use of 'infected clothing.'" In a letter from Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt to Secretary of War Stanton, he states that each of the commission members believes the conspirators "are guilty beyond doubt." He further states, however, that the commission members feel that a trial is necessary so as to "follow the military method of hearing the evidence and following the code." But the Judge Advocate General assures Stanton that "the commission will not allow the conspirators' attorneys to impeach the testimony of [stooge witnesses] Conover, Merritt, or Montgomery in any manner whatever." NDP chief Lafayette Baker assigned Lt. Col. Everton Conger to get statements from the various participants in the chase that had ended in Boyd's death. On May 2, 1865, Conger wrote to NDP chief Baker "I have directed each detective, officer and private soldier who took part in the pursuit, capture and death of Wilkes Booth [really Boyd] to prepare a written statement concerning those events and to submit the statements to myself... Some of the statements upon receipt I found wanting. I found it necessary to add to the narrative in some statements and to rewrite others." Around this time NDP chief Baker also assigned Luther and Andrew Potter to renew their chase after John Wilkes Booth. Although by this time the trail had "gone cold," the Potter brothers were fortunate and picked up on a fresh trail at Orange Court House. >From there they pushed on toward Stanardsville where Booth, Henson, and Booth's valet had all spent the night in a barn. "The detectives followed Booth's trail to Lydia where a widow told them the men had spent the night of Saturday, April 29, at her place." Unfortunately, from there the trail vanished. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Col. Everton Conger's Letter to Col. Lafayette C. Baker, } { May 2, 1865. In the private collection of Stanton } { descendants. Released in 1976 through the efforts of } { Americana appraiser Joseph Lynch. } { } { DeWitt, David M., *The Judicial Murder of Mary E. Surratt* } { (J. Murphy & Co., Baltimore, 1895) } { } { Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt's Letter to Secretary of } { War Edwin M. Stanton, undated. In the private collection of } { Stanton descendants. Released in 1976 through the efforts } { of Americana appraiser Joseph Lynch. } { } { Andrew Potter Papers, Ray A. Neff Collection, Marshall, II. } { } { Kunhardt, Dorothy Meserve and Kunhardt, Philip B., *Twenty } { Days* (Harper & Row, New York, 1965) } ------------------------ End Part 19 ---------------------------- -------------------------- Part 20 ------------------------------ "The preliminary proceedings of the trial began May 8, 1865, when official charges... were delivered to eight defendants: Herold, Atzerodt, Payne, Spangler, O'Laughlin, Arnold, Mrs. Surratt, and Dr. Mudd." The defendants were to be tried by court martial. According to then Attorney General James Speed, the legal justification for the trial of these civilians by a military court was based on what began to be called "the Laws of War." Former Attorney General Edward Bates noted, "There is no such thing as the Laws of War." Yet American citizens were to be judged by this unwritten code. The authors declare that this "Common Law of War" was nothing more than a pretext "...for trampling upon every constitutional guarantee... of the citizen. There is no invention too monstrous, no punishment too cruel... [that cannot] find authority and sanction in such a common law." [B.R. And of course, as noted previously, the war was already over.] At 10 a.m. on the morning of Tuesday, May 9, the eight prisoners were led into the court and asked if they wished to employ counsel. All eight defendants replied that they wished to be represented by counsel. They were given until 10 a.m. the following morning to obtain the services of an attorney. "At 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning, May 10, the trial officially began. The defendants had had only two days' notice of the charges against them. The prosecution had been preparing its case for weeks. Not all the prisoners had been able to obtain counsel." That morning, the prisoners were officially arraigned and the charges of "treason and murder" were read against them. All eight entered a plea of "not guilty." The defendants were told that they had the right to an attorney, "...but they must supply such counsel; the government would not." When asked, many lawyers refused to represent the accused. Because the defendants obtained counsel and became acquainted with the charges at the last minute (or, in the case of Edward Spangler, not until three days into the trial), "In each case, arguments for the defense had to be formulated on the spot." After weeks of cramped confinement in the humid courtroom, the testimony concluded on June 28. "The military commission met in secret session to deliberate on the testimony." As people had time to reflect on the use of court martial for civilians, reaction against it began to grow. "Orville H. Browning, former Illinois senator and Lincoln's very close friend, declared: 'This commission is without authority, and its proceedings void. The execution of these persons will be murder.'" There was also some curiousity about the backgrounds of some of the government's stooge witnesses. "It would be some time before the truth came out... [that one of the witnesses was] a New York burglar with a long police record... and that Conover, alias James Watson Wallace, was a Charles Dunham who had secretly coached government witnesses on fictitious testimony for which they were paid. Conover would later go to prison for perjury." On June 30th the tribunal reached a verdict. The official court record stated, "David E. Herold, Lewis Payne, Mrs. Surratt and George A. Atzerodt are to be hung tomorrow by proper military authorities. Dr. Mudd, Arnold and O'Laughlin are to be imprisoned for life, and Spangler for six years, all at hard labor, in the Albany Penitentiary." Outside the prison walls, a crowd of citizens responded to the verdict of the military tribunal with angry shouts of "judicial murder." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Unpublished interview with Mrs. E.W. Nelson (David Herold's } { sister) of Denver, Colorado, Aug. 22, 1873. Ray A. Neff } { Corporation. } { } { Poore, Ben Perley, *The Conspiracy Trial for the Murder of } { the President* (J.E. Tilton Co., Boston, 1865) } { } { Kauffman, Michael W., *Report to the President on the Case } { of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd., M.D.* Richard A. Mudd Collection } { } { Unpublished Voluntary Statement of Michael O'Laughlin, Apr. } { 27, 1865, originally in the Benn Pitman Collection, } { Cincinnati, OH Ray A. Neff Collection. } { } { Shelton, Vaughan, *Mask for Treason: The Lincoln Murder } { Trial* (Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, PA, 1965) } ------------------------ End Part 20 ---------------------------- -------------------------- Part 21 ------------------------------ On Friday, July 7, David E. Herold, Lewis Payne, Mrs. Surratt and George A. Atzerodt were scheduled to be hung shortly after 1 p.m. The day was hot and humid. As 1 p.m. approached, Mrs. Surratt was helped to her feet from the chair she had been allowed to sit in just outside her cell. She called to her priest, a Rev. Walter. Her final words to the priest were, "I am innocent." The Rev. Walter later declared, "They were the last confession of an innocent woman." The prisoners climbed the traditional 13 steps of the scaffold. Four ropes were adjusted about the four necks. At the command of a Col. Rath, the supporting timbers "...moved forward. A dull thump -- wood sounded against wood. The two support posts fell away. The double traps overhead swung downward." "It was 1:26 p.m., one of the darkest moments in American history." "Before Mrs. Surratt's body was removed from the gallows, people outside the prison were chanting, 'Judicial murder!'" The remaining four "conspirators," Dr. Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold, Michael O'Laughlin, and Edward Spangler, had a reassignment of prison. Because NDP chief Baker, Stanton and others feared that these remaining prisoners might yet be pardoned or allowed to talk in the Albany penitentiary, they were now ordered to be confined at hard labor in the military prison at Dry Tortugas, Florida. "Secretary of the Navy Welles said Stanton had persuaded [President Andrew] Johnson to move the prisoners that far away where mosquitos and fever were likely to silence the four." The remaining prisoners were accordingly transferred to the prison at Dry Tortugas. After they had been there awhile, "Smallpox spread through the prison, and the victims were placed close to the dungeon shared by Dr. Mudd, Spangler, Arnold, and O'Laughlin. Arnold wrote, 'It was done for the express purpose of innoculating us with this fearful and loathesome malady.'" NDP chief Lafayette Baker and the Potter brothers remained on the trail of the real John Wilkes Booth, who they knew to be alive. On May 2nd, they picked up Booth's trail in Lydia. A boy led them to a cave where Booth, Henson, and Booth's valet Henry Johnson had hid. From there, they followed Booth to Linville. In Linville, a farmer named Louis Pence recognized a picture of Booth as being that of one of three men who had stayed overnight at his farm. The farmer said that he had taken the three to Harper's Ferry. Baker and the Potter brothers guessed that Booth must be heading for his farm at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. But Booth was not at his farm and the trail turned cold. Baker and the Potter brothers returned to Washington. Shortly after the trial of the "conspirators," a key witness, "...Louis Weichmann unburdened himself to John P. Brophy, a professor at Gonzaga college... Brophy signed an affidavit, which he took to the White House to seek perjury charges against Weichmann." Brophy was barred from seeing the President, so he next went to a newspaper. "But the editor refused to print the professor's affidavit on the grounds it was 'too strong.'" About this time, a House Judiciary Committee was formed. "Andrew J. Rogers, Congressman from New Jersey, filed a minority report of the Select Committee on the Assassination of Lincoln." Among the points made by the minority report of the Select Committee were that *** "...the majority of the committee determined to throw in my way every possible impediment... Papers were put away from me, locked in boxes, hidden; and when I asked to see them, I was told... I could not." *** "Secrecy has surrounded and shrouded, not to say protected, every step of these examinations, and even in the committee room I seemed to be acting with a sort of secret council of inquisition." *** "There are two reports on this trial. One approved by... [Judge Advocate] Holt... and [the other] the Associated Press report." Rogers charged that the official court record of the assassination trial had been substantially "doctored" by Judge Advocate Holt. By February of 1866, Lafayette Baker and Stanton had had a falling out and Baker was discharged from the U.S. Army and also from the NDP (i.e. Secret Service). In 1867, Baker published a book entitled "History of the U.S. Secret Service." In the book, Baker "...told about delivering Booth's diary to Stanton. The disclosure created a storm in the Congress. Why had it been kept secret? Why hadn't it been mentioned at the conspiracy trial of 1865?" The diary was recovered from the War Department. However, a new sensation was caused when it was discovered that 18 pages of the Booth diary were missing. Former NDP chief Lafayette Baker exploded, "Who spoliated that book?" Baker later testified that "...In my opinion, there have been leaves torn out of that book since I saw it." (i.e. since he delivered the book to Stanton in 1865). Why were pages torn out of Booth's diary? "The answer was that one or more persons didn't want those missing papers made public. The missing pages were not destroyed, although it would take more than a century before they would be discovered." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Report Relating to the Assassination of President Lincoln, } { House Reports, No. 104, 39th Congress, 1st Session, Vol. 1, } { July 1866 } { } { Col. Lafayette Baker's Letter to Edwin Stanton, undated. In } { the private collection of Stanton descendants. Released in } { 1976 through the efforts of Americana appraiser, Joseph } { Lynch. } { } { Unpublished Interview with Mrs. E.W. Nelson (David Herold's } { sister) of Denver, Colorado, Aug. 22, 1873. Ray A. Neff } { Corporation } { } { Andrew Potter Papers, Ray A. Neff Collection, Marshall, II } { } { Eisenschiml, Otto, *Why Was Lincoln Murdered?* (Little, } { Brown and Co., Boston, 1937) } { } { Weichmann, Louis J., *A True History of the Assassination of } { Abraham Lincoln and of the Conspiracy of 1865*, ed. Floyd } { E. Risvold, (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1975) } ------------------------ End Part 21 ---------------------------- -------------------------- Part 22 ------------------------------ The Lincoln Conspiracy ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ By David Balsiger and Charles E. Sellier, Jr. -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- "If among those drawn into the whirlpool set up by so sudden a subversion of the current of human affairs, there were any suffered an unjust doom, their innocence should be made clear beyond question." -- David Miller Dewitt *The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and its Expiation* "Historians, in developing the story of Lincoln's assassination, have encountered [baffling facts]. Why did General Grant suddenly alter his plans and decide not to go to Ford's Theater on the evening of Lincoln's assassination? Who, during that same night, tampered with the telegraph wires leading out of Washington? Why was the President's bodyguard at the playhouse, guilty of the grossest negligence, not punished nor even questioned?" "Perhaps the most serious reproach against historical writers is not that they have left such questions unanswered, but that they have failed to ask them." -- Otto Eisenschiml *Why Was Lincoln Murdered?* "The history of the controversial Conspiracy Trial of 1865 as most Americans know it is a textbook version pared down to a digestible nubbin. For history... has to be reduced to a fairly simple story which average students can understand and recite." "[The] basic account, with some modifications, is the same one the engineers of the Conspiracy Trial set out to promulgate. In a way their success in planting [their version] on the pages of American history was a triumph in propaganda. For even before the trial began, the first gusts of a storm of protest were shaking the legend." -- Vaughan Shelton *Mask for Treason: The Lincoln Murder Trial* -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- "Many of the people who played roles in the Lincoln assassination, the conspiracy, and cover-up suffered ironic twists in their own lives." "Col. Lafayette Baker threatened to expose those involved in the plot against Lincoln and attempts were made on his life to silence him." Eventually, Baker was killed. He died on July 3, 1868. By chemical analysis of a lock of Baker's hair, it has been shown that Baker was slowly killed by arsenic poisoning. After the assassination of her husband, Mrs. Lincoln was in an extreme state of hysteria. She moved to Chicago with her son, Tad, and went into seclusion. In July of 1871, Tad became ill and died suddenly of "dropsy of the chest." Mrs. Lincoln's mental state deteriorated and she began to have "hallucinations" of being followed and feared for her life. Her remaining son, Robert, had her committed to an insane asylum. She was released after four months and moved to Europe. "In 1879, she suffered an accidental fall and returned to the States an invalid. She moved to Springfield to live. There she shut herself away in a darkened room, preferring candlelight to sunlight." Mrs. Lincoln died in July of 1882. "Tragedy struck Maj. Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris [both with Lincoln at the moment of his assassination], who were married, had a family, and took up residence in Germany. Two nights before Christmas in 1883, Rathbone attempted to kill his children. When a nurse tried to intervene, he instead shot his wife to death and stabbed himself. Doctors saved his life, but he spent the rest of his years in a German asylum." Sergeant Boston Corbett, the man who "admitted" that it was he who shot Booth, was a celebrity known throughout the country as "the man who shot Booth." In 1887, he obtained a job as doorman to the Kansas State Legislature. "One morning after the roll call, he appeared with revolvers in each hand and opened fire on the legislators..." He was committed to an insane asylum in Topeka, Kansas, but later escaped. From there he went to Texas and disappeared from public view. Booth, Henson, and Henry Johnson (Booth's valet) spent several months on Booth's farm at Harpers Ferry. About November of 1865, they went to Pennsylvania, "where Booth reunited with former girlfriend Kate Scott, who was expecting Booth's child within a month." Kate Scott later signed a sworn affidavit that Booth was alive after the shooting at Garrett's farm and that he had visited her in Pennsylvania. >From Pennsylvania, the trio of Booth, Henson, and Johnson moved on to New York City. It is known that Booth went from there to Canada and later to England, where he married an Elizabeth Marshall Burnley and changed his name to John Byron Wilkes. "Reports have him staying in England for some time, then going to India, where, some say, he died." But other reports say that he went on from India to California. "Another report claims that a man who died in 1900 in Enid, Oklahoma, on his deathbed stated he was John Wilkes Booth. This man was never buried. His body was mummified and still exists today [1977]." Michael O'Laughlin died of yellow fever at the prison at Dry Tortugas, Florida. The efforts of Dr. Samuel Mudd to combat the epidemic of yellow fever at the prison eventually helped win the doctor a pardon in February of 1869. "Samuel Arnold and Ned Spangler were also released from the Dry Tortugas prison. Spangler, who was dying of tuberculosis, went home with Dr. Mudd, who cared for him until he died. Dr. Mudd died of pneumonia 18 years after Lincoln's assassination, while Arnold lived to old age." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { Sources used for this section include, but are not limited } { to the following: } { } { Mrs. Lafayette Baker's Diary for 1868. Ray A. Neff } { Collection, Marshall, IL } { } { Andrew Potter Papers, Ray A. Neff Collection, Marshall, IL } { } { Bishop, Jim, *The Day Lincoln Was Shot* (Harper & Brothers, } { New York, 1955) } { } { Eisenschiml, Otto, *In the Shadow of Lincoln's Death* } { (Wilfred Funk, Inc., New York, 1940) } { } { Kate Scott Affidavit. Ray A. Neff Collection. } -------------------- End Part 22 of 22 -------------------------- To my knowledge, the book *The Lincoln Conspiracy* is no longer in print. A movie was made based on this book and released by (I think) Sunn Pictures -- I don't know if the movie is still being distributed. It seems to me that the history of the United States took a drastic wrong turn after the Lincoln assassination. I think we have yet to get back on the road we *were* on. It is my hope that bringing to light the true facts regarding the assassination will be a first step in this process. To that end, I encourage you to distribute all parts of this series as widely as possible. Synopsis by Brian Redman (bfrg9732@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu) "History is written by the assassins." End part 22 of 22 End of series ------------------------------------------------ (This file was found elsewhere on the Internet and uploaded to the Radio Free Michigan site by the archive maintainer. Protection of Individual Rights and Liberties. E-mail bj496@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu)