Lincoln Conspiracy

[c.d.]

Yes, Jeff, some of these threads need a bit of an airing. My copy of 'American Brutus', the story of Lincoln's assassination and John Wilkes Booth (by Michael Kauffman) is a book I can happily read again and again. It's meticulously researched. I also have 'The Assassin's Accomplice' (Kate Larsen) which deals more specifically with the guilt of Mary Surratt. I found it very interesting, as today she has many adherents who believe she was caught up in the plot against her will. Not so!

Hello Rosella,

You are right, those are both good books. I am assuming that you have read "Manhunt" which is also excellent.

A couple of years ago I visited both Mary Surratt's tavern (saw where the infamous rifle had been hidden) and Dr. Mudd's home (very nice, way out in the country).

c.d.

[Mayerling]

Hello Rosella,

You are right, those are both good books. I am assuming that you have read "Manhunt" which is also excellent.

A couple of years ago I visited both Mary Surratt's tavern (saw where the infamous rifle had been hidden) and Dr. Mudd's home (very nice, way out in the country).

c.d.

Not rifle - "shootin' iron" from the supposed quote of Mary's given by Lloyd in his testimony at the conspiracy trial. She probably was guilty, unfortunately, but was it right to execute her? I still have qualms. I liked Swanson's "Manhunt". He also wrote a sequel about Lincoln's funeral and the capture of Jefferson Davis, which was also good.

Jeff

[Pcdunn]

"Killing Lincoln" by Bill O'Reilly is on Kindle now-- anybody recommend it? (I was amused that he has also written similar books about JFK, Patton, and Jesus Christ... hard to top the last victim!)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ULORYU/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1

[Mayerling]

"Killing Lincoln" by Bill O'Reilly is on Kindle now-- anybody recommend it? (I was amused that he has also written similar books about JFK, Patton, and Jesus Christ... hard to top the last victim!)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ie=UTF8&btkr=1

Hi P.C.

He does like "big target" victims, doesn't he? How about "Killing Mayor Carter Harrison Sr. of Chicago" or "Shooting Mayor William Gaynor of New York"? There are two subjects rarely tackled (to be fair "The Devil in the White City" does deal with the former, but really concentrates on H. H. Holmes' and his murder castle in the 1893 World Columbian Exposition).

Jeff

[jmenges]

I always recommend 'Come Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the Lincoln Assassination'.

JM

[c.d.]

Not rifle - "shootin' iron" from the supposed quote of Mary's given by Lloyd in his testimony at the conspiracy trial. She probably was guilty, unfortunately, but was it right to execute her? I still have qualms. I liked Swanson's "Manhunt". He also wrote a sequel about Lincoln's funeral and the capture of Jefferson Davis, which was also good.

Jeff

Hello Mayerling,

I have always heard that that was a euphemism for rifles. The park rangers at Surratt's tavern said they were rifles and when they showed the space in which they were supposedly hidden it would tend to indicate that they were in fact rifles.

After reading "The Assassin's Accomplice" my feeling is that she thought it would only be a kidnapping of the president but she was in it up to her neck (no pun intended) and I think she definitely deserved to be hanged.

c.d.

[jmenges]

She also took a pair of field glasses to the tavern on the afternoon of the assassination for Booth to pick up and directed Lloyd to have them, the rifles, and two bottles of whiskey ready for their night-time visitors.

JM

[c.d.]

She also took a pair of field glasses to the tavern on the afternoon of the assassination for Booth to pick up and directed Lloyd to have them, the rifles, and two bottles of whiskey ready for their night-time visitors.

JM

...and she claimed not to know what was in the wrapped package containing the field glasses.

c.d.

[Mayerling]

...and she claimed not to know what was in the wrapped package containing the field glasses.

c.d.

All true. Possibly more people think her fate deserved than undeserved.

Jeff

[Graham]

I am far from being well-read about the Lincoln Conspiracy, although I do have an interest in it and have read 'American Brutus' amongst other books over the years. It always seemed to me that Booth and his political leanings were far too well-known around Washington, and also that he was too well-connected to be a succesful assassin, i.e., one who stood a reasonable chance of getting away with it. It also seems to me that he hadn't thought out his escape-route too well. In later years the Russians always used complete 'unknowns' to carry out their dirty work, on the basis that what they didn't know they couldn't blabber about, and being unknown could, hopefully, just melt away into the night. Apart from that, I think that Booth the actor and 'gentleman' would have been very good company over a glass or two......

Graham

[Mayerling]

I am far from being well-read about the Lincoln Conspiracy, although I do have an interest in it and have read 'American Brutus' amongst other books over the years. It always seemed to me that Booth and his political leanings were far too well-known around Washington, and also that he was too well-connected to be a succesful assassin, i.e., one who stood a reasonable chance of getting away with it. It also seems to me that he hadn't thought out his escape-route too well. In later years the Russians always used complete 'unknowns' to carry out their dirty work, on the basis that what they didn't know they couldn't blabber about, and being unknown could, hopefully, just melt away into the night. Apart from that, I think that Booth the actor and 'gentleman' would have been very good company over a glass or two......

Graham

As long as you did not speak approvingly of the rights of the African-Americans, nor of Lincoln, nor of the right of the Union to prevent secession, Booth might have been otherwise a reasonably good companion. But that's a lot of subjects to avoid for his company.

Jeff

[Pcdunn]

There is a story that some men doing target shooting before the assassination were joined by a man, matching the actor's description, who stepped up, aimed and fired repeatedly and rapidly. If this was Booth, he may have been practicing, so to speak, before his big "performance". I think that shows he had the determination, at least at first.

[Rosella]

From reading 'American Brutus' and other book I think the worst thing about Booth is his determination to ensnare friends, acquaintances, childhood companions in his plans. Once they were in the kidnapping plot, even when they became uneasy about it all, Booth made it clear that they were there in his web and that was that. Friendship be damned! Disgrace and years of imprisonment were the consequence for several who hadn't been in on the assassination plans at all.

There may have been some glamour attached to John Wilkes Booth's celebrity. He was a zealot, however, and I don't think they make comfortable company.

[Mayerling]

From reading 'American Brutus' and other book I think the worst thing about Booth is his determination to ensnare friends, acquaintances, childhood companions in his plans. Once they were in the kidnapping plot, even when they became uneasy about it all, Booth made it clear that they were there in his web and that was that. Friendship be damned! Disgrace and years of imprisonment were the consequence for several who hadn't been in on the assassination plans at all.

There may have been some glamour attached to John Wilkes Booth's celebrity. He was a zealot, however, and I don't think they make comfortable company.

Depending on whom you are reading you will find that Booth could be a real bastard in "ensnaring". Jim Bishop's book (now somewhat dated) "The Day Lincoln Was Shot" (1955) suggested that Booth left a public statement of his reasons for the assassinations with an acquaintance he had tried to enlist - a fellow actor - who refused, and as a result he had a grudge against. The party (after the assassination) read the sealed letter and destroyed it (although he strangely enough was later able to write down what were the contents). I think his last name was "Chester".

Jeff

[Rosella]

I think Booth's old pal Chester (as in Samuel Knapp; rushed to check it) was saved as he was an extremely valuable witness for the government at the conspirators' trial. He was ready, willing and able to testify as to Booth's longterm intentions.

(Mudd was also going to be a witness until Mrs Surratt's lodger, Louis Weichmann blabbed in Secretary for War Stanton's office that he had seen Booth introduce Mudd to John Surratt.) In other words, if you had valuable information and were prepared to spill the beans you were all right. (Not that Chester was enthusiastic in any way about Booth's plans.)

I believe it was John Sleeper Clarke (married to John's sister Asa) who found a letter from his brother in law addressed to him among documents in a safe at the Sleeper home. It doesn't appear to have been wildly exciting, just part-manifesto part justification for the kidnapping of Lincoln. Probably Clarke had heard it all before.