Where was John Surratt on April 14, 1865 ?

[L Verge]

(08-15-2018 04:17 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(08-14-2018 06:24 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Thanks for posting this, Steve. My staff and I worked with Mr. Schein over the period of a few years as he was researching and writing his book on John Surratt: The Lincoln Conspirator Who Got Away. He was a very careful and detail-oriented researcher and traveled to Italy from his home in Washington State to trace the escape of Surratt.

In the book Michael Shein writes:

"If Surratt had been in Washington, in all likelihood (Andrew) Johnson would have been dead by morning."

Does anyone have an opinion on this statement? Was John Surratt a potential killer? Or was he involved only in a potential kidnapping plot and (like Atzerodt) wanted no part of killing?

I would like to think that his mother and the Catholic faith had trained him properly. However, the Civil War turned many solid Christians into killing machines.

If rumors about his killing some Yankees during his underground work are true, then yes, he was capable. On the other hand, if he believed the plot was futile after a point, I think he would have stood up to Booth and said NO - just as Atzerodt attempted to do.

I also feel that his allegiance to his commanding officer, Gen. Edwin Lee, superseded his allegiance to Booth. That's why there is no doubt in my mind that young Surratt was in Elmira when the deed was done.

[RJNorton]

(08-15-2018 08:59 AM)L Verge Wrote:  If rumors about his killing some Yankees during his underground work are true, then yes, he was capable.

Laurie, does the sole evidence of this come from the testimony of Lewis McMillan at the John Surratt trial?

[L Verge]

(08-15-2018 01:00 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(08-15-2018 08:59 AM)L Verge Wrote:  If rumors about his killing some Yankees during his underground work are true, then yes, he was capable.

Laurie, does the sole evidence of this come from the testimony of Lewis McMillan at the John Surratt trial?

So far as I know. I must admit that I am no expert on Johnny Boy when it comes to his Confederate travels and his trial. Trial testimony turns me off completely, and trying to figure out when and where he went on orders from Richmond for two years is too much to remember.

[Susan Higginbotham]

(08-15-2018 01:00 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(08-15-2018 08:59 AM)L Verge Wrote:  If rumors about his killing some Yankees during his underground work are true, then yes, he was capable.

Laurie, does the sole evidence of this come from the testimony of Lewis McMillan at the John Surratt trial?

As far as I recall, it does.

[RJNorton]

(08-15-2018 05:51 PM)L Verge Wrote:  So far as I know. I must admit that I am no expert on Johnny Boy when it comes to his Confederate travels and his trial.

(08-15-2018 06:37 PM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  As far as I recall, it does.

Then, to my way of thinking, it's hearsay.

[BettyO]

Had a request for this....

   

[RJNorton]

No wonder Joseph Dye saw John Surratt in his dreams!

[RJNorton]

While we have discussed the Hanson Hiss interview with John Surratt in the past, I do not recall that it was ever posted on the forum. Many thanks to Steve for sending the interview. It is broken into two parts...hopefully to make it more readable. It comes from page 9 of the April 2, 1898, edition of the Dayton Evening Herald (OH).

[L Verge]

Way back in the early days of the Surratt Courier (which started in 1976), we carried several articles discussing the validity of the Hanson Hiss stories. Many folks doubt the veracity of his so-called interview with Surratt done 30+ years after the assassination. I think the Hiss interview will continue to be one of those "questionable" aspects about the event and young Surratt's role in it.

[Steve]

Does anybody know what happened to the register of Webster House in Canandaigua, New York that was signed by Surratt? One website says it destroyed in a fire that destroyed the hotel in 1967, but a newspaper article from 1952 says the register was "now in the archives of the War Department".

[RJNorton]

Steve, I do not know about the Webster House register. I have also been curious about the Brainard House register which went missing.

In Lincoln's Assassins: A Complete Account of Their Capture, Trial, and Punishment author Roy Chamlee writes:

"Surratt told his lawyers that he had stayed at the Brainard House in Elmira on April 13 and April 14. But when the lawyers searched for the crucial register, it could not be found. Their exhaustive efforts lasted several weeks. They questioned everyone connected with the hotel, but no one could find the register. Every other guest book before and after the missing one was available."

[L Verge]

(08-17-2018 08:45 AM)L Verge Wrote:  Way back in the early days of the Surratt Courier (which started in 1976), we carried several articles discussing the validity of the Hanson Hiss stories. Many folks doubt the veracity of his so-called interview with Surratt done 30+ years after the assassination. I think the Hiss interview will continue to be one of those "questionable" aspects about the event and young Surratt's role in it.

In the previous post here, I should have mentioned that the spurious Hanson Hiss article of 1889 is generally repetitious of a previous article that ran in the Philadelphia Times on October 4, 1885. That article was supposedly done by an unnamed correspondent who termed himself only as "Pilgrim" and may have been from Baltimore. In his memoirs (not published until the 20th century), Weichmann inconspicuously mentions the Pilgrim interview.

Pilgrim claimed to have conducted the first interview of John H. Surratt. Most historians as well as Surratt family members are of the opinion that no such interview occurred. When Hanson Hill published his article four years later, it almost smacked of plagiarism in that it was so much like the Pilgrim interview.

The Surratt Courier published the Pilgrim interview in the July 1981 issue. At that time, it was transcribed from aged microfilm in the holdings of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in Harrisburg. It was the only existing copy known to still exist.

[RJNorton]

Many books cite John Surratt's Rockville lecture but fail to mention he also gave two more. During December 1870 Surratt gave a second lecture at the Cooper Union in New York City and a third one at Concordia Hall in Baltimore, but these events were not well attended. Many thanks to Steve for sending this article about the Baltimore lecture. It is from page 1 of the December 30, 1870, issue of the Baltimore Sun.

[L Verge]

As you can imagine, I love the opening sentences of his talk where Surratt blasts the conduct of the press! I hope that you continued to read the article to the part where he was taken into custody at the end of his talk. That was the government's way of telling him that he better shut up and get out of the limelight. It worked.

The lectures and also the sale of his photos were means of earning money, both for his own needs as well as family debts passed down from both parents. I read somewhere that he worked in tandem with sister Anna to devise ways to earn money from his experiences. Just the year before, the last of the Surrattsville property was sold at auction by order of the county authorities. The proceeds were not enough to satisfy debts that his father had run up before his death in 1862. Two court trials didn't help the situation.

[RJNorton]

Thanks to Steve for sending the 1885 article Laurie mentioned above.
It's from The_Times (Philadelphia), Sunday, October 4, 1885, page 3.