Eckert and Powell

[BettyO]

(07-25-2012 05:05 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Betty, most authors have that final meeting taking place in the Herndon House. But your arguments for another location seem extremely logical to me. Do you know if Martha Murray ever made a statement regarding this alleged 8:00 P.M. meeting at the Herndon House? Didn't she something like they never came back after mid-to-late afternoon?

Hey, Roger!

Powell, according to Mrs.Murray, checked out at about 3 PM and as he hadn't had lunch, she ordered a plate of cold beef to be sent to the dining room for him to eat before he left, which he did. I have never seen where she stated that they ever came back. It always just seemed odd to me that if Lew checked out at 3PM, then how or why would he come traipsing back in at 8 PM with three friends to hold a "meeting" in his old room?!

It'd be akin to us today checking out of a motel/hotel at say, 11 AM and then coming back at 5 PM to go back to our previous room to hold a meeting. It would be very odd - plus the room would already be re-inhabited or locked or both! Maybe I'm looking at this through 20th Century eyes.

But I simply find it odd that Powell and friends would come back to his old hotel room after he signed out, paid Mrs. Murray in full, ate lunch and then turns up later that evening with 3 friends to "visit" his old room! Surely she would have seen him -- and recorded it! I don't think that JWB and Company wanted to be that intrusive....

Regarding the testimony at the Surratt Trial which the soldier saw, it makes more sense for JWB and Co. to meet somewhere where they would not be conspicuous. The dance hall would fill that bill. Four guys would blend in in a dance hall situation. Plus, there was that card in Lew Powell's pocket -- I put two and two together and it does seem to make the proverbial four - especially with the Gardiner sisters playing at the Canterbury at that time....I know that Atzerodt stated that they met at the Herndon House -- but I wonder if he was simply befuddled, someone took down the wrong information during his "confession", or he meant that they did meet at the Herndon House (which they certainly could have) - but just NOT on the evening of the 14th....