Questions Regarding Mary Surratt

[L Verge]

One of the big fallacies of this whole study is that the gang ever met all together at the boardinghouse. There is absolutely no evidence to support that the plan was hatched there or that group meetings were held there. Booth would come and go; Atzerodt boarded there for a very short time; Powell was there under different guises; only Gore Vidal has ever claimed that Herold visited the house; and there has never been anything to tie Arnold or O'Laughlen to the house.

To my knowledge, the closest that there came to being a meeting there was immediately after the aborted kidnap plot when Surratt, Powell, and Booth all high-tailed it back to H Street. And, the only documented general meeting that I am aware of is the one at Gautier's Restaurant that got out of hand.

There is brief testimony regarding Mrs. Surratt's poor eyesight from Honora Fitzpatrick and the slave, Aunt Rachel. Anna may have testified to it also. It was mainly about difficulty seeing how to thread a needle and sew and also one time when Mrs. Surratt looked out the window and saw a man approaching that she was sure was her youngest child, but was really a visiting priest.

I can send you a copy of a speech that I gave back in 2003 and have never revised if you think it would help. I tried to swing both ways with her guilt and/or innocence; but I must admit that I lean more towards Kate Larson's assessments as to guilt. E-mail me your regular address if you want a copy - laurie.verge@pgparks.com.