The "Diary"

[Laurie Verge]

I have been asked so many times that I have lost count as to why Booth's "diary" was not introduced as evidence at the 1865 Conspiracy Trial. My GUESS has always been that Booth was not on trial and that anything in that diary would be not be relevant to the other conspirators.

However, today - while researching the story of John W. Westfall - I ran across bits of an interview with John A. Bingham in the fall of 1865. The reporter went by the name of "Olney Bluff." He asked why Booth's diary was not produced at the conspiracy trial. Bingham's response:

"It was not needed on the trial, because it contained no evidence, and, if it had been published, it would have aided in sustaining a certain sentiment which was endeavoring to make him [Booth] a martyr for conscience sake - a Brutus or a Charlotte Corday. It was deemed unwise to foster such a fellow."

This interview was evidently reprinted in The Chicago Daily Tribune on Nov. 23, 1873, p.9, c 1-2.