J. J. Reford and J. J. Chaffee...who were they?...Really??

[Laurie Verge]

I will say that the name "Henson" keeps skipping through the tulips in relation to the assassination story. That is one of the supposed aliases that Mudd claimed Booth and Herold gave.

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I seldom saw James O. Hall and Ed Steers interpret history differently, however, this supposed Mr. Reford was the cause of one such instance. The letter from Reford was found in Booth's papers within the trunk that Booth left behind at the National Hotel and now resides in the NARA's M-599 files. Tidwell, Hall, and Gaddy quoted it in Come Retribution and described it as being a loosely coded message between Reford and Booth regarding Powell. Two key words - "horses" and "ile" are believed to be codes signifying a larger conspiracy that involved Reford, Booth, and Powell.

Steers disagreed. He transcribed other sections with different spellings that leave out any reference to Powell. He does not rule out that the letter might still be a code from Reford to Booth.

Also, re Watson: R.D. Watson must have been the junior of the family. His sister, Mary, was also in the family business of espionage and is mentioned in Thomas Jones's book as maintaining the signals for men crossing the Potomac while Jones, himself, was confined to Old Capitol Prison for awhile during the war.