Presidential security

[L Verge]

You beat me to that point, Mr. Petersen. It was Forbes who let Booth pass into the presidential box. The question of Parker's duties was never really explored, I don't believe, until sometime in the late 1990s when Mike Kauffman first advanced his theory on a Surratt Booth Tour - Parker was assigned as an escort (point man actually), not as a bodyguard. I remember that there was quite an exchange of opinions between Mike, Hall, Maione, and others.

The Superintendent of Police at the time was A.C. Richards, who had been in his job less than six months. He later claimed that he had been in Ford's Theatre at the time of the assassination and had gone after Booth. Most historians think that is a fabrication. There is a book written about twenty years ago about Richards. The title is The Lincoln Assassination's Forgotten Investigator, authored by Gary Planck. It is hard to find.

John Parker was brought up on charges before a police board, and so far as we know there were records of that hearing until sometime in the mid-20th century when some housekeeping was done at the police headquarters and the records ended up in the trash. I have been told by a former police historian that the papers were retrieved by a policeman and that he or his family probably still have them. No one has come forward so far after my plea to at least look at them.

About thirty years ago, a family friend found one page in her late-husband's papers that appeared to be a photocopy of one of the pages. I had it in my desk at work for years until it suddenly disappeared...

In any case, Parker was apparently cleared by the first board and survived the police force for another three years before being dismissed on other charges.