New O'Reilly Children's Book

[Laurie Verge]

I am amazed at the number of visitors to Surratt House who have read Killing Lincoln and the number who buy it from our shop. Our staff and volunteers have been advised on proper ways to point out the book's deficiencies.

The average American today knows very little about Lincoln or the assassination. If we can even get them to read a book, it's a big accomplishment. Once they read it and are spurred to visit sites related to the assassination, I feel that it is then the responsibility of the historians to present factual material that was missed or ignored by the author(s).

Many of us assassination nuts were introduced to the subject years ago by Jim Bishop, who would have been the first to tell people that his book was not designed as the bible of assassination fact. It did serve, however, to spur many people on to read and learn more documentable material.