Did Lloyd Lie?

[wpbinzel]

“Just as they were about leaving, the man who was with Herold said, ‘I will tell you some news if you want to hear it,’ or something to that effect. I said, ‘I am not particular; use your own pleasure about telling it.’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I am pretty certain that we have assassinated the President and Secretary Seward.’ I think that was his language, as well as I can recollect.”
-- John M. Lloyd, Trial of the Lincoln Assassination Conspirators, May 13, 1865

How accurate was Lloyd’s recollection and testimony? On cross-examination, Lloyd admitted that “I was right smart in liquer that afternoon, and after night I got more so.” However, and although the verbiage used varied a bit, Lloyd was fairly consistent in his multiple statements, which were consistent with his testimony at the Trial.

If Lloyd’s testimony was essentially accurate, then how did John Wilkes Booth know that George Atzerodt had failed to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson? Atzerodt’s failure to make the rendezvous on Soper’s Hill may have been a clue, but Powell also was a no-show (albeit, Herold likely confirmed Powell’s attack on Seward for Booth). Booth had no way of knowing whether Atzerodt had been captured or killed after murdering Johnson; whether Sergeant Cobb had refused to allow Atzerodt to cross the Navy Yard Bridge; or whether Atzerodt simply got drunk after completing his assignment. Less than two hours after his act, Booth had no way of knowing that Andrew Johnson was still alive.

It is conceivable that Booth had so little faith in Atzerodt that he simply assumed that no attempt was made on Johnson’s life, but that seems unlikely. It would seem more probable that Lloyd’s pickled brain was the culprit and that if Booth bragged about killing Lincoln and Seward, he also mentioned Johnson. Later, Lloyd recalled that the man with Herold had said something about killing government officials, but was hazy on who he named, and simply conformed his recollection to the sober truth.

This is speculation on my part as a way of asking if anyone has looked more closely at this question.