Free Walking Tour

[wsanto]

(09-20-2014 02:30 PM)L Verge Wrote:  James O. Hall used to share an opinion that Weichmann did report his suspicions to his co-worker Gleason around the time of the kidnap plot -- something strange was going on in the boardinghouse where he resided. Mr. Hall suspected that Gleason did report this to his superiors. Since the Surratt family had been identified as secessionists from the very beginning of the conflict, Mr. Hall surmised that the superiors decided to sit back and watch the comings and goings at the H Street home. To rush in and investigate would only cause the underground activities to move somewhere else.

My point in saying this is that there were likely undercover Union agents who could have tipped the detectives off to taking a look at the Surratt boardinghouse. After Powell's one-eyed horse was brought in, I think the saddle and bridle were identified as having something to do with Atzerodt, and the livery stable people knew who Atzerodt hung around with (and I did not mean that as a pun!). Betty can probably elaborate on that.

That is another possible angle--Identifying Surratt as a Booth associate via the investigastion into Powell's horse leading to Azterodt and then to Booth and to Surratt. Of course it would involve some pretty hasty policework to secure the horse, trace it to it's stable, identify the owner and users, then link them to Booth and Surratt, then be at Surratt's boarding house within four hours.

The case for Mathews is pretty good (except for his reluctance at being involved)

--He was a friend and associate of Booth's and most likely knew with whom Booth associated including Surratt. He may also have known that Booth frequented the Surratt's boarding house socially with Surratt and his other associates (conspirators).
--He was given a letter by Booth early afternoon on that fateful day. A letter that identidied Booth's motives and the primary conspirators (albeit not Surratt)
--He was at Ford's, possibly a minor character in the show, when the shot was fired. He knew almost immediately that Booth was the assassin.
--He claims he fled the theatre into the streets with the chaos of the audience and "within minutes after the shot" was at his room, found the letter Booth had given him, read it, memorized it, then burnt it. (some have speculated that this was at the Peterson's boarding house where he was known to stay at times but may have been in one of the adjacent houses)
--It's fair to speculate he returned to the chaos in the street to get lost in the crowd where he may have come across McDevitt, pulled him aside and gave him the tip.
--McDevitt later claims the tipster was "a familiar face" and possibly "an actor" and, in his recollection, confuses Mathews with fellow actor McCollough.

There's a lot of speculation involved to believe this but I guess that is all we have.