Booth's Note to Johnson

[Craig Hipkins]

Sometime on April 14, 1865 John Wilkes Booth left a note in the box of William Browning at the Kirkwood House where Vice-President Johnson was staying. Browning was Johnson's secretary and he was out at the time Booth left the note. When he returned to Kirkwood at about 500p he found the note in his box which said: "Don't wish to disturb you; are you at home? J. Wilkes Booth."

Browning initially believed that the note was meant for him, but later came to believe that it was meant for Johnson. There has been a lot of speculation about this enigmatic note since it came to light a century and a half ago. What do the members of this forum think? Was the note directed at Johnson? Or was it meant for Browning? Also, wouldn't Johnson have had a mail box at the Kirkwood? Or did all his mail go through his secretary first?

Mary Lincoln always believed that Johnson had something to do with her husbands death. She wrote: "that miserable inebriate Johnson, had cognizance of my husband's death, Why was that card of Booth's found in his box..."