Escape speculations

[Jim Page]

(06-15-2015 05:26 PM)HerbS Wrote:  Jim,I agree with your opinion 100%.

Thanks, Herb! I have nothing other than what I've read to base my suspicions on regarding Mary Surratt's personality. But I've known a lot of people and I've studied them closely.

At one time, I thought Mrs. Surratt was a victim of circumstances and mainly guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I now think Mrs. Surratt was smart, if not brilliant, not one to let her gender keep her from a command role, one who nursed grudges, and prone to see those who disagreed with her as enemies.

--Jim

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(06-15-2015 05:43 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I do agree that the Surratt boardinghouse had been under suspicion for quite some time. I asked Mr. Hall once why the authorities didn't shut it down earlier. He said that it was often easier to monitor things the way they were without playing Whack a Mole. The clandestine activity would just pop up some place else under someone else's leadership.

. . . I still think that she was intended as leverage to get the son who had known ties to Richmond directly. Remember that the Confederates were on trial at the same time.

Laurie, you're lucky to have known and worked with Mr. Hall. That the Surratt boardinghouse was under observation and that it wasn't shut down so the authorities could monitor things there is an astute observation.

As far as Mrs. Surratt being leverage, that is surely true. It seems to me that Mrs. Surratt and John, Jr., were both cold-blooded people. Anna Surratt seemed to be a different type.