Louis Weichmann

[L Verge]

"Mrs. Surratt's daughter, Anna, testified that her mother treated him [Weichmann] like a son, a story corroborated by John T. Ford, the owner of Ford's Theatre, who heard it from Weichmann himself while they were being detained as witnesses during the trial."

Excerpted from an article by Lincoln authority and assassination scholar, Richard Sloan, entitled Revisiting the Case of Mary Surratt Through Her "Son" - Louis Weichmann. The article appeared in the Spring 2012 issue of the Lincoln Forum Bulletin, a publication of the nationally recognized Lincoln Forum.

Through the efforts of James O. Hall, renowned assassination scholar, and Minnesota collector extraordinaire Floyd Risvold, the manuscript that Weichmann wrote (and which never saw the light of day or presentation to a publisher during his lifetime) was purchased from a Weichmann family member and was published by Alfred Knopf and Sons in 1975. Mr. Sloan was then the editor of a wonderful, homegrown newsletter entitled The Lincoln Log, and he brought the book to the attention of many a student in the field. Those memoirs were eventually considered to be nothing more than a "self-serving vindication, full of cleverly twisted statements, inconsistencies, contradictions, tampering with dates, and perhaps even a few fabrications."

BTW: I happen to be one of those who feels that Mrs. Surratt was aware of what was going on - at least up to the point of learning about the assassination. I have a hard time jumping to that conclusion, but I can see how the military tribunal might find her guilty under the laws of conspiracy (and war). Therefore, when I express my concerns about Louis stretching the truth a bit, I do it to reflect on his actions -- not in an attempt to portray Mary Surratt as an innocent victim.