Louis Weichmann

[Pamela]

Nice try, Susan. The fact that Abel lived a happy, active, well travelled and long life isn't the issue, and not related to how bright he was. I'm very happy for him.

The problem is that Father Conroy got information from a still young Abel, his parishioner, and wrote a report on Weichmann, which he gave to a Lincoln foundation. Somehow, between the two of them, the "Weichmann" story took a nasty, erroneous, and largely fictional turn that fed into the Catholic myth that Mary Surratt was an innocent Catholic woman betrayed by her Catholic boarder and was executed as a result. And to top it off, Weichmann was revealed to be writing a book accusing Catholics and the Pope of conspiring to assassinate, etc.

This goofy Father Conroy report has been repeated in varying degrees by historians as fact, and got written up by Ewald in the Surratt Courier. A guess is that Abel was manipulated by Conroy to a large extent. And, of course, Weichmann got trashed again despite the fact that the source of the story, Abel, clearly liked and respected him.