Lucy Hale

[Susan Higginbotham]

(10-15-2015 09:04 AM)L Verge Wrote:  

(10-14-2015 08:25 PM)Sally Wrote:  This is just my opinion, but who’s to say Lucy Hale was NOT questioned?

Stanton was so determined to crack the case, I can’t imagine he’d let her off without some sort of investigation, especially after Junius Booth spilled the beans to reporters in Cincinnati a few days after the assassination, telling them all about his brother's "engagement" to the younger daughter of Senator Hale. I don't think Lucy was hauled into jail and interrogated like so many others, but I believe she might have been questioned discreetly, in private, by one of Stanton’s men. Finding that she could add nothing to the investigation, they just kept her statement “off the record” and never included it in any evidence files. Also, Mr. Hale didn’t hurry Lucy off to Spain before anyone could talk to her. The family didn’t sail until June 21st, just as the Defense was giving their case for O'Laughlen and Arnold.

As to the story of the “veiled lady” aboard the ironclad who wept over Booth’s body, I’ve always felt that was just a bogus story, made up to sell more newspapers. Has anyone on the forum found any reliable evidence it really happened? And even if there was such a lady, I doubt it was Lucy. New Hampshire and Boston newspapers reported that John P. Hale made a speech at a memorial service held in Dover, NH on the day of President Lincoln’s funeral, April 19. I would assume if Hale was in New Hampshire, he had his wife and daughters with him there. Would he have allowed Lucy to travel back to the Washington area eight days later so she could view the remains of the President’s killer? Seems improbable to me. What’s more, Hale was not popular with most of the men in Lincoln’s cabinet, and his relationship with the Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, was particularly rancorous. Those two kept up a public (and very childish) feud throughout the war. If somebody wanted permission to get on a heavily guarded government vessel, wouldn’t that have to be cleared through the Navy Department? Hale certainly couldn’t have gotten any favors from that quarter.

Great points, Sally. It sounds like you know quite a bit about the Hales and Lucy's ties to Booth.

Your last point about having permission to get on the Montauk is well-taken. Some time ago, John Elliott posted about the steps taken to get Alexander Gardner on board for photographs. If I had been Sen. & Mrs. Hale, I would have locked Lucy in her room and let her cry her heart out (or throw a screaming tantrum) before I would allow her anywhere near that body. Frankly, I would have already been disgusted with her if the stories are true that she "traveled" with Booth. Liberated daughters were not tolerated in the 1860s.

Is there any solid evidence that she did travel with Booth? Nothing in Terry Alford's book that I recall seemed to support this, and nothing in the (admittedly little) I've read about her gives me the impression that she was unconventional enough to risk her reputation in this manner.