Christian Rath

[John Fazio]

(12-18-2015 10:44 PM)tom82baur Wrote:  Thank you to loetar44 for posting that link. Absolutely fascinating material. I could not stop reading it.

Among many interesting comments, he says that Payne hid himself in Mrs. Surratt's cellar and was found there by officers when they came looking for him. Upon being brought up out of the cellar, Mrs. Surratt denied knowing him.

Other reports, if I recall correctly, state that he came to the door late at night, claiming something about being hired to dig the gutters. Government agents answered the door and arrested him.

I have never heard Rath's version of this story.

Has this version appeared elsewhere, or been otherwise substantiated, or dismissed?

Tom:

There can be no doubt that Rath's account of the appearance and arrest of Powell is inaccurate. See the testimony of the three officers who were at the boardinghouse when he arrived on the night of the 17th. Smith's is in Pitman, pp. 121, 122 and The Trial of John H. Surratt, Vol. I, pp. 334, 335; Morgan's is in Pitman, p. 122; Wermerskirch's is in Pitman, p. 123. Despite this and other inaccuracies, it is our good fortune to have the account. We may be sure that when he is writing about things he experienced personally, we have the genuine article. It is only when he repeats things he heard from others, as with the Powell appearance and arrest, that he sometimes errs.

John