Lincoln Assassination Conspiracy Trial Jeopardy

[Leon Greene]

Thanks, Laurie, for advertising my book. The saga of Dr. Luke Blackburn's ill-begotten plot to create a weapon of mass destruction by attempting to disseminate yellow fever in the North is a fascinating example of a Southern war effort gone bad. Blackburn involved many Confederates in this scheme, and he hired one Godfrey J. Hyams to serve as the distributor of the contents of the trunks filled with the contaminated clothing and bedding. Blackburn's moral character suffered from this plot, but his later career wasn't adversely affected since he became the Governor of Kentucky in 1879. Needless to say, his political opponents tried unsuccessfully to use the "yellow fever plot" against Blackburn in the election, but most people either didn't care about Blackburn's previous activities or didn't believe that he was the same person as the one involved in the germ warfare.

Lest anyone become involved in any breath-holding exercise awaiting the publication of my book, you need to know that I'm just now negotiating a contract with the publisher, so the book won't likely appear in bookstores until Spring 2017.

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With regard to the malaria question, the vast majority of cases in the early history of the United States were caused by plasmodium vivax. Cases of falciparum malaria then were virtually always acquired in other countries. Endemic malaria was eliminated from the United States in 1949. Now all cases of malaria reported in the United States have been acquired elsewhere, including vivax and falciparum, as well as the other varieties.