No need to question this Lincoln conspirator’s guilt

[Susan Higginbotham]

I said I believed that most of his testimony was truthful. I have neither the time nor the inclination to go through his testimony in two trials line by line and tell you what I don't think is truthful, since I wasn't calling him a liar.

And, yes, I do believe he felt a sense of guilt at having given the testimony that (along with Lloyd's) sent Mary Surratt to the gallows. Certainly he spent the rest of his life justifying his actions to himself and to others and searching for approval. Again, that doesn't mean I think he was lying, or that Mary Surratt was guiltless. One can feel guilty even about being honest.

There are several possible explanations for Weichmann's omitting damning evidence against Mary at his conspiracy trial testimony (such as her inquiry about the pickets, his certainty that Booth was the 9 pm caller, etc.) One is that he simply forgot until after the trial, which I suppose is possible but seems unlikely given his multiple interrogations, his lengthy testimony, and the considerable time he had in prison to mentally replay everything that happened in the days and hours before the assassination. Another is that he withheld the evidence in an attempt to protect Mary, which would be chivalrous but, of course, but not in accordance with his duty to tell the government everything he knew. The third possibility is the one that I mentioned above. I don't pretend to be privy to the thought processes of someone who's been dead for over a century, however, which is why I prefaced my comment with "I suspect."