No need to question this Lincoln conspirator’s guilt

[L Verge]

Pamela, in addition to reading the contents of Henry Burnett's letter to Weichmann written nearly six weeks after the executions (cited page 167), has your research shown clarification on what is somewhat confusing: Burnett's letter makes it sound like Weichmann tried to get word about the pickets to the military commission before/during the trial via Benn Pitman, but Pitman did not tell Burnett until after the trial had closed.

On page 166 of Weichmann's own narrative, however, he admits that the pickets' story did not occur to him until he read other details about the case and was not stated by him in the Conspiracy Trial of 1865 - just presented in a printed statement in July 1865 and later at the John Surratt trial.

I am not a supporter of Mrs. Surratt's total innocence, but Weichmann's manuscript has always struck me as self-vindication in terms of the perceived stretching of details to justify his role. Like Susan, I can also understand his tendency to do so. All of us are known at times to stretch or retract in order to present ourselves in a better light.

Also, if you will, please satisfy this old lady's curiosity and tell us when and why you became so entrenched in the Weichmann story.