No need to question this Lincoln conspirator’s guilt

[Susan Higginbotham]

There are any number of reasons why Scott could have been bringing Olivia newspapers. Maybe Olivia just liked newspapers; many young women at the time followed current events, as you'll see if you read letters and diaries from the period. Maybe a friend or relative was mentioned in them; maybe Olivia kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about the war and wanted certain papers; maybe Scott was passing a love note to Olivia under the guise of bringing her newspapers. As Laurie said, 9:00 at night wasn't a shockingly late hour to call in the city, especially simply to deliver something, and Washington had been particularly bustling since the fall of Richmond and the attendant celebrations.

The defense lawyers weren't prevented from asking who came to the house at nine. For that matter, neither was the government. Nora Fitzpatrick, for instance, testified for both sides at the conspiracy trial, but neither side chose to question her about this. Perhaps Weichmann's testimony that he didn't know the identity of the caller made the government assume that none of the ladies present in the house on the evening of April 14 would know either.