November 1864 Classified Ad by JWB

[L Verge]

(11-09-2017 03:15 PM)Steve Wrote:  

(11-07-2017 09:03 PM)jparkuntz Wrote:  While I very much suspect those November ads (dates Steve corrected are accurate--my mistake), relate to JWB, I have to further muddy the waters and let you know I just found 33 ads in the Washington Star between 1864 and 1866 with the phrase "four to six rooms," though several are repeats of the same ad. Like this one from 1864:

"Wanted to rent, on or before October 15, a house containing four to six rooms, furnished or unfurnished. Must be in First Ward and west of 18th street. Address, stating terms, "C D B" Star office."

I'm guessing these might be legislators coming and going, and this was a common specification for a family's needs.

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Jerry Kuntz
Warwick NY

I suppose it's possible the "J. B. Wilkes" ad as a whole has a cipher message hidden in it but I think the specific phrase "four to six rooms" is just common want ad language for people looking for a house to rent with 4 to 6 rooms.

I do have an alternative theory of why Booth would have created the ad if it wasn't a cipher:

Say, Booth meets John Surratt in October 1864 in Montreal. Surratt tells Booth that he has plans to move his family from Maryland to Washington DC. Surratt had been the local postmaster from his father's death in August 1862 until being fired in November 1863 for disloyalty (he had already become a Confederate spy). Surratt and his sister moved into the Washington boardinghouse around the first of November 1864. What if placing the ads was a way of creating a plausible connection between Booth and Surratt if the link between the two had somehow been discovered. Surratt being removed from his postmaster job for disloyalty could've put suspicion on Booth but Booth could point to the ad and claim this was how he met Surratt. Later on, they stage the December 1864 meeting with witnesses to conceal their prior meeting and no longer need the ads for a fake backstory of how they know each other.

Sounds as plausible a theory as any of the dozens of others related to the conspiracy I have heard over the past 50-60 years, but can you prove it? As for the ad, I like the thought that they were all related to newly elected office holders trying to find an abode. Not as much mystery, perhaps, but certainly more of a common sense idea.