Where was John Surratt on April 14, 1865 ?

[Steve]

Here is a link to Augustus Bissell's testimony from the Surratt trial:

https://archive.org/stream/trialofjohnhs...2/mode/2up

Also here are links to Bissell in the 1860 census in Pike township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXP3-HPW

and in the 1880 census in Mahanoy City, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MWV4-9BY

Those census images are on Familysearch, they're free to view but you have to have an account and sign in to see them. The two census records are needed to verify link the Augustus Bissell of Mahanoy City and Pike Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania through the age and birthplace information of Bissell and his wife. Bissell lived in New York City at the time of the Surratt trial and in Owego, New York at the time he claimed to have met Surratt in 1865.

According to tax records, Bissell also lived in Waverly, New York in 1863; about 18 miles from Elmira:
   
I don't know if this has any significance or not.

Here's a link to get a sense of where all these places in Pennsylvania and New York are located in relation to one another:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Owego,+N...125881!3e0

According to testimony given at the Surratt trial, Bissell already had a bad reputation/character when he lived in Montrose, Susquehanna County PA and in Pike Township, in neighboring Bradford County:

https://archive.org/stream/trialofjohnhs...ch/Bissell

Also note that two witnesses against Bissell were a prosecutor and a prothonotary (a type of court clerk in Pennsylvania), possibly indicating that Bissell may have been suspected/charged with some type of crime but not convicted which would've been inadmissible to mention in court. Unfortunately, the newspaper databases that I use don't have the coverage of that northeastern part of Pennsylvania as they do further south closer to Philadelphia.

The, strangely non-specific, testimony of his dubious character at the Surratt trial along with the newspaper article accounts (which start in 1872, only 5 years after the trial) of him helping to sell forged medical diplomas, helping to commit insurance fraud, and sending anonymous threatening letters through the mail lead me to believe that he was paid to lie in his testimony about meeting Surratt in Elmira, since most of what was described of him is money making schemes.