My Journey on Lincoln's Assassination

[mikegriffith1]

A couple of other points about Weichmann:

* Weichmann claimed that he saw Mrs. Surratt talking with Booth at her house a short time after 2:30. Weichmann said that he arrived at the stable at about 2:30 to get a buggy to take Mrs. Surratt to Surrattsville. Weichmann said that just before they left the city, presumably after he returned with the buggy to pick up Mrs. Surratt, he saw Booth talking with her in the parlor. A reasonable estimate would put the time of this alleged meeting at around 2:45. But Mary Anderson testified that she saw Booth standing and talking with a lady in the alley behind Ford's Theater between 2:00 and 3:00.

* In his affidavit, Weichmann said he and Mrs. Surratt started to leave the city at 2:30, but in his testimony he said he didn't even get to the stable until 2:30.

* Some of Weichmann's claims in his affidavit are downright silly. If one assumes that Mary Surratt was part of the conspiracy and had foreknowledge of the assassination, you'd have to believe she must have been one of the dumbest criminals in human history to have uttered some of the statements that Weichmann says he heard her say. Weichmann quoted Mary as making statements that clearly indicated foreknowledge that Lincoln would soon be dead, and then he quoted her as giving lame, dubious explanations of her intended meaning. A few examples:

Quote:Before the fourth of March, she was in the habit of remarking that “something was going to happen to old Abe which would prevent him from taking his seat. . . .

Really? She was "in the habit" of making this statement, a statement that would sound very incriminating after Lincoln was dead?!

Quote:When about a mile from the city [on the 14th, just hours before the assassination], and having from the top of a hill caught a view of Washington swimming in a flood of light, raising her hands, she said, “I am afraid all that rejoicing will be turned into mourning and all this glory into sadness.” I asked her what she meant. She replied that after sunshine there was always a storm, and that the people were too proud and licentious, and that God would punish them.

Right, Weichmann would have us believe that Mary's explanation for her suspicious statement was that a change in the weather would fill the city with mourning and sadness. Of course, this is another statement that sounded very incriminating after Lincoln was dead.

Quote:On the return, I chanced to make some remark about Booth, stating that he appeared to be without employment, and asking her when he was going to act again. “Booth is done acting,” she said, “and is going to New York very soon, never to return.

One, Booth had recently performed in a play. Two, how would Weichmann know if Booth was "without employment"? And, three, are we really supposed to believe that Mrs. Surratt would have implicated herself by telling Weichmann that Booth would "very soon" be leaving Washington and would "never" return?

Put yourself in Mrs. Surratt's shoes. If you were part of a murder plot, would you, or anyone in the same situation in their right mind, be making these kinds of incriminating statements?

* Weichmann said that Booth spoke with Mrs. Surratt three times on the day of the assassination! Three times?! Weichmann further said that on the way back to Washington, Mrs. Surratt said she was anxious to be home by 9:00 because she was expecting a visit from a "gentleman" but would not say who he was:

Quote:She was anxious to be at home at nine o’clock, saying that she had made arrangement with some gentleman who was to meet her at that hour. I asked her if it was Booth. She answered neither yes nor no. . . .

The gentleman whom she expected at nine o’clock on her return, called. It was, as I afterward ascertained, Booth’s last visit to Mrs. Surratt, and the third one on that day. She was alone with him for a few minutes in the parlor.

Well, now, wait a minute! Why would she not tell Weichmann that the man was Booth, if she had already met with Booth twice that day in plain sight of Weichmann? That makes no sense.

* It is important to remember that when Weichmann went to the Metropolitan Police to turn himself in and to tell what he knew about Booth and his associates, he apparently said nothing that implicated Mary Surratt. How do we know this? Because the police had already gone to Mary Surratt's house to look for John Surratt before Weichmann went to the police. After Weichmann told the police what he knew, they saw no reason to return to Mary Surratt's house. It was Lafayette Baker who later ordered the arrest of Mary Surratt, two days after the police had gone to her house, and it was only when Weichmann was interrogated by Baker's men that he implicated Mary Surratt.