New Information on How John Surratt Escaped Punishment?

[wpbinzel]

(04-01-2019 04:17 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  I have never heard of this, and my initial reaction is to be skeptical. I can understand how the attorneys and judge might know of such a thing, but how would the jurors know? And the war was over in 1867 - what could be so valuable among Confederate records that the outcome of a trial would somehow be directly effected?

In an effort to get caught up on a number of threads, I read this last evening and agree with Roger. I think the result of Surratt, Jr.'s trial was much more about a botched effort on the part of the prosecution and who was on the jury. There is a great throw-away line in The Unwritten History of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln by Richard M. Smoot. Smoot claimed to have sold his 15-passenger boat to John Surratt, Jr. in 1864 for $250 (about $3,800 in today's dollars), presumably to transport a captured Abraham Lincoln across the Potomac. Seeking payment for the boat, Smoot also claimed to have visited the Surratt boarding house on the night of the assassination. With regard to the civilian trial of Surratt, Smoot noted that one of the jurors who voted for acquittal was Columbus Alexander, his wife's uncle. It seems unlikely that Alexander would have voted to convict the man who purchased the boat from his niece's husband under any circumstance. See: Randal Berry, ed., Shall We Gather at the River (2009), p. 15.