Frank Ford Letter

[RJNorton]

Bunker's testimony was as follows:

"I am clerk at the National Hotel. The day after the assassination I packed Booth's effects at the National, and had his trunk removed into our baggage-room. In his trunk I found a gimlet with an iron handle. I carried it to my room, and afterward gave it to Mr. Hall, who was attending to Mr. Ford's business."

Previous to Bunker's testimony T.K. Plant (a man who had examined the box's doors after the assassination) had testified as follows:

"I noticed a hole in the wall of the passage behind the boxes; it had the appearance of having been covered with something; I could not see what, as no remnant of it was left, in size about five by seven and a half or eight inches. I noticed also a hole, a little more than one-fourth of an inch in diameter, in the door of box 7. It is larger on the outside than it is on the inside. The left side of the hole feels rough, as if cut by a gimlet, while the lower part on the right-hand side appears to have been trimmed with a penknife or some sharp instrument. The hole might, I think, have been made by a penknife, and the roughness might have been caused by the back of the knife."