Passing of John Fazio

[Steve]

I'm sorry to hear of John's passing. Once when there was an article about Confederate spying which he referenced, and I had really wanted to read but was behind a paywall, John was kind enough to print out a copy of the article and mail it to my house. Truly a nice and classy thing to do.

I enjoyed reading John's book Decapitating the Union, but I don't necessarily agree with some of his theories:

- I strongly disagree with his idea that Charles A. Dunham (aka "Sanford Conover") gave his perjured testimony at the Conspiracy Trial as a way to discredit the trial for the Confederate cause.

- My gut instinct, based on the way Booth acted and what he said to his fellow conspirators in the weeks preceding the assassination, makes me think John may have been right about the kidnapping plot being a smokescreen to hide Booth's intention to murder Lincoln for as long as possible for security reasons. But I just don't think there's enough evidence to be sure either way on whether Booth initially planned to actually go through with a kidnapping. Including the issue of Booth's letter to his sister from late 1864 which reads in part:

Nor, do I deem it a dishonor, in attempting to make for her a prisoner of this man

which, along with Booth's sojourns into Maryland, definitely cuts against John's thesis. But even still, the way of Booth's use of attempting and the intent for the letter to become public after Booth "acted", does make me wonder if Booth was just spouting self-serving rhetoric to make it seem like despite his best efforts otherwise he had no choice but to go full Brutus.

- Roger, I agree with John's scenario of Clara and Rathbone arriving at the White House first with the Lincolns then joining them in the carriage. It makes the most sense.

So, John you will be missed! Your legacy of research, articles and books have been thoroughly enjoyed. Even if I disagreed with your conclusions, it still helped me question my own assumptions and dive deeper into the sources to come up on a more sure footing. Just look how what was originally intended to be just a short memoriam post with an anecdote about the mailed article has expanded! Again John you will be missed.