Awww...Peanuts

[Cliff Roberts]

(07-11-2014 02:22 PM)Tom Bogar Wrote:  . . . . My secret theory is, since Annie Wright, the wife of stage manager John Burroughs Wright, called him "a simple minded but good natured street waif who worked all day and half the night about the stage," that he was actually kind of homeless and had been semi-adopted by Wright, who gave the boy his own middle name as a surname. But who knows? I took the age from several sources, most credibly from Will T. Kent, who said in the St. Louis Globe Democrat (12/3/1891) that Peanut was “a young fellow about 17 years old.”) Talk about the Holy Grail of Lincoln Assassination information......

Hi Tom. I recall coming across news clippings on several guys known in their local areas as "Peanut John" but in those cases, the fellow's first name was really John! Your theory about the Wright connection is interesting, but the description of the "simple minded but good natured street waif," doesn't fit our Peanuts. I think Joseph Burroughs was good natured but definitely not simple minded, as a reading of his recorded statements after the assassination will attest. He may have been unable to sign his name, but his responses, under what must have been grueling interrogation, show a young man with a surprising ability to stand up to his questioners and deliver his answers forthrightly, with clarity, exactness and credibility. This carried over to his testimony at trial. My impression is that of a young man, not easily intimidated, with limited education, but possessing an intelligent mind and an ability to handle himself well among adults.