Backstage at the Lincoln Assassination

[Tom Bogar]

(02-05-2014 12:44 PM)JMadonna Wrote:  

(02-02-2014 08:42 AM)LincolnMan Wrote:  Tom: the book continues to reveal new things for me. I had not known about the costume issue with John Matthews- and how Harry Hawk had "suspected" him because of it. That tid bit further illuminates how Matthews must have been completely terrified that he might be implicated in the murder.

Speaking of Matthews - does anyone have doubts about Booth giving him "the letter"?

As was the case with Laura Keene's being in the presidential box or not, I looked at everything I could get my hands on about Mathews' having the letter, including a wonderful, detailed analytical back-and-forth between Mr. Hall and another fellow in the Surratt Courier sometime back, and concluded that Mathews did get the letter, and did mostly-memorize it (combining it with elements of the "To Whom it May Concern" letter of Asia Booth's). As fast as actors those days had to learn new roles (essentially a new one every day), I do believe he could well have done that. Also, he was so specific in terms of the time, and place, and his mission of going to Shoomaker's, and Booth's demeanor and words, and his own ongoing guilty feelings about the events of the day, as well as the corroboration of John Ford's contemporaneously knowing about it from Mathews, that it rang true for me. As with everything, of course, since we weren't there, I could be wrong.