Payne's Statement?

[RJNorton]

From Pitman, here is a small portion of Howell's testimony:

"Mr. Weichman said he would like to go South with me, but he was not ready, he said, to go at that time; but as soon as he got his business arranged he was going. He asked me if I thought he could get a position in Richmond; I told him I did not know whether he could or not, as the wounded and invalid soldiers generally had the preference in the offices there by an order of the War Department. He told me that his sympathies were with the South, and that he thought it would ultimately succeed. I believe he said he had done all he could for that Government—referring to the South. We had some conversation in regard to the number of prisoners the United States Government had on hand, and he stated to me the number of Confederate prisoners the United States Government had on hand, and the number they had over that of the Confederate Government. I doubted it at the time, but he said it would not admit of doubt; that he had the books in his own office to look at.

In that conversation, I think, Mr. Weichman said he had done all he could for the South; he expressed himself as a friend of the South, as a Southern man or a secesh sympathizer would."

Howell's last sentence, if true, would also corroborate John Surratt's claim that Weichmann wanted to be part of Booth's group but was rejected because he "could neither ride a horse nor shoot a pistol..."

John Surratt also claimed, "Weichmann is a Southern man, and I always believed it until I had good reason to believe otherwise, because he had furnished information for the Confederate government, besides allowing me access to the government records after office hours."