John Surratt's real parents?

[Thomas Thorne]

I have too much respect for Mary Surratt's intellect to think she believed JWB was going to kidnap Lincoln from a crowded theater with the few resources at his disposal and try to move him thru packed Washington streets on 4/14/65..

Any kidnapping attempt would best be done while AL was traveling thru the countryside with his customary insouciance about security.

It's interesting how little effort JWB spent on the kidnapping enterprise after its collapse in March. I wonder if the "New York crowd" really only consisted of a beautiful filly he had stashed away in New York.

Unlike Michael Kaufman, who I believe thought the kidnap scheme was a lure to recruit assassins, I accept the legitimacy of the kidnapping plot but note how often Booth angrily on the spur of the moment tried to convert it into an assassination.

And where actually would Confederate prisoners exchanged for Lincoln after 4/14/65 be released to? Who would provide them with food,uniforms and equipment? Most of the principle Southern cities had been captured by the time of the assassination. A country whose capital resided in Jefferson Davis"s saddlebags was on life support and none felt greater grief for its impending demise than John Wilkes Booth. His actions that Easter week bespoke an expectation of disaster and not faith in victory.
Tom