Where was John Surratt on April 14, 1865 ?

[L Verge]

(03-28-2017 05:49 PM)loetar44 Wrote:  From Anthony Pitch's "They Have Killed Papa Dead!"



Does this proves that John Wilkes Booth was the visitor at ca. 9 pm, or was it Richard Mitchell Smoot?

Honestly, I really don't know... Do you?

Roger,

Do you know what were the exact words of Anna's exclamation? "Think of THAT MAN BOOTH having called at this house ....", or "Think of THAT MAN having been here ...."

I just re-read that section in Weichmann's book this afternoon while tracking down the veracity of Booth being seen in the parlor when Surratt and Weichmann returned from Surrattsville. Weichmann does not say the name of Booth in his text, and I don't ever remember seeing it anywhere else except for what you just posted.

I must admit that I never fully read Pitch's book because I found nothing new in it. It was disappointing to me because he had flatly rejected my offer to have him visit the Hall files at Surratt House by saying that he was only going to use the primary source materials at the Library of Congress and that he was going to reveal new things. In my opinion, he did not live up to his own hype.

Kees, your observations on Smoot being the 9 pm visitor has come closer to being the truth than any other. It just seems to fit and to make sense, and I trust his later rendition of events as much as any other. I know that Elizabeth Trindal, Mary Surratt's supporter, did not like Smoot's book and dropped her Life membership in the Surratt Society because we sold the edited re-publication of it about ten years ago. That seems to say a lot in and of itself...