Andrew Johnson - Mistress

[jparkuntz]

(11-16-2017 08:26 PM)Steve Wrote:  

(11-14-2017 08:58 PM)JMadonna Wrote:  Steve,
It's true that there is nothing in the official record that says this happened.

But Atzerodt's attorney said in his memoirs:

“Atzerodt from the time I first saw him until he was executed told the same story which he afterwards told in his confession – that he knew nothing of the assassination plot, until 2 hours before it was carried out and that he refused to have anything to do with it. Being in as far as he was he had to keep up appearances. His part was to kill Mr. Johnson, he said. He had ample opportunity but did not intend to do it. His defense lay mainly in showing this: that he had abundant occasion to carry out such an intention had it existed, that the president (Johnson) was in his room all night with his door open.

How could George have known that Johnson's door was not locked if not from Booth? How could Booth have known? Why was Johnson in his bed (Farwell's testimony) while the rest of Washington was drinking merrily in the streets?

Booth had to have had a woman inside Johnson's room to make certain the door was unlocked and Johnson was home that evening.

No Washington official would ever disclose that Johnson was with a hooker during Lincoln's assassination. Therefore there is nothing in the official record that can dispute that it didn't happen that way.

That's my theory. Take it or leave it.

The simplest explanation of how Atzerodt could know Johnson's room was unlocked was that he actually made it to Johnson's door sometime that night before deciding not to carry out the attack and that he later exaggerated his reticence to kill Johnson in order to try and escape the hangman's noose.

Assuming that didn't happen or that Atzerodt's attorney wasn't somehow mistaken, then I agree with you the information would almost certainly have to come from Booth. If so, I can't help but feel that the note Booth left at the Kirkwood is somehow related to how he got the information the door would be unlocked.

I suppose it's possible Booth could've arranged for an employee at the Kirkwood to unlock Johnson's door and that Johnson was just napping or drinking alone.

If there was a woman hiding in the room, I still feel it's unlikely to have been Starr. I just think it would've come out if she had been with Johnson that night, especially after her suicide attempt.

Jerry, I would offer this slight variation on your theory that I think might be more plausible. In her statement Starr said she first came to Washington in December 1864 but had known Booth for about 3 years prior to the assassination. December was also a month where Booth's plotting really got into high gear. What if Booth convinced her to move to Washington and convinced her to work in a house of prostitution that that catered to high up people in an attempt to learn information about those people through the gossip passed among the girls of the house then passed along in bedroom banter between Booth and Starr. Booth could've learned that one of the other girls had Johnson as a client and that she liked to keep her client's doors unlocked for safety reasons.

I should point out that Starr's statement said that she hadn't seen Booth in 2 weeks, although that would also apply to the idea that she was in the room with Johnson.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying that I believe, disbelieve or am advocating for the above theory yet; I'm just putting it out as a response/thought experiment to yours.

I apologize for giving the wrong impression; I think the issue of whether Johnson had a woman in the room and whether that woman might have been a witting/unwitting part of Booth's conspiracy are two separate issues. If there was a woman in the room, I don't believe it was Eusebia Fitzgerald--who is the person I've been tracking--even though one apocryphal report from 1885 says that Johnson left the hotel with her (not that she was in his room).

As I mentioned earlier, I don't think Booth was a very complex planner. As was the case at Seward's, he might have just left it to Atzerodt to figure out how to get Johnson to open the door, locked or unlocked.

Jerry Kuntz
Warwick NY