Andrew Johnson - Mistress

[L Verge]

I am well aware of "the code," Jerry and lived through a many a scandal here in D.C. I suspect that we who live right next door to sin city know more than the rest of you outside the realm. There used to be a very popular tour that the public could take in order to learn about the escapades of their elected and non-elected miscreants. Frank Hebblethwaite, a wonderful employee of the NPS at Ford's Theatre years ago, once commented to a large group of us that no one could keep a secret in D.C. for more than two minutes...

Call me upstanding, but I happen to think that in a situation such as the Lincoln assassination, where the safety of the VP was very important, those guards and those clerks would have reported a lady indisposed and then scrambling to make an exit. I also think that it was pretty stupid of Farwell and Johnson to go out onto the streets at that time. Some men have no common sense, however.

BTW: There is a member of the Surratt Society who retired after many years in the top levels of the Secret Service, beginning in the Johnson regime. He once regaled us with facts and figures as to how many assassination plots and attempts are stopped and kept out of the press. It's pretty scary.