Thank you to Bill Binzel for forwarding this to me:

"The Lincoln assassination has spawned a veritable library of writings over the past 150 years. Indeed, an actual Lincoln assassination library, the James O. Hall Research Center, sits a few miles from the scene of the crime, adjacent to the Surratt House Museum in Clinton, Maryland—what Sarah Vowell has appropriately dubbed the “Vatican of the Lincoln assassination subculture.” As with most great crimes, this one has engendered countless debates, controversies and conspiracy theories, sustaining what one might fairly call “Lincoln assassination studies.” The majority of accounts have been written by amateur sleuths and obsessives—nonacademic, nonprofessional authors who have devoted a remarkable portion of their lives, and their energies, to the subject. Having spent some time poring over the materials at the museum, and paid my nominal dues, I, too, am now a card-carrying member of the Surratt Society (which collects much of its revenue by hosting regular, twelve-hour-long John Wilkes Booth Escape Route tours). Every month, I receive “The Surratt Courier,” a newsletter chock full of new discoveries, revelations, artifacts, and fighting words."
-- Martin S. Lederman, "The Law (?) of the Lincoln Assassination," (2017), p. 6

[The full paper may be found at: http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cg...ext=facpub ]

It was wonderful to read the words Bill forwarded. Laurie, as the Director of the "Vatican of the Lincoln assassination subculture," you have so much to be proud of!

Agreed!

My pleasure to put in the plug, Laurie--you certainly deserve it! I will have an updated version of the paper up soon on that site, and the final will be published in March in the Columbia Law Review. If anyone has any corrections/suggestions regarding it, please let me know. In the meantime, I have continued to be unsuccessful finding an actual copy of the letter from Edward Curtis to his mother concerning the autopsy; so if anyone knows where I can find it, I'm all ears!

Best,

Marty Lederman

(08-15-2017 02:33 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Thank you to Bill Binzel for forwarding this to me:

"The Lincoln assassination has spawned a veritable library of writings over the past 150 years. Indeed, an actual Lincoln assassination library, the James O. Hall Research Center, sits a few miles from the scene of the crime, adjacent to the Surratt House Museum in Clinton, Maryland—what Sarah Vowell has appropriately dubbed the “Vatican of the Lincoln assassination subculture.” As with most great crimes, this one has engendered countless debates, controversies and conspiracy theories, sustaining what one might fairly call “Lincoln assassination studies.” The majority of accounts have been written by amateur sleuths and obsessives—nonacademic, nonprofessional authors who have devoted a remarkable portion of their lives, and their energies, to the subject. Having spent some time poring over the materials at the museum, and paid my nominal dues, I, too, am now a card-carrying member of the Surratt Society (which collects much of its revenue by hosting regular, twelve-hour-long John Wilkes Booth Escape Route tours). Every month, I receive “The Surratt Courier,” a newsletter chock full of new discoveries, revelations, artifacts, and fighting words."
-- Martin S. Lederman, "The Law (?) of the Lincoln Assassination," (2017), p. 6

[The full paper may be found at: http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cg...ext=facpub ]

(08-29-2017 05:43 PM)Marty L. Wrote:  My pleasure to put in the plug, Laurie--you certainly deserve it! I will have an updated version of the paper up soon on that site, and the final will be published in March in the Columbia Law Review. If anyone has any corrections/suggestions regarding it, please let me know. In the meantime, I have continued to be unsuccessful finding an actual copy of the letter from Edward Curtis to his mother concerning the autopsy; so if anyone knows where I can find it, I'm all ears!

Best,

Marty Lederman

Here's a copy of the full text of Edward Curtis's letter to his mother:
   

Curtis included it in an article he wrote about the assassination that appeared in the April 19, 1903 edition of the Louisville (KY) Courier-Journal.

Many thanks to Steve for sending this image of the newspaper that contains the Curtis' letter:

(08-30-2017 04:57 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Many thanks to Steve for sending this image of the newspaper that contains the Curtis' letter:

This is just fantastic; thanks so much, Steve. Of course, if anyone knows where the letter itself is, all the better--but for my purposes this'll do! Indeed, this reveals that the final, astonishing paragraph I quote, which has for many decades and in many sources been characterized as part of Curtis's letter to his mother ("The weighing of the brain . . . gave approximate results only, since there had been some loss of brain substance, in consequence of the wound, during the hours of life after the shooting. But the figures, as they were, seemed to show that the brain weight was not above the ordinary for a man of Lincoln's size.") is, alas, *not* in fact from the letter itself--it's what Curtis wrote in 1903! Curtis's description of his walk, and of the dramatic changes on the streets of D.C. that night, is also terrific.