Assassination Trivia

[RJNorton]

Kudos, Dave. That's it. Gene, I am not sure how you are getting 666.

Here are what I believe to be the correct responses:

1. Start with the year John Wilkes Booth was born. 1838

2. Add the room number George Atzerodt was assigned when he got a room at the Kirkwood House. 126

3. Subtract Lewis Powell's age when he was hanged. 21

4. Add this number - Secretary Seward had his carriage accident on April ?, 1865. 5

5. Add the room number JWB stayed in when he was at St. Lawrence Hall in October of 1864. 150

6. Add the year in which Dr. Mudd was expelled from Georgetown College. 1852

7. Subtract this number: Anna Surratt got married on June ?, 1869. 17

8. Subtract this number: Dr. Mudd's attempted Ft. Jefferson escape attempt happened on September ?, 1865. 25

9. Add the number of letters in the last name of the printer who printed Ford's Theatre's playbills. 10

10. Subtract the number in the address of the Greenback Saloon on 10th Street. 452

11. Subtract Lewis Powell's room number at the Herndon House. 6

12. Add the number (not the current one; the one at the time of the assassination) in Mary Surratt's street address on H Street. 541

13. Add the exhibit number (at the conspiracy trial) of the photograph of John Wilkes Booth found behind another image at the Surratt boardinghouse. 52

14. Add Abraham Lincoln's age when he was assassinated. 56

15. Add Mary Lincoln's age at the time of the assassination. 46

4155 total.

[Dave Taylor]

I'll be honest, Roger, I really expected the math to equal "1865" or something along those lines. I doubled checked my answers (which match yours, by the way) just to make sure they were right because I was like, "4155? What's the significance of that?"

Pretty tricky, Mr. Norton.

[RJNorton]

Would you believe I honestly had not thought of that? I just did it randomly with no set answer. But it is a great idea, Dave.

[Rsmyth]

Those little glass bottles...that were placed in each of the executed conspirators coffins. Some were placed back in the coffins when the remains were reinterred. One, Herold's, was handed to his mother. The question is "who wrote the conspirators names on the slips of paper placed inside the vials?"

[Dave Taylor]

Rich, this question is going to drive me nuts. Just a couple weeks ago I remember reading the account from the person who claimed to have written the names on the parchments. I just can't remember who it was now. Grr...

[Rsmyth]

It will come to you Dave.

[Dave Taylor]

Alright I found the article I read. Is it Alfred Gibson?


  Alfred Gibson article Kalamazoo Gazette December 8, 1922.pdf (Size: 97.48 KB / Downloads: 10)

[Rsmyth]

The article does not lie. You are correct...but that is not the person I was thinking of. Lt. Col. Richard A. Watts also of Hancocks staff wrote a manuscript detailing the events while he was on duty at the penitentiary. Watts says that after surgeon Porter examined the bodies, he (Watts) wrote the names on a slip of paper and placed them in the bottles. This info is from the Surratt publication "In Pursuit Of..." pg. 207. So, do we know of any more claimants? Good job Dave in turning up that article so quickly!

[L Verge]

I loved the little quip about Gibson making Grant stop smoking while at the Arsenal. However, it talks about Grant putting away his pipe. His love of fine cigars is certainly well-known. Did he like pipes also?

[RJNorton]

What was the name of the woman who ran a boardinghouse on 5th Street, around the corner from the Surratt boardinghouse. She was a good friend of Mary Surratt and attended church with her.

[RJNorton]

Hint #1: Her first name was also Mary.

[J. Beckert]

Murphy?

[Rsmyth]

As a follow up to my question and Dave's answer, I located a Christian Rath article in the 1911 McClures Magazine in which he says "Col. Watts of Adrian, Mich. placed a bottle containing the names in each of the coffins..." That still leaves in question who wrote the names!

[Hess1865]

(11-04-2012 12:12 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I loved the little quip about Gibson making Grant stop smoking while at the Arsenal. However, it talks about Grant putting away his pipe. His love of fine cigars is certainly well-known. Did he like pipes also?

He originally was a pipe smoker, but when he captuired Fort Donelson in 1862, newspapers reported that the General smoked cigars.
People started sending him cigars, so he stopped using a pipe!

[L Verge]

Thanks for that information. I had never seen that before. If this article is correct, it looks like the General was back to using a pipe. Now, do we blame the cigars or the pipe for his throat cancer?