A Different Viewpoint of Lew Powell's Character

[KLarson]

I read Powell's defense of Mary not as a man declaring her innocence, but rather a man defending a woman because he was being chivalrous. Reading what he said - that she might have known something was going on, but perhaps not completely - doesn't sound like he was saying she was innocent. He apparently said, too, that men shouldn't make war on women. His arrival at her home that Monday night after the assassination says a lot about what he thought she knew and that she would help him.

I also believe that Powell was mercilessly pressured into making his statement about Mary. In spite of his ability to actions the night of the murder, and as Betty reminds us, he was still a very young man. He probably looked at Mrs. Surratt as a mother first, co- conspirator second.

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Sorry, IPad typing malfunction. I meant to type "in spite of his actions the night of....."