Last Lincoln Conspirator by Andrew Jampoler

[Gene C]

I finally got around to reading this. Fairly good book, since what little I knew of Surratt's escape, arrest and trial came mostly from
Weichmann's book, that I read many, many years ago. Lot's of interesting background information that helped put the events in proper historical perspective, and helped to explain why some of the events occurred the way they did. I did find some of the information about Surratt's trial a bit dry and hard to follow, but so did some of the jurors. He does a good job explaining why Surratt was not retried after the initial hung jury.

Some interesting nuggets of information...."The legal process that followed the capture of the eight (conspirators) proceeded with what would be seen today as astonishing, almost inherently extralegal haste, 'a rush to judgment' that on its face threatened the defendants rights......In fact, as a pair of proceedings during the next thirty five years showed, the pace of events in the Arsenal was about average."

On April 25, 1861, Fred Aiken (attorney for Mary Surratt) had "after mature deliberation" enthusiastically volunteered in a personal letter to Jefferson Davis to work for the Confederacy. "I desire now to identify myself with the government of the Confederate States and to offer my services in any civil position of usefulness that you may designate...In the event of war coming on I know the influence I could exert on Northern Democrats would be marked and important'. There is no record of Davis's reply;

Mary Surratt's defense was Aiken's and Clampitt's first "important" case.
The firm of Aiken and Clampitt closed it's doors in 1866, the victim embezzlement.

That Surratt may have had "inside" help when escaping from arrest while a Pontifical Zouaves (soldiers for the Pope) according to a fellow guard, Henry Lipman, in the Feb. 1881 New York Tribune.

When the Confederate Government abandoned Richmond, on the second train out of Richmond that night "In sealed casks aboard that train was some $450,000 in coin from the vaults of six Richmond banks and what was left of the Confederate treasury."

Gideon Welles didn't care for Salmon Chase. Sec. Welles wrote this in his diary, he thought Chase was, "cowardly and aspiring, shirking and presumptuous, forward and evasive....an ambitious politician: possessed of mental resources yet afraid to use them, irresolute as well as ambitious, intriguing, selfish, cold, grasping and unreliable when he fancies his personal advancement is concerned"

Part of John Surratt's defense team was Joseph Bradley Jr. We have mentioned him before in an unrelated thread regarding an earlier murder case
http://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussio...ph+bradley

And some other interesting things.

You can find the book at Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Lincoln-Consp...w+jampoler

I'd rate it at 3.5 out of 5 stars. I was lucky and found a new copy for only $1.50.