Surratt's telegram to Booth

[Lincoln Wonk]

Kathy, an item that could help prove John Surratt was in Elmira, not Washington, mysteriously went missing.

In Lincoln's Assassins: A Complete Account of Their Capture, Trial, and Punishment by Roy Chamlee the author writes:

"Surratt told his lawyers that he had stayed at the Brainard House in Elmira on April 13 and April 14. But when the lawyers searched for the crucial register, it could not be found. Their exhaustive efforts lasted several weeks. They questioned everyone connected with the hotel, but no one could find the register. Every other guest book before and after the missing one was available."

Just seems strange.

Not too strange if you consider that upstate New York had Copperheads and Confederate sympathizers (some likely stationed at the hotel) who could make things disappear if necessary.

This article seems to indicate, however, that those pages somehow made it to Surratt's trial. I am very weak on that subject because his trial is even more confusing to me than the 1865 one. Has anyone tackled the testimony of his trial to remember if such pages were used as evidence? For some reason, I don't think they were.

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Thanks for explaining, Laurie