Why (not), Mary?

[Donna McCreary]

I wondered if the name was made a taboo to repress memories.

I think that is a good point, Eva. I don't think there is any mention of the Booth name in her letters. She did once mention the word "Surratt" in an 1867 letter to David Davis. She mentioned to Davis that Robert and Tad were in Washington for the John Surratt trial.

Also, I think I read that Johnson wrote her a sympathy note early in 1866. Mary threw it in her trash; someone found it there.

In a letter dated March 15, 1866 written to Sally Orne, Mary wrote:
"My own intense misery, has been augmented by the same thought - that, that miserable inebriate Johnson had cognizance of my husband's death -- Why, was that card of Booth's, found in his box, some acquaintance certainly existed -- I have been deeply impressed, with the harrowing thought, that he had an understanding withe the conspirators & they, knew their man. Did not Booth say, "There is one thing, he would not tell. . . . "