Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth

[Gene C]

Here is Townsend's comments about Mrs. Surratt on p.43,
"Treason never found a better agent than Mrs. Surratt. She is a large, masculine, self-possessed female, mistress of her house, and as lithe a rebel as Belle Boyd or Mrs. Greenhough. She has not the flippantry and menace as the first, nor the social power of the second; but the rebellion has found no fitter agent."

and on p47,
"But Mrs. Surratt protested that she had never seen the man (Payne) at all, and she had no ditch to clean.
How fortunate girls, she said, that these officers are here; this man might have murdered us all.
Her effrontery stamps her as worthy of companionship with Booth. Payne had been identified as a lodger of Mrs. Surratt's, as having twice visited the house under the name of Wood. The girls will render valuable testimony at the trial."

And regarding Booth's visit to Mudd's house the night of the assassination, "They contracted with him for twenty five dollars in greenbacks to set the broken leg." and ..."The doctor was assisted by an Englishman, who at the same time began to hew out a pair of crutches.

And I found this interesting on p.48 about Samuel Cox,
"It was this man (Cox), doubtless, who harbored the fugitives from Sunday to Thursday, aided, possibly, by such neighbors as the Wilson's and Adamses."
I find it interesting that since this was known, why was Cox never placed on trial? Surely the government could have found someone to testify against Cox.

There is a lot of interesting information in this chapter, some of it incorrect, but this is what the public was being told at the time.