The Pope Did It?

[L Verge]

QUOTE:In 2004 Kauffman published a book on the assassination called American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies. This account of Abraham Lincoln's murder and his killer reads like a fictional thriller, but rests on a stunning amount of original sources and research. Like Sherlock Holmes, Kauffman ably observes, collects, analyzes, and compiles his findings. We picture him nodding in agreement when Holmes says, "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts," and "the gravest issues may depend upon the smallest things. END QUOTE.

Some years ago, Michael Kauffman was interviewed online in the great website known as Abraham Lincoln Online. I recently reread some of that interview. The webmasters ably compared Kauffman's style as a historian to Sherlock Holmes's style as a detective. Please see above. I think some of us need to pay more attention to Mr. Holmes and Mr. Kauffman...