The Lincoln Traveler

[L Verge]

I am at home for the weekend and Jim Bishop was deep-sixed in a storage box years ago when I began to read more factual books. Someone please find their copy and the note that Thomas references here. As many times as most of us have read Bishop and as many times as we have followed the expert historians through Baptist Alley, I can't believe that we were negligent enough to miss or ignore the information about a gate at the F Street entrance to the alley.

Did Bishop's citation also mention another exit onto 9th Street? The Herndon House (where Booth met with the remainder of his gang in the late afternoon of April 14) took up a big chunk of the corner of 9th and F, so I'm guessing that, if there were an exit onto 9th, it would be fairly close to E. When I was growing up and frequenting the city, 9th Street had the bawdy houses. So we bypassed it - except for a wonderful candy shop that was between F and G. Therefore, I have no mental image of what was on 9th from F to Pennsylvania.

You mentioned a Subway shop being where the alley exit would have been on 9th. What is your proof for that based on 1865 maps? This is too interesting to ignore if the sources are accurate.

P.S. Jim Bishop would personally tell you that he was not a historian. However, he sure got lots of people interested in being a Lincoln assassination historian.