A Threat To The Republic

[Steve]

For reference, here's a link to Cobb's testimony at the Conspiracy Trial:

https://archive.org/details/conspiracytr...r/page/250

Unfortunately, there's no date given for Cobb's statement in the images above. In it, Cobb is never asked to identify the other rider (besides Booth) who crossed the bridge before Fletcher arrived with a photograph (but had been asked to identify Booth's photograph and identify Fletcher as the third man). So, it was almost certainly taken down before Herold was photographed by Gardner on April 27th and likely before April 20th with the publishing of the wanted poster with the Brady photograph of Herold taken when he was in school.

I noticed that Cobb's statement doesn't make any notice of the other rider giving the name "Smith" as Cobb later testified at the Conspiracy Trail. Although that might be due to forgetfulness on Cobb's part, since John Fletcher testified at the conspiracy trial that Sgt. Cobb had told him that night that the other rider said his name was "Smith".

The transcript on page 4 of Cobb's statement does look like coaching or leading a witness to say what the investigator thinks happened. Also, notice on the top of page 4 that the transcriber didn't write down the exact wording of the questioner, when he suggests Cobb is mistaken about something. So, we're left to wonder if the questioner was just asking "Are you sure?" or trying to lead Cobb to something else.

Here's a section from Fletcher's testimony at the Conspiracy Trial:

I followed on until I got to the Navy-Yard Bridge; and the guard there halted me, and called for the sergeant of the guard of the heavy artillery, and he came out. I asked him if a roan horse had crossed that bridge, giving him a description of the horse, saddle, and bridle, and the man that was riding the horse. He said, "Yes: he has gone across the bridge." Said I, "Did he stay long here?" He replied, "He said that he was waiting for an acquaintance of his that was coming on; but he did not wait; and another man came riding a bay horse or a bay mare, I do not know which, right after him." Said I to the sergeant, "Did he tell you his name?" — "Yes," said he: "he said his name was Smith." I asked the sergeant if I could cross the bridge after them. He said, "Yes: you can cross the bridge; but you cannot return back." I said, "If that is so, I will not go." So I turned around, and came back to the city again.


Here's a link to Fletcher's testimony (the quote above, but his testimony begins on the previous page):

https://archive.org/details/conspiracytr...r/page/328

Fletcher testified that Cobb had told him that night that (a) the rider on his stolen roan horse, "Mr. Smith" (Herold), had crossed the bridge first followed by (b) the rider on the bay (Booth) crossing the bridge. Now memory is a tricky thing, and can be mistaken, especially in this case when it's just Fletcher trying to recall exactly what Cobb had said that night. I probably wouldn't pay this minor discrepancy in the testimony of Cobb and Fletcher much mind, except when you look at Cobb's earlier statement above he goes from describing his encounter with Booth and his bay directly into a description of his encounter with Fletcher before being "corrected" about his mistake. Like, once he started talking about Booth he naturally went straight to talking about Fletcher because that was the order he remembered it, until he was "reminded" otherwise.

Though, I can't think of any conceivable reason why the authorities would want to purposely reverse the order of Booth and Herold crossing the bridge in Cobb's testimony. If anybody has any reasonable-sounding suggestions as to why that could be, I'd love to hear them!