John Fazio Interviewed

[John Fazio]

because it is the conventional wisdom that, over a period of 155 years, has acquired a life of its own, in the same way that conclusions that Herold accompanied Powell to the Seward home

I believe Dave Taylor once traced the original mention of Herold being at Seward's to George Alfred Townsend's (GATH's) Katy of Catoctin in 1886. Other authors, such as David Dewitt in 1909, said the same thing. This trend has continued to the present day. Virtually all authors have David Herold accompanying Lewis Powell to Seward's. Yet, as John mentions, it seems we have absolutely no eyewitnesses or solid evidence that this happened.

Some authors have implied that Powell didn't know his directions, and Herold was needed to guide him to Seward's. Yet George Robinson, a male nurse at Seward's, apparently saw Powell "scouting" the Seward residence on the mornings of the 13th and 14th. There is no mention of Herold. And, as Laurie often mentioned, we know Herold was on a scouting mission "in the country" on April 13th. So it would seem Powell could find the Seward residence without assistance.

When Powell knocked at the door and William Bell opened it, did he see Herold in the street with the horses? It was dark, and maybe this would not be possible, but Bell never said he saw Herold.

Roger:

Thank you for your response.

On pp. 85-91 of my book, I give 24 reasons to support the conclusion that Herold did not accompany Powell to the Seward residence and 21 reasons to support the conclusion that he did something else that night.

I am not familiar with Gath's reference in Katy of Catoctin, so I cannot address its validity. I observe that it was made 23 years after the fact, but that fact alone does not render it invalid. Neither does the age of DeWitt's claim render it invalid, but it seems likely that by that time (43 years after the fact) the process whereby the assertion takes on a life of its own was well underway.

John