Clara Harris and Noah Brooks

[RJNorton]

I thought I would post Otto Eisenschiml's take on this matter (from Why Was Lincoln Murdered):

Still further confirmation of Hanscom's entrance into the loge comes unexpectedly from Miss Clara Harris. In a statement made previous to her affidavit before Justice Olin and published in the New York Herald, April 16, she reported that, "Nearly one hour before the commission of the deed the assassin came to the door of the box, and looked in to take a survey of the position of its occupants. It was supposed at the time that it was either a mistake or the exercise of an impertinent curiosity. The circumstance attracted no particular attention at the time. Upon his entering the box again Major Rathbone arose and asked the intruder his business. He rushed past the Major without making a reply, and . . . fired . . ." 10

The supposed assassin making his survey was probably none other than the editor of the National Republican , and his survey nothing worse than a search for the President to whom he wanted to hand his message. This further substantiates the assumption that Forbes was inside the box and not at the door or outside of it.

What makes Miss Harris' statement to the press doubly remarkable is that it differs so radically from the sworn statement she made before an official investigator two days later. Then she made no mention of the unknown visitor whom she had taken for the murderer. She must have forgotten the man as completely as she did the fact that her fiance had risen to question him.

Or was it something other than forgetfulness which changed her testimony almost over night? If she had seen the editor, Rathbone must have seen him too. Then why, people might ask, did he not react energetically to the obvious absence of the bodyguard? When Miss Harris appeared before Justice Olin she merely stated that the sworn statement of her fiancé was substantially correct, so far as she knew. She was careful not to go beyond that; and by doing so she not only shielded her future husband, but incidentally prevented any further inquiry relative to the appearance of the mysterious intruder. Such an investigation unquestionably would have thrown Parker's actions into full relief, and might have led to further disclosures in regard to the curious story of his appointment, and to the still more curious fact of his immunity from punishment. Miss Harris probably was easily influenced to modify her original story. The young lady was the daughter of an ex-senator and could be depended on to know when silence was golden. In this case, the interests of her fiancé clearly outweighed those of historical accuracy.

All this would be of minor interest were it not for the fact that Miss Harris' deposition was not the only one to undergo a remarkable change in the days that followed the death of the President. Major Rathbone also suffered a lapse of memory between the time he stood before Justice Olin on April 17 and the moment he took the witness stand in the conspiracy trial on May 15. On April 17, he was emphatic in declaring that no one but Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Harris and himself had been in the presidential box. On the fifteenth of May he omitted all reference to this point. This is the more noteworthy as the two statements are otherwise almost identical in wording.11 The repetition of the same phrases on both occasions even suggests that Major Rathbone read his statement before the military commission from a prepared memorandum. An assertion made in the first account and deleted in the second must have been stricken out deliberately and for good reasons. For what reasons?

10 New York Herald, April 16, 1865
11 Laughlin, of. cit.y p. 289