Devil's Game - The Civil War Intrigues of Charles Dunham

[Thomas Thorne]

I read the book. A truly fabulous character!!

I find it interesting that some proponents of the "Come Retribution" thesis believe that Dunning and Co. were sent by the Confederate conspirators-Benjamin?-to discredit the idea of Confederate government involvement in the assassination by telling lies about their own participation in the plot that would soon be discredited. This seems to me a highly dangerous step. Once the idea of Confederate participation in the assassination was planted in the minds of Holt and Stanton, they would not rest until real evidence of Confederate government guilt was found.

We know many historical examples of governments knowingly accusing innocent people of state crimes. But I can't think of a historical event in which we can all agree the guilty party sought to discredit the idea of their involvement by producing fake evidence and perjurous witnesses attesting to their own guilt. They would have to calculate by the time they were exonerated they would likely have already been executed.
Tom