Decapitation of the Union

[MajGenl.Meade]

(10-04-2015 03:41 PM)Jim Page Wrote:  On this weird sideshow to the assassination, I have to side with Wild Bill. It just seems like something Booth would do. That, plus the fact that Herold was working at a place that supplied drugs and likely other things to the Lincoln White House, seem to tie it in to Booth's band.

I recall thinking when I read about the window inscription in Weichmann's book, "Well, that seems plausible, given Booth's bragging after shooting Lincoln." Can it ever be proven that Booth scratched those words? Probably not.

--Jim

I think there is a significant difference between having a feeling that Booth might have done something or other and making a categorical statement that he did so and that it is proof positive that on August 13th 1864 he already planned to kill Lincoln rather than kidnap him. History is not supposed to be written by "feelings" but by evidence.

As to the pharmacy, John is careful to footnote the pharmacist Thompson's testimony. What did that amount to? Herold worked for Thompson from March 1, 1863 to July 4, 1863. During that time, Thompson's records show that on June 22, 1863 it was the clerk Herold who wrote down in the charge book the debit to Lincoln for a bottle of castor oil. Thompson was asked if that meant Herold prepared the prescription? Thompson said that writing the charge did not indicate that.

John's book, page 17 again, states: "Herold is recorded to have prepared at least one vial of medicine for the president during his period of employment with Thompson"

Why is that important anyway? Because J G Holland, an unreliable biographer of Lincoln, wrote that (quoting Decapitation p17)... "it is believed" that on at least one occasion the president was poisoned by a drug prescribed for him by his physician

So on some unknown date "it is believed" (by whom? on what authority?) that Lincoln was poisoned. We have no idea if this was during Herold's employment at Thompson's. And note the use of "at least" (twice).

Herold prepared "at least" one vial - meaning maybe it was two or twenty-two - and Lincoln was poisoned "at least" once - perhaps the same two or twenty-two times. And the support for all of this is first, "it is believed" written by a dubious source and second, trial testimony that in fact indicates it is unknown whether Herold prepared even one such vial.

This is also more than a year before Herold was involved in any plot at all with Booth. The suggestion seems to be that Herold was busy trying to assassinate Lincoln by making up poison (and helpfully signing his name to prove it) without mentioning that it was 1863 - not 1864.

In the spirit of Roscoe's 'have you stopped beating your wife?' method: was Herold acting on instruction from Davis or had Judah Benjamin paid him to do it? Cue spooky music.