Escape speculations

[Jim Page]

There are so many views through this kaleidoscope; twist your perspective just a bit and it all forms a different pattern.

As many of you know, I regard Mrs. Surratt as a prime mover in this effort, and I think powerful folks, perhaps aligned with the Copperheads, were directing her, and through her, Booth and his little band. It could be that the Confederate government, preoccupied with their own troubles, had been tipped off as to what might occur in Washington.

At that point, I suspect they knew it was a sideshow that wouldn't help the Confederacy in any way and wanted no part of Booth's actions smearing them. A Confederate cavalry group may have been assigned the task not of assisting Booth, but of silencing him if he pulled off his assignment.

The federal government may have blundered into inadvertently assisting the directors of Lincoln's assassination by quickly silencing four of the key agents and putting the others far from anyone who wanted to know what really happened and by whom and to what purpose.

I further suspect that the Copperheads--or whomever--had Lincoln killed not to help the Confederacy in any way, but to further their financial or control objectives.

Who knows?

--Jim