Frederick Demond

[L Verge]

I guess I'm being silly here in not caring about "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" in regards to how far Surratt did or did not leap in order to escape at Veroli. The significant point to me is that he did escape, made it to Naples, then Malta, and finally to Alexandria, Egypt, before returning to the U.S. on the Swatara. Even more significant to me is that the U.S. government pretty much knew his trail the whole time he was on the run from April of 1865 on. That to me is an important point in U.S. history. Of course, I don't see the need in continually debating how Booth broke his leg, either. The significant point is how that broken leg may have determined his fate.

I also have a distinct privilege here that I don't believe anyone else has. I was around when James O. Hall and his tremendous sidekicks, John C. Brennan and Msgr. Robert Keesler, Fr. Alfred Isacsson, lawyer James E.T. Lange and his sidekick Kathryn DeWitt, Jr. (both members of MENSA) were dissecting the John Surratt story. Someone would have to really dig to find better detective historians than those six.

Also, having spoken with a number of Surratt descendants (most of them from John's family), I am always cognizant of how they have told us that we know more history than they - the subject having been taboo when they were growing up. We have been led to believe that John Surratt kept a very low profile the rest of his life, and I can certainly see where he would do that to protect his family as well as Anna's and even bachelor brother Isaac. To protest a fraudulent article would only reopen old wounds to a very large audience. I suspect that Hanson Hiss laid a trap that Surratt refused to step into. The press could be just as nasty in the past as some can be today. How do you spell Yellow Press? Wasn't it at its heyday during that period of history when Surratt was trying to remain under the radar?