Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth

[RJNorton]

(11-29-2015 01:48 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Were there really eight chairs in the Petersen bedroom before the dying President arrived? I would have a hard time fitting eight side chairs in my bedroom today, and I have a pretty large bedroom.

The way GATH describes the size of the room (fifteen feet square) reminds of the size of Eli Gold's current office on the Good Wife show.

I agree that GATH's mention that Johnson responded to the note is not what I have normally read. Johnson and William Browning, his secretary, had separate boxes at the Kirkwood House. Browning's was #67, and Johnson's was #68. Thus, it's conceivable a note intended for one could have mistakenly been put in the other's box.

Bill mentioned passes. That made me think of Jerry Madonna's book. Jerry says that Booth went to the Kirkwood House to see Atzerodt, not Johnson. Atzerodt (according to Jerry's theory) was supposed to ask Johnson for travel passes; if Jerry's thinking is correct, the government covered up the fact that Booth and Herold both obtained passes signed by Johnson. In return and as a "thank you" Booth sent Ella Starr to spend the night of the 14th with Johnson at the Kirkwood House.