The Lincoln Traveler

[Thomas Kearney]

(06-03-2016 07:48 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I am at home for the weekend and Jim Bishop was deep-sixed in a storage box years ago when I began to read more factual books. Someone please find their copy and the note that Thomas references here. As many times as most of us have read Bishop and as many times as we have followed the expert historians through Baptist Alley, I can't believe that we were negligent enough to miss or ignore the information about a gate at the F Street entrance to the alley.

Did Bishop's citation also mention another exit onto 9th Street? The Herndon House (where Booth met with the remainder of his gang in the late afternoon of April 14) took up a big chunk of the corner of 9th and F, so I'm guessing that, if there were an exit onto 9th, it would be fairly close to E. When I was growing up and frequenting the city, 9th Street had the bawdy houses. So we bypassed it - except for a wonderful candy shop that was between F and G. Therefore, I have no mental image of what was on 9th from F to Pennsylvania.

You mentioned a Subway shop being where the alley exit would have been on 9th. What is your proof for that based on 1865 maps? This is too interesting to ignore if the sources are accurate.

P.S. Jim Bishop would personally tell you that he was not a historian. However, he sure got lots of people interested in being a Lincoln assassination historian.

Thanks for your input Laurie. The Subway restaurant faces onto 9th Street. We were facing the back of the modern building that it occupies. As for the book reference. I emailed screencaps of the pages the fact is on in my ebook copy of "The Day Lincoln Was Shot" to Roger. I have no idea what pamphlet Bishop was talking about, so I will take time to research that instead of coughing up the exacta at Pimlico this weekend. As for the Baptist Alley layout, I think Bishop may have been referring to an exit in between one of the buildings south of the Herndon House that nobody spotted on historical maps. I will email the Ford's Theater collections manager and the head Park Ranger to see if I can prove everyone that Bishop was correct.

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I left phone messages with collections manager Heather Hoagland and park ranger Roger Powell to see if I could get access to find the pamphlet Bishop was referring to. I am waiting for a call back.