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[Pamela]

(07-02-2016 10:48 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(07-01-2016 12:20 AM)Pamela Wrote:  Richards described those events because of what he had read in chapter 15 of Weichmann's book, and said that Stewart's account of events and testimony were largely imagined and not accurate.

I also wonder about the validity of Richards' account. Personally I do not know of any contemporary evidence that he was present at Ford's Theatre when the President was shot (other than Richards' own word that he was).

Richards says he was there, but was he?

According to Good's book, Richards' "revelation" that he was there came on April 17, 1885, which is 20 years after the event. Captain Reed, who could have verified Richards' presence, is deceased. So is Stewart dead by this time. Richards also says in his account that Peanut John was a black boy. In other discussions we've had, it seems the evidence is quite conclusive that Peanut John was white. Richards claims Mary Lincoln yelled "guerillas" after the shot; as far as I know, no one else made this claim. Richards said he thought Booth yelled "Sic semper tyrannis" twice while on the stage; I think the vast majority of other accounts have Booth yelling this once.

If anyone can provide contemporary evidence that Richards really was in the theater when Lincoln was shot then I will stand corrected in my suspicions.

Richards said Mary called out something he couldn't understand but he made out the word "guerillas". If she said that, it's interesting because I guess the attacks fell under that name and because Powell was a guerilla fighter with Mosby.

I don't know how many police were at Ford theater that night. Checking The Evidence, I didn't come across any statements made by police who were witnesses. Charles Forbes was there part of the time. Of course A.C. Richards said he and Capt. Reed, also a member of the Metropolitan Police were in the theater. Richards said Stewart made it onto the stage first and that he also reached the stage, possibly with one or two others. Stewart said this, "I then went back into the theater meeting some person coming out as I went in who went off in the direction the horse had gone. I believe these persons were in the police corps." P 1015, The Evidence.

Perhaps "these persons...in the police corps" were Richards and Reed. Stewart would have put Richards approximately where and when he, Richards, said he was. Richards had ordered Stewart arrested for fraud sometime in the recent past and he may not have been eager to acknowledge him by name.