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[L Verge]

"Thus ends the interesting, occasionally confusing, and somewhat contradictory story of A.C. Richards' alleged role in the Lincoln assassination. Here is a 'forgotten' investigator who seems to have wanted to be forgotten until the last several decades of his life. Richards probably knew more about the tragic event and its participants than he disclosed. The unearthed skeletons remain in the closet, and its key may well have been buried with this man, A.C. Richards, late of Eustis, Lake County, Florida."

And thus ends the 60+ pages of Gary Planck's 1993 expanded book on the Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police Department during the Lincoln assassination era. The Lincoln Assassination's Forgotten Investigator: A.C. Richards, published by Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, TN.

I just spent the better part of my afternoon reading this book (years ago, I had read the original article that appeared in the Lincoln Herald). Did I come to definite conclusions about Richards? Yes, his stories gave me a headache, and his direct quotes from 1865-1906 in messages to Stanton, Weichmann, et al. and interviews changed his stance on his involvement considerably over the years. His version of events do not mesh with statements made at the time by detectives in his own department (McDevitt, Clarvoe, Bigley, Kelly) as well as by Weichmann and also John Holohan. His changing of times as to when and where he was in the hours after the assassination makes one wonder also.

I am not convinced that he was at Ford's Theatre (he tells two different stories with at least an hour's difference between when he arrived); I continue to believe that he lied about being the first detective to visit Mrs. Surratt; and I remembered correctly that he caught heck from Stanton for allowing Weichmann and Holohan to go to Canada in search of John Surratt. The pair left for Baltimore on April 17 and Canada on April 18. They returned on April 29, and by that time, Stanton had already "severely reprimanded" Richards on April 25.

Considering that Mr. Planck has included many direct quotes and endnoted his work extensively (23 pages by chapters) and acknowledges dozens of well-respected scholars in the field, I'm not sure that we are compiling a list of baseless insults against Mr. Richards. Even Weichmann (who only corresponded with the former policeman from 1898 to 1901) chose not to use some of the reminiscences that Richards supplied in his letters.

I had forgotten that A.C. Richards was later brought up (1876-77) on charges of corruption based on prostitution and gambling in D.C. There was even a select committee in the House of Representatives formed to investigate. During the course of the investigation, Richards was suspended from duty. There seems to have been extenuating circumstances in trying to get a court date settled on, and the case was deferred for future investigation. Ultimately, Richards was exonerated because they could not prove that he received graft money.

However, he then resigned from the MPD and entered law school at the National University Law School (which merged with George Washington University in the 1950s). He practiced law in D.C. until 1893, before retiring to tend citrus trees in Florida.