Booths in New London CT

[RJNorton]

(04-23-2018 02:40 PM)tom82baur Wrote:  And what was the status of the conspiracy at this point?

Here is what Messrs. James O. Hall and Michael Maione wrote in To Make Fortune - John Wilkes Booth: Following the Money Trail:

"There is a division of opinion among historians as to whether Booth's Lincoln capture scheme was his own idea or whether it was fed to him by Confederate agents. The possibility that he met with such agents from Canada during his stay at the Parker House was developed by the authors of Come Retribution.

To begin with, no record has been found to show that Booth was considering this scheme prior to the time he registered at the Parker House on July 26, 1864. Yet the evidence is persuasive that he left the hotel four days later for Baltimore to enlist the first two recruits into the evolving conspiracy that would ultimately take the life of Abraham Lincoln.

Booth checked out of the Parker House on July 30 and dropped off to spend a few days with various members of his family who were on vacation near New London, Connecticut, at the country home of one of Edwin's business associates."

So if Messrs. Hall and Maione are correct, this New London visit was at the very beginning of the conspiracy.