It Didn't Happen the Way You Think (by Robert Lockwood Mills)

[L Verge]

Well, let me ask you some of the questions that occur to me about this issue:

* Do you believe that Booth would have entrusted such a letter—his statement to the nation to explain and justify his deed—to a man he had recently declared to be “a coward,” “very much frightened,” and “not fit to live”?

MIKE KAUFFMAN HAS CONSISTENTLY MADE A PLAUSIBLE CASE FOR BOOTH BEING MANIPULATIVE ENOUGH TO PLACE EACH OF HIS CABAL IN "INCRIMINATING" SITUATIONS ALONG THE WAY IN ORDER TO ENSURE THEIR COOPERATION. I THINK HE DID JUST THAT WITH MATHEWS. HE ALSO DID NOT MAIL THAT LETTER TO THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER HIMSELF BECAUSE HE DID NOT WANT IT ALREADY IN THE MAIL IN CASE HE WAS NOT ABLE TO ACHIEVE HIS PLANNED ASSASSINATION.

* Do you believe that Booth would have given Mathews this letter during a chance meeting on Pennsylvania Avenue, while Booth was “coming down the avenue,” in broad daylight and in front of who-knows-how-many witnesses, as Mathews claimed? Does that ring true to you?

OF COURSE I'M SILLY, BUT YES, I CAN SEE THIS HAPPENING IN A DAY WHERE NO ONE SNAPPED INSTANT PHOTOS OR THOUGHT A THING ABOUT WHAT WAS GOING ON NOW THAT THE WAR WAS ALMOST OVER. I BET MANY OF US TODAY HAVE SEEN SUCH A TRANSFER OF PAPER (SOME CONTAINING DRUGS) OCCURRING AROUND US WITHOUT THINKING A THING ABOUT IT AS WE TOOK CARE OF OUR OWN BUSINESS.

* Do you find it believable that Mathews testified at the 1867 Johnson impeachment hearing that he could remember the last paragraph and the signature block of the alleged three-page letter?

YES, I BELIEVE THAT ALSO BECAUSE MATHEWS WAS A PROFESSIONAL ACTOR IN 1865 AND TRAINED TO BE A QUICK STUDY OF LINES AND CHANGES IN LINES AT THE LAST MOMENT BEFORE BEING SHOVED ON STAGE. I ALSO BELIEVE THAT PARAGRAPH WOULD BE ETCHED INTO HIS MEMORY BECAUSE OF WHAT HAD JUST OCCURRED.

* Do you find it believable that in 1881 Mathews claimed that with a journalist’s help he was able to “reconstruct from memory” the contents of the letter, whereas he told the Johnson impeachment committee that he could only remember the last paragraph and the signature block?

NO, THIS PART I DO NOT BELIEVE TO BE TRUE. I CONCUR WITH JAMES O. HALL AND EDWARD STEERS THAT HE WAS PROMPTED BY ACCESS TO THE "TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN" LETTER. I HAVE NOT TAKEN TIME TO CHECK ON HOW RHODEHAMEL AND TAPER INTERPRET IT IN RIGHT OR WRONG.

* Do you not view as very problematic Mathews’ claims (1) that two years after the fact, he remembered the last paragraph and the signature block of the letter, and (2) that 14 years after the fact, he was able to “reconstruct from memory” the entire letter with the help of a journalist, given the fact that Mathews told the Johnson impeachment committee that he only read the letter twice and that he was quite nervous while he was reading it?

NO NEED TO RESPOND TO THIS ONE BECAUSE YOU ARE JUST REPEATING WHAT YOU HAD ALREADY QUESTIONED.

* Do you find it odd that Mathews’ 1881 reconstructed-from-memory version of the alleged letter is virtually identical to the letter that Booth left with his sister in the fall of 1864, and that that letter had been widely published by then? (See, for example, Right or Wrong, God Judge Me, p. 151).

ANSWERED ABOVE

* Do you believe Mathews’ story about meeting David Herold on a street the afternoon of the assassination/a week before the assassination? (Mathews’ wording is unclear about when the meeting supposedly occurred. He told this story to explain why he remembered that the name “Herold” was in the signature block of the letter. See his testimony here: https://books.google.com/books?id=FWdHAQ...q&f=true.)

I BELIEVE HIS RECOGNITION OF THOSE THREE CONSPIRATORS' NAMES FOR THE REASON GIVEN IS VERY LIKELY TRUE. AND, NOTE THAT THE NAMES WERE ONLY THOSE WHO HAD REMAINED WITH BOOTH TO THE POINT OF HIS WRITING OF THIS LETTER TO THE NEWSPAPER. SINCE THERE WAS NO MENTION OF THE TWO SURRATTS, ARNOLD, AND O'LAUGHLEN, ISN'T IT REASONABLE AND LOGICAL TO ASSUME THAT BOOTH DID NOT COUNT ON THEIR SUPPORT AND DID NOT CONSIDER THEM PATRIOTS?