John Surratt

[John Fazio]

(05-03-2013 07:40 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(05-02-2013 11:02 PM)Gene C Wrote:  I'm still not 100% convinced Surratt was in Elmira when President Lincoln was assassinated.

Although the majority of my assassination views are "conventional," I do believe there is enough evidence John Surratt was in Washington on April 14 that it should not be dismissed out-of-hand.

I think Booth's thinking changed with the Harney mission's failure. This set in motion a whole series of events. Mary Surratt traveled to Surrattsville on April 11 and told John Lloyd the "shooting irons" would be needed soon. Also, on April 11, Lincoln spoke from the White House. Booth, Herold, and Powell were in the audience. Among other things, Lincoln discussed possible new rights for certain blacks. He suggested conferring voting rights "on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers." Booth was enraged.

On April 13 Herold was sent into the country to inform key people something was about to happen. Dr. Mudd may have been one of these folks Herold visited.

Also on April 13 Lewis Powell was sent to scout the Seward residence. We have pretty good evidence that this occurred.

I think it's possible Booth looked at what he had available (Herold, Powell, and Atzerodt), and decided he needed John Surratt to assist. He contacted Surratt and told him to come to Washington. Booth may also have told Mary that John was coming.

I believe a grand total of 13 eyewitnesses placed John Surratt in Washington on April 14. One eyewitness said he saw Surratt in front of Ford's Theatre prior to the assassination. Another person, a barber, said he cut Surratt's hair in Washington on the morning of April 14. And there were many others.

In his July 6th statement, George Atzerodt wrote, "Booth told me that Surratt was in the Herndon House on the night of the murder, the 14th of April, we were not all together at the Herndon House. Booth told me that Surratt was to help at the box, that he expected others in the box. I saw Surratt a few moments ago."

On Wednesday, April 12, Mary Surratt told Richard Smoot that John would be in Washington on April 14th.

Additionally, the ledger pages for the Brainard House in Elmira for the dates "John Harrison" (John Surratt) was allegedly there are mysteriously missing.

I just think there's enough there to give John Surratt's whereabouts on April 14th a second look.

Roger:

And a third and a fourth look too. There are a lot of things about the conventional wisdom that have an odor about them (again!). We are asked to believe, for example, that after returning to Washington from Richmond on April 3, after just meeting with Benjamin and probably Davis, Surratt, who was in the center of all political maneuverings and developments (Washington), and at a time when Richmond was being evacuated and occupied and the Confederacy collapsing in a cloud of dust, decided to hotfoot it off to Montreal, a 600-mile journey (1,200 round trip), with a stop in New York to see Booth, who, however, was not there, being rather in Boston for a theater engagement. He then resumes his trek to the French-Canadian city and finally arrives on April 6. For what purpose? Why, to deliver to General E. G. Lee dispatches that relate to, according to him (in his Rockville lecture), "accounts of money transactions". Does anyone believe this? He then cools his heels for a few days, admiring the sights of this cosmopolitan city, while his beloved Confederacy continues to collapse in a cloud of dust, until, on April 10 (Monday), he receives word from Booth that their plans have changed and that he must return to Washington forthwith. (The evidence for this communication is very strong.) Shall we surmise that their change of plans has something to do with the fact that Harney was captured and his mission aborted at Burke's Station on the 9th (not the 8th or the 10th, as so many historians have erroneously reported it, but the 9th, per Crawford, his comrade-in-arms). So he hightails it out of Montreal on the 12th, but not to Washington (what happened?), but to Elmira, New York, pursuant to General Lee's request, who wants him to case out the prison there with a view toward a possibile breakout of Confederate POW's, and this despite the fact that Grant had already resumed prisoner exchange in January (shooting for 3,000 per week) and despite the fact that the other General Lee had already thrown in the towel on April 9, thereby, for all practical purposes, ending the war. Does anyone believe this? Then, rather than resume his journey to Washington, per Booth's instructions, he decides to cool his heels in Elmira for a few days, admiring the lower New York scenery, while the Confederacy continues to crumble to dust, until --Mirabile Dictu!!!--he hears of the assassination of Lincoln, whereupon he decides to forget all about Washington and Booth and his mother and decides, instead, to seek refuge and safety among Catholic clergy in Canada, after which he tells three different versions as to how and when he learned of the assassination and how and when he left the country. Does anyone believe this? Not feeling safe enough in Canada, he goes to Europe for sanctuary, telling McMillan and Ste. Marie, when safely away from American justice and while imbibing heavily, everything we need to know to conclude that he and Booth engineered the assassination and the attempted assassinations, at a cost of $10,000 ($140,000 in today's money). Inasmuch as neither he nor his actor friend was working, and inasmuch as it appears to be a safe assumption that his mom's boarding house was not likely to pay that much, it is fair to ask how he came into such a sum. The answer to that question will lead us directly to the masterminds of the the assassination and the attempted decapitation, which, according to the Confederate agent "Johnston" (see p. 727 of The Lincoln Assassination: The Evidence), was to have eliminated 15 Northern leaders, if everything had gone according to plan. (When does it ever?) Bottom line: The conventional wisdom needs a third and fourth look. I am in the middle of the final chapter of my book. You get a free copy.

John