Killing Lincoln: The Real Story

[RJNorton]

Thank you to Bob Cook for sending out an alert regarding this new book.

Why was Lincoln left defenseless when the War Department knew plots were afoot against him? Why was Booth shot when he was surrounded by 25 soldiers and could not escape? Why were two innocents swiftly hanged by a military tribunal, and not even allowed to testify in their own defense? After 150 years of mystery, you'll find the real answers in this explosive book. President Lincoln was killed by a cabal inside his own administration because he was making secret plans to forgive the South and allow them to re-take their seats in Congress. This plan did not sit well with the radical Republicans who had taken control after secession because it would have upset their plot to loot the South and seek revenge for the rebellion, a project they were able to realize, but only after Lincoln was out-of-the-way. Includes numerous photos and illustrations from the period.

http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Lincoln-Th...1503270262

[Gene C]

the writer certainly has some impresive credentials

More About the Author
› Visit Amazon's Steven Hager Page
Biography
I started out writing black comedy, but I'm best known as the first reporter to document hip hop and the instigator of the film Beat Street. I also founded the Cannabis Cup, organized the first 420 ceremonies outside of Marin County, and launched the hemp movement with Jack Herer while writing some landmark conspiracy articles. My most recent book is an investigation of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and I was amazed by some of the evidence I turned up. This is the most investigated murder in history, and most of the primary documents are available free from the Library of Congress.

[Jim Garrett]

Well Gene, he certainly seems to have been in the forefront of the Cannabis movement. Maybe he knows something about the Garrett's barn being used to dry some other leafy plant used for smoking.

[LincolnMan]

Shades of 'Why Was Lincoln Murdered?'

[L Verge]

From the excerpts I have seen, a much "wilder" shade...

[loetar44]

Historical fiction ....

[Hess1865]

cue the Grateful Dead music.......

[Gene C]

Is this what you had in mind?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iZ49s7e...7B&index=8

[Steven Hager]

Hello fellow researchers,

I hold a masters in journalism from the University of Illinois, and have worked as a professional journalist since graduation in 1977. However, if you find my 25 years spent as a cannabis legalization activist as something to snortle and chuckle over, please consider my side has won that war and 70% of our country supports legalization, and patients are flocking to multiple states where taking natural medication is no longer illegal. Historians should research the history of cannabis prohibition, because the name change to a Mexican word when they launched demonization was an obvious attempt to fool people considering you could pay your taxes in raw hemp stalk when the country was founded, so vital was it to national security.

I was a huge Civil War buff as a teenager; during the anniversary my father had many Bruce Catton books around the house. His grandfather received a West Kansas homestead in appreciation for his Civil War service.

After becoming editor of a national magazine in 1987, I soon wrote an article for the 25th anniversary of the JFK assassination that attracted much praise from Judge Jim Garrison, Fletcher Prouty, Bo Gritz and many others on all sides of the political spectrum.

I never had interest in the exploring the Lincoln assassination until earlier this year when I saw a film called the Conspirator on Netflix. I ordered around 25 books and starting reading documents online from the Library of Congress.

After years of study, I'd been able to solve the JFK assassination to my satisfaction by following loose threads of the cover-up back to their source, and seeing if the dots pointed anywhere, which of course they did. I applied the same strategy to Lincoln.

I welcome constructive additions and corrections to my book and hope I get some, and I confess I don't buy the official story as told by Bill O'Reilly, whose book I wasn't even aware of until after I started my research.

From what I gather you'll probably typecast me as another "Eisenshciml" although I think the erroneous details of his work are over-stated, and ignore Roscoe and others who have contributed since.

It's misleading to list "Stanton did it" along with the Confederate and Catholic conspiracy theories as if they are all equal in weight and substance. The Confederate theory was concocted by the military tribunal, and they found Davis and his cabinet guilty (does that make it conspiracy fact?). But then they also found Mary Surratt guilty and made sure she hanged the next day. The Catholic conspiracy was invented by the head of the military tribunal in a failed attempt to wash Surratt's blood off his hands and shift the blame.

I don't buy the story of Stanton's death by sudden illness, and the conspiracy was never Stanton alone, but Stanton, Stevens, Wade and Eckert at a bare minimum, although it could have encompassed other Radical Republicans and Wall Street war profiteers.

best wishes for a happy holiday season to all,

Steve Hager

(11-13-2014 09:24 AM)Gene C Wrote:  the writer certainly has some impresive credentials

More About the Author
› Visit Amazon's Steven Hager Page
Biography
I started out writing black comedy, but I'm best known as the first reporter to document hip hop and the instigator of the film Beat Street. I also founded the Cannabis Cup, organized the first 420 ceremonies outside of Marin County, and launched the hemp movement with Jack Herer while writing some landmark conspiracy articles. My most recent book is an investigation of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and I was amazed by some of the evidence I turned up. This is the most investigated murder in history, and most of the primary documents are available free from the Library of Congress.

[Eva Elisabeth]

(12-08-2014 12:52 PM)Steven Hager Wrote:  I never had interest in the exploring the Lincoln assassination until earlier this year when I saw a film called the Conspirator on Netflix.

Please allow me kindly to inquire - so how long did you work on your book? (It just seems you found out the "real" answers much faster than other authors the "not real" ones ?)

[Steven Hager]

I saw The Conspirator on Netflix in February and was stunned at the manipulations used to convict Mary Surratt, and then immediately hang her. I started researching immediately afterwards, but didn't start writing about the case until late summer. This was so much easier to research than JFK, where almost all documents remain hidden. This case was "snowed over" just like JFK, which means the investigations include a tremendous amount of meaningless details leading nowhere. My concentration was on the military tribunal and the witnesses who lied for profit, and who really orchestrated that event. I guess you know Stanton was a Democrat who switched parties when he got his post in the Cabinet. Charles Dunham was allegedly a Democratic Party dirty tricks specialist, who undoubtedly became Stanton's secret agent because he was the one who paid and groomed the witnesses. When John Surratt was captured and brought back for trial, Dunham visited Surratt in jail and offered him a bribe if he would implicate Jefferson Davis in the plot. Surratt refused and won his court case anyway, despite the manipulations against him.

[Gene C]

Steven, my knowledge of John Surratt is limited, what is your source that Dunham offered Surratt a bribe to implicate Davis in the assassination plot?

I guess you know that Lincoln also switched parties around 1856. There was a lot of political turmoil with folks not happy with the direction their political parties were going. Stanton's actions in this regard was not uncommon.

[Steven Hager]

Charles A. Dunham (alias San(d)ford Conover) is the key character to unveiling the plot, and if you saw Spielberg's Lincoln, you saw how political fixers like Dunham were used to bribe and bully Congressman to vote for the anti-slavery amendment. Dunham was a Zelig-like chameleon, master of a dozen fake identities, and possessed a "cool turpitude" in the implementation of bribery, extortion, theft and murder. The number of historians who studied Dunham is surprisingly small, less than a half dozen. David Barbee, whose archives are located at Georgetown University was the first I believe. Carming Cumming wrote the excellent "Devil's Game" for the U of I Press, my alma mater, (and the leading publisher in Lincoln research). I'd have to search my notes to discover the exact location of the bribe offer.

[Steven Hager]

When the Republican Party was formed, Stanton remained a staunch Democrat, but did not support secession rights. Lincoln wanted Democrats in his cabinet. Congress was incredibly corrupt, and when Stanton took over the War Department, he quickly absorbed control of the newspapers, telegraph lines, and secret police. He was mentally disturbed, as evidence, his penchant for keeping corpses in his home and dressing them up, not to mention moving the rocking chair Lincoln was assassinated in into his office so he could sit in it. He was infamous among the military for stage-managing kangaroo courts against officers who were not sufficiently loyal to him, and thus got control over the military. Stanton is not some hero to hold up for adoration. Quite the contrary.

---

The other detail so overlooked is the man who engineered Stanton into politics, a man who just happened to be the secret leader of the Knights of the Golden Circle, aka Liberty Boys, according to a War Department report. Strange that this close association would be overlooked by every historian especially since Vallindigham was the man who hated Lincoln with a purple passion and wanted him dead more than any other living individual. And there he is, Stanton's mentor.

---

Another character missing from the pages of history is Simon Wolf, who represents the Jewish merchants who were profiteering off the war. He was their lawyer and lobbyist in Washington, and very close with Stanton. These merchants were often harassed and arrested by the Union forces, and, in fact, General Grant put out an order to have all jews arrested during a campaign, an order quickly rescinded by President edict after Wolf visited Lincoln and protested. Wolf met with Booth this day, we know this is fact because he wrote about it in his autobiography, although he seems to have told some lies in doing so, since he claims Lucy rejected Booth on that day, when in fact, Lucy claimed to Edwin Booth she would have married his brother on the steps of the gallows, so strong was her love for him.

[LincolnMan]

Steve : interesting stuff about Stanton. The Forum here has mentioned previously that he kept a corpse in his residence. I don't remember- was it his wife or daughter?
Also, you mentioned Vallindigham. I was putting together a post on my Lincoln blog today. In 1863, there was a rumor in the Detroit area that he was behind a planned attack on the Great Lakes by Confederates (and freed prisoners from Johnson Island). He was exiled in Windsor over in Canada. Anyway, Zachariah Chandler of Michigan felt that Detroit and the Great Lakes region needed added protection against the threat. Who did he ask? Stanton! Just noting all of this in passing...