Miss Porterfield meets Booth

[LincolnMan]

Article: Lincoln's Jesse W. Weik Part 2 by Glenn Tucker in the Summer 2016 The Lincoln Herald- a good read with many accounts of Lincoln and related stories. Among them is the account of a Miss Porterfield who had witnessed the assassination. According to her, she had met Booth by chance on the street April 13th. There was conversation. He seemed upset. She said she "felt something was wrong with the man" and that she detected "an irrationality."
She recounted that Booth asked her: "Don't you study Latin at school?" She replied that she did. "Then tell me this:is tyrannis spelled with two n's or two r's?"
Interesting question by Booth. Obviously, he had been planning on what he would proclaim to the audience after striking Lincoln?

[RJNorton]

Interesting story, Bill. I wonder if he included the word 'tyrannis' in the letter he wrote and gave to John Mathews (which Mathews burned). That might explain why he was concerned with spelling.

I have seen portions of Miss Porterfield's story in a few books including Tom Goodrich's The Darkest Dawn. There is at least one item in her full story that makes me a little suspect - he tells Miss Porterfield that he was awakened in the morning by a man whose name she recalled as Surratt. I think the evidence is pretty solid that John Surratt was not in Washington on the 13th.

[LincolnMan]

It does sound like he was contemplating writing the word. That just could be it. Fascinating speculation! Didn't Matthews supposedly recall the contents of the letter years later?

[RJNorton]

Yes, and as the years passed, the letter got longer and longer!

[LincolnMan]

(02-02-2017 05:54 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Interesting story, Bill. I wonder if he included the word 'tyrannis' in the letter he wrote and gave to John Mathews (which Mathews burned). That might explain why he was concerned with spelling.

I have seen portions of Miss Porterfield's story in a few books including Tom Goodrich's The Darkest Dawn. There is at least one item in her full story that makes me a little suspect - he tells Miss Porterfield that he was awakened in the morning by a man whose name she recalled as Surratt. I think the evidence is pretty solid that John Surratt was not in Washington on the 13th.

This is also mentioned in the article. And as you indicate, Surratt was not in Washington City at that time. We probably have to conclude a strong possibilty that she embellished her story a bit. Booth may have been awakened by somebody but it wasn't Surratt.

[LincolnMan]

I wonder if Miss Porterfield's account is contained in that book "We Saw Lincoln Shot?" If I remember right the book is divided into sections based on the credibility of the stories.

[RJNorton]

Bill, I just checked, and it is not included. No mention of her at all.

[LincolnMan]

Thanks Roger. All my books and most everything I own are in storage.