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RJNorton · 04-02-2017, 08:38 AM

(04-02-2017 02:16 AM)Jim Woodall Wrote: While discussing Jarboes, of interest is a Judson Jarboe. In trial testimony, he was seen with Mudd outside of the Surratt house, supposedly. A Judson Jarboe was arrested in 1861 for the murder of John Ogden at the Spaldings election site at Long Old Fields (now Forestville).

Jim, the idea of Dr. Mudd being at the Surratt boardinghouse was new to me. I looked it up in Pitman and will post a portion of his testimony. The testimony was from William A. Evans. IMO, Evans was probably mistaken as I know of no evidence/testimony that Mudd ever went into the boardinghouse of Mary Surratt (other than Evans' testimony).

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"I have seen Dr. Mudd at different times for the last fifteen years, though I never was introduced to him. I have, I think, met Dr. Mudd at different places in the city, and at the National Hotel. Last winter I saw him go into the house of Mrs. Surratt on H Street; I could not say positively where the house is; it may be between Ninth and Tenth Streets, or between Eighth and Ninth Streets; somewhere along there. I asked a policeman, and a lady who was on the sidewalk, whose house it was, and was told it was Mrs. Surratt's. I had seen rebels going in there — Judson Jarboe and others — and I wished to know who lived there. It was a brick house, of perhaps two stories and an attic, and is, I think, between the Patent Office and the President's house, and is on the right-hand side going toward the Capitol."

Jim Woodall · 04-03-2017, 02:53 AM

(04-02-2017 08:38 AM)RJNorton Wrote:
(04-02-2017 02:16 AM)Jim Woodall Wrote: While discussing Jarboes, of interest is a Judson Jarboe. In trial testimony, he was seen with Mudd outside of the Surratt house, supposedly. A Judson Jarboe was arrested in 1861 for the murder of John Ogden at the Spaldings election site at Long Old Fields (now Forestville).

Jim, the idea of Dr. Mudd being at the Surratt boardinghouse was new to me. I looked it up in Pitman and will post a portion of his testimony. The testimony was from William A. Evans. IMO, Evans was probably mistaken as I know of no evidence/testimony that Mudd ever went into the boardinghouse of Mary Surratt (other than Evans' testimony).

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"I have seen Dr. Mudd at different times for the last fifteen years, though I never was introduced to him. I have, I think, met Dr. Mudd at different places in the city, and at the National Hotel. Last winter I saw him go into the house of Mrs. Surratt on H Street; I could not say positively where the house is; it may be between Ninth and Tenth Streets, or between Eighth and Ninth Streets; somewhere along there. I asked a policeman, and a lady who was on the sidewalk, whose house it was, and was told it was Mrs. Surratt's. I had seen rebels going in there — Judson Jarboe and others — and I wished to know who lived there. It was a brick house, of perhaps two stories and an attic, and is, I think, between the Patent Office and the President's house, and is on the right-hand side going toward the Capitol."

Pittman also has Judson's Jarboe's testimony on page 213 where he does his best to say nothing as he is being examined, especially about the murder which he was apparently acquitted in a Prince George's Court. Several others, including Anna Surratt and John Holahan and Honora Fitzpatrick, were also questioned about Jarboe visiting the Surratt house and whether Mudd had. They denied it. Judson was picked up on April 15 according to his testimony and met some of the others at Carroll Prison.

Does anyone know why he was picked up on April 15th?

RJNorton · 04-03-2017, 11:31 AM

Roy Chamlee writes:

"Several witnesses implicated James Jarboe, alias Smith, a Rebel mail carrier and friend of both John Surratt and George Atzerodt. It was Jarboe who had refused Atzerodt's request for lodging. Jarboe's associate, Annie Mitchell, also served the Confederate cause."

I am certainly no expert on Atzerodt's exact movements during his departure from Washington, but I do not think I have previously seen Jarboe's house mentioned as a place Atzerodt sought shelter and was turned away. Is this historically correct (what Chamlee writes)?

RJNorton · 04-05-2017, 04:09 AM

(03-31-2017 10:18 AM)loetar44 Wrote: Interesting! Was Booth only at 2 pm at Surratt's boardinghouse? No THREE visits that day, but ONE !!! No mention of the first (?) visit in the morning (after his haircut by Charles Wood in Booker & Stewart's barber shop).

I think most authors assume there had to be a morning visit. They base this on Booth's later behavior. For example, Art Loux writes that Atzerodt was orginally assigned to go to Surrattsville.

Art writes:

"Booth did connect with Herold sometime in the morning, for he sent Herold to tell Atzerodt to go to Surrattsville and 'see after' items, certainly the carbines, he had left there."

Art says Booth later stopped by the boardinghouse in the morning and chatted with Mary Surratt. During this conversation he learned that she was planning on going to Surrattsville that afternoon. So Booth gave her the assignment originally given to Atzerodt. Plus he would go and get his field glasses and return to the boardinghouse in the afternoon and ask Mary to take them to Lloyd. At some point Booth met up with Atzerodt and told him there was now no need for him to go to Surrattsville.

loetar44 · 04-05-2017, 04:39 AM

(03-23-2017 04:38 PM)L Verge Wrote: Anna Ward (Annie) had been a teacher at the school in Bryantown when Anna Surratt was a student. She then took a job at the Visitation School near the boardinghouse. I recall one version that had Ward coming to the home on April 10th at the same time Booth was visiting, looking for John. She brought with her a letter that John had sent his mother via her. Mrs. Surratt could not read it because of her poor eyesight and asked Ward to read it. It was then turned over to Anna Surratt.

Just read in a footnote of Alfred Isacsson's article "John Surratt and the Lincoln Assassination Plot" in the December 1957 issue of the Maryland Historical Magazine, something I didn't know in reference to Anna Ward:

"In the preparation of this study, I owe a debt of gratitude to Monsignor Edward P. McAdams of Washington, who kindly shared his knowledge with me on Surratt. He had met John Surratt, was very well acquainted with his sister, Anna, and her husband. Doctor William Tonry. Their son, Reginald Tonry, was a lifelong friend of Msgr. McAdams. ANNIE WARD, WHO ATTENDED MRS. SURRATT ON THE SCAFFOLD, and others who were connected with the assassination of President Lincoln were also among the Monsignor's friends."

Susan Higginbotham · 04-05-2017, 08:30 AM

(04-05-2017 04:39 AM)loetar44 Wrote:
(03-23-2017 04:38 PM)L Verge Wrote: Anna Ward (Annie) had been a teacher at the school in Bryantown when Anna Surratt was a student. She then took a job at the Visitation School near the boardinghouse. I recall one version that had Ward coming to the home on April 10th at the same time Booth was visiting, looking for John. She brought with her a letter that John had sent his mother via her. Mrs. Surratt could not read it because of her poor eyesight and asked Ward to read it. It was then turned over to Anna Surratt.

Just read in a footnote of Alfred Isacsson's article "John Surratt and the Lincoln Assassination Plot" in the December 1957 issue of the Maryland Historical Magazine, something I didn't know in reference to Anna Ward:

"In the preparation of this study, I owe a debt of gratitude to Monsignor Edward P. McAdams of Washington, who kindly shared his knowledge with me on Surratt. He had met John Surratt, was very well acquainted with his sister, Anna, and her husband. Doctor William Tonry. Their son, Reginald Tonry, was a lifelong friend of Msgr. McAdams. ANNIE WARD, WHO ATTENDED MRS. SURRATT ON THE SCAFFOLD, and others who were connected with the assassination of President Lincoln were also among the Monsignor's friends."

Does he cite a source? As far as I know, there's no evidence that Annie Ward attended Mrs. Surratt on the scaffold.

L Verge · 04-05-2017, 11:32 AM

(04-05-2017 08:30 AM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:
(04-05-2017 04:39 AM)loetar44 Wrote:
(03-23-2017 04:38 PM)L Verge Wrote: Anna Ward (Annie) had been a teacher at the school in Bryantown when Anna Surratt was a student. She then took a job at the Visitation School near the boardinghouse. I recall one version that had Ward coming to the home on April 10th at the same time Booth was visiting, looking for John. She brought with her a letter that John had sent his mother via her. Mrs. Surratt could not read it because of her poor eyesight and asked Ward to read it. It was then turned over to Anna Surratt.

Just read in a footnote of Alfred Isacsson's article "John Surratt and the Lincoln Assassination Plot" in the December 1957 issue of the Maryland Historical Magazine, something I didn't know in reference to Anna Ward:

"In the preparation of this study, I owe a debt of gratitude to Monsignor Edward P. McAdams of Washington, who kindly shared his knowledge with me on Surratt. He had met John Surratt, was very well acquainted with his sister, Anna, and her husband. Doctor William Tonry. Their son, Reginald Tonry, was a lifelong friend of Msgr. McAdams. ANNIE WARD, WHO ATTENDED MRS. SURRATT ON THE SCAFFOLD, and others who were connected with the assassination of President Lincoln were also among the Monsignor's friends."

Does he cite a source? As far as I know, there's no evidence that Annie Ward attended Mrs. Surratt on the scaffold.

Fr. Isacsson has to be wrong in making that claim. I don't believe that Miss Ward was even with Anna (or on the penitentiary grounds) at the time of the execution. It would be interesting to see if there is any log-in by Ward to visit Mrs. Surratt during her incarceration and trial.

loetar44 · 04-05-2017, 01:38 PM

(04-05-2017 08:30 AM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote: Does he cite a source? As far as I know, there's no evidence that Annie Ward attended Mrs. Surratt on the scaffold.

No, he does not.

loetar44 · **RE: Where was John Surratt on April 14, 1865 ?**

(03-24-2017 05:12 PM)loetar44 Wrote: I remember that I once read (can't recall where) that the tipster was James P. Ferguson from the Greenback Saloon, that he told the police that Booth and Surratt were close friends.

Finally I now know where I read that Ferguson told the police that Booth and Surratt were close friends. It was in John Fazio's "Decapitating" p. 62.

It was A.C. Richards, superintendent of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, who arrived at 1 am (April 15, 1865) at Surratt's boardinghouse after Ferguson gave him information about Powell, Herold and Atzerodt and their connection with John Surratt. Mary answered the doorbell. Richards wrote the story to Weichmann on April 29, 1898 and confirmed the story in another letter dated Feb. 22, 1899.

Note that Richards came 1.5 hours earlier than McDevitt and his men.

How trustfull is A. C. Richards?

RJNorton · 04-06-2017, 08:59 AM

(04-06-2017 08:20 AM)loetar44 Wrote: How trustfull is A. C. Richards?

Kees, I know some historians find A.C. Richards untrustworthy. In The Lincoln Assassination Encyclopedia Ed Steers writes, "Richards gave several statements in the forty years following the assassination, all filled with inconsistencies and errors."

Richards is one of a small minority of people who wrote that Peanut John Burroughs was black. I believe there is substantial evidence that Burroughs was white.

Susan Higginbotham · 04-06-2017, 10:09 AM

There's a long discussion elsewhere on the forum about Richards' veracity on certain points, including his claim to have visited the boardinghouse on April 15. I'm among the skeptics.

RJNorton · 04-06-2017, 11:24 AM

Thanks, Susan.

A strange Richards' story was in a newspaper article we have previously discussed. Within the article it said:

"Former Police Chief Richards provided more details about his involvement with the historic event during a 1900 talk at Clifford Hall, according to a letter written in 1958 by former Eustis resident M.B. Gault. The letter now is in the hands of the Lake County Historical Society.

Gault wrote: ''At one of the entertainments given by some group, a Col. Richards came on the stage and told how he had been posted behind the box in which President Lincoln sat when he was shot. He said he jumped through the front of the box to get Booth, who got away, but he found on the stage a Bowie knife that Booth was supposed to have lost. And he Richards showed us the knife.''

loetar44 · **RE: Where was John Surratt on April 14, 1865 ?**

Thanks Roger and Susan!

I’m skeptic too, because none of the others who testified NEVER mentioned that A.C. Richards was in Surratt’s boarding house that particular night. If he was there, one certainly would have known that: Weichmann ! Why had he not seen Richards in the house? I’m also skeptic that Richards was sitting in the dress circle when he heard the fatal shot.

Richards wrote all the letters from his home overlooking Lake Eldorado, east of Eustis, Florida … Maybe he dreamed away and let his mind and memories wander (after more than 30 years) and wanted some fame, or a (minor) place in history. Anyway we are still discussing his whereabouts shortly after the murder.

Is it true that Richards had gotten information (from Ferguson) that Booth often visited Surratt's house? John (Fazio) writes in "Decapitating", p. 62: “Further, Major Almarin Cooley (A.C.) Richards, superintendent of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department (1864-1878), had entered the house about 1:00 a.m., about an hour and a half earlier than Detectives McDevitt and Clarvoe, upon receiving information from James P. Ferguson, …. etc. And he writes that Richards confirmed this in his letter, dated February 22, 1899… I just read this letter in which Richards is retelling his account of events for Weichmann.

The letter reads in part: “There need be no question in your mind that I visited the Surratt house on the night of the assassination between 12 and 1 o'clock. I am not mistaken as to that point. I am not sure who I took with me. The only reason that led me to suppose [Detective James] McDevitt was with me is that I was with him at the Theatre earlier that night. He [McDevitt] told me that [actress] Laura Keene had told him that it was Wilkes Booth who vaulted from the box the President occupied. Soon thereafter it came to my knowledge that Booth and young Surratt had several times been in each others company the latter part of the preceeding [sic] winter. That information led me to seek Mrs. Surratt's house in search of Booth or to learn something definite about him and his intimates, not for one moment then suspecting that Mrs. Surratt was implicated in the assassination.”

No mention of Ferguson.

RJNorton · 04-07-2017, 04:02 AM

(04-06-2017 02:27 PM)loetar44 Wrote: The only reason that led me to suppose [Detective James] McDevitt was with me is that I was with him at the Theatre earlier that night. He [McDevitt] told me that [actress] Laura Keene had told him that it was Wilkes Booth who vaulted from the box the President occupied.

This is strange, IMO. There is an 1885 account by Richards in Tim Good's We Saw Lincoln Shot: One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts. In this account Richards claims the officer with him at Ford's Theatre was Captain M. Reed. Richards says it was Reed's suggestion that the two men go into the theater. No mention at all of McDevitt.

loetar44 · 04-07-2017, 04:48 AM

(04-07-2017 04:02 AM)RJNorton Wrote:
(04-06-2017 02:27 PM)loetar44 Wrote: The only reason that led me to suppose [Detective James] McDevitt was with me is that I was with him at the Theatre earlier that night. He [McDevitt] told me that [actress] Laura Keene had told him that it was Wilkes Booth who vaulted from the box the President occupied.

This is strange, IMO. There is an 1885 account by Richards in Tim Good's We Saw Lincoln Shot: One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts. In this account Richards claims the officer with him at Ford's Theatre was Captain M. Reed. Richards says it was Reed's suggestion that the two men go into the theater. No mention at all of McDevitt.

Richards further wrote in the same letter:

"The more I study over this matter the more convinced I am that McDevitt was not with me the night of the murder but that he reported to me the next (Saturday) morning that he had visited that house the night previous and that he had seen you [Weichmann] at the house. [?] that you would call at my office that morning."