Hoods

[Rsmyth]

I was looking through some old notes that said that some of the conspirators wore 3 different hoods. They wore hoods on the gunboats, different hoods in the penitentiary and lastly one on the gallows. I was also told that the hoods on display at the Smithsonian were the padded ones worn in the penitentiary. Is that correct? There were 8 hoods. Mudd and Mrs. Surratt did not wear any but Hartman Richter and Celestino did.

A May 1865 letter to Wm. Brearley marked "strictly confidential" is apparently in reference to obtaining hoods for Lincoln's assassins. The letter orders Brearley to report to Major General John Frederick Hartranft, provost marshall at the trial of Lincoln's assassins, with a letter from Major General Winfield Scott Hancock, who was in charge of the conspirator's hanging, to obtain Hartranft's "directions as to what work is to be done and have them carried out with secrecy and dispatch."

So did Brearley make the hoods or did he assign Dodd to do it who them had his wife Priscilla?

[L Verge]

Where are Barry Cauchon and John Elliott on this one? I believe the three-hood theory is correct, but they are our real experts on the handling of the prisoners onboard the monitor and at the Penitentiary.

Mrs. Dodd helped to finish Mrs. Surratt's hanging hood, but I can't remember the details on the others.