December 2012 Auction Ends Tuesday, December 18th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/18/2012
Amazing and historically-important letter from Almarin C. Richards, Washington, DC Police Superintendent, who was in the audience at Ford's Theater the night President Lincoln was assassinated, to Louis Weichmann, chief prosecution witness at the assassination conspirators' trial. Richards organized a search for the conspirators, including John Wilkes Booth and John Surratt, individuals whom Weichmann knew and testified against. In his 22 February 1899 letter, Richards is retelling his account of events for Weichmann, who wrote a book about the assassination. The letter reads in full, ''I was glad to receive yours of the 16th inst. and shall certainly be glad to read over the portion of your history of the [?] Tragedy which you propose to send me to peruse. 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. 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 at the house. [?] that you would call at my office that morning. I do not recall much about [Detective John] Clarvoe's operations that night. I know he was about for I detailed him to take charge of a squad of mounted men to visit lower Maryland that night as soon as horses could be obtained. This Duty he executed the next morning as there was delay in procuring horses. I hope to hear from you again soon. Yours truly, A.C. Richards''. Letter is dated 22 February 1899 from Eustis, Florida. Minor smudging to 7.75'' x 9.75'' single sheet letter, written front and verso. Overall very good.
Eyewitness Letter from Police Who Hunted Lincoln Assassins -- ''...I visited the Surratt house on the night of the assassination between 12 and 1 o'clock...Laura Keene told him that it was Wilkes...
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