May 2014 Auction Ends Thursday, May 29th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/29/2014
Fascinating autograph letter signed by Almarin C. Richards, Washington DC Police Superintendent and attendee at Ford's Theatre the night of President Lincoln's killing. Here, Richards writes to Louis Weichmann, the prosecution's chief witness, about John H. Surratt's involvement in the assassination and subsequent publications defaming Weichmann for testifying against Mary Surratt, the first woman to be excecuted in the United States. Richards writes ''...Your letter as published in the Washington Post is an admirable refutation of the dastardly and scandalous attack upon your character by John H. Surratt under the cognomen 'Hanson Hiss.' The 'hiss' part of the cognoment is appropriate. In it I note the sinuous course of a serpent and fancy I can hear his 'hiss.' Your letter is entirely appropriate and well conceived and the testimonials you submit are of the best and are conclusive. In any opinion Surratt had better have kept out of this last conspiracy to defame you. You will be fully justified in revealing the entire plot for the assassination of the noble Lincoln with all its attendant incidents and circumstances as you related them to me. It is your duty to vindicate your character and standing as a man and a citizen by unveiling the truth. Truth is the unassailable vindication. You know of course that at the trial of conspirators as a witness you could not give all the facts in your knowledge nor narrate incidents and circumstances as they transpired. In your proposed history of that vile tragedy give everything. Withhold nothing. Let the blow fall. Surratt essays a self vindication at your expense and tries to make a picture of you...A.C. Richards''. 8'' x 10'' letter is datelined 26 April 1898 from Eustis, Florida. Some separation at the folds and minor toning; very good.
Eyewitness Letter to President Abraham Lincoln's Assassination -- ''...at the trial of conspirators as a witness you could not give all the facts in your knowledge...''
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