July 2014 Auction Ends Thursday, July 31st, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/31/2014
Lincoln assassination letter, dated 19 March 1899, from Almarin C. Richards, D.C. Police Superintendent who tracked down conspirators, to Louis Weichmann, chief prosecution witness at the conspirators' trial. Weichmann, who boarded with suspected conspirator Mary Surratt, was himself a suspect until he testified against the others. Richards and Weichmann corresponded in preparation for Weichmann's book on the assassination. Richards writes, ''I have read over the matter enclosed very carefully...I can see no grounds for criticism. Chapter twenty seems to me to be in the nature of a self vindication of the course you pursued in relation to the Surratt family subsequent to the assassination of the President which I do not think you need, yet the chapter is very interesting and historically valuable as any incident connected with the most fiendish crime of the age must be. The only circumstance connected with the plot to murder the President that some might seem to involve you unfavorably is the fact that you, an officer of the government in the War Department were a boarder in the Surratt house and on intimate terms with that family. It seems to me that your statements will allay any unfavorable impression that would arise in the mind of a reasonable person as the scheme of your proposed book is not only to give an inside historical account of matters and incidents that came to your personal knowledge relative to the conspiracy, but also to repell [sic] unkind and malicious attacks that the Surratts and their sympathizers have made upon you...since the closing scenes of that greatest of tragedies in the history of the world...'' 7.75'' x 9.75'' single page letter, written front and verso, is in very good condition.
Lincoln Assassination Letter -- From Policeman Who Hunted Conspirators -- ''...you, an officer of the government...were a boarder in the Surratt house and on intimate terms with that family...''
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