March 2012 Auction Ends Wednesday, March 28th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/28/2012
Incredible autograph letter detailing the moments immediately after President Lincoln's murder, and the subsequent investigation by eyewitness Almarin C. Richards, the Washington D.C. Police Superintendent. The five page letter is addressed to Louis Weichmann, whose controversial testimony was the key evidence in convicting the plot's conspirators - including the first women to be executed in the United States, Mary Surratt. Mary Surrat, her son John Surrat, Dr. Mudd and John Wilkes Booth allegedly conspired to assassinate Lincoln at Mary Surratt's boarding house, of which Weichmann was a longtime resident. In part: ''My Dear Sir: Responding to yours of the 10th inst. I have to say that in April 1865 I was major superintendent of the metropolitan police of the District of Colombia. It so happened that I was in Ford's theater on the night of April 14th 1865 at the time of the assassination of President Lincoln. It became my duty at once to seek and ascertain the identity of the President's assassin. Within a short time, less than an hour I had positive and undoubted information that the man who had been seen to vault from the box occupied by the President and others was Wilkes Booth. Very soon thereafter I was authentically informed that Booth had frequently been in the company of John H. Surratt and others during the then presiding four weeks and that Booth and others then not known by name to me were known to have frequently visited the house of John. H. Surratt's mother. Between the hours of 12 and 1 o'clock that night in company with several of my officers I visited the house of Mrs. Surratt and paid and conversed with her giving her, as I then presumed the first information she had received of the assassination of the president. You were sleeping in Mrs. Surratt's house that night and one of my officers reported to me that he had seen you in your room. As of that hour I had no grounds for suspecting that Mrs. Surratt was implicated in the conspiracy to assassinate the President. She was not arrested. A guard of police officers was left to observe who came to or left the house, when I left for other duties. At about half past eight the next Saturday (April 15th) morning, very soon after I reached my office you came in and, introducing yourself, stated that you were and had been for sometime a border of Mrs. Surratt's house and that in view of the assassination and developments that had come to your knowledge within a few hours believed that you were in presence of facts and a knowledge of circumstances that proved materially and in developing the fact that a band of men had for some time previous been concocting a plot to assassinate the President you then and there gave many facts and incidents you had already observed together with meetings at Mrs. Surratts house, on the street and at hotels of the men you believed had comprised the plot for the assassination of the President and other principle officers of the government. You gave names, dates, incidents and circumstances connected with the plot...the course you pursued...was of intrinsic value in aiding in establishing the fact of a conspiracy...'' Each page measures 8'' x 10''. Minor separation at folds and toning else very good.
Eyewitness Letter to President Abraham Lincoln's Assassination -- ''...a band of men had for some time been concocting a plot to assassinate the President...''
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