Lincoln Movie Lobby Cards by Richard Sloan

Posted on July 9, 2025 by Dave Taylor

I’m so fortunate to have a wealth of friends and colleagues willing to contribute posts here on LincolnConspirators.com as I spend more time working on my book. This post is written by Richard Sloan. He has been involved in the assassination for decades. In many ways, this blog is following in Richard’s footsteps as he wrote and mailed out his own Lincoln assassination newsletter from 1976 to 1981. Called The Lincoln Log, Richard’s Xeroxed sheets were filled with new articles and reports from fellow researchers on their discoveries. Richard was essentially blogging about the Lincoln assassination before the internet was a thing. I met Richard at the first Surratt Society conference I attended. Just a couple of years later, he took a chance and had me take part in a panel discussion in New York alongside Michael Kauffman and Kate Clifford Larson.

Richard acted as our moderator, and I was definitely out of my league compared to those two great historians, but it was a truly wonderful experience. Since then, Richard and I have been regular email correspondents. After I published my post last year about The Twilight Zone episode, “Back There,” Richard inquired if I’d ever write something about Lincoln lobby cards. Knowing his expertise in Lincoln in the media and his own large collection of Lincoln lobby cards, I told him that only he could do the matter justice. I’m so pleased to present Richard’s piece about Abraham Lincoln movie lobby cards, illustrated with some selections from his vast collection.

Lincoln Movie Lobby Cards

By Richard Sloan

Readers of Dave’s blog may wonder why this topic could be of interest. Since 1955, when I was eleven years old, and read the Reader’s Digest version of Jim Bishop’s The Day Lincoln Was Shot, I’ve been very interested in both our 16th President’s life and his assassination. In 1976, I became passionately interested in how both subjects have been depicted in the theatre arts –  early melodramas, radio, movies, and television. My penchant for collecting items on these subjects began shortly thereafter.  It now includes videos, reviews, clippings, autographs, scripts, playbills, publicity photos, and movie lobby cards.  For those of you too young to know what lobby cards are, they are colorful scenes from silent movies and “talkies” that were printed on heavy 11” x 14” card stock. With the aim of luring pedestrians into buying movie tickets, posters were displayed outside theaters with banners reading “NOW PLAYING!” Scenes from upcoming features were displayed inside the theatres’ lobbies, (hence the term “Lobby cards”) with the banners reading “COMING SOON!” These cards were usually framed and covered with picture glass to protect them, but sometimes a lazy theatre manager would merely have them crudely pinned upon a wall with thumb tacks.

Lobby cards were produced in sets of eight. Back in the days of black & white silent movies, the studios colored them to make them more attractive to would-be theatre patrons. Film historians estimate that 90 percent of silent films have been lost, simply because they were made on nitrate stock that caused them to eventually disintegrate. They are called “lost films.” Lobby cards from these films are the only evidence of what they looked like. Mark Reinhart’s encyclopedic book Abraham Lincoln on Screen (now in its third edition) lists fifty-three silent films in which Lincoln is depicted, and he writes that over half of them are “lost.”

When a first-run film played out its engagement in one theatre, its lobby cards were returned to the film’s distributor together with the films for use in another theatre. And when a movie completed its run altogether, the lobby cards no longer served any purpose. They were either thrown out or given away. Sometimes, dealers in movie ephemera would get their hands on them. Others survived by sheer chance, tucked away in an attic or kept by an actor as a memento of their careers. No one could imagine that some of them would ever become valuable collectibles. The most valuable of all the Lincoln lobby cards are the one from The Birth of a Nation (1915), showing Joseph Henabery praying as Lincoln, and the one from The Littlest Rebel (1935), showing a charming (but fictitious) scene between Shirley Temple and Frank McGlynn, who played Lincoln. When these cards were sold at auction, collectors with deep pockets (that’s not me!) won them. Fortunately, faithful reproductions of these two cards can now be purchased easily on eBay for very affordable prices.

Some movie distributors contracted for films to be re-released a decade or so after their initial release (before television came along), giving new audiences the opportunity of seeing them for the first time. In such cases, an entirely new series of lobby cards were issued, usually containing different scenes than the original cards did. For collectors who can’t afford the originals, these re-issues can sometimes be more affordable.  Small words in red at the bottom of these cards state either “re-release” or just the letter “R.”

I was first introduced to the lobby card genre by William Kaland, a retired executive producer at Westinghouse Broadcasting. Bill was a student and collector of Lincoln and the Civil War. In 1958, he and Mathew Brady biographer Roy Meredith produced an award-winning TV series about the Civil War. Twenty years later, he became a dear friend and the guiding spirit behind the founding of the Lincoln Group of New York. During one of my visits with Bill in his Manhattan home, I mentioned to him my interest in Lincoln movies. He got up and pulled out a huge folder from a cabinet. Inside were a dozen old lobby cards that included four extremely rare ones from Benjamin Chapin’s nine “Lincoln Cycle” silent films. Six of them were from D.W. Griffith’s 1930 “talkie,” Abraham Lincoln.

They had all been from black & white movies, but they had been tinted by the studios. The one from Griffith’s film showed Ian Keith as Booth about to shoot Walter Houston as Lincoln. It was beautifully colored. I had never seen lobby cards before, and I was immediately “hooked” on the genre. Sadly, Bill died in 1983, and his widow sold his entire collection at auction. I’ll give you one guess who bought his lobby cards.

I then set my sights on finding the remaining three lobby cards from the Griffith film, as well as those that promoted my two favorite Lincoln films. These were the 1936 film, The Prisoner of Shark Island (which was directed by John Ford and starred Warner Baxter, Gloria Stuart, and John Carradine), and Ford’s 1939 film, Young Mr. Lincoln (which starred Henry Fonda). I expanded my search for all the other Lincoln movie lobby cards. It was a great treasure hunt. Over the next many years, I found all of the lobby cards from the “talkies” in which Lincoln appeared, with one exception — a colored one for Young Mr. Lincoln with the name of the movie prominently displayed at the top. Such cards are known as “title” cards, while the other seven cards in the sets are called “scene” cards.

The first card I located was the title card for Prisoner of Shark Island, although it was only a photocopy. The corners on the original had a dozen holes, the result of it having once been mounted in a theatre lobby with thumbtacks. The original title card eluded me for thirty-five years. In the meantime, I found the other seven cards. Then one day, I finally found the original title card on eBay. I bought it immediately, and when it arrived, I found it to be in mint condition except for one thing –it had a dozen pinholes in the four corners. I raced upstairs to get my album of cards from the movie, and lo and behold, not only did it have the same number of pinholes in each corner, but they were in the same haphazard arrangement! It was my newly acquired title card that had been used to create the photocopy I had bought over thirty-five years earlier!

I also have original lobby cards from the “lost” 1924 silent film, The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln, the very first feature-length movie about Lincoln’s life. It starred Lincoln look-alike George Billings, a house painter who had to be given acting lessons! I found them on eBay, too. The lobby cards for it were issued in both black and white and in color, which is most unusual. I have some of each. Modern-day copies of two of the tinted ones from this “lost” film can now be bought on eBay for only $3.28,  from a seller in Australia. Included among my other Lincoln-related lobby cards are the original set of cards from Griffith’s Abraham Lincoln and the ones from the later re-issue, all with different scenes than the original cards. I have Abe Lincoln in Illinois, which starred Raymond Massey, The Tall Target, in which Lincoln only appeared in the last scene, and Prince of Players, which was the first time the assassination and Booth’s capture appeared in color – and in Cinemascope.

Lobby cards are now a thing of the past. They’ve been replaced in theatre lobbies by seven-foot high cardboard cutouts! However, there are still plenty of them for sale. If you should ever come across my missing title card for Young Mr. Lincoln, please let me know!

– Richard Sloan

Categories: History, Richard Sloan | Tags: , , | 3 Comments

Campfire Tales about Old Joe Zisgen by Steven G. Miller

Posted on June 24, 2025 by Dave Taylor

With the success of his post earlier this month, I’m happy to report that Steve Miller is making a return appearance. This time, Steve shares a new discovery he has just made bout the fate of one of the members of the patrol that cornered Lincoln’s assassin.

Campfire Tales about Old Joe Zisgen

By Steven G. Miller

In my portion of the Booth Exhumation reunion that was recently hosted by Dave and posted on this site, I mentioned that Joseph Zisgen had never spoken about the death of Booth so far as I was aware.

Wouldn’t you know it, just over a month after I made that statement, I stumbled onto such an account!

Who was Joseph Zisgen? A brief biography of “Old Joe” was contained in this obituary:

“The death of Joseph Zisgen occurred in the hospital here Thursday after a long illness. He was born in Germany and had been a resident of this country since boyhood. He served in Co. M, 16th. N.Y. Cav., and in Co. G, 3d N. Y. Pro. Cav. during the Civil War. He was admitted to the Branch from New York City, Dec. 14, 1871, and was one of the oldest members of the Branch. Mr. Zisgen was one of the party who captured John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln, and he received $2000 of the reward, it is said on good authority. He had been a member of the Branch so many years that all knew “Joe” and he had become a ‘character.’”

Zisgen’s grave in Maine from FindaGrave.com

His share of the Booth-Herold Reward money was actually $1,654.83, and he received it in August 1866. There has always been a minor mystery (in my mind, at least) about what became of the money. That amount was enough to set someone up with a comfortable life. Joe didn’t seem to have any health issues until old age, yet he ended up in the Soldiers and Sailors Home. It seems that the article I found solves that question.

The author of the article was Josiah Smith Maxcy (1854-1936), the son of a wealthy businessman from Gardiner, Maine. Maxcy went on to great success as a banker, railway executive, and, finally, the president of the Maine Trust Banking Company and Gardiner General Hospital. Always fond of his hometown, Maxcy also presented a speech on Gardiner’s early history for its centennial celebration in 1903.

In his article, Maxcy recounts how, when he was a teenager, he and others had gone camping on the shores of Boothbay Harbor one summer and became aware of the potential for establishing a campground on Squirrel Island in the Gulf of Maine. Eventually, the property came up for sale, and Maxcy and a group invested in the site and established a colony on the land. It became a successful summer getaway, and Maxcy was one of the officers of the organization.

He gives a history of the resort and the people involved in its creation, but digresses to tell a story which he describes as “an incident of that camping trip (in the summer of 1873), which was of much interest.”

Here’s the interesting part of Maxcy’s article:

“A Civil War Veteran

“Near our tent was another occupied by about a dozen Civil War veterans from the Government House at Togus, and one of their number, a German, was a member of the squad that captured J. Wilkes Booth, He graphically described the pursuit and capture, the burning barn and the paleness of Booth, leaning on his crutch, and of his being shot against orders by Boston Corbitt. Then he told of receiving his share of the reward, of becoming gloriously drunk, of walking thru the streets of New York and meeting an organ grinder with his monkey, of purchasing the outfit for a fabulous sum, of the monkey going up a conductor into window for a tip, of his encounter with a pet bull pup, of the soldier and the dog’s owner engaging in a free fight, of finding himself next morning locked in a cell, and nearly destitute of money. He was taken before a magistrate, and the reward was paid to the Judge, saloons, organ-grinder, jail inmates and magistrate who got it all.”

Though he does not identify the soldier by name, Maxcy was undoubtedly referring to Joseph Zisgen, of the Garrett’s Farm patrol. Now we know we apparently know what happened to his bounty money! Other troopers who received a share of the War Department Reward applied it to boring things: houses, farms, raising families, and starting a modest business or two. If this story is true, here we seem to have one who blew it on a drunken bender and a furry little critter.

Wasn’t it Billy Rose who cautioned: “Never invest in anything that eats or needs painting”? Joe should have heeded this advice.

References:
“A Historical Sketch by Josiah S. Maxcy of Gardiner. Mr. Maxcy Recalls His Own Experiences and Searches thru the Records for Matters of Fact and History,” Sun-Journal (Lewiston, ME), August 20, 1921.
“National Home. Joseph Zisgen,” Kennebec (ME) Journal, January 9, 1914.

Categories: History, Steven G. Miller | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

More History from the LincolnConspirators Patreon

Posted on June 13, 2025 by Dave Taylor

 

In March 2025, I started a Patreon page to solicit financial support for my efforts on LincolnConspirators.com and my ongoing book project. The Patreon has three different levels of support: the $3 a month Family Circle, the $7 a month Dress Circle, and the $15 a month Orchestra Chairs level. Each tier offers distinct perks that accumulate and stack on top of one another.

For $3 a month, you receive a weekly dispatch from The Telegraph Office. These are posts featuring Lincoln assassination-related news from the past week, upcoming events, a look at a unique auction item, and an anniversary of an event related to the assassination. When I first started the Patreon, I made the first Telegraph Office dispatch public and accessible to all so that prospective patrons could see what this offering looked like.

At that time, though, I did not provide samples of the benefits available at the higher tiers of support. This was because I was still fine-tuning everything in the beginning. However, it has now been over three months, and there are 40 posts on the Patreon page. Having built up a nice level of content to explore, I decided now would be a good time to show off examples of the benefits available for joining the Dress Circle and Orchestra Chairs levels.

For the $7 a month Dress Circle level, you gain access to The Vault, fortnightly posts exploring artifacts related to the Lincoln assassination. Just today, I published the newest installment of The Vault – a look at X-rays from the so-called John Wilkes Booth mummy. Please click here or on the image below to check out this free offering into The Vault. Remember that subscribers to the Dress Circle also receive weekly dispatches from the Telegraph Office.

The Orchestra Chairs level is the top tier of support at $15 a month. Patrons at this level have the best seats in the house, not only getting weekly dispatches from the Telegraph Office and fortnightly visits to The Vault, but also getting access to exclusive monthly videos. These videos discuss my current research and discoveries while also providing personalized Q&A sessions for patrons at this level. I thoroughly enjoy putting these videos together. A few days ago, I published my June 2025 video for Orchestra Chair level patrons, and I am making it free for everyone to watch. Please click here or on the image below to check out this example of a monthly video at the Orchestra Chair level.

Even if you’re not in a position to support me financially, I hope that you’ll check out these examples of the work being done over on the LincolnConspirators Patreon page. And, if you are in a position to give, I hope you’ll consider becoming a patron. As you can see, I’m working hard to ensure that patrons receive a good value in return for their monthly donations.

With great appreciation,

Dave

Categories: History | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

Jeff. Davis’s Final Secret Mission by Steven G. Miller

Posted on June 4, 2025 by Dave Taylor

During my high school and college years, I had a growing interest in the Lincoln assassination. With the help of an online forum on the subject, I quickly found myself going deeper and deeper into this historical rabbit hole. While I had a friendly group of online acquaintances who shared this historical interest, I had never met any of them in person. At that time, I lived in Illinois and had only taken a single trip out east with my dad to visit D.C. and sites related to Lincoln’s death. Luckily for me, one of my new online friends was also a resident of Illinois and lived only about an hour and a half away. So, in November of 2010, he and I arranged to meet at a brunch place to “talk shop.”  This is how I came to become friends with Steven G. Miller.

For those of you who watched my recent Booth exhumation trial reunion videos, Steve Miller should be a familiar name and face to you. Steve is a self-proclaimed “specialist” in the Lincoln assassination field. He has an intense interest in the members of the 16th New York Cavalry who tracked down and killed John Wilkes Booth. He has been researching and writing about the life of the main Lincoln Avenger, Sgt. Boston Corbett, for decades. There is no one on this planet with greater knowledge of the hunt for Booth than Mr. Miller. And, despite his claims of only being a specialist, Steve’s knowledge about many other aspects of the Lincoln assassination story is strong. Steve actually discovered an unpublished photograph of John Wilkes Booth and regularly delves into newspaper archives looking for new and interesting tidbits in this vast story of ours.

I was incredibly fortunate to have Steve as my guide into the world of the Lincoln assassination. He has amazing stories working with past greats of the field, and he was also incredibly generous with his research and his knowledge. I was constantly peppering him with questions in those early years, and he was always willing to dig into something for me. Our communications slowed down a bit after my move to Maryland, but around the time of my divorce and the pandemic in 2020, Steve and I started talking more often. Today, I speak to Mr. Miller on a weekly basis (if not more) and consider him a dear friend.

I write this narrative introduction not only to share my appreciation for Steve, but also to butter him up in hopes I can wrangle him into becoming an occasional contributor to LincolnConspirators.com. Steve has explored many interesting side stories that I think readers of this site would love. What follows is an article that Steve wrote concerning an intriguing newspaper article he came across a few months ago. I hope you all enjoy it, and I hope it’s the first of many articles on here from my mentor, Steve Miller.

Jeff. Davis’s Final Secret Mission.

By Steven G. Miller

Lake Villa, IL

Dave Taylor from LincolnConspirators.com and I often share historical goodies, those things that we have found in our research that interest or excite us. More times than not, our collaboration helps fill in gaps and answer questions that have stymied one (or both) of us.

Such it was, recently, when I found a long two-part article in the digital archives of the Washington Evening Star. It was the account by a former Confederate officer, identified only as “T.C.C” in the article, of a secret mission entrusted to hm by Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Secretary of State Judah Benjamin. The writer claimed that he was an invalid soldier who was in Richmond in early 1865 and that he was called to a meeting of those two officials, who were busy sorting through government files in preparation for the abandonment of Richmond.

He related that he was asked if he would carry a secret message through the blockade to Confederate representatives Mason and Slidell in England. He agreed and set out, he states, from Richmond on April 2 to head overland to Canada, where he could catch a ship across the Atlantic. The message he was given was written in cypher on “silk paper” and along with it was a draft for expenses on the funds held by the rebel commissioners in Montreal. They were “sewed up in the shank of a pair of boots.”

“T.C.C.” recounts that he left Richmond by train and continued mostly on foot northward. He crossed the Potomac at night and was taken in tow by rebel operatives. He made slow progress and was only in “T.B.” on April 10th. He was, he claimed, onboard a Washington-bound stagecoach when he was scooped up by the Yankee cavalry operating out of Chapel Point.

He identified himself to the soldiers as a former rebel officer who was bound for Canada with intentions of heading for Europe. They questioned him at length and searched him, but failed to find the secret stash. He was still in the guard house when the news of Lincoln’s assassination arrived a few days later.

Fearing for his life and realizing, “I am the object of suspicion,” he spent several anxious days and nights. Luckily for him, the secret in his boot remained safe. He was ordered to be sent to Washington, where his story could be checked out. He was taken on horseback and in a wagon and had several tense moments when crowds of angry citizens spotted him and asked whether he was one of the conspirators.

General Augur’s officers questioned him and, though they didn’t punch holes in his story, they sent him on to Carroll Prison. He was first put in solitary confinement, but he had outside connections and was thus able to obtain money to make his jail stay more comfortable. He was granted access to the “open room” and could communicate with other prisoners. He recounts being “pumped” for information by prison spies, whom he outsmarted, and then having encounters with several people involved tangentially in the assassination story.

The two articles I found were:

 “T.C.C.,” “Mistaken for Booth. From Richmond to Washington Just Twenty-five Years Ago. A Close Shave for Life. A Thrilling Incident of the War—Sequel to the Assassination of President Lincoln—The Evacuation of Richmond—A Secret Message,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), April 12, 1890.

“T.C.C.,” “In Carroll Prison. The Narrative of a Southerner Confined as a Suspect. Story of Booth’s Death. The Tragic Days at the Close of the War—Annie Surratt in Prison—An Account of Booth’s Last Days as Told by the Farmers Who Sheltered Him,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), May 24, 1890.

Dave and I decided to try to verify this account. What interested us especially was the story he told about meeting Annie Surratt in Carroll Prison. If true, it sheds new light on her ordeal and reactions while being held as a material witness.

My efforts to identify “T.C.C.” drew a blank, but Dave –ace researcher that he is – was able, we believe, to figure out who the author of these accounts was. He texted me saying: “Pretty sure the author of those articles is a Georgian named Theodore Cooke Cone. I found the name “T. C. Cone” in a list of Prisoners of War. It states he was arrested on April 10, 1865 in “T.B. Md” and he was released on May 9, 1865. Cone is also listed as being in the “Invalid Corps, CSA.”

As Dave said, “The service record for Theodore C. Cone shows he was retired from being a Captain with the 10th Georgia Infantry due to medical issues in Nov. of 1864 and was in Richmond at the time. While the article gives Jan. 1865, as the time of the author’s invalidity, it still seems to add up.”

Cone was the oldest son of Hon. Francis H. Cone (1797-1859), judge of the Georgia Superior Court and a state senator. The Cone family owned Ringgold, a sprawling 1,185-acre plantation which produced a variety of crops and was home to many slaves. Following in his father’s footsteps, Theodore became a lawyer and had a thriving practice. He became wealthy upon the death of the judge in 1859 and the sale of Ringgold.

When the Secession crisis flared up in 1860, T.C. Cone was an outspoken “fire-eater” who actively supported the CSA once it was established. In 1861, when the governor of Georgia failed to supply weapons for the local volunteer unit that Cone had helped raise, Cone wrote to Jefferson Davis personally asking for guns. It was granted.

The 10th Georgia was in many battles, including Gettysburg, and Cone was a popular captain of the regiment. As noted above, he was released from service in the latter part of 1864 due to unspecified medical issues. He retired to Richmond instead of returning to his home state. There, he came to the attention of a staffer in the Confederate White House and was invited to meet the chief executive and Secretary Benjamin.

Cone never made it to England, however, and his mission was scrapped after his stay in prison. In his Star articles, he recounts that he was in New York City a few months after his release from Yankee jail. As he recounted his exploits to a friend, the question arose about what happened to the message.

“That reminds me,” Cone said, “the dispatch is still in the shank of my boot. It is time I destroyed it.” He cut the boot open and saw that “the dispatch and check were in an excellent state of preservation.” He threw them onto the fire in the grate and commented as they went up in smoke: “That is one state secret that will never be divulged.”

Not only was Cone involved in this one last attempt by Davis to communicate with the agents in England, but he was also scooped up in the dragnet for the assassins of President Lincoln.

He tells of a prison meeting he had with Annie Surratt, the daughter of Mrs. Mary Surratt, who was then under arrest for conspiracy to kill President Lincoln.

Here’s what he wrote about this encounter:

“On one occasion an official of the prison put a slip of paper in my hands, which I found to be a “permit” to visit the ladies’ department of the prison. I, always suspecting that snares were being laid for my feet, said “I have not applied for this. There must be some mistake. I know no one there that I am aware of.” He replied: “A lady applied for it for you. She saw you walking in the yard yesterday and is a friend of yours.”

“On going up there I was met by a masculine-looking woman with an aggressive air, who introduced herself as Mrs. B—— of Baltimore, saying that she had met me once in Richmond the winter before. She explained that she had been to Baltimore to get medicines, which she had successfully done several times before, but had been captured on her last return—with three trunks, her cloak and apparel loaded with quinine. “This is another snare,” I thought, and this idea was confirmed to me when she at once invited me into a room, where several ladies were seated, saying: “I want you to see and talk to Annie Surratt. Poor thing, she is almost crazy,” and the next instant I was introduced to

ANNIE SURRATT

“I saw before me a slight girl of perhaps twenty years or past. She had very light blonde hair or it was more what I should call flaxen, with very light eyebrows and almost white eyelashes, very light blue eyes, and wearing at this time the pallor of death. Mrs. B— informed me that she had not then slept or taken food for eight days. On observing her a moment longer, I noticed that she quivered like a reed in a storm and that the pupils of her eyes were contracted to the size of a pin’s head, showing the intense nervous tension under which she labored. The conversation of twenty minutes which ensued between us I have neither the disposition nor the right to repeat. It is enough to say that her only concern was the life of her mother, whom she said she knew to be “as guiltless as an angel in heaven of the crimes of which she stood charged,” As I rose to go I saw lying on a table near us a copy of Harper’s Weekly with a picture of Booth’s flight from the rear of theater, Booth being on horseback. As she stood a moment near it, she nervously seized a pencil lying there, and, with hysterical suddenness of manner, hastily obliterated the face of the man. Having given all the little comfort possible under the circumstances I took my leave of the heart-broken girl. As a remarkable instance of the enormous extremes to which even the sanest minds ran in that fearful time of universal suspicion, I will state a simple fact.”

I don’t recall reading any comments about Annie Surratt in prison. And this new story about a final secret mission from Jeff Davis is new, too. The obvious take away from Cone’s story is that it was good that the Union authorities did not search him sufficiently enough to find the documents from Davis. It’s not hard to imagine what would have happened if Col. Baker had discovered that Annie Surratt – who was allowed to see her mother from time to time – was in unmonitored direct communication with an agent from the president of the CSA. It seems obvious that Cone and Annie Surratt would have been put in solitary confinement in the Old Capitol under close guard. The implication – unfounded according to Cone’s account—was that Davis was issuing orders directly to Mrs. Surratt in jail via his personal agent. This would have ended up in a charging indictment for Mrs. Surratt and for Davis. The conspiracy trial managers could never find a direct connection between Davis and any of the conspirators. It could have been argued in court that this was the smoking gun.

This apparently is the print of Booth on horseback that Annie Surratt defaced. Note: It actually comes from the May 13, 1865, issue of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, not Harper’s Weekly.

Categories: History, Steven G. Miller | Tags: , , | 3 Comments

John Wilkes Booth Exhumation Trial 30th Anniversary Panel

Posted on May 15, 2025 by Dave Taylor

On May 17, 1995, a historic trial began in the Circuit Court of Baltimore City. The case revolved around a legal petition to exhume the remains of John Wilkes Booth from Green Mount Cemetery. The petition was the culmination of years of effort on the part of two historical researchers who believed that the assassin of Lincoln was not killed at the Garrett farm on April 26, 1865, but instead escaped justice and lived for many years under assumed identities. The main support for this theory was a 1907 book called The Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth, written by a man named Finis Bates who claimed to have met an incognito Booth in Texas in the 1870s. Despite the numerous factual and logical errors in the book, many people wanted to believe the tall tale, and the story of Booth’s escape from justice became folklore akin to sightings of the deceased Elvis Presley. In 1991, this fringe theory rose in prominence when it was featured on the TV series Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack. The increase in exposure motivated the two leading proponents of the theory to seek legal recourse to prove their claims. Green Mount Cemetery opposed the exhumation, both on the merits of the conspiracy theory and also due to the researchers having no connection to the deceased.

The attorney for the researchers then found two distant Booth relatives and convinced them to become involved. The names of the researchers were swapped with those of the distant Booth relatives, and the petition to exhume was refiled. Green Mount Cemetery still opposed the exhumation request, and so a trial was set to evaluate the merits of the petitioners’ case.

The trial consisted of four days of testimony, with 16 witnesses taking the stand. The trial was overseen by Judge Joseph Kaplan and occurred in Courthouse East on Calvert and Fayette Streets in Baltimore. Green Mount Cemetery was represented by attorney Francis J. Gorman from the newly formed law firm of Gorman and Williams. Frank assembled a group of Lincoln assassination historians and an expert on exhumations to discuss the validity of the petitioners’ factual and scientific arguments. The petitioners were represented by attorney Mark Zaid.

At the end of 2024, Frank Gorman published a book entitled Confronting Bad History: How a Lost Cause and Fraudulent Booth Caused the John Wilkes Booth Exhumation Trial. In this book, Frank not only expertly documents the exhumation trial and its proceedings in an engaging way, but he also provides some vital context regarding the character of Finis Bates and his book. After sharing in some conversations with Frank about his wonderful new book, I volunteered the idea of trying to put together a reunion panel of sorts to mark the 30th anniversary of the exhumation trial in 2025. Through calls and emails, Frank was able to convince four witnesses from the 1995 trial to take part in the reunion. Though I had no involvement in the original case, I was honored to be asked by Frank to moderate the discussion. Due to the geographical distances between the different participants, we decided to conduct this reunion virtually over Zoom.

The participants of this reunion panel were:

In the end, the panel lasted a little over three hours as we delved into several aspects of the trial and the research behind it. For the ease of viewing, I have divided it into three segments, which you can watch below.

I hope that you enjoy watching this reunion panel as much as I enjoyed moderating it. By watching these videos and reading Frank Gorman’s book, you are helping to confront bad history.

Categories: History, News | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

Grant Hall Open House 5/3/25

Posted on May 1, 2025 by Dave Taylor

This Saturday, May 3, 2025, will be the quarterly open house of Grant Hall.

Grant Hall is the restored courtroom of the Lincoln conspirators located on Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, D.C. The open houses are a chance to see the room in which the conspirators were tried, check out special exhibits on the subject of Lincoln’s death, and interact with docents who can teach you about the trial of the century. When I lived in the area, I used to volunteer at the open houses, and my good friend Bob Bowser still makes appearances there as Dr. Mudd. Dr. Paul Severance, a speaker at this year’s virtual Surratt Society conference, is also a regular docent, dressed as General Winfield Scott Hancock.

As an active military base, the courtroom is only accessible to the public four times a year, so you definitely want to take advantage of this opportunity if you can. Information on how to register for the open house (which you must do to gain access to the base) can be found here.

For those of you, like me, who live far away from Grant Hall and can’t make the open house, you might enjoy a series of speeches given on the subject of the trial and courtroom that were given on the 150th anniversary of the trial back in 2015. Here are links to the talks given by Michael Kauffman, John Elliott, Barry Cauchon, and Betty Ownsbey.

If you want to stay up to date on different events like this, talks, anniversaries, auction items, and news revolving around the Lincoln assassination, please consider becoming a member of my Patreon. For just $3 a month, you will receive a weekly post about all of this and more! At the $7 per month level, you also get access to fortnightly posts highlighting unique Lincoln assassination objects hidden away in museum vaults and private collections. And at the $15 a month level, you get all of these benefits plus monthly videos delving into different aspects of the story and answering your questions. Any support you can give to help keep the lights on here at LincolnConspirators.com and support me as I work on writing my book bringing Black voices back into the Lincoln assassination story would be greatly appreciated. There’s already a good deal of content available at the LincolnConspirators Patreon that I hope you’ll check out.

Categories: History, News | Tags: , | 2 Comments

Help Get Rich Hill Over the Finish Line

Posted on April 28, 2025 by Dave Taylor

Rich Hill is a historic home located in Bel Alton, Charles County, Maryland. Built in 1729, the house has some amazing Revolutionary War connections. It was the birthplace of Dr. Gustavus Brown, a doctor of George Washington’s who tended to the Father of Our Country on his deathbed. It was also the birthplace of Margaret Brown, the wife of Declaration of Independence signer Thomas Stone. During the Civil War era, the home was owned by Samuel Cox. After having his broken leg tended to by Dr. Mudd, John Wilkes Booth and his accomplice David Herold made their way to Rich Hill, looking for assistance from Cox during their escape. According to Oswell Swan, the Black man who, unaware of their identity, guided the assassins to Rich Hill, Booth and Herold spent a few hours inside Rich Hill before they were hidden in a nearby pine thicket by Cox’s farm overseer.

Rich Hill is the second oldest standing house in Charles County. Up until a few years ago, however, things were looking bleak for this truly exceptional property. Years of neglect had left the home in a sad state of affairs. I remember visiting the house in 2011 when there was no front door and the insides had been trashed by vandals. It truly looked like this house was destined to collapse, much like the Garrett home where Lincoln’s assassin eventually died.

Rich Hill as it appeared in 2011

However, in 2014, an effort was undertaken by the Historical Society of Charles County and the Charles County Government to save this unique piece of history. The county government acquired the property from the owner, and the process was started to stabilize and restore the home. It has been a long process, but through private donations, grants, and a state of Maryland bond of $600,000, the home has been successfully stabilized, a new roof has been added, and the exterior of the home is now completely restored.

Rich Hill in 2025

The only work that remains is to finish the interior of the building. Unfortunately, the state bond funds have been exhausted. While the county government has also been a great partner over the years, it is also unable to provide additional funding for the interior of the house. They will, however, continue to own the site and take care of its maintenance, landscaping, and utilities. Earlier this year, the Charles County Government signed an updated memorandum of understanding with the Historical Society of Charles County, effectively placing the historical society in charge of financing and completing the work.

Recent actions at the federal level have significantly decreased the amount of funds available for historic preservation grants. The Historical Society of Charles County is attempting to raise $150,000 in order to get Rich Hill over the finish line. This final push will pay for the electrical, insulation, HVAC, drywall, painting, and other finishing touches for the interior of Rich Hill.

Once the interior is done, the house will finally be ready to open as a new museum. The Friends of Rich Hill committee group has been hard at work over the past decade, acquiring furnishings, artwork, portraits, and exhibits to tell the story of this historic house and the men and women who lived here. Already, the site is conducting outreach with interpretive signs that discuss the history of the house, the lives of enslaved men and women who lived here, and Charles County’s role in Revolutionary and Civil War history. After a decade of hard work, the end is finally in sight, and Rich Hill is so close to opening its doors as a museum.

If you can, please consider donating to the Historical Society of Charles County to help support their efforts to finish the restoration of Rich Hill. The historical society is a 501c3 non-profit, and all donations are tax-deductible.

You can make an online donation to the Historical Society via PayPal by clicking here or on the image below.

You can also mail a donation to the following address:

The Historical Society of Charles County
PO Box 2806
La Plata, Maryland 20646

As an original member of the Friends of Rich Hill Steering Committee, I hope you’ll consider giving whatever you can to help turn Rich Hill into a museum. Even a few bucks will help. I will be donating all the proceeds from my Patreon for this month (April 2025) to Rich Hill as my way of paying it forward.

With just one more push, we can help bring a new museum to the John Wilkes Booth escape route. And while other museums like the Surratt Tavern and the Dr. Mudd house really only have the Lincoln assassination story going for them, Rich Hill also has some really cool Revolutionary War history that deserves to be told. Thanks for donating.

Categories: History, News | Tags: , | 1 Comment

An Interview with the Creators of The Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth

Posted on April 17, 2025 by Dave Taylor

On the 160th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, I sat down with Ryan Heilman and Wes Crawford from Wharf Rat Games. These two are the designers and creators of the new board game, The Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth, published by Blue Panther LLC. We had an excellent discussion about the history behind this Lincoln assassination-themed game, the process of designing and developing board games, and how board games can be a form of public history. Check out the video of our talk below:

To read my earlier review of The Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth, click here. To purchase your own copy of this unique board game, you can order it from the publisher, Blue Panther LLC, by clicking the image below.

Categories: History, News | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment

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