A Filthy Fortunes “Find”

Posted on March 29, 2025 by Dave Taylor

While chatting on the phone today with my mom, she told me about seeing a show on the Discovery Channel recently called Filthy Fortunes. The reality show revolves around a team of people who clean out extremely cluttered rooms and homes, selling the items contained to hopefully pay for the clean up and make some profit. It’s essentially the TV show Hoarders but with an emphasis on looking for some treasure in the rough.

My mom said that in the episode she watched, the crew came across a John Wilkes Booth card of some sort that they were very excited about. She said it was signed by him and apparently went for a lot of money. I decided to look into the show and see what treasure they had found.

Here’s a clip from the show that they put on social media showing the discovery of the Booth card:

As I had suspected, what the clean-up crew found was a carte-de-visite photograph of John Wilkes Booth. These are not all that rare, as Booth was a famous actor who regularly had his picture taken. While there was a temporary halt on the sale of Booth’s photographs after the assassination, when this order was rescinded, many photographers flooded the market with photos of the assassin. There are many pictures of Booth, and the pose found by the cleaners, where he is wearing his fancy jacket, is one of the most common images of him.

The host of the show was very excited because he said the photo was signed by Booth at the bottom. Now, a genuine signed CDV of John Wilkes Booth would be worth quite a lot of money. An oversized clipped signature of Booth’s sold for over $17,000 a decade ago. Unfortunately for the host, this is clearly not signed by John Wilkes Booth. The writing looks nothing like Booth’s handwriting and is in print, not cursive. This isn’t the first person to confuse a labeled image of John Wilkes Booth with a signed one; they regularly pop up on eBay and other places. There is also some random text written on the top of the card, but again, not in Booth’s hand. This writing actually detracts from the value of the otherwise average Booth CDV. On eBay, you could maybe get $100 for it.

I found the rest of the episode online and got to the point where the host was revealing to the homeowner how much money they made selling the things they found in the house. The host documented the other things they had sold from the home, including misprinted stamps, a Mustang, and a coin collection. He then stated to the homeowner:

“The item that really put us over the hump was a signed John Wilkes Booth card. We sent it to auction and they estimated that it’ll be worth $10,000.”

He then stated that with the cash sale of the other items and the auction estimation, they made $28,000 from the items in the house. The cleaning cost was $10,000, leaving $18,000 profit. This was then split between the homeowner and the cleaning crew, 60-40. The host handed over a stack of cash to the homeowner, saying it was her $10,800 share. She was, of course, ecstatic to not only have her house cleaned out but to have made $10k in the process.

But did she?

Well, let’s look and see how much that “signed” John Wilkes Booth CDV actually brought when it was sold at auction in July of 2024.

It sold for $80. Not $8,000. Not $800. $80. And, actually, that is a pretty fair price for an average Booth CDV with random writing on it. Interestingly, the auction house that sold it did not attempt to portray this as a signed CDV. The description documents that John Wilkes Booth’s name on the bottom is “(not in his hand).” We can also see that the starting price for this CDV was set at $40, hardly an amount you would start at for a priceless relic like a genuine signed Booth item. So, where in the world did the host get the estimation of $10,000?

My guess is that when they shot the end of the episode, the production company had not yet reached out to any auction house. Instead, they just looked at some recent auction prices of genuine Booth signatures and letters and made a guess. If they did reach out to a real auction house, the auctioneers must have given them the $10k valuation sight unseen. I have a hard time believing any legitimate auctioneer would have thought this photograph had a genuine signature. Even a quick Google search would show that the printed name has nothing in common with the assassin’s autograph. You have to wonder how that homeowner felt when the production company eventually informed her that she was getting less than half of what they told her on camera since their $10,000 item only sold for $80.

This Booth CDV makes an appearance in the pilot episode of Filthy Fortunes. When I was trying to find a video of the show online, I came across a few interviews the main host had with media people and YouTubers during the promotional period before the show debuted. In some of those interviews he makes mention of this great John Wilkes Booth find. But his recollections of the actual item are wildly incorrect. The biggest issue is that the host clearly does not know the difference between a picture and a playbill. Here’s an assortment of his comments on the item from different interviews:

“…the most interesting thing we found this season was a John Wilkes Booth playbill, like an actual picture of John Wilkes Booth that he signed like not too long before he shot Lincoln…”

“…it’s a play- it’s a picture, basically like a tintype, so like a Polaroid, of John Wilkes Booth. It’s dated. He signed it. Cause he was an actor at the Ford theater there in D.C. And so we found like a playbill, with John Wilkes Booth’s signature, like three months before he shot Lincoln…”

“…a John Wilkes Booth card…it’s a playbill from the Ford’s theater with a picture signed by John Wilkes Booth and it was like six months before he shot Lincoln…Let me tell you that’s worth some real money…”

“…the coolest thing for me this season was a John Wilkes Booth playbill that was signed by John Wilkes Booth at the Ford theater…When I found the John Wilkes Booth card, I was like ‘I got a guy’ [to sell it to]…”

Perplexingly, in a far more casual and expletive-laden interview the host gave to a Twitch streamer, he recounts how he sold the Booth CDV to a private individual for $40,000. I’m going to embed that video below, but I am warning everyone that there is a lot of cursing throughout (because that’s how you get in cool with the youths, apparently). The video should start right at the beginning of their discussion of the Booth item:

I honestly have no idea what to make of this video and the claim that the host sold the CDV for $40,000. Fraudulent and fake things sell all the time in the auction world to people who don’t know any better. I know of one eBay seller who regularly has CDVs of Booth, the other Lincoln conspirators, and other famous people for sale that are terrible forgeries made by putting a modern printed picture in between two halves of genuine portrait or vignette-style CDVs with the original images removed. I highly doubt the Filthy Fortunes host acted in a malicious way like that. It’s far more likely that he truly thought he had a genuine signed Booth CDV when he found it because he doesn’t have the expertise to know the difference. His confusion over what a playbill looks like demonstrates that this area is not his forte.

In the end, all I can do is point to the auction listing showing that this labeled but not signed John Wilkes Booth image sold for $80. If the host actually sold it for $40,000 to a private individual, then he made the deal of a lifetime off of a real fool who didn’t do any due diligence. But I suspect that all of this story is bluster, intended to make the show seem more exciting by having an item appear far more valuable than it is. To borrow a phrase the youths on Twitch will understand, “it’s cap, fam.” (For my fellow non-Gen Zers, “cap” apparently means “a lie.”)

The lesson here is, as always, don’t believe what you see on “reality TV.”

Thanks, Mom, for giving me something to gripe about on the internet.

Categories: History, News | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments

Become a Patron!

Posted on March 10, 2025 by Dave Taylor

When this blog first started in March of 2012, it was little more than a shelf where I could show off small research oddities and tidbits of information I came across during my own exploration into the subject of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. I was still very new to the history field and unsure whether this hobby would turn into anything constructive. Since then, the community around this site has grown far beyond what I ever expected. As my followers have grown, I have worked hard to provide new and varied content, all with the aim of educating others about the events surrounding Lincoln’s assassination. I am very proud of what I have accomplished here on LincolnConspirators.com and, particularly, of the growing scholarship behind the posts and videos I have produced.

LincolnConspirators.com is not a commercial entity. I make no money to write or produce content for this site. I do not make any money from advertisements. In fact, I actually pay to keep ads off of this site. This website is a hobby and truly a labor of love for me, but there are real costs associated with owning, maintaining, and producing content for LincolnConspirators. In webhosting fees and research subscriptions alone, I spend $850 a year. This does not include the costs of new (and old) books or research and duplication fees from historic sites and museums. In addition, some of my special projects, especially my recent documentary series about the life of the Lincoln assassination conspirators at Fort Jefferson, have been quite costly to put together.

As many of you know, my background is that of an elementary school teacher. This is why LincolnConspirators.com is, and always will be, an educational resource open to all. Knowledge is power and even our uncomfortable past should be accessible to all. As I told my students when I was teaching, everyone has the capacity to enrich the world around them by sharing their unique knowledge, abilities, and stories with others. Over my career, I taught first, second, and third grades in Illinois and Maryland and worked as a reading interventionist here in Texas. Unfortunately, my teaching career ended when I was fired from the private school I worked at here in Texas because I spoke out against the banning of LGBTQ+ books at our local public library during a library board meeting. Since then, I have become a stay-at-home dad while trying to make some money on the side to help support our family.

To help offset the cost of running this website and to financially support my goal to write a book about the Lincoln assassination, I have launched a Patreon page for LincolnConspirators.com. Patreon is an online system that allows followers to provide financial support for the work being done by their favorite creators. The website operates a bit like TV  infomercials where you pledge to donate a certain amount each month. Patrons choose whatever amount they would like to give, and once a month, Patreon will charge that amount to your credit card and give it to your chosen creator. In essence, Patreon is a subscription service where your chosen monthly payment goes to a specific creator whose work you enjoy.

By becoming a patron of LincolnConspirators.com you will provide financial support for the work that I do. A pledge of any amount would help lift some of the financial burden of creating content for this site and help provide me with some financial breathing room as I actively work on my book. I am not expecting that I will ever be able to break even regarding the costs of my work, but every little bit would make it easier to continue sharing with you all the history that we find fascinating.

“But what’s in it for me?”

The great thing about Patreon is that it is more than just charity. The platform allows creators to provide exclusive, patron-only content for those who make a recurring monthly donation. By becoming a patron, you will receive access to content you won’t find anywhere else. This is a way for creators to thank the people financially supporting them and ensure they receive something in return for their support.

Patreon allows for a tiered system of support. Creators can provide more exclusive content based on how much a patron gives monthly. For my Patreon, I have created three tiers of support at different price points. Note that the tiers are cumulative, meaning that if you give at the highest priced tier, you not only receive its unique benefit, but all the benefits from the tiers below it. Here is a breakdown of the different tiers and the benefits patrons receive in each:

Tier 1: Family Circle

For $3 a month, you are a member of the Family Circle level of support. Patrons in the Family Circle will gain access to a weekly post on Patreon called, The Telegraph Office, in which I curate and share recent news stories relating to the Lincoln assassination from the past week and beyond. You’ll be well-informed of different talks, articles, auction items, and other connections being made out in the world to the death of Lincoln and the hunt for John Wilkes Booth. This post will be different each week as I comb through the news to find interesting stories to share and recount some upcoming anniversaries for the week ahead. For a free dispatch example from The Telegraph Office, click here.

Tier 2: Dress Circle

For $7 a month, you are a member of the Dress Circle level of support. In addition to the weekly offering from Telegraph Office, you will receive access to The Vault, a fortnightly post that highlights an artifact relating to the Lincoln assassination story. Objects in the vault are often more than they appear to be, so learn the history behind some of the hidden objects locked away in museums, private collections, or even those lost to time. Every so often, you will find yourself visiting a different kind of vault altogether, as the curator takes you on a field trip to the grave of a person connected to Lincoln’s death. The Vault is open to all for just the price of admission.

Tier 3: Orchestra Chairs

For a recurring donation of $15+ a month, you are a member of the Orchestra Chair level – the top tier of supporters to LincolnConspirators.com. Not only will you receive weekly dispatches from The Telegraph Office and fortnightly tours of The Vault, but you will also gain exclusive access to monthly videos from me, Dave Taylor, as I discuss my ongoing research for my book and other projects. You will receive exclusive early access to information and new historical discoveries well before anyone else. In addition, you can submit your own questions about the Lincoln assassination, which I will answer as a sort of community Q&A. At this tier of support, you will be an invaluable member of my history team.

Now, some of you longtime followers might be thinking this seems a bit familiar. That is because back in 2018, I started a Patreon when this website was still called BoothieBarn. Shortly after starting that Patreon, I was accepted into a Master’s degree program. The combination of my own classes on top of my job as an elementary school teacher significantly curtailed my ability to provide content to my patrons. I started to feel guilty for accepting donations when I just didn’t have the time to provide much in return. So, after only nine months, I shut that Patreon down.

It is now six years later, and I am in a much better position to provide consistent and valuable content to those who choose to support me financially. In these preliminary stages of my book research and writing, I’ve already come across many interesting side characters and stories I would love to share, especially since I don’t know when (or even if) my book will come to fruition. Having some financial support will help me and my family greatly as I devote so much of my time to a book project with so much uncertainty.

Thank you for considering becoming a patron of LincolnConspirators.com. To learn more, please click the “Become a Patron” button below to be taken to my Patreon page to read my story. There you will find information on how the Patreon system works and how to sign up to become a patron.

Even if you don’t have the means to contribute, I appreciate your continued support of my efforts exploring the history of the Lincoln assassination.

Sincerely,

Dave Taylor

Categories: History, News | Tags: , , , , , | 9 Comments

The Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth Game Review

Posted on March 6, 2025 by Dave Taylor

The Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth is a brand new board game published by the company Blue Panther. In the game, you take on the role of government detectives attempting to track down John Wilkes Booth after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The goal of the game is to capture or kill Booth before he escapes out of the country or out west.

I preordered a copy of this game last month and received it earlier this week. Since then, I have played the game four times, three times using the default solo player mode, and once using the two player cooperative mode with my wife, Jen. The game also features a two-player competitive mode, where each player is trying to be the first to find Booth to claim the reward money for themselves, along with a two (or three) player mode where one player can play as Booth, attempting to elude the pursuers.

As a preface for this review, I want to note that while I enjoy board games, I would not consider myself a big board game player. I enjoy the classics like Monopoly and we often play more modern games like Wingspan and Pandemic. However, sometimes I struggle with the complexity of more modern games, especially those with many rules and complicated strategy. From the preorder images showing the two instruction manuals and all the cards and pieces, I knew that The Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth would challenge me in the beginning (and it did). However, I will say that after a couple of hours, even a dummy like me eventually got the play sequence down and had a good time.

The board for this game is actually a canvas-like map showing Washington, D.C. in the center, with different possible escape paths for Booth emanating out. While we know that the real Booth made his escape south in the direction of Richmond, that is one of six different routes Booth can take in this game. In addition to the main six escape paths, there are many connecting trails in gray that he can use to jump from one escape route to another. Booth’s movements in each game are dictated by the drawing of random trail direction cards, which means that no two games will be the same.

A single turn in this game consists of three phases. During the first phase, a random trail card is placed face down demonstrating Booth’s escape progress. If the player does not find and capture/kill Booth before the ninth trail card is placed (or tenth if you are playing easy mode or a two player game), then Booth escapes and the game is lost. The goal is to determine Booth’s path and catch up to him before it is too late.

In order to flip over each of Booth’s trail cards to determine his direction of travel, the player needs to complete tasks in Washington, D.C. and its surroundings during each phase. These replicate the investigation that occurred in the aftermath of Lincoln’s death. As one successfully completes “Leads” in different areas of the city, you acquire clue chips. Once you get enough clue chips, you are able to flip over one of Booth’s trail cards and start the chase. The player essentially controls a group of detectives, policemen, and cavalry, who help to fulfill leads, to earn clues, in order to determine Booth’s path and chase after him.

While Booth only advances one trail card during the first phase of a turn, he does not sit by helplessly during the other two phases in a turn. During phases two and three, Booth acquires cards of his own. These consist of “Search,” “Raid,” and “Play Now” cards which give Booth advantages when the player finally catches up with him. In this way, the player might determine exactly where Booth is on the board and catch up to him, but Booth’s deck may give him advantages that make your search for him fail, requiring you to try again during the next phase.

Not to be outdone, the player also has access to their own deck of helpful cards. During any phase, a player may choose to draw two cards from the “Stanton” deck rather than moving their pieces or investigating a lead. Stanton cards usually give advantages to the player like bringing in more detectives or allowing them to draw extra clue chips. A Stanton card can also be sacrificed to remove a card from Booth’s deck, helping to even out the odds when the final confrontation comes.

When you are able to track Booth and move a detective piece to his location, you have to successfully complete a two-stage process to win. While you know what city or zone Booth is in, you have to search and find him there first. The more detectives, cavalry, and police you have on site, the greater your search ability becomes. Certain detectives and Stanton cards can also help. It’s a battle between the player and Booth with his acquired deck to see who ends up with the most points. If Booth bests you, you fail to find him that phase and may even lose a detective in the process. If you are able to locate him, then the final stage begins: a raid on Booth. Once again, it’s a battle of points as Booth uses his own acquired weapons or accomplices in an attempt to fend off the attack by your detectives, cavalry, and police. If you lose the raid, prepare for casualties on your side. If you manage to overpower him, however, Booth is captured or killed and the player wins the game.

As stated before, unless you are already a gamer, there is a pretty large learning curve for The Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth. While I have played four games so far, I wouldn’t really count my first play through as a real game. I was constantly referring to the rulebook, and even after I finished (I lost) I realized that there were several mechanics I had completely forgotten about which would have made the game easier. I actually wrote a few reminders for myself on a notecard of important things you might forget about or miss. This made my subsequent games much easier.

For my second game, I played the two-player cooperative mode with Jen. The co-op mode plays pretty much the same as the solo mode. Armed with experience from my first slow run through and my little notecard, we were very successful. We managed to track Booth to Philadelphia and succeeded in our search to find him. However, when we conducted our raid on his position, our numbers weren’t high enough for an outright win. Instead, we ended up killing his accomplice George Atzerodt, and Booth escaped. Luckily, during the next turn, we caught up to him again, and since he had used all of his deck cards attempting to thwart us during the previous turn, we easily found and overpowered him resulting in his capture and imprisonment.

Our The Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth game board at the end of a successful two-player cooperative game. The Booth meeple token is shown in the Old Capitol Prison with David Herold and Lewis Powell.

My two subsequent solo games today both resulted in failures. In one, Booth escaped up to Canada with George Atzerodt after I failed to successfully search for him south of Detroit. In the second game, I managed to catch up to him on the very last phase before I would lose the game by placing the ninth trail card. He was in New York and I felt good because I was there with two detectives and three cavalry. Unfortunately, it had taken me so long to find him that Booth had acquired a sizable deck of cards and two accomplices (George and David Herold). In the end, his search points outnumbered my own and he escaped.

The end of a solo player game in which John Wilkes Booth escaped via New York.

In this particular game, I was thwarted by less than helpful Lead cards, which limited my ability to acquire clue chips to flip over Booth’s trail. For a long time, I had Samuel Arnold as a lead card. However, in order to resolve him you first have to complete either the National Hotel or Michael O’Laughlen card. You are only given two lead cards at a time and they have to be fulfilled before a new one can take its place. It took most of the game to finally get the Michael O’Laughlen card so I could then revolve the Arnold card. Since this meant I couldn’t acquire as many clue chips, it took me too long to locate Booth’s path and catch up to him to beat the game before it ended. Though I did have a nail-biting finish there.

As I hope you can tell, I enjoy this game very much. It was definitely intimidating to learn and I wish some parts of the rulebook and player’s guide were a bit clearer, but with persistence it is possible for even a gaming newbie to learn how to play. I found it very helpful to watch this video of one of the game’s designers doing a playtest of the game during the prototype stage a year ago. It really helped me to see the game being played rather than just trying to understand it by reading the rulebook.

I was also very impressed by the historical flavor given on the cards and in the manuals for this game. It is clear that the game designers, Wes Crawford and Ryan Heilman, did their research on the Lincoln assassination story. The graphics look good, and each card has small text in italics that gives the historical background of the card. For example, here is the Leads card for Dr. Samuel Mudd:

I appreciate not only the historical text at the bottom of the card, but the thought process that went into how to resolve this lead card. While most leads are found within different sections of Washington, D.C., and are resolved just with a detective, this card requires both a detective and a cavalry to be present at Green 2 in order to acquire the two clue chips and place Dr. Mudd in prison. On the overall map, the green escape path replicates the actual path Booth took and the section circle could represent Southern Maryland. So the designers have accurately placed Dr. Mudd where he would be on this map and how it took both detectives and cavalry to find and arrest the doctor. There are other impressive details like this in the game. The John Surratt lead card, for example, requires you to be in Elmira, NY, and for it to be within the first four turns of the game. If you pull that card after the fourth turn, Surratt has already made his way to Canada, so you can’t capture him anymore. Similarly, you can’t acquire the Lewis Powell card if you have already arrested Mary Surratt, since he was arrested at Mary Surratt’s boardinghouse and you already have her locked up. These details aren’t stated in the game, but if you know the story of Lincoln’s assassination they make sense, and I love that the designers included them.

When I first got a Google Alert that mentioned this game, I had high hopes but tried to keep my expectations in check. A few years ago, I was involved with a different company that attempted to bring a Lincoln assassination-based board game to market. I acted as a historical consultant for them before it became clear that they weren’t actually interested in the history and merely wanted to skin their already completed game in Lincoln assassination figures, even though it didn’t really work. That’s when I bowed out. So having been burned once regarding a Lincoln assassination based game, I wasn’t sure how this would turn out.

This is why I am so pleased with The Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth. It’s a compelling, history-driven game that is also a lot of fun to play. The solo mode is very engaging and Jen and I both enjoyed the two-player cooperative mode. I think we’ll play cooperatively a bit more before trying to compete against each other or try our hand at being Booth, but I love that those modes are also available. Since Booth’s escape route is different and random each time, there is so much replay value. It’s a challenging game and you will definitely lose more than you will win, but that makes the times you successfully capture Booth even more rewarding.

I’ll catch you next time, Mr. Booth.

If you enjoy history and board games, I highly recommend you pick up The Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth. At $70 plus shipping the game is a bit on the expensive side, but I feel that it is worth it, especially since Blue Panther prints and manufactures their games right here in America. Here’s a link if you want to purchase your own copy of The Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth. I’m really enjoying this game, and I think you will, too.

Categories: History, News | Tags: , , , | 6 Comments

An Edman Spangler Anniversary

Posted on February 7, 2025 by Dave Taylor

Today, February 7, 2025, is the 150th anniversary of the death of Edman Spangler. A carpenter and stagehand at Ford’s Theatre, Spangler was convicted of being a conspirator in John Wilkes Booth’s plot against Abraham Lincoln. Sentenced to six years of imprisonment at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, Spangler was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson in 1869. After returning home, Spangler returned to working for John T. Ford at his theater in Baltimore. However, a fire gutted the Holliday Street Theater in 1873, leaving Spangler out of a job. He ended up traveling down to Charles County, Maryland, to the home of his former cellmate, Dr. Samuel Mudd. Though the two men had never met each other prior to their arrest and trial, they had bonded during their years together at Fort Jefferson. Dr. Mudd welcomed Spangler into his home with open arms and even gave him some acreage on the farm property for Spangler to work and live on. Spangler died at the age of 49 after contracting an illness in a heavy and cold rain. The Mudd family had their friend buried in a local cemetery, the original St. Peter’s Church Cemetery, which also held the grave of Mrs. Mudd’s father.

Of the nine Lincoln conspirators that were tried in 1865 and 1867, Edman Spangler is the one for which there is the least amount of evidence connecting him to the assassination. Spangler was mostly in the wrong place at the wrong time and was also unfortunate enough to be friendly with the wrong person: John Wilkes Booth. Upon arriving at the backstage door of Ford’s Theatre, Booth called for Spangler to hold his horse. Spangler quickly delegated the task to a less critical Ford’s Theatre employee before returning to his duties shifting scenes. After the shot rang out and the assassin ran out the backstage door, a confused Spangler was unsure what had occurred. When another stagehand suggested that it was Booth who had committed the crime, Spangler cautioned the man not to jump to conclusions or say anything that might slander an innocent man. When it was later firmly established that his friend, Booth, had committed the terrible deed, his words and actions came to be seen as conspiratorial. Investigators felt that Booth must have had an “inside man” at Ford’s Theatre in order to ensure his success, and so Spangler became that man in their eyes.

In reality, there is no conclusive evidence that Spangler knew anything of Booth’s plot against Lincoln. The two men were friendly and had a history dating back to when Spangler helped to construct the Booth family home of Tudor Hall in Bel Air. Spangler assisted Booth by constructing a stable for him in the alley behind the theater, and he was certainly pro-Confederate in his leanings. However, there is no strong evidence that Booth entrusted Spangler with the details of his plot. Instead, it appears that Booth felt bad for the trouble his actions brought to Spangler. After Booth was killed on April 26, 1865, his accomplice David Herold was taken into custody and transported up to Washington. During his integration by the authorities, Herold stated that Booth had told him during their escape that “There was a man at the theatre that held his horse that he was quite sorry for.” While Herold didn’t recall his name at the time, he recounted that “Booth said it [i.e. the act of holding the horse] might get him [Spangler] into difficulty.”

That act did, indeed, get Spangler into difficulty. Yet even the term of his jail sentence of six years demonstrates how poor the evidence was in trying to connect Spangler to the plot. All of the other conspirators tried alongside him were sentenced to death or life in prison, making Spangler’s punishment a “slap on the wrist” by comparison. However, as my recent documentary series on The Lincoln Conspirators at Fort Jefferson shows, life was incredibly difficult for Spangler and the other men sentenced to the Dry Tortugas.

In memory of the innocent Lincoln conspirator on the 150th anniversary of his death, here are three letters Edman Spangler wrote from prison during the time when Yellow Fever struck the fort. They were written to unknown friends of Spangler’s in Baltimore and then published in the newspapers. From other writing samples of Spangler’s, we know that he struggled with spelling and grammar. However, these three letters contain relatively few mistakes, implying that he may have been assisted in their writing by his cellmates or that perhaps his letters were cleaned up by the newspaper editors. Regardless, they give a brief peek into the life of Edman Spangler during the most terrifying portion of his imprisonment.

Fort Jefferson, Fla

Sept. 6, 1867

I am well at present, but don’t know how long it will last, for we have the yellow fever here, and there are two or three dying every day, and I am busy working in the carpenter’s shop, making coffins day and night, and I don’t know when my time will come. They don’t last more than a few hours. I will enclose a few moss pictures for you, and I will send you a barrel of coral, if I don’t get the yellow fever and die; but there are ten chances to one if I ever see you again. It is very desperate here. The doctor of the post is very sick with it, and there is no doctor here but Dr. Mudd, and he volunteered his services, and has made a good hit of it. We have lost no cases with him yet.

With love all,

Edman Spangler

Fort Jefferson, Florida

September 23, 1867

I have received the barrel of potatoes and am very thankful for them. We have drawn but a half bushel of potatoes from the government since the first of January. We have bought some at Key West, for which we paid seven and eight dollars per barrel. There are some seven of us in one mess; we do not eat with the other prisoners. We have the yellow fever here very bad. We had a doctor that came from Washington: he got it and died: his name was J. Sims Smith. He has a wife and two children. Dr. Mudd was in charge for a few days, and was very successful, and then they got a doctor from Key West; but Dr. Mudd is still in the hospital attending to the sick, and I am in the carpenter shop making coffins for those that die. While I am writing they have burned all the beds that belonged to every one that got sick, and all their clothing. We have a dreadful time of it here. There is no use of getting frightened at it; we must stand up and face the music.

Since writing the above, one of Dr. Smith’s children has died, Lieutenants Solam and Ohr, Major Stone’s wife and Michael O’Laughlin.

Fort Jefferson, Florida

Sept. 24

Poor Michael O’Laughlin, my friend and room-mate died at 7 o’clock yesterday of yellow fever, and during the 24 hours, seven others passed from life to eternity. The fever has assumed a more malignant type. There is but one officer for duty at the post, the others having died or now lying ill with the fever. Lieut. Gordon, taken two days ago, is now lying in a critical condition. From all I can learn, we have had 280 cases, out of which so far thirty have died. Some are even taken with it the second time, and from appearances, and from what the Doctor says, we shall always have it here – the thermometer never falling below 63 degrees. I have not been attacked yet, but may be at any moment, in which case I thought it best to forward to you and my family small mementoes, should I die of the fever. Arnold has had it, and has fully recovered, yet remains in a very weak condition. Something should be done, if possible, towards obtaining our removal from this den of pestilence and death to some more healthy place. Nearly all the late cases are of a very malignant type, scarcely any recovering.

Sources:
“Letter from Spangler,” New York Times, September 22, 1867, 3.
“Letters from the Dry Tortugas,” Baltimore Sun, October 11, 1867, 1.

Categories: History, The Lincoln Conspirators at Fort Jefferson | Tags: , , , , , , | 4 Comments

An Interview with Alan E. Hunter: Keeper of the Oldroyd Flame

Posted on January 21, 2025 by Dave Taylor

Alan E. Hunter is a newspaperman and former educator from Indianapolis, Indiana. He is the author of several history books on subjects ranging from local Indiana to the infamous multi-murderer H. H. Holmes. In December of 2024, Al published two new books related to the subject of Abraham Lincoln. One is a biography of Dr. Wayne “Doc” Temple, a noted Lincoln historian who will be celebrating his 101st birthday in February. His other book is a detailed biography of the famous Lincoln collector and author Osborn H. Oldroyd. This latter subject is best known to Lincoln assassination buffs as the man who operated his own museum out of the Lincoln home in Springfield, Illinois, and then from the Petersen House where Lincoln died in Washington. In 1901, Oldroyd also published a book on the assassination of Lincoln, during the writing of which he walked John Wilkes Booth’s escape route, talking to survivors who interacted with the assassins 35 years before.

I invited Al to a virtual interview to discuss his new books and a book he published in 2020 about the House Where Lincoln Died. Al is a wealth of information about one of the more interesting side characters in the Lincoln story, and his enthusiasm for his friend and mentor, Dr. Wayne Temple, shines throughout our talk together. I learned many new things about both Osborn Oldroyd and Dr. Temple from my talk with Al. I hope you’ll give it a watch or listen:

If you are in the central Illinois area, you can join Al for the official launch of his new books on February 16, 2025, at 10:00am at Books on the Square in Springfield. Al will be speaking about both Doc Temple and Oldroyd while signing copies of his books.

For those of us who, sadly, live far from Springfield, you can still purchase Al’s books through Amazon. You can click on the names or cover images below to purchase the three books discussed in the interview.

Osborn H. Oldroyd: Keeper of the Lincoln Flame (2024)

The Petersen House, The Oldroyd Museum and the House Where Lincoln Died (2020)

Thursdays with Doc: Recollections on Springfield & Lincoln (2024)

You can also keep an eye on Al and his interesting history columns by following him on his blog, AlanEHunter.com.

I’m grateful to Al for taking the time to talk to me about his research and books. If you enjoyed this interview, let me know. If there is enough interest, I’d be open to doing more interviews with other authors and researchers in the Lincoln assassination field.

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

Visit (and Volunteer at) the Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House Museum in 2025

Posted on January 19, 2025 by Dave Taylor

The Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House Museum in Waldorf, Maryland, has announced its opening date for 2025. The museum will open for the season on Saturday, April 5, 2025, just in time for the 160th anniversary of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The tour season will run through November 23, 2025, followed by their annual Victorian Christmas event in December.

I have written a fair amount about Dr. Mudd and just recently published my video series on Fort Jefferson, which talks all about Dr. Mudd’s imprisonment. My opinion about the culpability of Dr. Mudd in John Wilkes Booth’s original plot to abduct the president is pretty well established. As a historian who believes that Dr. Mudd was largely guilty of the charges brought against him, it is probably surprising to hear that I am also a huge advocate of the Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House Museum. The reason that I am such a fan of the Mudd house is due to the amazing evolution the Southern Maryland museum has gone through over the past few years.

If you visited the museum prior to about 2015 or so, you were likely given the “Dr. Mudd was an innocent country doctor” tour that dominated the museum from its founding by members of the Mudd family. It is true that for the first several decades of its life, the Mudd house had a clearly apologist slant when it came to its namesake owner. Several narrators of the John Wilkes Booth escape route bus tours, like James O. Hall and Edward Steers, were not permitted to exit the bus at the Mudd house due to their habit of poking holes in the family narrative of the doctor’s alleged innocence.

However, those regrettable days are well in the past now at the Mudd house. A change in leadership has championed a period of growth and a re-evaluation of the museum’s place in the 21st century. Through new programs and improved docent training, the Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House Museum has transformed. Gone are the days of the family-run apologist oddity decorated in the trappings of the Myth of the Lost Cause. In its place is a proper museum that actively engages with the complex history of Dr. Mudd’s involvement with John Wilkes Booth and his role as an enslaver. Rather than ignoring or trying to hide its difficult past, the Dr. Mudd house confronts its history and has worked to restore diverse stories back into the narrative.

Lead docent Bob Bowser conducting one of his amazing walking tours of the Mudd House property in 2019.

I was so impressed by the growth of the Mudd House and their devotion to reconciling with their past that I actually signed up to be a volunteer docent. I received docent training and a handbook all about the lives of those who lived and worked at the Dr. Mudd farm. Unfortunately, right before my first volunteer season started, COVID-19 came, and my subsequent move to Texas just before the house reopened prevented me from actually giving tours there. But I can assure you, if I were still living in Maryland, I would be a regular volunteer guide at the Dr. Mudd house. They are doing an amazing job of telling the story of Lincoln’s assassination in an inclusive and modern way.

I would like to motivate anyone who lives within driving distance of Charles County, Maryland, to consider volunteering at the Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House Museum. The folks at the Mudd house are doing such a fantastic job, but they are also stretched incredibly thin. The Mudd house receives no state or county funding. They rely solely on the paid admissions of visitors and donations to keep operating. The entire museum is run by an executive board and supporting society that is comprised entirely of volunteers. While the leadership at the museum is doing great things, more volunteers are desperately needed to help pass on the site’s history to the public.

There are many ways you can volunteer at the Dr. Mudd house. There are admissions attendants who welcome visitors in and get them set up for tours, gift shop volunteers who work the register and take money, and, of course, docents who take visitors through the house and tell them the history. New docents receive training and a helpful handbook about the history of the house, its residents, and the Lincoln assassination story. You shadow experienced docents until you feel comfortable starting off on your own. Period costumes, while welcome, are not required for docents, removing the financial burden associated with trying to find Victorian dress.

But even if you don’t feel comfortable giving tours, the Mudd house could still benefit from your presence as an admissions or gift shop worker. The museum is only open on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and the time commitment is relatively minimal.  Even volunteering just one day each month during the season would be incredibly helpful to the folks at the Mudd house.

If this post has motivated you to learn more about the different volunteer opportunities at the Mudd house (and I hope it has), please consult the infographic below and reach out to the museum via phone, on their Facebook page, or email them at muddnews@gmail.com. I know that you will find the Mudd house to be a welcoming place, and very grateful for your willingness to give the gift of your time and service.

As part of the museum’s announcement regarding its opening date and plans for the 2025 season is the note that tours will now start at the top of each hour. The former practice of trying to give tours whenever folks showed up has caused difficulties due to the limited number of docents and the limited space inside the historic house. In the past, docents would sometimes have to rush to finish a tour they were conducting because competing groups of new visitors arrived within a short span of time. It created a regrettable situation for both the docents and the visitors. The new process of running tours starting on the hour will ensure the docents are able to give equal time to each guest and allow visitors better transparency on how to plan their trip. If you visit the museum in 2025, make sure that you arrive several minutes before each hour to park, walk up to the back of the house, use the bathroom if necessary, and pay for your admission for the next tour. A new welcome video will be debuting this coming season to help you get acquainted with the site before the tour starts.

Since the last tour of the day will now start promptly at 3:00 pm, the entrance gate for the Mudd house will be closed at 3:00 pm, as well. By that time, the participants of the tour will already be starting off. While latecomers to other tours could always catch the next tour time, this will not be the case for the last tour of the day. Be sure not to be late for the 3:00 pm tour. Otherwise, you may find the gate closed to new visitors, and you will have to come back another day.

If you haven’t been to the Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House Museum in a while, I highly recommend you make a return visit in the coming year. I know you will be pleasantly surprised by how much the museum has grown due to a devoted board and a wonderful group of volunteers who would love for you to join them. I hope you will find time to rediscover the Dr. Mudd house, including their unique walking tours of the property delving into John Wilkes Booth’s escape and the lives of the enslaved men and women who lived and worked on the farm. His name may be Mudd, but the Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House Museum is a true gem.

P.S. If you do visit or volunteer, tell ’em missing docent Dave Taylor says “Hi!” from Texas.

Categories: History, News | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

A New Year’s Resolution

Posted on January 2, 2025 by Dave Taylor

Well, 2025 is now upon us. Like many folks, I have taken time over the past couple of days to establish some resolutions for the coming year. Most of my resolutions are of the standard variety. I’m going to try to exercise more, spend less money, and stop staying up so late. How successful I will be in these endeavors remains to be seen, as they are pretty similar to my resolutions from last year.

In addition to these common resolutions, I have also decided to make it my goal for 2025 to write a book. Over the years, many kind individuals have encouraged me to write my own book on the Lincoln assassination. Each time, however, I have demurred, noting that the most definitive book about the Lincoln assassination has already been written: American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies by Michael Kauffman. I still believe that Kauffman’s book is the most detailed account of the assassination, and I know that I could never come close to reaching his level of scholarship.

That said, there has been an idea that I have been mulling over for the past couple of years. It was a concept I explored a bit during my Master’s program, but I didn’t feel I had the time to explore it fully then. In time, other shiny new projects have popped up to distract me, such as my Lincoln Conspirators at Fort Jefferson video series (which I’m really very proud of and you should all watch) and my reviews of the Manhunt miniseries. After finishing both of these lengthy projects last month, I found myself asking, “What’s next?” and my mind returned to this latent book idea.

I’ve never attempted to write a book before. The sheer size of such an endeavor is intimidating, to say the least. I wasn’t sure if this was something I could ever reasonably accomplish. This is especially true since I’m one of those dreaded “hunt and peck” typers who only uses like two or three fingers to type, a particularly slow and error-inducing process. However, according to my blog statistics for 2024, I wrote a total of almost 91,000 words last year. That is right in the range of a full-length book of about 300 pages, showing me that a book is actually within my abilities.

So, today, I broke ground, as it were, on my book, and I’m committed to keep working on it over the course of 2025. Whether I can get it completed in a year, I don’t know, but my resolution is to work on it as much as I can and see where I am by the end of the year.

My reason for writing this post is to make you aware that this is likely to be a slow year on LincolnConspirators.com. My postings will be few and far between as I choose instead to work on my book rather than on new web content. I do know of a couple of colleagues of mine who will be publishing their own books in the next few months, which I am eager to highlight, and I also have a friend working on a guest blog post that I know you will all enjoy. So, some content will be posted occasionally, but don’t expect any deep dives on a subject, as my research time will be devoted to working on my book.

During the lean times, I hope you will reengage with some of the older content on this site. You may have noticed a new “pinned post” on the blog’s home page directing readers to some of my special projects. At the end of that projects page, I included a list of some of my favorite blog posts. I hope re-reading some of those gems will provide some interesting content during the interim.

For the time being, I am going to be a bit secretive regarding the topic of my book (Hint: it has something to do with Lincoln’s assassination). This may change as time goes on, but in these early days, I would prefer to keep my cards close. It will hopefully make for a better reveal down the road this way. To my colleagues who follow this blog, don’t be surprised if you get an email or phone call from me in the coming year with an appeal to pick your brain. I’ve always felt that history is a collaborative effort, which is why this blog exists for all to read and learn from.

I’m excited (and scared) about the coming year and my resolution to write a book. I appreciate your patience and support during this year as I attempt to make this resolution a reality. And, if any of you authors have some advice on how to write a book, I would very much appreciate your guidance in the comments.

~Dave

Categories: History, News | 19 Comments
 
 

Welcome to LincolnConspirators.com

This website is an educational resource exploring the history surrounding the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. It is written by me, Dave Taylor, a historian and former elementary school teacher. This website is primarily a blog where I post new articles about various aspects of the Lincoln assassination story. My latest blog posts can be found directly underneath this one.

In addition to my normal blog posts, I have also completed a number of special projects and deep dives into certain parts of the tragedy of April 1865. I have created this pinned post to facilitate better access and awareness of these unique projects, which I hope will be explored by history students of all ages.

To check out the special projects and a collection of specially curated posts, click the image below. To read the newest blog posts, just keep on scrolling. If you like what you see and want to support the research, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon. Thanks for visiting!

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