Tag: Lincoln assassination

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The Lincoln assassination rabbit holes

Rabbit Hole #1: Jefferson Davis did it. Did you know Jefferson Davis was convicted of orchestrating Lincoln’s murder, with Mary Surratt and John W. Booth as his primary agents in that endeavor? That was the finding of the military tribunal that took 5,000 pages of testimony and then hanged four people the next day, indicating not a single officer on the tribunal bothered to read the transcript before rendering a decision. Even today, this theory is periodically trotted out and dusted off. Only problem is less than two years later, a Congressman named Rogers exposed the trial had been a sham and witnesses had been coached and paid for their false testimony. This inconvenient truth was brushed under the rug, but created enough of a public outcry that Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, who presided over the trial, went into a phase of “intense personal excitement” as he was worried he was becoming the fall-guy for the sham trial.

Rabbit Hole #2: Andrew Johnson did it. President Andrew Johnson was next in the patsy line. The Radicals began building a case against Johnson the moment he attempted to remove Edwin M. Stanton from his perch running the War Department, the military, the newspapers and the telegraph lines. Johnson survived the impeachment trial by one vote, despite the long list of dirty tricks, bribes and threats brought to play against him. Once the smoke cleared, Johnson knew the tribunal had been a complete sham and regretted allowing Mary Surratt to swing from the gallows and would soon pardon the convicted-but-not-hanged conspirators languishing in jail.

Rabbit Hole #3: The Pope was responsible. In order to shift suspicion off himself and the Radical Republicans who orchestrated the sham trial, Holt wrote a manifesto claiming the Catholics conspired to kill Lincoln based mostly on Mary Surratt being a Catholic, and Catholics at that time were a minority despised by many Protestants. Some really absurd evidence was brought to bear by Holt and this balloon did not fly with the public.

Rabbit Hole #4: The Rothschilds did it. This has become the standard canard for shielding the oligarchy that really runs the banking system. Because some powerful banking families of Jewish heritage happen to control a large percentage of the banking system does not mean they own all the money or even most of it, or that they are pulling evil strings on every event in history. I’d imagine Simon Wolf had a relationship with the Rothschilds, and did meet with Booth that day. However, it seems far more likely a New York element was closely involved, and not a London or European element. The key suspects beyond Booth and his inner circle should be the Radical Republicans working with Jay Gould and/or Fernando Wood as the “New York crowd.”

Rabbit Hole #5: Booth was insane and acting on his own. This is the meme that has come down through history, and ignores Booth’s command of spy craft and his devious methods for concealing operations. Sam Arnold, one of the primary conspirators in the kidnap plot remarked how closed-lipped Booth was on all matters and how Booth shared little information concerning the source of his funding, but Booth did buy a carriage, horses, four pistols, four knives, two rifles and a rowboat for the kidnapping scheme, indicating deep pockets were behind the plot.

The most suspicious thing about the trial, other than the perjuries committed, were the dozen conspirators who aided Booth that were never investigated or brought to testify. George Atzerodt ran down all the key players in his first confession, but that document was destroyed and never admitted into evidence. Why wasn’t the beautiful Kate Brown brought before the tribunal? She was reportedly taken to Stanton’s office and then disappeared forever. But then there were many others, and strong suspicion exists today these conspirators were hidden to protect their identities as double agents. Stanton undoubtedly had many doubles pretending to be loyal Confederate agents. This would have been standard procedure. And if so, the reason these doubles couldn’t be brought forth is because that would have indicated Stanton knew about the plot in advance, and had purposefully left Lincoln unguarded.

The day after Lincoln died, the Radicals met for a crucial strategy session and Thaddeus Stevens remarked on how the assassination had been “a godsend,” as Lincoln had been planning forgiveness for the South. That callous statement is an indication of the Radicals true feelings toward Lincoln, who had just returned from a visit to Richmond, where he’d walked the streets unguarded, and spoken freely with the inhabitants. If the Confederate secret service and Jefferson Davis had wanted Lincoln murdered in revenge for losing the war, he could have been cut down in the streets of  Richmond just a few days before his death in the heart of  Washington DC.

Of course the rabbit holes don’t stop there and every year some new piece of forged documentation will appear to send researchers on a goose egg hunt to nowhere, usually in support of one or more of the fake theories already listed. But it’s incredibly suspicious how so much evidence has emerged over the years to support the thesis of an inside job, and how none of that evidence seems to make it into the media or onto Wikipedia.

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I was ambushed by a Dogma Patrol

dunhamfixI’ve been studying spooks for thirty years, but never got around to the Civil War variety until late in life. After I viewed a Robert Redford film called The Conspirator on Netflix, I became a fanatic Lincoln assassination researcher for many months because that movie shredded the official story and made it clear Mary Surratt was railroaded by a kangaroo court in a failed attempt to close the assassination files forever.

It quickly became obvious the pro-war cabal of the Republican Party (as well as a mysterious unknown entity in New York City working with some double agents), fomented the evil deed and Booth merely a pawn in their game. This case is the most investigated murder in history, and most of the primary documents are available free online. The problem is not there is not enough evidence, but there’s too much evidence. And the haystack has been seeded with fake needles.

The Lincoln-Assassination Forum is a wonderful repository of information and includes a wealth of links and insightful commentary. However, I did notice a strong disposition against the inside job theories, so I knew my book was not likely to please those guarding the inner sanctum, but when I saw my book blurb appear and receive jabs from the dogma patrol, I registered and introduced myself, knowing I’d be crossing an open field under fire.

Here’s the problem with the dogma patrol: when those who hold the view of an inside job are immediately ganged up against, abused, ridiculed and treated worse than idiots….just for holding that view…..you’re not creating a healthy environment for real research. Those are the weapons of propagandists, not the legitimate tools of honest researchers.

The Lincoln case is not difficult to crack, and many books will appear soon enough to express my views. The JFK case was far more difficult and took thirty years, but that case is now fully cracked as well. And both were inside jobs, which only makes sense, and the proof is the way they’re so heavily guarded by a priesthood of insiders who refuse to allow a fair hearing of evidence. Anyone who supports an inside job will simply not be welcome at their websites, no matter what evidence they marshal. On the other hand, honest researchers just let the chips fall.

I had a fun time during the few days I was on the forum defending my reputation, while enduring all sorts of hippie bigotry. When asked why I hadn’t arrived earlier for guidance before publishing, I replied my evidence had been posted on my blog for months before the book came out. Of course, that just provoked another attack on the idea of anything worthwhile ever appearing on a blog, as if the perjured testimony from the official trial is more valid.

The trial only tells you what not to believe, and the most important evidence is anything the War Department tried to destroy that slipped through and survived.

Unfortunately, Robert Todd Lincoln seems to have played clean-up patrol, and may have even incarcerated his mother after she realized who killed her husband and wouldn’t stop talking about it.Wake up. Let freedom ring and justice prevail. No matter where the chips may fall.

If you want to chortle over my encounters with the dogma patrol, you can find the thread here:

http://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussionSymposium/thread-2031.html

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Dirty George’s Confession

23.72On May 1, 1865, George Atzerodt made a full confession regarding the conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln, a statement recorded by a detective working for Maryland Provost Marshal James McPhail. Strangely, this confession was never entered into the official records of the trial.

Atzerodt told a much different story at that trial, one that closely conformed to the prosecution’s wild theories that five simultaneous assassinations had been planned. But this first confession was the one he expected to get himself off the hook with, because it was the truth. Only the truth is not what the military tribunal’s rush to judgment was concerned with. They were actually burying the truth, and tossing out Atzerodt’s initial confession was part of that plan.
Atzerodt began by describing fellow conspirator Lewis Powell, known to him as James Wood or Mosby.

“He was brought from New York. Surratt told me.”

This is the first mention of the “New York crowd” who return repeatedly as the rambling confession unfolds. Next, he identifies James Donaldson as one of the primary conspirators, a man who’ll disappear off the pages of history and never be heard from again. According to Don Thomas (The Reason Lincoln Had to Die), Donaldson (like Louis Weichmann) was a War Department informant placed inside the Confederate secret services.

“Arnold, O’Laughlen, Surratt, Harold, Booth and myself met at a restaurant on the Aven. bet 13 & 14.”

No problems here, as this is the designated crew of patsies.

“The Saml. Thomas registered on the morning of the 15th at the Penn Hotel, I met at the hotel, he was an entire stranger to me.”

Mr. Thomas will never be investigated.

“I same a man named Weightman who boarded at Surrattt’s at Post Office. he told me he had to go down the country with Mrs. Surratt.”

Louis Weichmann appears, although Atzerodt has no clue Weichmann is a War Department snitch.

“Booth never said until the last night (Friday) that he intended to kill the president.”

Atzerodt goes on to explain his mysterious presence at the Kirkwood: He was sent there to collect a pass for travel to Richmond from Vice President Johnson, which is the same reason Booth will stop by the Kirkwood and inquire after Johnson on the day of the assassination. (Later, this story will shift to Atzerodt being there to murder the Vice President.) The confession goes on to incriminate Charles Yates, Thos. Holborn, as well three referred to as Bailey, Barnes and Boyle. But the most interesting name was that of a female who obviously had a close relationship with Booth and appeared just a few weeks before Lincoln was murdered.

“Kate Thompson or Kate Brown, as she was known by both names, put up at the National was well known at the Penn House…this woman is about 20 years of age, good looking and well dressed.”

Here’s a character worthy of investigation. If you know anything about spooks, it’s that 20-something super hotties play a significant role in operations and are known as “honey traps.” Why was Kate never charged or called to testify since Atzerodt clearly places her in the center of the conspiracy, along with an entity he only identifies as the “New York crowd?” It wasn’t because nobody looked, but that she simply never could be found.

Some say her real name was Sarah Gilbert Slater, a Confederate spy who disappeared without a trace. Since her name appeared frequently in two trials, investigators did look for her extensively, but since she wore a heavy veil at all times and changed names constantly, and was known mostly as “the french woman,” they really didn’t have much to go on.

In 1865, while being interviewed in Richmond for a passport to travel to New York City to see her mother, Slater was recruited as a spy by Secretary of War James A. Seddon and became a courier for messages between Richmond and Confederate operations in Canada. A large amount of money allegedly disappeared with her, as did her two brothers around the same time. Whether they were all mysteriously murdered over their knowledge of the conspiracy, or whether they created new identities in France will never be known.

However, Thomas has proposed an alternative theory, which is the mysterious French woman is Kate Warne, the first female detective hired by Allen Pinkerton, who died in 1868 with Pinkerton at her side. Somehow, I doubt this is true.

My guess is Kate was Sarah and she was turned by the “New York crowd.” A spook with her assets would have been extremely useful to any side, and any corporation, and in the real world of spooks, loyalty usually falls to the highest bidder, or the one who can keep you off the gallows, and not the one with the best dogmas.

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The million dollar assassination

On December 1, 1864, four-and-a-half months before J. Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theater, a plea for crowd-funding the assassination appeared in Alabama’s Salem Dispatch:

One Million Dollars, Wanted, to Have Peace by the 1st of March
If the citizens of the Southern Confederacy will furnish me with the cash, or good securities for the sum of one million dollars, I will cause the lives of Abraham Lincoln, William H. Seward and Andrew Johnson to be taken by the first of March next. This will give us peace and satisfy the world that cruel tyrants cannot live in the “land of liberty.” If this is not accomplished nothing will be claimed beyond the sum of fifty thousand dollars, in advance, which is supposed to be necessary to reach and slaughter the three villains I will give, myself, one thousand dollars towards this patriotic purpose. Every one wish to contribute will address Box X, Cahaba, Alabama.

After the assassination, Henry Grimes of Ohio cut it out and attached the ad to a letter to Secretary of State Seward (above). Seward had barely survived being murdered and was saved thanks to a metal collar around his neck, a device a doctor had installed because Seward suffered a fall from his moving carriage the day before. Isn’t it somewhat strange zero investigation was conducted as to how much money was sent to this post office box in sleepy Cahaha, Alabama, and who picked it up? Also suspicious is why are Seward and Johnson signaled out for death with Lincoln, when the South hated Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner far more, not to mention Edwin Stanton, a former Democrat, was universally detested. So the choice of Lincoln, Seward and Johnson seems odd and not really emanating from a true Southern patriot, but an agenda of a different stripe.

I imagine the ad was placed by Sandford Conover (real name Charles Dunham), who is a bit of a Zelig in the story of Lincoln’s assassination, always in the shadows at key moments, although few history books mention his name or any of his many aliases. Conover had a knack for creative fundraising and I suspect he also forged the letter from Booth to Edwin Stanton postmarked New York City the day of the assassination. His use of disinformation, misdirection and manipulation of news is absolutely spellbinding and nearly impossible to fully unravel, but it appears Conover wrote the book on military counterintelligence propaganda, while managing to stay completely hidden from history until now. My spotlight shines brightly on him in my expose Killing Lincoln: The Real Story.
The beginning of December is when this operation was set in motion to bend a previous plot to kidnap Lincoln into Lincoln’s assassination, employing the same cast and crew. Isn’t it strange that a similar ad attacking President Kennedy appeared the day of his arrival in Dallas? And in case you missed the morning paper, there was a similar flyer handed out on the streets accusing JFK of treason.

Consider the crew that killed JFK was the same team that had been hired months earlier to kill Castro, but when JFK shut down the get-Castro mission, the same get-team was diverted to get him. It goes to show how similar deep political events are: similar problems, similar solutions and similar scripts appear again and again.

 

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Lafayette Baker is a key to the Lincoln assassination conspiracy

Most of what we know about La Fayette Curry Baker is taken from his autobiography, and undoubtedly lies mixed with gross exaggerations, as Baker didn’t even write the book, but had it ghostwritten. When grilled about it on the stand, he wasn’t completely sure of its contents. Baker was undoubtedly one of the most corrupt officials in Washington so why would the truth cross his lips with any frequency? The fact he never read his autobiography is an indication he was not a learned fellow, although street-smart and schooled in the arts of spookdom.

Secretary of War Edwin Stanton hand-picked Baker to run the goon squad, the National Detective Police (NDP), which had been under control of the Secretary of State until Stanton snatched it away. Stanton also snatched the telegraph lines around the same time.

Stanton soon became a law unto himself, and Baker, chief enforcer. Admittedly, Baker wasn’t good at administration, although he did like dressing in disguise and doing his own gumshoe work. Interrogating suspected spies (especially pretty female ones), and manifesting fake evidence were among his admitted specialties, talents that made him quite useful to Stanton.

Right before the assassination, this duo got into a tiff, reportedly because Stanton discovered Baker had put a tap on his private telegraph line, which could have been deployed to communicate with an entity in Manhattan (likely Jay Gould, soon to be the richest man in America). Stanton and his allies running Congress (Wade, Stevens) had control of the flow of information concerning the outcome of battles. After Lincoln won his second term, he wanted to forgive the South and let their old representatives return to Congress, which would have taken control away from the Radicals.

Strangely, when Stanton discovered Baker’s tap, instead of firing him, Baker was moved to Manhattan. No doubt the head of the NDP office in New York, where Baker was moved to, was also involved in the conspiracy. Baker, however, was the odd man left out in the cold.
The Radical Republican cabal that had taken power in Washington viewed Lincoln as a novice and hick, and referred to him as “the ape” behind his back. Nothing like the saintly image we have today.
Precisely as the assassination plot went into action, Baker was demoted and moved to New York. Yet, a few weeks later, two days after the assassination, Stanton recalled Baker and reinstated him as NDP chief. Baker was considered the best detective on the force. No doubt Stanton was worried about the impression created by keeping him on the sidelines for the crime of the century. Using information gleaned from the army patrol that had visited Dr. Mudd’s home, Baker correctly pinpointed Booth’s location and sent a patrol led by a relative to retrieve him. At the last second, however, Stanton attached a civilian to the patrol, and he is the one who actually shot Booth in the barn.

When Baker got the news of Booth’s capture and death, he was elated since the equivalent of around $2.25 million in reward money was at stake and he expected to get the lion’s share. Baker bolted to Stanton’s home to give him the news. Stanton was an emotional man given to outbursts of rage and happiness, and Baker was curious what his reaction might be. At first, Baker did not tell Stanton Booth was dead, only captured, as he wished to judge the reaction. Surprisingly, upon hearing Booth was captured, Stanton registered nothing, but silently put one hand over his eyes while laying on his living room couch, remaining still as a statue until Baker told him Booth had not survived capture. Instead of becoming angry they could not move up the chain-of-command through torturing Booth, Stanton calmly rose and put on his coat for the trip to the office.

The young Lafayette Baker.

The story is revealing, and takes me back a few days to that initial meeting the duo had when Baker was recalled from New York and reinstated. Stanton spun his chair around and put his back to Baker. Baker assumed this was because Stanton was shedding tears over Lincoln’s death and did not wish to be seen in a moment of weakness. But knowing Stanton, it’s far more likely he turned around and feigned that moment, simply so Baker couldn’t look deeply into his eyes and read the guilt. Even though Baker was chief of the secret police, and involved in all sorts of nasty business, he remained on the outside of the assassination conspiracy as Stanton did not fully trust him.

After President Johnson went to war with Stanton and Thaddeus Stevens, and they mounted an impeachment campaign against him, word around Washington was the cabal had already decided Johnson had to go, and with manufactured evidence if necessary.

Just as they had invented the testimony that hanged Mary Surratt, they were already busy inventing evidence against Johnson. Under oath General Baker (he was promoted after Booth’s death) claimed to have seen letters between Johnson and Jefferson Davis, letters he promised to produce, but never did. Odd because forgery was not an issue for Baker.

To give an idea of the sort of shenanigans Baker fomented, he had a detective hire a prostitute to carry a pardon request to the White House. But when she arrived, Baker was waiting and nabbed her, claiming she was not of sufficient character to be in the White House. During the impeachment trial, this incident would be twisted to paint Johnson as a drunk who engaged prostitutes in the White House.

But it all backfired because Johnson survived his impeachment trial by one vote, meaning Stanton and Baker were both soon fired. Which is why Baker was forced to sign that publishing deal. He did put some clues in his book, however, and the most important had been to reveal the existence of Booth’s diary that had been captured at Garrett’s farm. Until then, the diary had never been revealed. This was an obvious case of obstruction, and Congress eventually forced Stanton to produce the diary so they could examine this curiosity, although when it finally arrived, many pages had been snipped out with a pair of scissors.

Baker received a pittance of the reward and became quite bitter later in life. Stanton and Stevens were both soon dead of natural causes and the head of Stanton’s telegraph operation would become the first CEO of Western Union, appointed by the owner, Jay Gould, who had profited immensely off uncanny Wall Street maneuvers involving Civil War battles. Almost as if he had advance knowledge.

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Top 5 Lincoln—JFK assassination connections

1) Telegraph lines went dead for two hours immediately after Lincoln’s assassination. No investigation was ever conducted as to the cause.
Telephone lines in Washington DC went down for one hour immediately after JFK’s assassination. The excuse was overloaded lines, which certainly could be true, although no official investigation was ever conducted.

2) Booth shot Lincoln in a theater, and hid in a tobacco barn. The theater was then converted into a government warehouse, and the assassin assassinated before any trial took place. Oswald allegedly shot JFK from a government warehouse, and fled to a theater. He would be assassinated before any trial took place.

3) Lincoln was shot in the head in front of his wife on a Friday in Ford’s Theater.
JFK was shot in the head in front of his wife on a Friday while riding in a Ford Lincoln.

4) The first theory floated after Lincoln was assassinated was the Confederacy was behind the plot. The first theory floated after JFK was assassinated was the Communists were behind the plot.

5) After years of investigation, the official story continues to fall apart and strong evidence is emerging that Lincoln was killed by a conspiracy inside his own government. After years of investigation, the official story continues to fall apart and strong evidence is emerging that JFK was killed by a conspiracy inside his own government.

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Top 4 Lincoln—9/11 connections

Deep political events follow similar trails, and with study you can read the footprints. I’m on a mission to blow open the Lincoln Conspiracy in time for the 150th anniversary this April, and I’m hoping to open some minds along the way.
1) Rush to Judgment
9/11: Within seconds of the first plane hitting the World Trade Tower, television commentators identified Osama bin Laden as the primary suspect.
Lincoln: Within 48 hours, eight are arrested and all will be quickly convicted to bring closure. How this entire gang was rounded up so quickly despite none testifying against the other remains a mystery.
2) Key witness eliminated
9/11: Instead of being rendered back to the USA for trial, Osama bin Laden is murdered in his bedroom in the presence of his family, and the corpse dumped into the ocean so identification can never be achieved with any satisfaction.
Lincoln: John Wilkes Booth is locked in a tobacco shed and surrounded by Federal troops who’d been dispatched from Washington to his exact location. A fire is started, but before it catches hold, a shot rings out. Booth is soon dead from a bullet in the back of the neck, and a former hatter with mental issues claims responsibility. There will be no photos, and DNA testing of the remains will be blocked endlessly, despite appeals from Booth’s descendents, some of whom believe a look-alike was substituted.
3) Military Justice
9/11: All suspects rendered to a prison off USA soil in order to deprive rights. Many will be tortured for over a decade. Eight will die in detention while the trial stalls endlessly on National Security concerns and defense teams are harassed by the FBI.
Lincoln: Suspects placed into solitary confinement with canvas bags permanently placed over their heads. The bags have two small holes for eating and breathing, but pads pressed against eyes and ears prevent any communication. They are allowed one day to organize a defense for the closed Military Tribunal held on an army base. None will be allowed to make any statements in their own defense, before during or after the trial, although by the time the trial commences some are showing signs of mental illness caused from the bags.
4) Evidence of Propaganda
9/11: No national news outlet will investigate the official story, yet all will ridicule any attempt to do so. A virtual cottage industry of disinfo sites appears instantly, all leading into rabbit holes.
Lincoln: An independent researcher gains access to official records in the late 1930s and claims evidence of a cover-up. He’ll soon be castigated in dozens of books, while his evidence ignored or ridiculed unfairly. Lack of scholarship on the assassination is scandalous because most books support the official story, something peppered with proven perjuries.

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Inside the Lincoln Conspiracy

Lafayette Curry Baker deserves a larger place in the history books because he played a key role in the Great Lincoln Conspiracy. Baker was considered one of the most corrupt and ruthless officials in Washington D.C., and owed all his power and prestige to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.

Baker bounced around the country from New York to California before becoming a mercenary and bounty-hunting-hired-gun. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he volunteered to spy on the Richmond defenses for General Winfield Scott by posing as a photographer, and soon came to the attention of Stanton, an Ohio lawyer who’d suddenly been placed into the Cabinet position of Secretary of War at the war’s outbreak, an extremely fortuitous appointment since Stanton had no military experience and had just switched political parties because he sensed the winds of change were blowing and the Republicans were about to take control of the executive branch.

Quoting Nathaniel Weyl’s The Battle Against Disloyalty: “During the war years, General La Fayette Curry Baker was chief of the military Secret Service…Promoted to the rank of Brigadier General, Baker was clothed with almost limitless powers as special provost marshal of the War Department. In Washington, he used the methods that had proved so successful in his vigilante days, disregarding the process of law, habeas corpus, or any of the other constitutional frills…” Of Stanton, Weyl concluded: “The ultimate plans of Stanton cannot be fathomed, but the trend was totalitarian.”

Baker routinely made false arrests, planted fake evidence and solicited bribes. He was placed in charge of insuring the War Department got its full share of the war profiteering, and when he caught merchants cheating, demanded a slice of the action to allow them to stay in business. A Treasury Department official accused Baker of orchestrating “a reign of terror.”

Suddenly, however, Baker was accused of tapping Stanton’s military telegraph lines, was demoted and moved to New York City, and posted under an Assistant Secretary of War there. This all seems weird because Baker was accused of “spying” on Stanton, yet there was no hearing nor trial, just this sudden demotion.

Delivering the Gettysburgh address.

But then just as suddenly, immediately after Lincoln was assassinated, Stanton ordered Baker to return to Washington to take charge of the investigation. Stanton himself was a suspect since he was in charge of the President’s protection and had personally placed a drunk on guard duty that night. Almost instantly suspects were rounded up and thrown into solitary with canvas hoods placed permanently over their heads to prevent any communication. At least one of them lost his mind after a week of wearing the hood. This runs against normal investigative technique, which is to isolate suspects and place double agents near them to draw information while posing as confidants.
After 11 days of the biggest manhunt in history, Baker suddenly dispatched a unit of the 16th Calvary to Virginia. The War Department was flooded with hundreds of reports of sightings in every state on the Eastern Coast, yet Baker somehow selected one particular lead to follow.

Booth’s diary never appeared at the trial, but much later when Baker wrote his book to cash in on his fame after being dismissed by Stanton, he mentioned the diary and was called before a Congressional committee, at which point Stanton was ordered to bring the diary to Congress. Baker examined the diary and claimed 18 leaves had been removed (at least 36 pages, if not 72). The diary had been shredded. Stanton claims to have removed nothing. But then much of the essential evidence of this case disappeared over time.

All this goes to show how deep the coverup runs because you won’t find many of these facts on the History Channel. In the 1930s, a chemistry professor tried to expose Stanton, but was dismissed although the serious questions he raised have never been adequately answered. A book was recently published about the case, American Brutus by Michael Kauffman, and it’s considered the “definitive last word” but strangely glosses over the conspiracy and refuses to peer deeply into the climate of corruption running through the War Department.

Booth was a Confederate spy.

There was one fact on the History channel’s recent expose I found particularly intriguing. Kauffman admits Booth made several mysterious trips to New York City prior to the assassination, and no one has discovered any evidence of what those trips were about. (Sort of like Oswald’s bus ride into Mexico.)

Mary Surratt was painted as the only living mastermind of the plot during the trial, even though she was only guilty of having a son who served as a Confederate courier. The only evidence against her was given by a clerk who worked for Stanton, and after the trial, this clerk was exposed as a Union double agent posing as a Confederate spy.

Other important facts never mentioned by the History Channel is that Booth was a captain in the Confederate Secret Service, and that Edwin Stanton’s mentor, the man who funded his rise in politics, was the leader of the Knights of the Golden Circle.

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Knights of the Golden Circle and the Lincoln assassination

I tinkered around conducting my own deep political research for years, but it wasn’t until I began the study of secret societies that I made any real headway. My big breakthrough was exploring connections between the Sicilian men-of-honor society and the Central Intelligence Agency, two secret societies that plotted to assassinate Fidel Castro. But after JFK called off that murder, the same team assembled to kill Castro ended up killing Kennedy. If Congress ever holds a real investigation, this is the reality that will emerge, although I suppose the instigators will be long dead by then.

I could write about 9/11 today, after all it is the anniversary, but my musing on that subject don’t attract much attention and offend those who prefer to keep their heads in the sand. I’m sure Facebook downgrades 9/11 posts anyway, unless they support the official story. There’s so much mud in the water and games being played regarding 9/11 that it’ll probably take another 13 years for enough real evidence to emerge to start pointing fingers at the true culprits, though I am certain 9/11 was staged to jump-start two wars that killed over two million people and made billions for the military-industrial complex, while suspending most of our Constitutional rights, because that’s the way deep politics works.

You can’t fully understand the Lincoln assassination without understanding the pseudo-masonic Knights of the Golden Circle, one of the more powerful secret societies in America at the time of the assassination. Funny how almost nothing has been written about the Knights, although their existence was well-established before the Civil War. Apparently, the organization grew out of Southern Rights clubs in the South who wished to open up more territory to slavery. These secret clubs financed slave ships that continued to illegally abduct Africans after the slave trade was officially abolished in 1808. In 1844, the War with Mexico was championed by these clubs because they desired to invade Mexico so it could be carved-up into slave states to insure the balance of power in Congress remained with the South.

In 1855, a resident of Cincinnati, Ohio, named George Bickley organized the Southern Rights movement into the highly secretive Knights of the Golden Circle (K.G.C.), a volunteer militia initially formed for a new invasion of Mexico. Eventually, tens of thousands joined the society, and many came from Northern states. A secret history of the society was written in 1861 and appeared a few years ago online here: https://archive.org/stream/authenticexposit00perri#page/n3/mode/2up

But only three years after the Civil War commenced, the K.G.C. was exposed. Some were leading pro-slave “peace movements” while others were acting as spies and dirty tricks operatives for the Confederacy. The Army spent months investigating the K.G.C. and the Judge Advocate General eventually produced an exhaustive report titled: “The Order of American Knights”, alias “The Sons of Liberty:” A Western Conspiracy in Aid of the Southern Rebellion, published by the Union Congressional Committee, Washington D.C., 1864. Among other things, the report identified most of the state leaders in the North and claimed Clement Vallindigham, leader of the Copperhead Democrats in Ohio, was the society’s Supreme Commander. Vallindigham had been a member of Congress, but after he lost his seat, President Lincoln had him deported to South Carolina as an enemy alien.

You can read the Congressional report here: https://archive.org/details/reportontheorder02unit

Isn’t it odd that none of Lincoln biographies or recent films mention K.G.C.?

In the 1930s an amateur historian and chemistry professor in Chicago put forth the theory that Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was involved in the Lincoln assassination and played the crucial role in covering up the true origins of the plot.

After Lincoln’s death, Stanton seized all power in Washington D.C. and took charge of the investigation and ran a military court that swiftly hung some minor players. What nobody seems to mention, however, is that Stanton and Vallindigham were very close personal friends, and that Vallindigham funded Stanton’s rise in politics.

The transcripts of the trial are available online, or you can watch Robert Redford’s excellent film The Conspirator, which focuses on Mary Surratt, who was targeted as chief patsy and swiftly hung. Her son John was studying to be a Catholic priest but instead joined the Confederate secret service and became a primary courier for the Confederacy during the war, and was involved in Col. John S. Mosby’s plot to kidnap Lincoln so he could be traded for Confederate prisoners of war. But when Surratt discovered the kidnap plan had shifted to murder, he fled to Canada, where he remained in hiding while his mother was tried and hung as chief patsy.

Check out Surratt (left) wearing his Papal Zouave uniform. Surratt was such a devoted Catholic he volunteered to defend the Papal States during the final years of their existence. Eighteen months after his mother was hung, however, he was spotted in Egypt and escorted back to America to stand trial still wearing his Papal Zouave uniform. Fortunately for Surratt, a law had just been passed forbidding military courts from trying civilians so the government was unable to secure his conviction, although Surratt freely admitted associations with Booth, he claimed no part of the murder and most of the jury believed him.

Later on, a fake diary would be published, purporting to be from Surratt, and this hoodwink mentioned the K.G.C. on almost every other page. So there was an intense effort to misdirect researchers in this direction. You can read the diary here: https://archive.org/stream/privatejournali00surr#page/n5/mode/2up

Since Stanton was head of the investigation and running the country under martial law at the time, one wonders why Booth was executed instead of being brought in for interrogation, and why 15 pages of Booth’s diary disappeared immediately after Stanton got control of the manuscript.

If I had to make a guess, I’d say the Civil War was fomented in advance, based around a Boston abolitionist movement that was largely funded by founder of Yale’s Skull & Bones William H. Russell, who also covered the war for the British press. Russell was chief financial supporter for terrorist John Brown, who sparked the violence. After the war, Wall Street had captured the center of gravity on banking from Philadelphia, and wanted to pillage the South for profits, something Lincoln was opposed to. Killing Lincoln was not in the best interests of the South, but was in the interest of certain business alliances. After Lincoln’s death, Stanton engaged in a vicious power struggle with President Andrew Johnson, and lost by one vote.

There’s another thread to this saga that involves Freemasonry: Albert Pike, the most powerful Mason in America, was from Boston, but moved to Arkansas during the war, where he became a general for the Confederacy and organized Native Americas to conduct terror raids on Northern civilians. Just as British and American officers met frequently during the Revolutionary War in Masonic lodges (and sometimes on the eve of a battle), it’s safe to assume Masons on both sides of the Civil War held discussions in their temples throughout the war. Freemasonry has always been a refuge for spies.

Consider that Stanton was a devoted Freemason. Also consider the one man brought in to testify against Mary Surratt was a clerk who worked for Stanton at the Department of War. Consider Stanton placed John Frederick Parker as the sole bodyguard for Lincoln that fateful night even though Lincoln had been having nightmares about being assassinated for three nights running and expressed these fears to Stanton and requested additional protection. Since Parker had a reputation for visiting brothels, sleeping on duty and drinking heavily, he seems like an odd choice. Parker abandoned his post and went across the street for drink in a tavern where Booth was also imbibing before strolling across the street to execute the undefended President.

Although all the films show Booth jumping to the stage and yelling “sic semper Tyrannis,” in his final diary entries Booth claimed to have shouted those words immediately before firing the shot.

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Why Was Lincoln Murdered?

April marked the 150th anniversary of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. It’s amazing how distorted this event has become over time and I imagine some Americans believe it was the work of another “lone assassin” because that’s the way these events are spun in the press to protect the guilty, but if you peer into the facts of the murder, you might be surprised by some details.

For example, did you know Lincoln requested additional protection that night as he had a premonition he was about to be assassinated? Aside from Lincoln, the most powerful man in Washington D.C. at the time of the murder was probably Secretary of War Edwin McMasters Stanton, an Ohio lawyer who’d been elevated to that position at the start of the war despite a complete lack of military expertise. So when Lincoln asked for additional protection, the man in charge of providing protection was Stanton, and he did assign one man to guard Lincoln that night, but that man disappeared from his post right before the murder, which seems bad enough, but consider this bodyguard was never punished nor reprimanded for leaving the President unprotected.

Obviously, the reason Booth can’t be a lone assassin is because there was another attempted political assassination that same night, as the Secretary of State was targeted for simultaneous removal from office.
Right after Lincoln’s assassination, telegraph lines leading out of Washington suddenly went dead and stayed that way for hours, although Stanton’s War Department line remained fully operational. Isn’t it somewhat eerie that a similar thing may have happened with phone lines in Washington DC immediately after JFK assassination.

General Grant was supposed to be at Ford’s Theater with the President but changed his plans, otherwise he could have been assassinated trying to protect the President. Stanton was Grant’s biggest booster later in life but rebuffed from a powerful seat on the Cabinet.
Within minutes of the assassination, Stanton was on the scene and took charge of everything: investigation, pursuit and trial, as well as the eventual impeachment hearings against Johnson, whom he tried unsuccessfully to implicate.

But wasn’t it odd Stanton closed all bridges out of Washington save one, which just happened to be the one Booth selected for escape? Within 11 days, he was trapped inside a locked barn and could easily been captured. But instead of waiting for daylight, the was set on fire and Booth shot in the back of the neck while inside. Killing Booth insured this complex conspiracy could never be tracked higher up the chain and who shot him remains a mystery.

During Stanton’s carefully orchestrated kangaroo court, two witnesses were produced to paint Mary Surratt as the mastermind. One was a Confederate spy named John Lloyd, who bartered his freedom in exchange for his testimony. The other, the actual star witness, was named Louis Weichmann, and he was a clerk working at the War Department who also and old friend of the Surratts.

If you find it hard to believe these facts, Robert Redford made a under-celebrated film called The Conspirator a couple years ago and it stays close to the historical facts, and when the film is over, it’s hard to believe Stanton was not involved in the conspiracy in some way because he put so much effort into railroading some patsies onto the gallows, especially Mary Surratt. Painting her as the evil ringleader seems absurd today, but because Stanton handpicked a jury of high-ranking military officers, all of whom were beholden to him, he was able to stack the deck and control the trial and its outcome. Few involved believed Surratt would be hung since that sentence had never been given a woman before and President Johnson had the ability to pardon her. And most of the judges requested that pardon, although the request was never shared with the President, so hang she did.

It’s only taken 150 years for this information to penetrate into my vivid imagination, so how long before the veils are finally lifted on the JFK assassination or 9/11? I can tell you the CIA was certainly involved in Kennedy’s killing and Saudi Arabia certainly played a role in 9/11. And as the years go by, the official cover story will continue to unravel. I just wish more Americans were interested in getting to the bottom of how politics really works.

While researching this blog, I uncovered a scientist and amateur historian who blew the whistle on Stanton back in the 1930s and Otto Eisenschiml’s groundbreaking book, Why Was Lincoln Murdered, can be read online for free here:

https://archive.org/stream/whywaslincolnmur00eise#page/n5/mode/2up

I know it’s a bit late in the game since Otto has long since passed over while his work was savagely dismissed by the establishment media, although Otto deserves credit for being one of the great conspiracy researchers of our time.