541

Lincoln Assassination Letter

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:500.00 USD Estimated At:NA
Lincoln Assassination Letter
“Winners will be notified after the auction ends and once all bids have been processed to determine the winner for each lot”
A.C. Richards, in an historic letter dated 24 May 1898, vividly recounts details of the Lincoln assassination. He was in Ford’s Theater the night the President was shot and, as Metropolitan Police Superintendent, was also involved in the search for the conspirators. He writes to Louis Weichmann, chief prosecution witness at the assassination conspirators' trial, to review events for Weichmann's book on the assassination. Richards states, ''…I did not go there [Surratt house] to search the house but to ascertain from Mrs. S., if I could, who the parties were that Booth called to see at her house. I knew at the time that Booth was the assassin of the President but had not learned who the conspirators were. I had learned of the attempted assassination of Secretary Seward…I had not the remotest idea that Mrs. Surratt could have been in any way privy to the plot…When I said to her that the President had just been assassinated and that Booth who had been known to be a frequenter of her house was this assassin she expressed no surprise or astonishment. When I went to the house it was dark so far as I could see…I was surprised that she answered my ring at the bell so promptly and that she should be dressed and hair in perfect order…'' Signed, ''A.C. Richards''. Six page letter, written front and verso on three 7.75'' x 9.75'' sheets, is in very good condition.