how to buy Lurasidone onlineLincoln Conspirator, Louis or Lewis or Aloysius Weichmann, was not only an acquaintance of many of the cabal that conspired and plotted Lincoln’s kidnapping and assassination, but eventually became the Prosecution’s Star Witness at the accused’s Military Trial. Weichmann may have been a mole for Secretary of War Stanton, in the Confederate den of Union dissent, at Mary Surratt’s boarding house, or possibly just a fool, who was in the wrong place, at the wrong time and was rounded up with the rest of Serratt’s tenants after Lincoln’s assassination.
Louis J. Weichmann, the son of German immigrants and one of five children, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, September 29, 1842. His father, a tailor, moved his family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Louis attended public schools. At 16, Louis a Roman Catholic, entered St. Charles College with the intention of becoming a priest. While at the college in Maryland he met John Surratt Jr. and in 1862, both men decided to abandon their plans of entering the priesthood and moved to Washington where Weichmann worked as a school teacher for 2 years at St. Matthew’s Institute for Boys. Soon after the start of the Civil War, Weichmann went to work as a clerk in the rapidly expanding War Department of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. In November, 1864, Weichmann became a lodger at the boarding house owned by Mary Surratt, the mother of John Surratt Jr. This brought Weichmann into contact with other boarders and friends of the family that became involved in the plot to assassinate President Lincoln, including John Wilkes Booth.
At this time, John Surratt Jr. was a Confederate spy and smuggled Union intelligence to Richmond on a regular basis. The conspirators met at the boarding house and Weichmann knew the participants, but was not invited to join the plot because John Surratt Jr. knew that Weichmann was cowardly, a poor shot and a miserable horseman. It was rumored that Weichmann was providing information from Stanton’s War Department to authorities in Richmond, with the hope of attaining a better position from the Confederacy.
After the assassination of Lincoln, Weichmann, was arrested as a conspirator in Lincoln’s murder. He was offered a deal, that in exchange for his testimony against the others, he could gain his freedom. General Lew Wallace was thoroughly impressed by the unabashed honesty of Weichmann’s testimony, however co-workers knew that he had a reputation as a braggart, coward and compulsive liar. Many years later, John Surratt Jr. who had fled to Europe in order to escape prosecution, related that Weichmann had been threatened and tortured by government officials who put a noose around his neck, looped the rope over a beam, lifted him off the floor and threatened to hang him if he didn’t testify.
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton’s Chief Detective, Colonel Lafayette Baker, initially set the Government’s mood for the conspiracy hunt. On taking charge of the pursuit of Lincoln’s assassins, he released an astonishing official order urging his detectives,
“to extort confessions and procure testimony to establish the conspiracy…by promises, rewards, threats, deceit, force, or any other effectual means.”
On May 13, the Military Commission heard testimony from a Canadian physician, James B. Merritt, that Booth, Surratt, and Atzerodt were parties in a previous scheme to kill Lincoln. The United States Government had paid Dr. Merritt $6000 for his testimony.
Weichmann told the court that he had seen Booth, Powell, Atzerodt and Harold in Surratt’s boarding house. This testimony reinforced the military commission’s theory that Mary Surratt’s house was, as President Andrew Johnson suggested, “kept the nest that hatched the egg.” Weichmann also testified that he was with Booth on December 23, when he had met Doctor Mudd, another conspirator in Lincoln’s assassination. This was key evidence as Doctor Samuel Mudd had denied ever meeting Booth in Washington.
On July 7, 1865, Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt and David Harold were hung at the Washington Penitentiary for conspiracy to murder President Abraham Lincoln. The other conspirators received life or extended prison sentences for their role in the plot to murder the President.
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton rewarded Weichmann for his unflinching testimony by securing a position for him at the Philadelphia Customs House, a post that Weichmann held on and off through several different administrations.
In 1885, Weichmann moved to Anderson, Indiana. Weichmann had family in Anderson, a brother was a priest and two of his sisters also resided there. He took a job teaching shorthand at a local business school, where he was a well-regarded instructor. Weichmann was not a very popular resident of Anderson, many people were outraged that his testimony had sent a woman to the gallows and were sure that he lied. He did have the support of his family, who became his staunch defenders and made themselves obnoxious to their neighbors. Weichmann was a nervous man, he feared reprisals for his testimony from the Surratts and developed a variety of peculiar habits. He would never, according to his students, stand with his back to the door, rarely left home after dark and never did so alone. Weichmann would never sit between a lamp and a window and was rumored to carry a derringer.
Weichmann died June 5, 1902 at his sister’s home and on his deathbed he wrote a statement in which he swore that his testimony at the trial had been the truth. Despite this statement, there is good reason for believing that Weichmann’s testimony was unreliable. Statements made by him to an associate shortly after the trial and to one of his students in 1898 make it fairly clear that he was coerced by the government to lie.
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was in a position of almost absolute power after Lincoln’s assassination. New President Andrew Johnson had his own agenda in regard to embracing the return of the Southern States to the Union. The public and media demanded revenge for their murdered President and the quicker Stanton and his minions could convict and sentence the conspirators the better. The military tribunal and its lack of constitutional freedom was the perfect tool for this task. Several Lincoln Conspiracy theory’s include, Jefferson Davis offering a reward of $1 million dollars for Lincoln’s death, a Roman Catholic plot to kill the President, Andrew Johnson and Southern extremists revenge and even a Radical Republican element that had become frustrated with Lincoln’s policies.
Many parallels exist to future assassinations and the commissions that investigated and determined responsible individuals. Most can be memorialized in a line from Oliver Stone’s movie JFK, when Joe Pesci, as David Ferrie, is ranting and raving in a hotel room about the assassination, he says that no one will ever solve the JFK murder. He utters the famous line, “It’s a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma.” Whether Booth and his cast of clowns were the sole conspirators, will probably never be known, but like the murders of JFK, RFK and MLK, a sole deranged assassin is a lot easier for the government to explain and for the general public to accept and digest.
Louis Weichmann was either a Lincoln Conspirator or just a political dupe and patsy, but he was definitely Edwin Stanton’s Prosecution Star Witness.
Bummer
How about all of the above? Sounds like he was at best a minor member of Booth’s conspiracy (which is saying something considering David Herold and George Atzerodt made the 1st team) and he told what he knew (maybe more) to save his own neck.
Louis,
Got a little conspirated away. Felt contempt for Weichmann and anger towards Stanton. Guess men in power do what they have to do, in whatever way they think, is in the best interest of the country. What a mess! Thanks for trying to follow.
Bummer