Historic Trial Transcripts
The Conspiracy Trial For The Murder Of The President: And The Attempt to Overthrow the Government by the Assassination of its Principal Officers
Click the image above to order this book from Amazon
Click the image above to order this book from Amazon
Click the image above to order this book from Amazon
The Conspiracy Trial for the Murder of the President was published by Ben Perley Poore in 1865 with the idea to publish one part a week of 480 pages each. It would be printed from large, clear type, on white paper, price 30¢.
Ben Perley Poore, a Washington correspondent of the Boston Journal, published the first two volumes in 1865 by copying the daily trial transcripts published in the Washington National Intelligencer. He published the third volume the following year.
The Conspiracy Trial For The Murder Of The President is made available for its historical significance.
Public interest in the trial faded and Mr. Poore didn’t publish a fourth volume. So, several of the last witnesses and the closing arguments are missing from these Ben Perley Poore trial transcripts. For the complete and unabridged trial transcripts, read; The Lincoln Assassination Conspiracy Trial Transcripts.
Q. Did you ever see the prisoner, Atzerodt, there?
A. Yes, sir. I saw him there the day of the assassination.
Q. What time in the day?
A. At about half-past two o’clock.
Q. What did he seem to be doing there?
A. He wished to hire a horse. I had been sent there by Mrs. Surratt for the purpose of hiring a buggy; and, when I went to the stable, I saw Atzerodt there, and asked him what he wanted. He said he was going to hire a horse; and he asked Mr. Brooks in my presence [that is the name by which the stable-keeper is known to me] if he could have a horse, and Mr. Brooks told he could not. Then we both left, and went as far as the post-office. I had a letter to drop in the post-office; and we went down F Street towards Tenth. Since that time I have never seen him.
​
From Louis J. Weichman's testimony on Saturday May 13, 1865.
Click here to read Mr. Weichman's testimony.