-Caveat Lector- An excerpt from: Spies, Traitors and Moles - An Espionage & Intelligence Quiz Book Peter Kross�1998 All Rights Reserved IllumiNet Press P.O. Box 2808 Lilburn, Georgia 30048 ISBN 1-881532-16-X ----- A great new book and a fine addition to any library. Lots of info.246 pps. Here is a taste. Om K ----- The Civil War & The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln Ouestion: Union General WInfleld Scott hired this scoundrel to head his own Secret Service operation during the conflict? Answer. Lafayette Baker In the vocabulary of the spy trade, Lafayette Baker was a "walk in." In July 1861, Baker offered his services as a spy to General Winfield Scott who immediately sent him on a spy mission to Richmond, where he was arrested and sent packing back north. On his second mission, Baker, posing as "Sam Munson," was arrested in Manassas, Virginia, and personally questioned by President Jefferson Davis. He managed to convince the Confederates of his bona fides and was given a pass to travel through the southern lines, where he spied on enemy fortifications. Baker's exploits attracted the attention of Secretary of State Seward, who hired him to break up Confederate communication's lines in Maryland. Baker's employment was transferred to the War Department where he started the "National Detective Police." Working with a small force, his job was to hunt down Confederate spies in Washington, New York, and Canada, where the Confederates had secret spy networks. After the war ended, Baker lost his job with the War Department when President Andrew Johnson became aware that he was spying on the White House. One of Baker's informants was placed in the White House to spy on President Johnson in connection with an investigation of "pardon brokers" operating out of the executive mansion. After the war ended, Baker returned to his Philadelphia home. It was during this time that he wrote a book on his role in the war called History of the United States Secret Service. In the wake of the assassination of President Lincoln, some people suspected Baker of being a participant in the conspiracy lead by John Wilkes Booth to murder the president. That allegation has yet to be proven. p. 35 ===== Question: Conspiracy theorists in the Lincoln assassination have postulated that this Lincoln ally might have been involved in the plot to kill the president. Who was he? Answer Lafayette C. Baker As described earlier in this work, Lafayette Baker, the head of the Union National Detective Police, was one of President Lincoln's most trusted advisors and was responsible for counter-intelligence operations against the South at the onset of the Civil War. But Baker was a man without scruples and despite his work for the Union, he was basically out for his own good. One hundred years after the Lincoln assassination new evidence was published that implicated Lafayette Baker as co-conspirator with John Wilkes Booth to kill Abraham Lincoln. In 1961, an article was published in the old Civil War Times written by a New Jersey chemist named Ray Neff. Neff reported that he had located a coded message in the National Archives, possibly written by Baker, that implicated him in the Lincoln plot. At the same time that the Neff article appeared, another author who was writing a book on the assassination, Vaughan Shelton (Mask For Treason, The Lincoln Murder Trial), came upon the same material as did Ray Neff. In the archives, Shelton found a note written to John Surratt from New York City dated March 19, 1865 and signed by "R. D. Watson." In the trial of the Lincoln conspirators there is no official mention of anyone by that name. So who was "R. D. Watson?" Neff and Shelton believe it was none other than Lafayette Baker. The brief letter reads as follows, "I would like to see you on important business, if you can spare the time to come to New York. Please telegraph me immediately on the receipt of this, whether you can come on or not & oblige, Yours re, R. D. Watson." The address on the note was "Care Demill & Co. 178 1/2 Water Street." The R. D. Watson letter was sent to a handwriting expert and the authority said that in his opinion, the letter matched the writing of Baker. While conducting his research, Ray Neff came up with other evidence against Baker. In 1844, Baker was an agent of a Canadian company called J.J. Chaffey Co. By 1864, records show that J.J. Chaffey paid Baker a total of $148,894.00. Also, on the J.J. Chaffey papers the address "178 1/2 Water Street" appeared. Neff also found a letter dated November 4, 1864 with the "178 1/2 Water Street" signed by a Thomas Caldwell, who was an agent for J.J. Chaffey & Co. This letter was addressed to John Wilkes Booth and included four payments to the actor from August 24 to October 5, 1864 totaling $14,548.40. The money was credited to the Bank of Montreal and payed in gold. It should be noted that Booth was in Montreal prior to the assassination where he met with Confederate commissioners who were planning covert actions against the Union. Neff also came up with another telegram, this one dated April 2, 1865 to "Geo. Miller & Co., 130 Dearborn Street, Chicago, Illinois, saying, "J.W. Booth will ship oysters until Saturday 15th." When Neff checked the New York City directory for 1864 he discovered that a firm called "Demill & Co." was located at 178 1/2 Water Street, the same address as that of the mysterious "R.D. Watson" letter. It is interesting to note that the date April 15 in the letter from "George Miller" was one day after Booth shot Lincoln. It is possible that the "Demill & Co., located at "178 1/2 Water Street" was just a dummy company used to hide the activities of the Lincoln conspirators. While this does not categorically implicate Baker in pre-assassination planning, it asks questions that still have not been satisfactorily explained. Question: This recently discovered document has given historians a clue to John Wilkes Booth's pre-assassination plans. What is it? Answer: A check In 1991, a dealer in historic papers offered a $100 check for sale, written by John Wilkes Booth in the months preceding his assassination of President Lincoln (the check was bought for $15,000). But according to historian James Hall who wrote a definitive book on the Lincoln assassination and the Confederate Secret Service, Come Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the Assassination of Lincoln, this check is a direct paper trail that links the activities of Booth prior to the event. The check was written on November 16, 1864 on the account of Jay Cooke & Co., a bank in Washington in the amount of $1.500.00. It was payable to a Matthew Canning, a long time friend and theatrical agent of Booth. A total of seven checks were drawn on the account, the one hundred dollar amount to Canning, a $150 check cashed by Booth on January 7, 1865, and another one for $25 also cashed by Booth on March 16, 1865. What makes these transactions interesting, says author Hall, is that Booth made these deposits in Cooke's bank just after he made a covert trip to Montreal. Booth arrived in Canada on October 18, 1864 and checked into the St. Lawrence Hall hotel where other members of the Confederate Secret Service were staying. One of the men Booth made contact with there was George Sanders, a former ambassador to London during the administration of Franklin Pierce. Sanders was an advocate of political assassinations, and one of his potential candidates for assassination was Abraham Lincoln. While in Montreal, Booth was able to use money set up for him in the Ontario Bank to the amount of $455 Canadian dollars. This money was most likely supplied to Booth by the Confederate commissioners who were then living in the city. Immediately after leaving Canada, Booth came to Washington where he got a room at the National Hotel and made his deposits at Cooke's bank. When the presidential assassin was killed at Garrett's Farm, soldiers found a Canadian bill of exchange on his body. The author of Come Retribution believes that Booth's deposits at Jay Cook's depository were part of a Confederate scheme to either capture or kill Abraham Lincoln. This "paper trail" is just one of many events that tie Booth with the covert activities of the Confederate Secret Service and its relationship to the assassination of the president. Question: One of the most influential members of Lincoln's cabinet has been implicated in the plot to kill the president. Who was he? Answer Edwin Stanton As previously mentioned in the above section concerning the actions of Lafayette Baker and his possible role in the assassination plot against Abraham Lincoln, some historians and writers have laid out the case against Lincoln's chief of detectives. In 1960, a littleknown writer and chemist from New Jersey named Ray Neft wrote a provocative piece on the Lincoln assassination in the old magazine Civil War Times, pinning the blame on the event to Lincoln's Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton. The evidence against Stanton was provided years after the assassination by none other than Lafayette Baker. Ray Neff was a chemist who had an early and far-ranging interest in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. While browsing through old magazines at a used bookstore, Neff came across a magazine called Coburn's United Service Magazine, Series 11, 1864. In the periodical, Neff came across two coded messages written by Lafayette Baker concerning his participation in the events of April, 1865. The coded messages detailed the following information; Stanton was one of the prime movers in the assassination plot, along with "at least eleven members of Congress," a number of army officers, 24 civilians and an important governor of a loyal state. He wrote down the names of the conspirators in another volume of Coburn's United Service Magazine which has never surfaced. He also said that after the assassination he was constantly followed by certain people and was in fear of his life. According to Neff, Lafayette Baker, in the piece in Coburn's, wrote in a "substitution cipher" where each letter was represented by another, so as to hide its true meaning. Part of the cipher pertaining to Stanton reads as follows, "In new Rome there walked three men, a Judas, a Brutus and a spy. Each planned that he should be the king when Abraham should die. One trusted not the other but they went on for that day, waiting for that final moment when with pistol in his hand, one of the sons of Brutus should sneak behind that cursed man and put a bullet in his brain and lay his clumsy corpse away... But alas, as fate would have it Judas slowly fell from grace, and with him went Brutus down to their proper place. But lest one is left to wonder what has happened to the spy, I can safely tell you this, it is I." Neff claims that the "Brutus" reference referred to Stanton. Another part of the coded message reads as follows, "There were at least eleven members of Congress involved in the plot, no less than twelve army officers, of which one was a governor of a loyal state. Five were bankers of great repute, three were nationally known newspaper men and eleven were industrialists of great repute and wealth... Eighty-five thousand dollars was contributed by the named persons to pay for the deed. Only eight persons knew the details of the plot and the identity of the others. I fear for my life. LCB." Neff found a copy of Baker's will and in it, he found that at the time of his death, he had a fortune of over $200,000, more money than he could have ever saved from his government salary. But what are the charges against Stanton? He only sent one detective to protect the president at Ford's Theater. The detective, John Parker, left his post, thus, allowing Booth to enter the presidential box. He was never punished after the fact. Stanton gave orders to block every escape route out of Washington except the one used by Booth, following the assassination, and he also failed to send telegrams out of the city to the army notifying them of the shooting. The actions by Stanton and the coded messages allegedly written by L.C. Baker make provocative reading. pps.41-45 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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