John Wilkes Booth & Tumblety- A Witness Remembers

[Howard Brown]

Has anyone ever seen Captain Cavanaugh mentioned before ?


Buffalo Courier
May 31, 1914
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[Howard Brown]

I think its worth mentioning that this article is not Tumblety-oriented....rather its about Wilkes Booth.
I say that to point out that this Capt. Tom Cavanaugh brought Tumblety's name up after 51years ( 1863 to 1914 ) very, very easily.

I believe there is merit to the theory Tumblety and Booth were friends.

[Howard Brown]

The other article I found this evening states Tumblety 'wiggled out' of the Booth Conspiracy :

http://www.jtrforums.com/showthread....077#post264077


Cavanaugh was a lieutenant in 1884-1885 in the Buffalo Police Department

[JMenges]

It's pretty well established that it was Dr. Samuel Mudd who introduced Booth to John Surratt, through whom he met Mary Surratt. Booth bought the one-eyed horse from Mudd and the following day, December 23, 1864, went with Mudd to Washington D.C. and encountered John Surratt and Louis Weichmann on the road. They then went as a group to Booth's room at the National Hotel where the conspiracy plot supposedly hatched. Mudd lied about the this meeting having occurred in his statement to H.H. Wells days after the assassination (a lie which almost cost him his life) but his self-serving timeline was contradicted by the testimony of Wichmann at the conspiracy trial who admitted to himself and Mudd being present.

I believe there is merit to the theory Tumblety and Booth were friends...and I also have to believe Tumblety knew of Booth's hatred of Lincoln and quite possibly the plan to assassinate Lincoln.

I believe that Tumblety was a member of the Confederate Secret Service and might very well have known Booth and the main conspirators, as well as many other participants in various clandestine Confederate operations. But it's only a hunch.

JM

[Howard Brown]

Thanks JM...that information is much appreciated !
Permit me to ask which events give you the impression Tumblety may have been a CSA agent ?

[JMenges]

Hi Howard,

The coincidences of the cities in the North and in Canada he frequented being hot beds of Confederate clandestine operations along with my particular reading of his 1872 pamphlet which to me shows his politics to be Northern Democrat/Whig (commonly called Copperheads), and most certainly not a Lincoln-lover.

Rather than go into specifics I'll direct to the thread the "old jmenges" started back in the halcyon summer of 2007.

http://www.jtrforums.com/showthread....mblety+lincoln

JM

[Howard Brown]

This shows how awful my memory can be , Jon....you answered my question almost 8 years ago. Thanks for posting the link.

[Scott Nelson]

These are hugely significant findings, Howard. These are the first newspaper descriptions of a suspected link between Tumblety and Booth that I'm aware of. Of course, I'm not so much up to speed, so sorry if it's already common knowledge.

[Howard Brown]

Thanks Scott.
What struck me was the fact that it isn't an article about Tumblety...in those types of articles, you expect someone to say Tumblety knew so and so....but an article about someone else in which it took no time at all for Tumblety to be brought up with such ease as being a confidant of, in this case, Booth.
Like JMenges, I had believed that the two did know each other...and now, I believe it even more so.

[Wolf Vanderlinden]

These are hugely significant findings, Howard. These are the first newspaper descriptions of a suspected link between Tumblety and Booth that I'm aware of. Of course, I'm not so much up to speed, so sorry if it's already common knowledge.

Actually, Scott, newspaper articles linking Tumblety and Booth appeared at the time of the Lincoln assassination. This supposed connection, denied for obvious reasons by Tumblety, was one of the reasons the good doctor was arrested in 1865.

Wolf.

[Howard Brown]

Wolf:
Regarding the articles which appeared at the time of the Assassination....were any of them similar to the one I posted...or were they speculative as to whether Booth and Tumblety were associated ?
The one from the Buffalo Courier ( what I posted) is an example of a non-speculative story in that Capt. Cavanaugh states without any doubt that there was a relationship.

[Howard Brown]

Last night I went back to Tim Riordan's excellent, Prince Of Quacks, to see if I could find any reference to Tumblety being in Buffalo during 1863, which is the year Captain Cavanaugh states that Tumblety and Booth were together.

Although I don't dispute what the Captain claims....that those two knew each other....I needed to find something else from that year which would confirm it. Its not really good researching ( on my part of anyone's ) to declare the issue is settled ( Tumblety & Booth )....

On page 94 of Tim's book, Tim has mentioned some dates from 1863 and cities Tumblety visited during that year. Those cities were Washington, Philadelphia, and New York. No mention is made of Buffalo. Buffalo is 372 miles from New York City.

I got a little depressed thinking that the Booth-Tumblety connection was a pipe dream. I determined to continue looking into newspapers from that year and that vicinity to see if I could find something positive.

I also came to the conclusion that it would be in my/our best interest to track down Booth rather than Tumblety....since Booth's movements have been an item of national interest for 150 years and 5 days ( today)...Tumblety's haven't.

I'll be putting up a book I found from 1947 which was considered unique in its day. It deals with Booth and his Pennsylvania oil claims from some 84 years before.

[Howard Brown]

John Wilkes Booth, Day By Day ( On Google )

https://books.google.com/books?id=BN...alo%20&f=false

[Howard Brown]

John Wilkes Booth : Oilman

http://archive.org/stream/johnwilkes...0mill_djvu.txt
This is the 1947 book I previously mentioned.

Now that I need it I can't find it....I'm trying to find an 1863 article I saw just last night which mentions Booth having a sore throat and that he sought out a doctor to give him medicine...in Buffalo.
I'll find it eventually

[Howard Brown]

Captain Cavanaugh's memory was pretty damned good.

This is Booth's mid 1863 itinerary....and it corresponds to Cavanaugh's recollection.






'Claude Melnette" is a character in the Lady Of Lyons....Cavanaugh remembered Booth's three roles from 51 years past.