Lafayette Curry Baker - Spy And Detective

Jim Klag

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Born on this day in 1826, Lafayette Curry Baker was a Union spy, detective and author. He was a bit of a bumbler as a spy, but a very successful sleuth. Among his accomplishments as a detective is the arrest of rebel spy Belle Boyd and the arrest of several of the conspirators in the Lincoln assassination. Here is a link to a biographical article:

https://spartacus-educational.com/USAbaker.htm
 

5fish

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Here I knew about the missing pages in JohnWilkes Booth diary but I did not know Staton hid the diary form the public and Congress... Maybe he was murdered he had secrets a conspiracy by Stanton... 18 missing pages that Baker said were there...

These snips come from the link above... sping on the President?!

Baker was dismissed as head of the secret service on 8th February, 1866. Baker claimed that President Andrew Johnson had demanded his removal after he discovered that his agents were spying on him. Baker admitted the charge but argued he was acting under instructions from the Secretary of war, Edwin M. Stanton.

In January, 1867, Baker published his book, History of the Secret Service. In the book, Baker described his role in the capture of the conspirators. He also revealed that a dairy had been taken from John Wilkes Booth when he had been shot.

This information about Booth's diary resulted in Baker being called before a Congress committee looking into the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Edwin M. Stanton and the War Department was forced to hand over Booth's diary. When shown the diary by the committee, Baker claimed that someone had "cut out eighteen leaves" When called before the committee, Stanton denied being the person responsible for removing the pages.

Speculation grew that the missing pages included the names of people who had financed the conspiracy against Abraham Lincoln. It later transpired that John Wilkes Booth had received a large amount of money from a New York-based firm to which Edwin M. Stanton had connections.

After his appearance before the Congress committee, Baker became convinced that a secret cabal was intent of murdering him. He was found dead at his home in Philadelphia on 3rd July 1868. Officially Lafayette Baker died of meningitis but the authors of the book, The Lincoln Conspiracy (1977), claim that he was murdered by his brother-in-law, Walter Pollack, a detective at the War Department.
 

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Here I found a good summary of the diary's history... https://kentuckypress.wordpress.com...he-missing-pages-of-john-wilkes-booths-diary/

Mystery surrounds Booth’s diary. The little book was taken off Booth’s body by Colonel Everton Conger. He took it to Washington and gave it to Lafayette C. Baker, chief of the War Department’s National Detective Police. Baker in turn gave it to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Despite its obvious interest to the case, the book was not produced as evidence in the 1865 Conspiracy Trial.

Snip... I assume after Baker's book...

1867 the diary was re-discovered in a forgotten War Department file with more than a dozen pages missing. Conspiracy theorists became convinced that the missing pages contained the key to who really was behind Lincoln’s assassination, and several fingers pointed toward Stanton.

Snip... This claims its all a hoax...

In his new book, Hoax: Hitler’s Diaries, Lincoln’s Assassins, and Other Famous Frauds, Ed Steers debunks the many mysteries surrounding Lincoln’s assassination and pays careful attention to Booth’s diary. “[This is] one of history’s more successful hoaxes,” says Steers. “Conspirators have shocked the public into believing a sensational crime.”
 

5fish

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It gets better more missing pages...
When John Wilkes Booth fled Ford’s Theater on April 14, 1865 and was killed on a farm in Virginia two weeks later, officers found a red leather diary on his body that contained two diary entries, written in pencil, and photos of five women, one of which was his secret fiance Lucy Hale.

The diary also appeared to be missing 54 pages from the front of the book and an additional 32 pages from the back, all of which had been cut out with a knife.

According to the book “Right or Wrong, God Judge Me: The Writings of John Wilkes Booth,” Booth used two of the cut out pages to write letters to Dr. Richard H. Stewart while he was on the run from the police, but the other pages were unaccounted for.


Snip... too many hands...

The diary was taken off of John Wilkes Booth’s body by Colonel Everton Conger and passed around to various military officials, including the Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and General Joseph Holt, yet it was never introduced as evidence in the 1865 Conspiracy Trial of Booth’s accomplices.

Snip ... Stanton why's

Stanton wrote the following letter to President Andrew Johnson, on May 14, 1867, explaining that the pages were already missing when the diary was first discovered on Booth’s body:

“Sir: I have the honor to submit herewith a copy of the entries contained in the memorandum-book found on the person of J. Wilkes Booth at the time of his capture, certified by Gen. Holt, Judge Advocate-General, who has possession of the book, together with his report in relation thereto. The memorandum-book was first seen by me about the 26th day of April, 1865, shortly after Booth’s capture, and a few hours before his remains reached Washington. It was brought to my house by Provost-Marshal Baker and another person, who was, I think, Lieut.-Col. Conger. The book was then examined by me in presence of Gen. Eckert, Assistant Secretary of War, and was found to contain only the entries certified by Gen. Holt, also some photographs of females. Immediately preceding the entries some pages appeared to have been cut out, but there was nothing indicating what had been written thereon, or whether anything had been written, nor when or by whom they had been cut out. Immediately after careful examination of the book and its contents, it was placed in the hands of Gen. Eckert in the same condition as when I first saw it, to be delivered to the Judge Advocate-General, in whose possession after its delivery to him by Gen. Eckert, I am informed and believe, it has continued until the present time. The last time I saw the book was sometime last winter. It was then before the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, and was in all respects in exactly the same condition as when I saw it first, without any change or alteration, so far as I could discover, in its contents. Gen. Eckert reported to me that upon receiving the memorandum-book from me he sealed it up and locked it up in his safe, and it continued in his possession until he delivered it to the Judge Advocate-General, and that it was then in the same condition as when it was first brought to my house by Baker. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, to the President.”

Snip... Holt...

An official report that same year by General Holt also stated that the current condition of the diary was exactly as he first saw it in 1865.

Holt theorized that the missing pages probably contained entries from early 1865 and were most likely destroyed by Booth himself. The pages have never been found and their contents remain a mystery.

Snip... a thought from men...

I want to point out that John Wilkes Booth was on the run and had to use the Bathroom in the outdoors so I theorize he used some of the pages as toilet paper... Did we use toilet paper in the 1860's..???






 

5fish

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You always find these TV and movie gems... https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386823/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_77

Hosted and narrated by Richard Basehart, this dramatization of the events leading up to and following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States, takes the form of a documentary as it might have looked and sounded in 1865, had motion pictures existed back then. Utilizing simulated footage and, in some cases, genuine historical photographs, this TV special speculates that assassin John Wilkes Booth was part of a broad conspiracy against the president, and that if such a conspiracy did exist, that Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton may have been involved somehow. Includes recreated excerpts of "Our American Cousin," the play Lincoln was watching at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., the night that history was forever and irrevocably altered.
 

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You always find these TV and movie gems... https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386823/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_77

Hosted and narrated by Richard Basehart, this dramatization of the events leading up to and following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States, takes the form of a documentary as it might have looked and sounded in 1865, had motion pictures existed back then. Utilizing simulated footage and, in some cases, genuine historical photographs, this TV special speculates that assassin John Wilkes Booth was part of a broad conspiracy against the president, and that if such a conspiracy did exist, that Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton may have been involved somehow. Includes recreated excerpts of "Our American Cousin," the play Lincoln was watching at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., the night that history was forever and irrevocably altered.
I haven't seen it in over 30 years-on the History Channel-- but it has always stuck w/ me. I recommend it for amusement purposes.

I need to find it and watch it again. I shall search for it to see if it is available.
 

5fish

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No where its mention this person was made a general... Everyone talks about his spying and being a security guy...

Wednesday April 26 1865
  • La Fayette Curry Baker, USA, is appointed Brig. Gen.
 

5fish

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I see toilet paper is a recent items Americans started using... splinters!!


Even once it became popular, wiping with toilet paper still doesn’t appear to have been painless until surprisingly recently. The aforementioned splinter problem seems to have been somewhat common until a few decades into the 20th century. In the 1930s, this changed with such companies as Northern Tissue boasting a “splinter free” toilet tissue.
 
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