Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1866-03-29
4 ASSASSINATION of hincoln.

ASSASSINATION Of hincoln
a Prisoner IN the Lossispi7le Jai
Conyssses 1be the o,ahor-Hil
j Cdyession-M qfiersoaads at
tempts Suicide.
(From the Louisville Democrat
| On the 18th of last month
Sterling King was presented be.
fore the police court upon the
charge of having stolen a horse
and buggy..from the proprietor of a
livery stable in Cincinnati. The
proof was clear against him, and
he was committed to Jail to await
a requisition from the Governor of
Ohio. He is charged with having
stolen several horses from the
neighborhood of Porkopolis.-
King, after his committal to Jail,
made statement, or what might
be called a confession, of a most
horrible crime, namely, that OF
the murder of the President of
the United States. King states
that he was the man who killed
President Lincoln. He says that
he entered the theatre as any 9th.
er person, purchasing ticket and
paying for it.
At the appointed time he en-
tered the private box, in Ford's
Theatre, Washington, where Lin
coin was, and he shot him with
a single-barrei pistol, which he let
fall at the time he leaped from the
box. He gives as his object for
using a single-barrel pistol, that he
was compelled to leave it behind
him, and if it had been a revolver
those in the box might have used
it against him. He further says
that after he shot the President
and leaped from the box, he
passed by several persons, but one
of whom he knew, Miss Laura
Keene, and she did not know him.
According to this statement, j.
Wilkes Booth, whom it is said was
the murderer of Lincoln, was in
the rear of the theatre awaiting
with horses. From the vicinityof
Ford's theatre, he states that he
went to the residence Of Secretary
Seward, and, after forcing an en-
trance, he made an attack upon
the Secretary himself, cutting him
in the throat with a bowie knife.
He says that after young Seward
was knocked down, the old man
begged not to be murdered, and
that he struck the blow to silence
him.
His only regret seems to be that
he did not kill the Secretary. He
says that the statement published
in the papers, that there were two
persons in the affair, is false, as
he is the man who shot the Presi-
dent and made the attack upon
Secretary Seward. He says that
there was another person in the
affair who has not yet been appre-
hended, who was to have killed
Stanton, but he failed to fulfil his
pledge.
In regard to Booth, he says
that Booth had nothing to do with
the killing, with the exception of
assisting him to make his es-
cape from the city of Washington.
He gives in his written statement,
which is now in the hands of the
military, the route he pursued af-
ter leaving Washington. He says
that the man killed in the barn,
and who is said to have been
Booth, is prisoner who escaped
from the Ohio prison. He claims
to have, in company with Booth,
went from Washington to Canada,
and from thence to the Island of
Cuba. He states that his object
in returning to the United States
was for the purpose of releasing
jeff. Davis, the President OF the |
Confederate States.
In regard to Mrs. Surratt, who
was executed as one of the conspi-
rators, he says that she new moth
ing of the conspiracy. The par
ties who planned the affair, three
of whom have never been heard
of, met regularly at the house of
Mrs. Surratt, but she knew moth !,
ing of their designs. He says
that he was stopping at the house
of Mrs. Surratt some ten or twelve
days previous to the execution of !
thu ulOt.