The Sun. — 1866-04-16 (London, England)

REMARKABLE STATEMENT OF STERLING KING, A PRISONER CONFINED IN THE LOUISVILLE (KY.) GAOL. A man named Sterling King, an inmate of the gaol in Louisville, Kentucky, has confessed that he was the person who attempted the life of Secretary Seward. No faith whatever can be placed in the truth of the statements, but as a matter of interest we condense the following further particulars from the Louisville papers of the 22d of March We chance to be personally cognisant of the antecedents of this pretended conspirator. He claims to be a native of Virginia, and states that he was a cousin of Horatio King, formerly Assistant Postmaster- General. "In 18G3 he figured as a lawyer in Cincinnati, and also obtained permits for the shipment of goods to Memphis. While thus engaged he was arrested by the military authorities, charged with uttering disloyal sentiments, tried by court-martial, and sentenced to six months' labour on the fortifications back of Covington, with a ball and chain attached to his leg. For some reason the sentence was not carried into effect. " Some time afterward he appeared in Abingdon, Virginia, where he was sporting the uniform of a Confederate colonel. General John H. Morgan arrested him as a spy ; he was tried by a courtmartial and sentenced to be hung. But in this case, as in so many others, good luck attended him, and he managed to escape to the Federal lines. " We know nothing of King's operations subsequent to his escape from Virginia, until he was lodged in our city gaol on the charge of stealing horses and buggies." The Democrat says : " King states that he was the man who killed President Lincoln. He says that he entered the theatre as any other person, purchasing a ticket and paying for it. At the appointed time he entered the private box in Ford's Theatre, Washington, where Mr. Lincoln was, and he shot him with a singlebarrelled pistol, which he let fall at the time he leaped from the box. He gives as his object for using a single-barrelled 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 his 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 vicinity of Ford's Theatre he states that he went to the residence of Secretary Seward, and, after forcing an entrance, 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 President and made the attack upon Secretary Seward. He says that there was another person in the affair who has not yet been apprehended, 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 eseac from the city of Washington. He gives in his written statement, which is now in the hands of the military, the route he pursued after leaving Washington. He says that the man killed in the barn, and who is said to have been Booth, is a prisoner who escaped from the Ohio prison. He claims tto 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 conspirators, he says that she knew nothing of the conspiracy. The parties who planned the affair, three of whom have never been heard of, met regularly at the house of Mrs. Suratt, ...so that he was stopping at the house of Mrs. Suratt some ten or twelve days previous to the execution of the plot. " There are two prisoners now in gaol, Llewellyn and Grimes, who say that they know something of the affair, and it may be that the tale has been concocted for the purpose of getting the three released from the charges now against them, and have them turned over to the military authorities. " The above statement was made to Generals Jeff. C. Davis and Watkins, at the gaol, on Tuesday, after having been related to two or three of the pri7 soners and policeman Bligh. Finding that his statement was likely to get him into very serious difficulty, King determined to put an end to his miserable existence. He asked the privilege of having a small penknife, which was granted him. With this he opened the veins of the left arm, and would have bled to death had it not been that the attempt was discovered by his cell-mate, and an alarm given. We yesterday paid a visit to King in his cell, and found him too low to speak. The alarm in regard to his attempt to commit suicide was given about four o'clock in the morning, after he had bled for several hours."