Vatican Assassins

Chapter 28 355
bloody deeds of those two assassins, and you will see that they had been
trained in the same school; the same teachers had taught them.
Evidently Ravaillac, calling all the saints of heaven to his help, at his
last hour; and Booth pressing the Medal of the Virgin Mary on his
breast, when falling mortally wounded, are both coming out from the
same Jesuit mould . . . the Jesuits alone could select the assassins, train
them, and show them a crown of glory in heaven, if they would kill the
author of the bloodshed, the famous renegade and apostate – the enemy
of the Pope and of the Church — Lincoln.” {6} [Emphasis added]
But the key player in the assassination was a young Roman Catholic and
former Secret Service agent for the Southern Confederacy. Having “called time”
outside of Ford’s Theatre during the President’s murder, John Surratt escaped from
the United States into Montreal, Canada with the aid of the priests. From Montreal to
Londonderry, to Liverpool, to Rome, he enlisted in the Pope’s Zouave army. Having
been recognized by a boyhood friend, Surratt confessed to the murder stating,
“I have done the Yankees as much harm as I could. We have killed
Lincoln, the niggers’ friend.” {7}
As a consequence of this confession, the old acquaintance reported Surratt’s
whereabouts to the American Minister in Rome. Having been arrested, he “leapt
down a precipice,” made his way to Naples, boarded a steamer and escaped to
Alexandria, Egypt. But there, in 1867, he was arrested by U.S. authorities; bound
hand and foot; returned to Washington, D.C. via the specially chartered U. S. warship,
the Swatara; and was forced to stand trial for the murder of President Lincoln.
Chiniquy narrates Surratt’s escape quite clearly:
“It is evident that a very elaborate plan of escape had been prepared by
the priests of Rome to save the lives of the assassins and the
conspirators. It would be too long to follow all the murderers when,
Cain-like, they were fleeing in every direction, to escape the vengeance
of God and man. Let us fix our eyes on John Surratt [whose confessor
and advisor was the Jesuit B. F. Wiget], who was in Washington the
14 th of April, helping Booth in the perpetration of the assassination.
Who will take care of him? Who will protect and conceal him? Who
will press him on their bosom, put their mantles on his shoulders to
conceal him from the just vengeance of the human and divine laws?
The priest, Charles Boucher, swears that only a few days after the
murder, John Surratt was sent to him by Father Lapierre, of Montreal;
that he kept him concealed in his parsonage of St. Liboire from the end
of April to the end of July, then he took him back, secretly, to Father
Lapierre, who kept him secreted in his own father’s house, under the
The Jesuits – 1865