Head Case
Mar 28th, 2008 by houghtonmodern
On June 14, 1865, the following telegram was sent from Inspector General James Allen Hardie (1823-1876) to Dr. John Gray:
The telegram reads: “The secretary of war requests that you come immediately to Washington for the purpose of making a medical examination of Payne the man who attempted to assassinate Sec. Seward please answer how soon you can start & reach this city. J A Hardie, Inspec. Genl. U.S.A.”
Dr. Gray was called in to examine Lewis Paine, who had been arrested for his involvement in the plot to assassinate President Lincoln. Paine (an alias of Lewis Powell, (1844-1865)) was in league with John Wilkes Booth and a group of other individuals, and had attempted to assassinate Secretary of State William Seward on April 14, 1865 (the same night Lincoln was shot). Powell was captured and imprisoned several days later.
John Purdue Gray (1825-1886) was one of the foremost forensic psychiatrists in the second half of the nineteenth century, and was involved in several notable murder trials where the mental stability of a defendant was in question. Gray was one of at least six physicians called to examine Powell when Powell’s attorney wished to use an insanity defense. The doctors could not find proof of any mental instability, and Powell was ultimately hanged for his part in the conspiracy.
This telegram is one item in a large collection of Lincolniana held at Houghton. Other items may be found by perusing Hollis, Harvard’s online library catalog.
*2007M-42. Purchased with the Bayard Livingston and Kate Gray Kilgour Fund. Image may not be reproduced without permission.
