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Fascination is the word that explains the feeling I encountered while researching the Phantom Moonlight Murders in 1946 Texarkana. It didn’t take me long into my delving to realize that this is a story about much more than a ghastly series of crimes. It is, all done and said, the story of people — those who died and those who lived to fight back. In all the chaos and turbulence, and withstanding all the error, Texarkana endured.

It is a rough and tumble town, is and always has been; a down-to-earth, work-hard-and-be-happy town. Its made its mistakes and its had its bad times, and unlike many other cities, it doesn’t pretend everything has always been roses. Because it prides itself and places its experiences in perspective as a set of learning tools, the Texarkana Gazette produced a wonderful 50-year-retrospective of the Phantom murders in 1996. To the point and credible, it relates the snowballing terror that the Phantom created, the blunders made in pursuing him and the courage faced up by so many who sought his demise.

To the people at the Gazette, I owe so much gratitude for sharing with me this commemorative issue. In particular, I would like to thank Greg Bischof and Judy Robinson of the newspaper who, at the outset, ledme in the right direction. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

Staff writers, whose articles provided me with much information, include (in alphabetical order): Greg Bischof, Lyn Blackmon, Melody Brumble, Rodney Burgess, Christy Busby, Robert Davis, John Fooks, Tisha Gilbert, Jim Harris, Carmen Jones, Kevin McPherson and Russell Minor.

As well, reminiscences by J.Q. Mahaffey, who was executive editor of the Gazette in 1946, and Jerry L. Atkins, who knew Betty Jo Booker personally, helped me to add much human insight into my story.

In 1970, Youell Swinney filed a request for a writ of Habeus Corpus, contending that he was not represented by an attorney at his 1947 trial.Even though authorities recalled the trial judge advising the defendant to hire a lawyer at that time, “Swinney testifies that he was  Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire  not advised of his right to an attorney, nor was he told of the possible punishment he could receive if convicted of the auto theft charge,” wrote the Texarkana Daily News. A hearing, presided over by the Board of Pardons and Paroles in Texas, was held at the Bowie County Building in 1973. Recollections of surviving witnesses and law officers were hazy at best and, after consideration by the Court of Appeals, Swinney’s conviction was overturned. He was released from prison in 1974.

Swinney leaving courthouse
with Deputy E.M. Watts.
- Courtesy Texarkana Daily News

No one will ever know if Youell Swinney was the Phantom. While the Arkansas State Police obviously believed he was, the Texas Rangers — at least Capt. “Lone Wolf” Gonzaullas — seems to have remained skeptical over the many succeeding years. Gonzaullas did not close the books on the case, but continued to remain personally interested in it, investigating leads for several years afterward. In fact, he traced down several suspects across Oklahoma and various other states into the 1950s. But, all proved without avail. Technically, the case remains open to this day, unsolved.

In October of 1946, after Swinney was in jail awaiting trial, a murder took place in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that greatly mirrored the modus operandi of the Texarkana Phantom. A young couple, Elaine Eldridge (from Massachusetts) and her boyfriend Lawrence O. Hogan (from Miami Beach) were slain while parked in a secluded spot near the ocean. Again, a .32 caliber had been the weapon of destruction, although it was believed to have been of a foreign make and not the familiar Colt that the Phantom probably used. There were no fingerprints recovered and the killer escaped into oblivion — again.

One particular man today believes, however, that the Phantom was indeed taken off the streets when Youell Swinney was arrested. The man is Mark Bledsoe, who has spent years researching Texarkana’s most infamous shadow. Bledsoe has learned that Swinney, prior to his arrest for car theft, had been accused of sexual perversion. More so, interviews with Huntsville Prison cellmates revealed that the man told them details of the killings unreported in the newspapers.

Bledsoe conducted an interview with Swinney himself in a Dallas nursing home in 1992, a year before he passed away from natural causes. Its memory remains vivid. “When I talked to him he was coherent to a certain degree,” the researcher says. “Time has definitely had its effect. I videotaped the interview and it is hard to make out what is being said. You have to go more on the expressions. It made him angry when I started asking about (the Phantom murders). He said, ‘I got off for that and I was cleared.’…

Movie poster: “The Town That
Dreaded Sundown,” which
starred Dawn Wells and Ben
Johnson. - Copyright American-
International Pictures.

“It was spooky. He was in a wheelchair, I am getting goosebumps just thinking about it, being in the room with that person who had people in Texarkana so terrified.”

After the Season the Phantom, Texarkana settled back into a leisure, but would never forget the memory of those nights in 1946. In 1996, a half century since the moonlight killings, Texarkana Gazette reporter Rodney Burgess  Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire  wrote:

“Yes, fifty years later, many who remember the scenario from living through it still harbor fears of the unknown…Some witnesses, some friends of the victims, some family of the victims are still too frightened within themselves to allow them to speak freely about that impressionable time in their life. And, too, many still fear retribution from that unknown source of their fear…Even if the main suspect has been dead for a couple of years, that fear remains. Some would say that it is unrealistic. But reality to some was formed 50 years ago and has changed little since.”

Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

“After Spring Lake Park, everything mushroomed from there.”
— Milton Mosier, Arkansas State policeman

Lights were dimmed in the VFW Hall as the dancers swayed arm in arm to the melodic strains of “Moonlight Serenade,” a popular tune of the day. On the bandstand, the Rhythmaires played this and other tunes under the gliding baton of their bandleader, Jerry Atkins, who doubled on saxophone. This engagement, Saturday, April 13, was one of many Saturday night gigs the band had played at the hall over the last year. Beginning as an ensemble to entertain GIs on leave, Atkins’ band was renamed the Rhythmaires shortly after the war ended and lost no popularity in peacetime. Texarkana teenagers flocked to listen to and dance along with the most popular tunes as arranged by Atkins in the cozy banquet hall at Fourth and Oak streets.

Only a teen himself at the time, Atkins had shown skill in picking the right people to play in his band. Four of its members were female, invited to participate due to the shortage of male musicians who had gone off to war. “When I recruited the girls for the band we were playing proms and other events, but we were offered steady Saturday nights at the VFW Club. People still wanted the big band sound.”

Since the girl musicians were yet teenagers like Atkins, and since many of the places they played offered beer and alcohol, the only way their mothers agreed to let them join Atkins was if the bandleader himself (who had a fine reputation) would give them a ride to and from their engagements. He agreed.

Betty Jo Booker was one of his favorites. At only 15 years old, she already handled her saxophone with grace. Atkins saw potential and often encouraged her to consider music as a full-time profession after she graduated high school. She was bright, talkative and eager, and Atkins felt that this straight-A student brimmed with promise.

The last note of the evening having resounded about 1 a.m. Sunday morning, April 14, band members began packing up their instruments and music stands. Dancers shuffled out onto Oak Street, still humming their favorite tune. Betty Jo announced to her boss that he needn’t give her a lift home tonight. A former classmate named Paul Martin from nearby Kilgore had stopped by and would take her to where she was going, a slumber party with other girl friends. Atkins glanced at the awaiting acquaintance, sized him up as a clean-cut kid, sober and innocent. Satisfied, he told Betty Jo to go along and have a nice time.

Betty Jo Booker & Paul Martin
- Courtesy Texarkana Gazette

It was the last time he saw her alive. Both she and Martin were dead, killed by revolver shots, long before sunrise.

Martin’s automobile was discovered abandoned at the entrance of Spring Lake Park, nowhere near the slumber party to which Betty Jo was headed. Paul’s body was located first, north of Interstate 30 a mile and a half from his car. He had been shot several times. Betty Jo was found nearly two miles  Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire distant outside a patch of woods near Fernwood, also north of I-30. Like Paul, Betty Jo’s body was bullet-ridden. She had also been sexually molested. This time, official records didn’t deny it.

Ballistic tests confirmed that the bullets that had killed the teens — .32 calibers — matched those that had taken the lives of Moore and Griffin three weeks earlier.

Texarkana began to panic, realizing that it had within its hide a killer who seemed to be getting more nervy as his rampages continued. For the first time, the police put two and two together and realized that the same hooded vagabond might be responsible for the series of assaults and murders that had begun with the fracturing of Jimmy Hollis’ skull and the near rape of Miss Larey on February 22. Unfortunately, again, authorities had not found any discernible fingerprints, but the killer’s modus operandi was apparent: attacking young couples in secluded areas.

Map of the park indicating where the teens
bodies were found. - Courtesy Wayne Beck

Because he seemed to hit and run, then dematerialize into the ether, the then-managing editor of the Texarkana Gazette, Calvin Sutton, labeled the town’s number one nemesis The Phantom. The name first appeared in bold-faced headlines after the most recent murder. “Little did Sutton realize he was making journalistic history in Texarkana,” J.Q. Mahaffey later noted. Mahaffey, being executive editor at the time, Sutton ran the name past him for his opinion. Mahaffey answered, “Why not? If the SOB continues to elude capture he certainly can be called a phantom.”

But, Mahaffey somewhat ruefully admits, “Of course, as we continued to write about the murders, the name ‘Phantom’ only served to intensify the hysteria.”

In the midst of the chaos, the fabled Texas Rangers made an entrance onto the scene. They came in the tall, lean form of well-known Ranger named Manuel Gonzaullas, known as “Lone Wolf” for his ability to track down criminals and face them by himself. In town when the latest murders were discovered, he took over the investigations. One of his first acts was to issue a bulletin:

“WANTED FOR MURDER”:

“Person or persons unknown, for the murder of Betty Jo Booker and Paul Martin, on or about April 13, 1946, in Bowie County, Texas. Subject or subjects may have in their possession or may try to dispose of a gold-plated Bundy E-flat Alto saxophone, serial #52535, which was missing from the car in which the victims were last seen…This saxophone had just been rebuilt, replated and repadded, and was in an almost new black leather case with blue plush lining.

“It is requested that a check be made of music stores and pawn shops. Any information as to the location of the saxophone or description and whereabouts of the person connected with it should be forwarded immediately to the Sheriff, Bowie County, Texarkana, Texas, and the Texas Department of Public Safety, Austin, Texas.”

Lawmen queried anyone who knew Betty Jo Hooker and Paul Martin for a possible motive. What remains to this day a mystery is how Martin’s coupe wound up so far from their destination.

The couple had not been romantically linked and had no reason to be in such an out of the way location as Spring Lake Park after nightfall, a kind of place where lovers might wander by instinct. “We have always believed that someone they knew or someone familiar to them forced them to go there,” a classmate determined. And the law agreed. Perhaps, the two unfortunates had picked up a hitchhiker who made them drive there under false pretense and then, once there, produced his gun. Maybe someone at the dance.

Capt. Gonzaullas (right) interviews mem-
bers of the popular Rhythmaires dance
band. - Courtesy Wayne Beck

Jerry Atkins believes, to this day, that the Phantom might have been someone who hung out at the dances, looking for people to victimize. “As I was questioned (by the police) about possibly identifying anyone who was at the VFW Club on that fatal night, I began to think about the Moore-Griffin murders as well. Their car and bodies were found not too far from the Highway 67 spot called Club Dallas. Could someone have stalked them from there? Maybe there was someone at the VFW who saw Betty Jo with Paul.” Recalling the hectic investigations that bloody spring, he adds, “These theories never (officially) materialized.”

Four days after the latest double murder, its victims were laid to rest. Four members of the Rhythmaires, including Atkins,  Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire were asked to be pallbearers. “It was a sad and tearful day,” the latter recalls.

Betty Jo’s saxophone was found several months later in a marshy field in Spring Lake Park, rusting and half-submerged in the murk. Obviously it had been lying there since the murderer tossed it that fateful night. It remained a mute reminder of the once-tuneful life of Betty Jo Hooker, a life that Jerry Atkins honored with a single decision: After her death, he chose to put the Rhythmaires to rest, too. They never played again.

Much of the communication between Evans and Sam was rooted in fantasy. Sam generally wrote to Evans when he was put in what he described as “Keep lock.”  Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire   It was Sam’s way of keeping in contact with what was going on inside the small section of the prison he liked to believe he was the master and commander of.

“My brother,” he wrote to Evans one afternoon, “I will … be out of KL [soon] … then I will try to get into ARCHITECTUAL DRAFTING to obtain a degree in Lighthouse Structualization [sic] and Interior Design. Then I will build a lighthouse! Goodbye cruel world. There will be No Trespassers near my Lighthouse.”

At the time, Evans had been thinking about getting into drafting after his prison term ended. He was an exceptional artist, in some respects; he made stained glass window pictures, paintings and drawings, and was fairly good with a pencil. He felt drafting could set him on the right track—although, as soon as he was released he always went right back to thieving (and killing), justifying it by saying  Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire  it was too easy (and lucrative).

Sam had a strange sense of humor, and in just about every letter he wrote to Evans, he tended to throw in at least one joke of some sort. Evans would often choose various books and music tapes for Sam and send them to him when they were apart. Fleetwood Mac was a Son of Sam favorite. Evans had sent him some organ music once, for which all Sam wrote back, was “zzzzzzz … lucrative      Play this music for someone on their death bed—they’ll go quicker. See you before Christmas, I think. The Great Berko.”

As Uncle Bill disappeared into his house, his wife said, “You wait until you see what he’s bringing back.”

“No kidding.”

I expected to be shown a grainy photograph of Bill, Gary and the rest of their fifth grade class. Horned-rimmed glasses, high waters, Converse sneakers, and pocket protectors. Maybe a note Evans had written to Bill, and perhaps an old school paper Evans had written about a love he had as a child for psychotic killers.

After a few minutes, Bill walked into the dining room area where I was sitting. He held two boxes.

“Before Gary went to jail that last time,” he said, coming back into the room, “he stopped by here to drop off some of his personal possessions. Would you be interested in any of it?”

I thought I had heard him wrong. “Uh … yeah,” I said, barely getting the words out, “I’d like to see that stuff, if I could.”

Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire  He smiled and opened the first box.

Before I continue, I should say that Gary Evans was not only a serial killer, but probably one of the most prolific antique thieves New England has seen in the past twenty years. The guy could steal a wallet from a cop at a policemen’s convention. He once wanted an antique piece of jewelry so bad that, after realizing there was no way into the building without tripping the alarm, he spent several days tunneling underneath the building so he could come up inside, beyond any of the alarm system’s tripping devices. Once inside, he took the antique and left a note in its place … “Thank you, the Mole.”

Evans was able to get into any jewelry store he wanted, and antique shops throughout New England feared him. He would go so far as to scope out a shop for weeks, set up a tent in the woods in back of the property, gain the trust of the shop owner and then, when he felt he knew enough about the shop and its security, burgle the owner blind. He had even burned down an antique barn he burgled in order to cover up his crimes. The guy had escaped from prison twice and was able to get out of any situation. After Horton finally caught him, Evans was suspected then of killing three people. Yet he somehow managed to hide a handcuff key in his right nostril and escape from two armed U.S. Marshals.

X-ray shows hand cuff key.

Knowing all of this and writing about it, by the time I sat down with Bill I believed there wasn’t much left in Evans’s life that could shock me. Evans had become one of the more interesting murderers I have ever studied and written about. I thought there was nothing in his criminal life of twenty-five years he had not done.    Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

But then Bill opened those two boxes.

The murder of Mary Kelly created panic in the streets of Whitechapel, which were again abandoned at night to the police patrols. Sporadic episodes of mob violence broke out when for various reasons, an individual cast suspicion on himself by something he did or said, usually under the influence of alcohol.

Man walking alone draws suspicious eyes

Police activity was frantic. Every lead was tracked down, every suspect interrogated thoroughly. The results were disappointing and the police were heavily criticized. Queen Victoria was furious. “This new most ghastly murder,” she told the Prime Minister, “shows the absolute necessity for some very decided action. All these courts must be lit, and our detectives improved. They are not what they should be.”

The Times was a bit more understanding of the difficulties the police faced: “The murders, so cunningly continued, are carried out with a completeness which altogether baffles investigators. Not a trace is left of the murderer, and there is no purpose in the crime to afford the slightest clue…All that the police can hope is that some accidental circumstance will lead to a trace which may be followed to a successful conclusion.”

There was disagreement on the estimated time of Mary’s death. Dr. Bond believed that she had died between 1 and 2 a.m. Friday morning. Dr. Phillips thought that death occurred much later, somewhere between 5 and 6 a.m. Not having a clearer idea about time of death complicated the eyewitness testimony regarding who was with Mary or seen in Miller’s Court during Friday morning.

Miller’s Court, location of the
murder of Mary Kelly

The most important eyewitness was George Hutchinson, a laborer who knew Mary Kelly. He met her about 2 a.m. Friday morning and she asked him for some money. He told her he had nothing to spare and she walked away, but soon stopped to talk to another man. If his testimony is correct, he probably saw Jack the Ripper:

He then placed his right hand around her shoulders. He also had a kind of a small parcel in his left hand with a kind of strap round it. I stood against the lamp of the Queen’s Head Public House and watched him. They both then came past me and the man hung down his head with his hat over his eyes. I stooped down and looked him in the face. He looked at me stern. They both went into Dorset Street. I followed them. They both stood at the corner of the court for about 3 minutes. He said something to her. She said alright my dear come along you will be comfortable. He then placed his arm on her shoulder and gave her a kiss. She said she had lost her handkerchief. He then pulled his handkerchief a red one out and gave it to her. They both then went up the court together. I then went to the court to see if I could see them but could not. I stood there for about three quarters of an hour to see if they came out. They did not so I went away.

Mary Kelly with the Ripper

Description: age about 34 or 35, height 5 ft. 6, complexion pale, dark eyes and eye lashes, slight moustache curled up each end and hair dark, very surly looking; dress, long dark coat, collar and cuffs trimmed astrakhan and a dark jacket under, light waistcoat, dark trousers, dark felt hat turned down in the middle, button boots and gaiters with white buttons, black tie with horse shoe pin, respectable appearance, walked very sharp, Jewish appearance. Can be identified.

He further elaborated on this description later:

His watch chain had a big seal, with a red stone, hanging from it…He had no side whiskers, and his chin was clean shaven…I believe that he lives in the neighborhood, and I fancied that I saw him in Petticoat Lane on Sunday morning, but I was not certain.

Several people had seen Mary on the night she died. Mary Ann Cox, another prostitute who lived in Miller’s Court, saw Mary with a man going into Miller’s Court at 11:45 p.m. Mary was very drunk and had difficulty talking. Mrs. Cox described Mary’s client as “about 36 years old, about 5 ft 6 in. high, complexion fresh and I believe he had blotches on his face, small side whiskers, and a thick carrotty moustache, dressed in shabby dark clothes, dark overcoat and black felt hat.”

At 8 p.m. on Wednesday, November 7, laundress Sarah Lewis was walking with a girlfriend when a man about forty years of age, who was fairly short, pale-faced, with a black moustache, wanted either one of the two women to follow him. He wore a short black coat and carried a black bag about one foot long. They refused, but he persisted, and the women ran away. At 2:30 a.m. Friday morning, just around the time that Mary Kelly was murdered, Sarah was coming to stay with friends at 2 Miller’s Court when she saw the same man, but eluded him this time. Shaken by this second sighting, she rushed to her friend’s house. Just before 4 a.m. she heard a woman shriek “Murder!” Another woman also heard the scream, but shrieks like that were apparently common in bawdy Whitechapel.

Inspector Richard
Abberline

Inspector Abberline clearly believed Hutchinson’s detailed account, but had to wonder about Hutchinson’s motivation for following Mary and her client. He said he had known her for several years and had given her money more than once. Perhaps he was fond of Mary or just worried about her with this particular client. There had to be some reason that he would take such an interest and even follow the two of them to Miller’s Court. Abberline instructed a couple of policemen to walk around with Hutchinson in the hopes that they would spot Mary’s client. One cannot help wondering if Hutchinson did not make up this story to throw suspicion off of himself. However, for some reason, the police did not pursue him as a suspect and disseminated the description that he gave to all of the police stations.

Alice McKenzie

As winter set in, the frantic police activity began to slow. All suspects had been interrogated and leads came to a dead end. It appeared that Jack the Ripper had left the scene for good. However, there were two murders that were similar in nature that should be mentioned.

The first was Alice McKenzie, who was found dead in July of 1889. She too had died from the slashing of her carotid artery. If this was another victim of Jack the Ripper, the wounds to her throat and abdomen were different than the other murders. Drs. Bond and Phillips disagreed as to whether it was Jack or not.

Frances Coles

In February of 1891, a pretty prostitute named Frances Coles was found with her throat cut. Dr. Phillips did not believe that Jack the Ripper was responsible and suspicion fell upon a man who had a quarrel with her.  Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

At any rate, the Jack the Ripper file was closed in 1892, the same year in which Inspector Abberline retired. The Ripper murders were over, but the legend lived on.

Hay Copy

The Hay Copy, with Lincoln’s handwritten corrections

The existence of the Hay Copy^[b] was first announced to the public in 1906, after the search for the “original manuscript” of the Address among the papers of John Hay brought it to light.^[15] Significantly, it differs somewhat from the manuscript of the Address described by John Hay in his article, and contains numerous omissions and inserts in Lincoln’s own hand, including omissions critical to the basic meaning of the sentence, not simply words that would be added by Lincoln to strengthen or clarify their meaning. However, in this copy, as in the Nicolay Copy, the words “under God” are not present.

This version has been described as “the most inexplicable” of the drafts and is sometimes referred to as the “second draft.”^[49][53] The “Hay Copy” was made either on the morning of the delivery of the Address, or shortly after Lincoln’s return to Washington. Those that believe that it was completed on the morning of his address point to the fact that it contains certain phrases that are not in the first draft but are in the reports of the address as delivered and in subsequent copies made by Lincoln. It is probable, they conclude, that, as stated in the explanatory note accompanying the original copies of the first and second drafts in the Library of Congress, Lincoln held this second draft when he delivered the address.^[54] Lincoln eventually gave this copy to his other personal secretary, John Hay, whose descendants donated both it and the Nicolay Copy to the Library of Congress in 1916.^[55]

[edit] Everett Copy

The Everett Copy,^[c] also known as the “Everett-Keyes Copy,” was sent by President Lincoln to Edward Everett in early 1864, at Everett’s request. Everett was collecting the speeches at the Gettysburg dedication into one bound volume to sell for the benefit of stricken soldiers at New York’s Sanitary Commission Fair. The draft Lincoln sent became the third autograph copy, and is now in the possession of the Illinois State Historical Library in Springfield, Illinois,^[54] where it is currently on display in the Treasures Gallery of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

[edit] Bancroft Copy

The Bancroft Copy^[d] of the Gettysburg Address was written out by President Lincoln in February 1864 at the request of George Bancroft, the famed historian and former Secretary of the Navy whose comprehensive ten volume History of the United States later led him to be known as the “father of American History.”^[56][57] Bancroft planned to include this copy in Autograph Leaves of Our Country’s Authors, which he planned to sell at a Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Sanitary Fair in Baltimore. As this fourth copy was written on both sides of the paper, it proved unusable for this purpose, and Bancroft was allowed to keep it. This manuscript is the only one accompanied both by a letter from Lincoln transmitting the manuscript and by the original envelope addressed and franked by Lincoln.^[58] This copy remained in the Bancroft family for many years, was sold to various dealers and purchased by Nicholas and Marguerite Lilly Noyes,^[59] who donated the manuscript to Cornell in 1949. It is now held by the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections in the Carl A. Kroch Library at Cornell University.^[54] It is the only one of the five copies to be privately owned.^[60]

[edit] Bliss Copy

Discovering that his fourth written copy could not be used, Lincoln then wrote a fifth draft, which was accepted for the purpose requested. The Bliss Copy,^[e] named for Colonel Alexander Bliss, Bancroft’s Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire stepson and publisher of Autograph Leaves, is the only draft to which Lincoln affixed his signature. Lincoln is not known to have made any further copies of the Gettysburg Address. Because of the apparent care in its preparation, and in part because Lincoln provided a title and signed and dated this copy, it has become the standard version of the address and the source for most facsimile reproductions of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.^[46]

This draft now hangs in the Lincoln Room of the White House, a gift of Oscar B. Cintas, former Cuban Ambassador to the United States.^[54] Cintas, a wealthy collector of art and manuscripts, purchased the Bliss Copy at a public auction in 1949 for $54,000, at that time the highest price ever paid for a document at public auction.^[61] Cintas’ properties were claimed by the Castro government after the Cuban Revolution in 1959, but Cintas, who died in 1957, willed the Gettysburg Address to the American people, provided it would be kept at the White House, where it was transferred in 1959.^[62]

Garry Wills concluded the Bliss Copy “is stylistically preferable to others in one significant way: Lincoln removed ‘here’ from ‘that cause for which they (here) gave…’ The seventh ‘here’ is in all other versions of the speech.” Wills noted the fact that Lincoln “was still making such improvements,” suggesting Lincoln was more concerned with a perfected text than with an ‘original’ one.

[edit] Contemporary sources and reaction

The New York Times article from November 20, 1863, indicates Lincoln’s speech was interrupted five times by applause and was followed by “long continued applause.”^[19]

Another contemporary source of the text is the Associated Press dispatch, transcribed from the shorthand notes taken by reporter Joseph L. Gilbert. It also differs from the drafted text in a number of minor ways.^[63][64]

Eyewitness reports vary as to their view of Lincoln’s performance. In 1931, the printed recollections of 87-year-old Mrs. Sarah A. Cooke Myers, who at the age of 19 was present, suggest a dignified silence followed Lincoln’s speech: “I was close to the President and heard all of the Address, but it seemed short. Then there was an impressive silence like our Menallen Friends Meeting. There was no applause when he stopped speaking.”^[65] According to historian Shelby Foote, after Lincoln’s presentation, the applause was delayed, scattered, and “barely polite.”^[66] In contrast, Pennsylvania Governor Curtin maintained, “He pronounced that speech in a voice that all the multitude heard. The crowd was hushed into silence because the President stood before them…It was so Impressive! It was the common remark of everybody. Such a speech, as they said it was!”^[21]

In an oft-repeated legend, Lincoln is said to have turned to his bodyguard Ward Hill Lamon and remarked that his speech, like a bad plow, “won’t scour.” According to Garry Wills, this statement has no basis in fact and largely originates from the unreliable recollections of Lamon.^[12] In Garry Wills’s view, “[Lincoln] had done what he wanted to do [at Gettysburg].”

In a letter to Lincoln written the following day, Everett praised the President for his eloquent and concise speech, saying, “I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”^[67] Lincoln was glad to know the speech was not a “total failure”.^[67]

Other public reaction to the speech was divided along partisan lines. The next day the Democratic-leaning Chicago Times observed, “The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwatery utterances of the man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as the President of the United States.” In contrast, the Republican-oriented New York Times was complimentary.^[19] The Springfield, Ma. Republican newspaper printed the entire speech, calling it “a perfect gem” that was “deep in feeling, compact in thought and expression, and tasteful and elegant in every word and comma.” The Republican predicted that Lincoln’s brief remarks would “repay further study as the model speech”^[68]

[edit] Audio recollections

William R. Rathvon is the only known eyewitness of both Lincoln’s arrival at Gettysburg and the address itself to have left an audio recording of his recollections.^[69] One year before his death in 1939, Rathvon’s reminiscences were recorded on February 12, 1938 at the Boston studios of radio station WRUL, including his reading the address, itself, and a 78 rpm record was pressed. The title of the 78 record was “I Heard Lincoln That Day - William R. Rathvon, TR Productions.” A copy wound up at National Public Radio (NPR) during a “Quest for Sound” project in 1999.^[70] NPR continues to air them around Lincoln’s birthday.

[edit] Photographs

The only known and confirmed photograph of Lincoln at Gettysburg,^[71] taken by photographer David Bachrach^[72] was identified in the Mathew Brady collection of photographic plates in the National Archives and Records Administration in 1952. While Lincoln’s speech was short and may have precluded multiple pictures of him while speaking, he and the other dignitaries sat for hours during the rest of the program. Given the length of Everett’s speech and the length of time it took for 19th century photographers to get “set up” before taking a picture, it is quite plausible that the photographers were ill prepared for the brevity of Lincoln’s remarks.  Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

In 2006, Civil War enthusiast John Richter was credited with identifying two additional photographs in the Library of Congress collection that potentially show President Lincoln in the procession at Gettysburg.^[73]

Innovators

Innovators are successful, sophisticated, take-charge people with high self-esteem. Because they have such abundant resources, they exhibit all three primary motivations in varying degrees. They are change leaders and are the most receptive to new ideas and technologies. Innovators are very active consumers, and their purchases reflect cultivated tastes for upscale, niche products and services.

Image is important to Innovators, not as evidence of status or power but as an expression of their taste, independence, and personality. Innovators are among the established and emerging leaders in business and government, yet they continue to seek challenges. Their lives are characterized by variety. Their possessions and recreation reflect a cultivated taste for the finer things in life.

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At the time of the reoccupation of the Rhineland, Hitler made use of an extraordinary figure of speech in describing his own conduct. He said,

“I follow my course with the precision and security of a sleepwalker.”

Even at that time it struck the world as an unusual statement for the undisputed leader of 67,000,000 people to make at the time of an international crisis. Hitler meant it to be a form of’ reassurance for his more wary followers who questioned the wisdom of his course. It seems, however, that it was a true confession and had his wary followers only realised its significance and implications they would have had grounds for far greater concern that that aroused by his proposal to reoccupy the Rhineland. For the course of this sleep-walker has carried him over many untravelled roads which finally led him unerringly to a pinnacle of success and power never reached before. And still it lured him on until today he stands on the brink of disaster. He will go down in history as the most worshipped and the most despised man the world has ever known.

Many people have stopped and asked themselves: “Is this man sincere in his undertakings or is he a fraud?” Certainly even a fragmentary knowledge of his past life warrants such a question, particularly since our correspondants have presented us with many conflicting views. At times, it seemed almost inconceivable that a man could be sincere and do what Hitler has done in the course of his career. And yet all of his former associates whom we have been able to contact, as well as many of our most capable foreign correspondents, are firmly convinced that Hitler actually does believe in his own greatness. Fuchs reported that Hitler said to Schuschnigg during the Berchtesgaden [sic] interviews:

“Do you realize that you are in the presence of the greatest German of all time?”

It makes little difference for our purpose whether he actually spoke these words or not at this particular time as alleged. In this sentence he has summed up in a very few words an attitude which he has expressed to some of our informants in person. To Rauschning, for example, he once said:

“Aber ich brauche sie nicht, um mir von ihnen meine geschichtiche Groesse bestaltigen zu lassen.” (717)

And to Strasser, who once took the liberty of saying that we was afraid Hitler was mistaken, he said:

“I cannot be mistaken. What I do and say is historical.” (378)

many other such personal statements could be given. Oechaner has summed up his attitude in this respect very well in the following words:

“He feels that no one ins German history is equipped as he is to bring the Germans to the position of supremacy which all German statesman have felt they deserved but were unable to achieve.” (669)

This attitude is not confined to himself as a statesman. he also believes himself to be the greatest war lord as, for  example, when he says to Raischning:

“Ich spiele nicht Krieg. Ich lasse mich nicht von `Feldherrn’ kommandieren. Den Krieg fushre ich. Den engentlichen Zeitpunkt zum Angriff bestimme ich. Es gibt nur eine guenstigen. Ich warde auf ihm warten. Mit eisernor Entschlossenheit. Unc ich warde ihn nicht verpassen…” (701)

And it seems to be true that he has made a number of contributions to German offensive and defensive tactics and strategy. He believes himself to be an outstanding judge in legal matters and does not blush when he stands before the Reichstag, while speaking to the whole world, and says,

“For the last twenty-four hours I was the supreme court of the German people.” (255)

Then, too, he believes himself to be the greatest of all German architects and spends a great deal of his time in sketching new buildings and planning the remodeling of entire cities. In spite of the fact that he failed to pass the examinations for admission to the Art School he believes himself to be the only competent judge in all matters of art. A few years ago he appointed a committee of three to act as final judges on all matters of art, but when their verdicts did not please him he dismissed them and assumed their duties himself. It makes little difference whether the field be economics, education, foreign affairs, propaganda, movies, music or women’s dress. In each and every field he believes himself to be an unquestioned authority.

He also prides himself on his hardness and brutality.

“I am one of the hardest men Germany has had for decades, perhaps for centuries, equipped  with the greatest authority of any German leader… but above all, I believe in my success. I believe in it unconditionally.” (M.N.O. 871)

That belief in his own power actually borders on a feeling of omnipotence which he is not reluctant to display.

“Since the events of last year, his faith in his own genius, in his instinct, or as one might say, in his star, is boundless. Those who surround him are the first to admit that he now thinks himself infallible and invincible. That explains why he can no longer bear either criticism or contradiction. To contradict him is in his eyes a crime of ‘lese majeste’; opposition to his plans, from whatever side it may come, is a definite sacrilege, to which the only reply is an immediate and striking display of his omnipotence.” (French Yellow Book, 945)

Another diplomat reports a similar impression:

“When I first met him, his logic and sense of reality had impressed me, but as time went on he appeared to me to become more and more unreasonable and more and more convinced of his own infallibility and greatness …” (Henderson, 129)

There seems, therefore, to be little room for doubt concerning Hitler’s firm belief in his own greatness. We must now inquire into the sources of this belief. Almost all writers have attributed Hitler’s confidence to the fact that he is a great believer in astrology and that he is constantly in touch with astrologers who advise him concerning his course of action. This is almost certainly untrue. All of our informants who have known Hitler rather intimately discard the idea as absurd. They all agree that nothing is more foreign to Hitler’s personality than to seek help from outside sources of this type. The informant of the Dutch Legation holds a similar view. He says:

“Not only has the Fuehrer never had his horoscope cast, but he is in principle against horoscopes because he feels he might be unconsciously influenced by them.” (655)

It is also indicative that Hitler, some time before the war, forbade the practice of fortune-telling and star-reading in Germany.

It is true that from the outside it looks as though Hitler might be acting under some guidance of this sort which gives him the feeling of conviction in his infalibility. These stories probably originated in the very early days of the Party. According to Strasser, during the early 1920’s Hitler took regular lessons in speaking and in mass psychology from a man named Hamissen who was also a practicing astrologer and fortune-teller. He was an extremely clever individual who taught Hitler a great deal concerning the importance of staging meetings to obtain the greatest dramatic effect. As far as can be learned, he never had any particular interest in the movement or any say on what course it should follow. It is possible that Hanussen had some contact with a group of astrologers, referred-to by one von Wiegand, who were very active in Munich at this time. Through Hanussen Hitler too may have come in contact with this group, for von Wiegand writes:

“When I first knew Adolph Hitler in Munich, in 1921 and 1922, he was in touch with a circle that believed firmly in the portents of the stars. There was much whispering of the coming of another Charlemagne and a new Reich. How far Hitler believed in these astrological  forecasts and prophesies in those days I never could get out of Der Fuhrer. He neither denied nor affirmed belief. He was not averse, however, to making use of the forecasts to advance popular faith in himself and his then young and struggling movement.”

It is quite possible that from these beginnings the myth of his associations with astrologers has grown.

Although Hitler has done considerable reading in a variety of fields of study, he does not in any way attribute his infallibility or omniscience to any intellectual endeavor on his part. On the contrary, he frowns on such sources when it comes to guiding the destiny of nations. His opinion of the intellect is, in fact, extremely low, for in various places he makes such statements as the following:

“Of secondary importance is the training of mental abilities.”

“Over-educated people, stuffed with knowledge and intellect, but bare of any sound instincts.”

“These impudent rascals (intellectuals) who always know everything better than anybody else…”

“The intellect has grown autocratic, and has become a disease of life.”

Hitler’s guide is something different entirely. It seems certain that Hitler believes that he has been sent Germany by Providence and that he has a particular mission to perform. He is probably not clear on the scope of this mission beyond the fact that he has been chosen to redeem the German people and reshape Europe. Just how this is to be accomplished is also rather vague in his mind, but this does not concern him greatly because an “inner voice” communicates to him the steps he is to take. This is the guide which leads him on his course with the precision and security of a sleep-walker.

“I carry out the commands that Providence has laid upon me.” (490)

“No power on earth can shake the German Reich now, Divine Providence has willed it that I carry through the fulfillment of the Germanic task.” (413)

“But if the voice speaks, then I know the time has come to act.” (714)

It is this firm conviction that he has a mission and is under the guidance and protection of Providence which is responsible in large part for the contagious effect he has had on the German people.

Many people believe that this feeling of Destiny and mission have come to Hitler through his successes. This is probably false. Later in our study (Part V) we will try to show that Hitler has had this feeling for a great many years although it may not have become a conscious conviction until much later. In auy case it was forcing its way into consciousness during the war and has played a dominant role in his actions ever since. Mend (one of his comrades), for example, reports:  Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire.

Dear Herr Schücking,

Once again my warmest thanks for your kindly reception and for the beautiful souvenir from Münster! ^[230] I read it through in Osnabrück at one sitting with great enjoyment, and I envy the poet [Annette Elisabeth Freiin von Droste-Hülshöff] for her original and tender images of nature, the many hidden splendours, the kinship with Byron, which you also, if I am not mistaken, stressed in your review. ^[231] It is a shame that these poems should have come and gone without making any impression; but what does this depth of feeling mean to the shallow reading public of our days? At the first opportunity I shall publicly do justice to the book. — Where is there a more beautiful ballad of its kind than Der Graf von Thal?

Now concerning our Shelley-plan, ^[232] had a talk with Schünemann straight away yesterday; at the mention of the fee of ten talers he shrank back as if struck by lightning and said at once he could not take it on. He is just back from the Fair where he himself inspected his masses of unsold books of every kind, pietistic novels, descriptions from Belgium, Spanish readers and other rubbish; in addition, he was foolish enough to make contracts in Leipzig for works on theology and on world and literary history at a low fee, so that he has his hands full. These stupid bookseller people believe they risk less on a commentary on the epistles of John, which costs perhaps two talers in fees and is badly produced, and will perhaps be bought by 20 students at most, than on Shelley, for which production and fees may cost relatively three times as much, but in which the whole nation will take an interest. Just now I was with Schünemann again to hear from his own mouth the final statement that on these conditions he cannot take it on; one sheet of poems, he said, contains only a quarter as much as a sheet of prose, so that the fee for a sheet would really come to 40 talers. I told him it was not child’s play to translate Shelley, and if he did not want it then he should leave it alone, for heaven’s sake; and that by the way he was standing in his own light. He: If only we would first give him a small specimen, he would print it, and then one could see what could be done. I: Schücking and Püttmann are not the people to agree to give specimens, and what specimens do for other people, their names do for them. Will you or won’t you? He: Not on these conditions. — Muy bien; to beg was beneath our dignity, so I left. — I am now of the opinion that this failure should by no means discourage us; if one will not do it, another will. Püttmann, who translated the first canto of Queen Mab, has sent it to Engelmann in Leipzig, and if he accepts, it will be easy to get him to take on the whole thing. Otherwise Hammerich in Altona and Krabbe in Stuttgart would perhaps be the ones we should approach first. But just now, immediately after the Easter Fair, is a very unfavourable moment for making our offers. If it were January I am sure Schünemann would have grabbed it with both hands. I want to go to him once more and ask him for a joke what kind of conditions he can offer us.

Friend Schünemann evaded my visits by flight; he is on an outing to the country. He would probably have offered five talers a sheet and asked, as he always loves to do, for a little specimen of three to four sheets in advance. The whole thing is the fault of none other than the pietist Wilh. Elias of Halle, on whose novel Glauben und Wissen, published by Schünemann, the latter loses about 2,000 talers. If I catch the fellow I’ll challenge him to scimitars.

What do you say to all this? I shall write to Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire  Püttmann straight away today. I think it is too good a project simply to drop it. Any bookseller with a smattering of education (Schünemann is a blockhead) will take on the publication with pleasure.

I am eagerly looking forward to hearing your opinion on the matter, and in the meantime commend myself to your friendly goodwill.