Samuel Arnold

[Report #200] WHO. 'Samuel Bland Arnold was born on 6 September 1834, in Georgetown, D.C.' (history.army.mil) 'Arnold attended St. Timothy’s Hall military academy, where he was schoolmates with John Wilkes Booth.' (history.army.mil) 'After four months of service, Arnold was discharged for health reasons in the fall of 1861.' (history.army.mil) 'In 1864, while visiting his sick mother in Maryland, Arnold was recruited by Booth to be part of the plot to kidnap Lincoln.' (history.army.mil) THE KIDNAP PLOT. At a meeting with Booth, '"You can be the leader of the party," Arnold had said, "but not my executioner."' (archive.org) 'On 27 March, Arnold wrote a letter (now known as the “Sam Letter”) to Booth, asking him to stop his plans and declaring that he was no longer part of Booth’s gang.' (history.army.mil) ARREST. 'That same day, Samuel Arnold was arrested at his new workplace at Fort Monroe, Virginia.' (history.army.mil) 'The police had connected him to Booth through a letter Arnold had written to Booth, which was found in Booth’s room at the National Hotel.' (history.army.mil) THE TRIAL. 'In the end, only eight individuals would stand trial as apprehended conspirators, accused of conspiracy to murder Lincoln, Johnson, Seward, and Grant.' (history.army.mil) 'The trial began 10 May 1865, three weeks after Lincoln’s assassination, and ended on 30 June.' (history.army.mil) Under its rules 'only a majority vote was needed to gain a conviction, although a two-thirds vote was necessary to give the death penalty' (history.army.mil). Both defense lawyers 'insisted that their clients’ involvement was limited only to the earlier kidnapping plot and that neither man was a part of the assassination plot.' (history.army.mil) 'Samuel Arnold maintained that he was in Virginia at the time of the assassination, a fact to which his coworkers attested.' (history.army.mil) VERDICT AND SENTENCE. 'For the same crime, the commission sentenced Arnold, Mudd, and O’Laughlen to life imprisonment.' (history.army.mil) Bryan gives the sentence as 'Samuel Arnold, Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, and Michael O'Laughlin were to be imprisoned at hard labor for life; Edman Spangler was to be imprisoned at hard labor for six years.' (archive.org) 'Their accomplices—Arnold, Mudd, O’Laughlen, and Spangler—were sent to prison at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas near Key West, Florida.' (history.army.mil) PARDON. 'On 1 March 1869, three days before Johnson left office, Arnold received a presidential pardon.' (history.army.mil) Bryan: 'on March 2nd President Johnson signed the pardons of Samuel Arnold and Edman Spangler.' (archive.org) Both dates held. HIS CONFESSION. Bryan cites 'Arnold's confession, written for Provost Marshal McPhail (Baltimore), New York Times, Jan. 19, 1869' (archive.org), in which 'The Richmond authorities, as far as I know, knew nothing of the conspiracy.' (archive.org) 'After his release, Arnold freely admitted that he took part in the kidnapping plot, but he consistently denied any role in the assassination plot.' (history.army.mil) Linder (2007): Arnold 'died in 1906 after writing a detailed confession of his role in the conspiracy to kidnap President Lincoln.' (irlaw.umkc.edu) HELD. Whether the confession of Arnold was sworn: not found (Oct 2026); would settle: the McPhail confession text. 'Uncertainties remain over the veracity of the evidence, the witness statements, and the degree of guilt of those who were tried by the commission.' (history.army.mil) THE OCTOBER 2026 RESEARCH REPORT SAID "sworn confessions from Atzerodt and Samuel Arnold"; its sources describe the confession of Arnold as 'written for Provost Marshal McPhail (Baltimore)' (archive.org) and do not call it sworn.