This article tells the story of how a gift from his grandmother ignited James Swanson’s obsession that eventually led to his bestseller about the Lincoln Conspiracy.
From the International Herold Tribune:
The small, framed print of the Deringer pistol began James Swanson’s obsession. Given to him by his grandmother for his 10th birthday - Feb. 12, the same as Abraham Lincoln’s - the picture bears the caption, “Gun That Killed Lincoln.”
Bordering the kitschy image is a copy of the front page of his hometown newspaper, The Chicago Tribune, dated April 15, 1865, the morning after Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theater. But just as the article begins detailing the pursuit of the assassin, John Wilkes Booth, the clipped page ends abruptly.
“Reached the door,” are the last words before the unfinished sentence disappears into the picture frame.
“I used to read it over and over wishing I could read the rest of the story,” said Swanson, 47, motioning toward the picture, which now hangs in his Capitol Hill home….
…During the three years that it took him to write the book, Swanson said he all but imprisoned himself in his house. He listened only to Civil War- era music and read original documents from the time. He purchased a full run of The Chicago Tribune from April through July 1865 as well as originals of The New York Herald.
Well connected in Washington legal circles, Swanson worked at the Justice Department in the Office of Legal Counsel in 1987, when Edwin Meese was attorney general. For breaks from his isolation, Swanson would give impromptu parties to reconnect with his high-powered friends - and, no doubt, to generate interest in his project.
“He would go completely underground,” said Lewis Shepherd, a senior executive with the Defense Intelligence Agency. “And then out of nowhere he would throw a great party with four sitting Supreme Court justices in attendance, and then he’d disappear again.”
