Baker has a hard and grizzly face. His inconsiderable forehead is crowned with turning sandy hair, and the deep concave of its insatiate jaws is almost hidden by a dense red beard, which cannot still abate the terrible decision of the large mouth, so well sustained by searching eyes of spotted grey, which roll and rivet one.

Baker took into his service men who claimed to have any aptitude for detective work, without recommendation, investigation, or any inquiry, beyond his own inspection. How large his regiment ultimately grew is uncertain, but at one time he asserted that it exceeded two thousand men.

With this force at his command, protected against interference from the judicial authorities, Baker became a law unto himself. He instituted a veritable Reign of Terror. He dealt with every accused person in the same manner; with a reputable citizen as with a deserter or petty thief. He did not require the formality of a written charge, it was quite sufficient for any person to suggest to Baker that a citizen might be doing something that was against law.

Corruption spread like a contagious disease, wherever the operations of these detectives extended. Honest manufacturers and dealers, who paid their taxes, were pursued without mercy for the most technical breaches of the law, and were quickly driven out of business. The dishonest rapidly accumulated wealth, which they could well afford to share with their protectors.

As I entered the Secretary's office, and he recognized me, he turned away to hide his tears. He remarked - "Well, Baker, they have now performed what they have long threatened to do; they have killed the President.

Baker's intuitive grasp of the conditions of the case made it certain that the assassins would seek cover in Virginia. Before the starting of the search party, the Chief spread out a map of Virginia and designed the crossing-place of the fugitives and the place where they had probably landed; then, taking a compass, he placed one point at Port Conway, where a road crossed the Rappahannock, and drew a circle, which he said included a space of ten miles around the point, and within that territory they would find the fugitives. The fugitives were captured within Baker's circle.

On 24th April there was brought to my headquarters a colored man, who I was informed had important information respecting the assassins. On questioning the colored man I found he had seen two men, answering the description of Booth and Harrold, entering a small boat in the vicinity of Swan's Point. This information, with my preconceived theory as to the movements of the assassins, decided my course.

Fletcher learned that two suspicious characters had just crossed the Navy Yard Bridge on horseback. He returned to General Augur's headquarters about one o'clock on Saturday morning, and reported the fact. Here begins the first series of blunders in this attempted search for the assassins. Fletcher's statement was entirely disregarded. No steps were taken by those in possession of this information to follow up the clue this given until sixteen hours afterward. This delay enabled the assassins to get entirely beyond the reach of those sent in pursuit.

That diary, as now produced, had eighteen pages cut out, the pages prior to the time when Abraham Lincoln was massacred, although the edges as yet show they had all been written over. Now, what I want to know, was that diary whole? Who spoliated that book?

Q: Do you mean to say at the time you gave the book to the Secretary of War there were no leaves gone?

A. I do.

Q. That is still your opinion?

A. That is still my opinion.

Q. Did you examine it pretty carefully?

A. I examined the book, and I am very sure that if any leaves had been gone I should have noticed it.

Q. Did you examine it carefully?

A. It did not require careful examination to discover the absence of so many leaves.

The man who died at Garrett's Farm was stripped of his belongings before he was dead. The things that were taken from him were of no great consequence, with the sole exception of a diary in which he had written some declamatory descriptions of his experiences and sentiments. This diary was subsequently to become the centre of a fiery controversy, not so much because of its contents as because it had been kept hidden from the public.

For two years the little volume lay locked up in the archives of the War Office. In the meantime Baker had been dismissed and had written his book, The History of the Secret Service. Therein repeated references were made to Booth's diary, creating a sensation in all circles. The judiciary committee of the House, then in session, seized upon the item with alacrity, and bade Baker take the stand and repeat his statements under oath. There the detective exploded another bombshell: the the diary had been mutilated since it had been taken from the body at Garrett's Farm.

It was on the 10th April, 1865, when I first knew that the plan was in action. I did not know the identity of the assassin, but I knew most all else when I approached Edwin Stanton about it. He at once acted surprised and disbelieving. Later he said: "You are a party to it too. Let us wait and see what comes of it and then we will know better how to act in the matter." I soon discovered what he meant that I was a party to it when the following day I was shown a document that I knew to be a forgery but a clever one, which made it appear that I had been in charge of a plot to kidnap the President, the Vice-President being the instigator. Then I became a party to that deed even though I did not care to.

There were at least eleven members of Congress involved in the plot, no less than twelve Army officers, three Naval officers and at least twenty-four civilians, of which one was a governor of a loyal state. Five were bankers of great repute, three were nationally known newspapermen and eleven were industrialists of great repute and wealth. Eighty-five thousand dollars were contributed by the named persons to pay for the deed. Only eight persons knew the details of the plot and the identity of the others. I fear for my life.

Colonel Lafayette Baker threatened to expose those involved in the plot against Lincoln and attempts were made on his life to silence him. In addition to newspaper reports of such attacks, Mrs. Jenny Baker's diary treats them at length. On January 2, 1868, Mrs. Baker writes, "Lafe's shoulder is healing but he complains of soreness. He'd been shot at just before Christmas. Splinters hit him in the shoulder.

On January 3, the diary records, "Lafe cancelled the hunting trip he, Tom and Wally had planned. Lafe does not sleep, but walks the floor all night."

"Wally" is Walter Pollack, Baker's brother-in-law, who was still a detective for the War Department. Baker and Pollock had married sisters. Because of the family relationship, "Wally" was not suspected of having been sent to recover Baker's confidential War Department papers.

"Wally, Mary, Lafe and I went to the Rathskeller for dinner. We got home about8 and Lafe was sick."

By chemical analysis of a lock of Baker's hair, acquired with Mrs. Baker's diary, Dr. Ray A. Neff has determined that Baker had been slowly killed by arsenic poisoning resulting from his beer laced with it.