Customer Reviews

Alias "Paine": Lewis Thornton Powell, the Mystery Man of the Lincoln Conspiracy

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In all of the books i have read regarding the Lincoln assassination, this is by far my favorite. Lewis Powell is a murky character that was largely left in the shadows by other books, except for the occasional reference that was just enough to clearly show he was fascinating, and had a story of his own. This book did not disappoint at all! Every question i had in the back of my mind when reading about this man in other books was answered in this book. The author managed, even over the span of years separating us from the time, place, and events that occurred, to make Lewis seem alive, and utterly interesting.

Without question this is the best researched study of one of John Wilkes Booth's main co-conspirators ever written.

I purchased this book for my husband whose great great great Uncle was Lewis Thornton Powell. It has a lot of family history that we did not really know about. His mother signed the inside of book for her grandchildren. We love history!!!!!!!!!!!

I bought this book because I always was interested in Lewis Powell, the attacker of William Seward during the Lincoln Conspiracy. Powell always seemed to be surrounded in mystery in all of the history books, and this book is good at answering some of those questions.

However, the disappointing part of this book comes down to the fact that when Powell was seemingly off radar, or his whereabouts were known but not why exactly he was there; the author tends to over speculate. She tries to make the entire conspiracy a brainchild of the Confederate Government, when there really isn't the facts to support this notion. Furthermore, she tends to not look into other historical facts (expecially the facts surrounding Booth)inorder to help support the notion of Confederate involvement.

Granted it would be hard to write about about someone who was in the shadows of history as much as Powell; yet the speculations seem so bias to the author and in my opinion really brings the book down.

I would only suggest this book to someone who has read a good quality book on the Lincoln Conspiracy such as
American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies , so that misinformation does not lead them down the wrong path.

lewis thornton powell was another tragic pawn who paid with his life for the lincoln assassination. he was very young and immature, but participated whole-heartedly and volitionally in the physical and emotional harming of a great many people. had he been closer to home and under the influence of people who cared about him, its unlikely he would have been drawn into this evil plot. what i didnt care for about this book was the subjective nature and the flowery prose. i was left with the impression that the author had a big school girl crush on lewis powell and was actually amused or proud of the things he had done. she constantly made derogatory remarks and insinuations that louis weichmann was the cause of all of powells troubles. she also gleaned most of her information, although selectively, from louis weichmanns memoir. although lewis powell was young, he was certainly no innocent victim of circumstance. he participated fully in every way.

Lewis Paine was a dashing young man in the 19th Century. Why would Booth tempt Lewis Paine into kidnapping Mr. Lincoln? I liked Lewis Paine since I was little. Now that I'm 20 yrs old now, I still dream of him. I know he's dead already. (Don't think I'm insane for this guy.) If Lewis Paine was like he was in the 1860's today, I'll freak out. My husband's name is Lewis but not Powell. I have collected several pics of Powell since I was 12 to 13. I drove my mom & dad crazy about Lewis Paine when I was 9. Hope you like my thoughts about Lewis Paine.

Love, Carmen