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| Lewis Powell, or ‘Payne,’ shortly before he was hanged for conspiring against president Lincoln's life This simple-witted but determined lad, with his sullen, defiant look, has just been captured for a crime that meant death. With the impulse of a maniac, he had attacked with a knife a sick man lying in his bed. On the night of April 14, 1865, the day of Lincoln's assassination, Payne secured admission to the house of William H. Seward, Secretary of State, and attempted to take his life. Secretary Seward had been thrown from his carriage and was lying in bed with his jaws encased in a metallic frame-work. This probably saved his life. The evil written on Payne's countenance tells its own story of the nature of the man. |
