Publisher's Synopsis
Kira Gale has assembled fifty documents with commentary to support her claim that General James Wilkinson and his associate John Smith T, a wealthy lead mine operator, organized the assassination of the famed explorer Meriwether Lewis in 1809. The book is a companion to her biography, Meriwether Lewis: The Assassination of an American Hero and the Silver Mines of Mexico.The first documents concern Lewis's financial situation and his enemies in St. Louis, where he served as Governor of Upper Louisiana Territory in 1808-09. Half of the documents are related to the conspiracy to assassinate Lewis and its cover up. The final documents concern filibuster expeditions to seize Spanish territory by Wilkinson and Smith T, and include a previously unknown attempt by Aaron Burr in 1809-10. Gale reviews the evidence and concludes with a narrative account of the assassinationhow it was planned, executed, and covered up--and the motives behind it.
