Meriwether

By Ron Thom

Meriwether Lewis committed suicide in the early morning hours of October 11, 1809 - or did he? A re-examination of the circumstances of Lewis' death and those involved in a story that remains unresolved. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ron Thom
• Release date: Jan 31, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386332657

Book preview

PROLOGUE

MERIWETHER LEWIS WAS murdered.  The plot was exceptionally well planned and carried out with great precision.  History records that there was one witness to his death.  Recorded history is wrong.  There was no witness save the murderer himself.  It was necessary, for the plot, that someone act as a disinterested person to tell the story that the plotters wanted the world, and recorded history, to hear.  In this, they succeeded. 

If Priscilla Grinder actually was a witness, her creditability has been shattered because every time she tells the story it contradicts the last one she told.  There is also scientific proof that there was no moonlight on the night Lewis died.  If she was there at all, it was not possible to see what happened because there was no light and she was not in the same room where his death took place, if that is where he died.  One story says his body was found out in the yard.  This brings to serious question her true whereabouts and whether she really saw what happened.  Amazingly, her stories have been accepted by history.  This is incredible! 

Meriwether Lewis was THE hero of the day.  There was no ceremonial burial.  A coffin was made from a large oak tree.  One version was that it was thrown into a pit.  Logs, sticks and broken branches were piled on to fill in the hole.  Another tale states he was buried in the ground hastily.  It wasn't until years later that a fence was put up around the site to keep out the pigs and scrounging animals.  And most disappointing of all, there was NO investigation by ANYONE.  The suicide people say that is because suicides needed no investigation.

As close a friend as Thomas Jefferson and William Clark were to Meriwether, this should have been enough to foster even the slightest curiosity as to how and why their friend died.  Yet both men took the word of the lackeys of General James Wilkinson and asked no questions.

Following Lewis' death, anything of value; money, a pair of personalized pistols, dirk, rifle, gold watch and horse were stolen by the man, James Neelly, who was especially selected by the perpetrators to guide him safely to his death.  When Neelly was confronted about the theft, he refused to return the stolen goods.  Neelly's mother admitted that her son had the aforementioned items and was talked into returning the rifle and horse.  James Neelly brazenly carried all the other stolen items with him at all times.

Some highly respected historians claim Meriwether Lewis committed suicide.  With no witness, no one can honestly say or prove how Meriwether Lewis died.  The believers in suicide only look at the tales of drinking, attempted suicide and mental derangement, which, by the way, are only told by the persons in league with the man most urgently wanting his death.  This was part of the plot.  Tell key people false stories about excessive drinking, two attempted suicides, that no one saw, and that he was mad and his mind unbalanced.  And tell these lies several times from different sources.  The drinking, attempted suicide and deranged mind were emphasized most loudly by word and/or written letter a few days before and several days after his death.

The plot to kill Meriwether Lewis was not hatched days before his demise.  The plan began its formulation when Lewis returned from the expedition and he was made Governor of the Louisiana Territory that he had just explored.  And, before Lewis' last trip to Washington City and every chance thereafter, mention was made by a select group of people as to drinking, and especially mental derangement.  This special group of people were in the employ or supporters of General James Wilkinson.  These are the same men that detailed, out loud, the drinking, suicide attempts and mental failure just before Meriwether Lewis was murdered.

There have been comments over the years, but not on the expedition, about drinking.  But in the

West, in those days, everyone drank, even the women.  There was also a statement or two about his mental health.  But these statements were passed around only by supporters of General James Wilkinson and enemies of Lewis.  This fact alone is very suspicious.

Malaria was prevalent in North America in the 1800's.  It is said that even Jefferson had it.  Nothing medically could be done to get rid of it or cure it.  Quina, a Peruvian bark, was used to reduce shivering.  It tasted so bad that it had to be taken with wine or brandy to get it down.  Calomel, ground into a powder is mercury and was used as a treatment for syphilis, also a laxative and finally as a disinfectant.  Jalap is a laxative.  These ingredients were mixed together by Jefferson's Doctor Rush, to produce Rush's pills.  Meriwether Lewis used the pills on the expedition and added quina when back in St. Louis.

The prevailing theory of the day was the idea that the digestive tract must be emptied to get rid of the malaria.  This was accomplished in more than one way, one of which was to ingest a mixture of tatar emetic and Glauber salts which produced vomiting.

Meriwether Lewis had malaria, called the ague in the 1800's.  The symptoms of malaria are: fever and chills, impaired consciousness, prostration, multiple convulsions, deep breathing, respiratory distress, abnormal bleeding and clinical jaundice which is evidence of vital organ dysfunction.

Is it possible for someone, who knows nothing of malarial symptoms, to believe a person was drunk if they witnessed someone with malaria, losing conscious, falling down or having a convulsion?  Would a person, ignorant of malaria, think a man's mind was demented if they saw him breathing deeply, even gasping for breath, convulsing, shaking with chills, falling in and out of consciousness and flopping on the ground?  Could an observer think a man has attempted suicide if they see abnormal bleeding, convulsions, prostration and clutching his heart or stomach?  Of course this is possible, even probable.

The story of Meriwether Lewis' death is therefore conjecture.  Right now it is anybody's guess as to what happened in the wee hours of October 11, 1809.  Since there are no witnesses or forensic proof, we have to take logical conclusions to the verified facts that history has reported.  Even if we find solid clues to the person who killed Lewis, we cannot prosecute him.  And if the body is exhumed, we can only determine suicide or murder, if that.  If murder can be shown by today's science then we can use our informed deductions to vindicate Meriwether Lewis and give to history his rightful place and return the reputation, as a stand up guy, that  he deserves.

WHAT WE DO KNOW

THE PLAYERS

THOMAS JEFFERSON

Thomas Jefferson was President of the United States when the Lewis name came into the history books.  The President was a scientist and fervently interested in the flora and fauna of the country he was now leading into its destiny.  He was not a military man.  As President, he never journeyed north of the nation's capital.  He was happy to be alone with his thoughts and experiments and let only a few people into his  inner world.  The dirty part of