Suicide or Murder?
On September 4, 1809, Lewis, then governor of Louisiana Territory, left St. Louis for Washington, D.C., to take care of some personal and professional business. With him, he was carrying coded messages. On the evening of October 10, 1809, Lewis, his servant, and another traveling companion arrived at the home of Robert Grinder. Though Mr. Grinder was not home, his wife was, and she offered the travelers room and board. By sunrise the next morning, the 35-year-old former explorer was dead. Meriwether Lewis was asked by President Thomas Jefferson in 1801 to act as his private secretary. Jefferson soon made Lewis another offer to lead an expedition into the lands west of the Mississippi, which he did after enlisting William
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While Lewis was traveling to Washington, he was carrying secret codes. James Wilkinson has been jealous of Meriwether since Jefferson chose him to be Governor of Louisiana. Wilkinson was suspected for murder for quite some time. The codes that Lewis were carrying were his opinions about things that have been going on. They were supposed to be read by Thomas Jefferson, but they never made it there. Lewis’ opinions were written in code because most of them were violent and were created out of his paranoia of people coming after him. The entry for James was blank because he and Lewis didn’t get along and Wilkinson said that he was deranged and if that was true, then maybe Lewis was paranoid and scared of him. This reveals that Wilkinson would do anything, even possibly kill, to be greater than Lewis.
There are people who believe Lewis committed suicide. When he was found murdered, people ruled it as a suicide. But nowadays, new evidence have been coming forward to change minds. There was one witness that claimed Lewis shot himself but didn’t directly see it happen. The witness was Priscilla Grinder. Priscilla Grinder told her account of what happened 3 different times. Each time she told the story, it was a different account. If someone changes her story 3 different times, then they are not reliable. It could not be suicide because one shot from the horse pistol, which was the gun used, could kill in an