Mary Surratt
Following the murder of Abraham Lincoln, a search was started for
Booth and his accomplice,
David E. Herold, as well as others suspected of having been
involved in any way with the
assassination. On the night of April 17, 1865, Mary Surratt
was arrested at her Washington
boardinghouse and then taken before dawn of the next day
to the Carroll Annex of the Old
Capitol Prison. She remained there until April 30th, when
she was transported by Colonel Baker
in a buggy to the Washington Arsenal Penitentiary. It was
in one of the administrative buildings
at the Penitentiary that the assassination conspiracy trial
was held.
The trial proceedings began on May 9, 1865, and continued
until the end of June. On the 28th
and 29th of June, the Military Commission which heard the
case conferred and decided on the
death penalty for Mrs. Surratt and her convicted co-conspirators
Lewis Powell (alias Paine),
George Atzerodt, and David Herold. The tribunal handed down
life imprisonment to other
conspirators, including Dr. Samuel A. Mudd. On July 7, 1865,
Mary Surratt was hanged, along
with Powell, Atzerodt, and Herold, thus marking the first
time the U.S. government had executed
a woman. Her fate had been sealed by her Surrattsville tenant,
John M. Lloyd, who became a
state's witness just prior to the trial. He testified that
she had requested that he have field glasses
and carbines ready for Booth and Herold when they arrived
at the Surratt House late on the
night of the assassination. Mrs. Surratt is further alleged
to have delivered the field glasses to
Lloyd for safekeeping earlier on the same day. Despite defense
witnesses that attested to Mrs.
Surratt's reputation as a gentle and deeply religious woman,
Lloyd's testimony placed the rope
around her neck.
The noose is put around Mary's neck...
Ironically, at the time of her death, a case was pending
before the Supreme Court, questioning
the jurisdiction of military courts in cases involving civilians.
In 1866, less than a year after Mary
Surratt was hanged, the Supreme Court ruled that a military
court had no jurisdiction in civilian
cases, if the civil courts were open. When the assassination
conspiracy trial was conducted by a
military court in 1865, the civil courts in the District
of Columbia were open! Had the Supreme
Court ruling come a year earlier, Mary Surratt might never
have been executed. It is significant
that, with virtually the same witnesses and for essentially
the same crime, a civil court of the
District of Columbia was unable to convict Mary's son, John,
when he was returned for trial in
1867.
Mary's last few seconds.
HOME