On the 14th April 1865, one of the most infamous gunshots was fired inside of Ford’s Theatre
in Washington.
As he was watching a play titled Our American Cousin, John Wilkes Booth fired a shot into
Abraham Lincoln’s head, the president of the United States.
Shortly after, Lincoln was taken from the theatre, to the nearest house on Tenth Street.
The trip to the White House was considered too dangerous and 7 men moved the President
and he was taken into the house of a tailor.
The doctors cut away Lincoln’s clothes, and discovered no other wounds but found the
President was cold.But within a number of hours, Abraham Lincoln was dead.
His face in his final moments had become calm, and there were no apparent signs of suffering.
But in the aftermath of the assassination, a number of people were arrested and some
were sentenced to death.
One of those was a woman, named Mary Suratt who was the only woman to be executed for
her involvement of the Lincoln Conspiracy.
Join us today as we look at the execution of the woman involved in Lincoln’s assassination.
To support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
Mary Jenkings met John Harrison Suratt in 1839, and the couple would marry.
John purchased a huge amount of land from his adoptive father, and the couple and their
children would move back at some point to the District of Columbia to help John’s
mother run a farm.
Mary Suratt became involved in raising funds to build a Church, but her husband was not
happy with his wife’s religious activities.
His behaviour would get worse over time, as he drank heavier and failed to pay his debts.
But also his temper grew violent, and he took this out on Mary.
The family’s business enterprises would expand over time, and they would buy land
around a tavern and name it Surrattsville, and here it had a post office, forge and around
a dozen houses.
The American Civil War broke out on April 12th 1861, and the tavern would hosted many
Confederate sympathises.
But Mary’s taken became a safe house for Confederate spies, and the activities around
their land attracted attention from the Union government.
Around 300 Union soldiers camped there and investigated the Surratt’s confederate activities.
John Surratt would die around August 25th 1862, and the family were in problems financially.
Mary found her husband’s unpaid debts, and several of her slaves ran away, and Mary was
tired of running the farm, tavern and other businesses without her son’s help and she
contemplated moving to her townhouse in the city.
She took possession of this in October 1864, and it had four stories and she leased out
her tavern, and she then advertised for lodgers in the newspaper.
However Louis J Weichmann would move into Suratt’s boarding house on the 1st November
1863, and then John Suratt Junior was introduced to John Wilkes Booth, the man who would assassinate
Lincoln.
John Jr was recruited into the conspiracy to kidnap Lincoln, and confederate agents
then began to come to Mary’s boarding house a lot.
George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell would board at her townhouse for some time, and these
became co-conspirators in the plot to kill Lincoln.
Atzerodt visited the house a number of times, and he was even evicted by Mary as he was
such a heavy drinker, but he continued to frequent the house.
David Herold another conspirator also visited there a number of times.
But as part of the plot to kidnap Lincoln, John Azerodt and Herold his two rifles, ammunition
and other supplies at the Surratt tavern.
On the 11th April, Mary rented a carriage and drove to the tavern, and she went to collect
a debt, but she also may have gone to get the weapons to be used in the killing.
Booth would also visit the boarding house, and he gave Mary a package with binoculars
in them.
Booths’ plan was to assassinate Lincoln, and have Atzerodt kill the Vice President
Andrew Johnson, and for Powell to kill Secretary of State William H Seward.
Booth managed to kill Lincoln, Atzerodt never attempted to kill Johnson, but Powell stabbed
Seward but he survived.
As they fled the city, they picked up rifles and the binoculars from Surratt’s tavern.
However at 2am on the 15th April 1865, members of the police force visited the Suratt boarding
house looking for Wilkes Booth and John Suratt.
They may have been alerted to confederate activity there, but within 45 minutes of the
attack, John Suratt’s name was linked.
A neighbour would tell the army that three men had come to Mary’;s house on the night
of the assassination, and that one had mentioned Booth in a theatre.
Federal soldiers visited the house again, and they would find in Mary’s room a picture
of Booth and also a pistol and a mould for making bullets.
Mary was arrested, and she was then held at an annex to the Old Capitol Prison before
she was transferred to the Washington Arsenal.
Armed guards watched her cell, and her cell was airy and bigger than the others, and food
was served 4 times a day.
Mary was kept well, compared to the others who were sat in padded canvas bags to prevent
taking their own lives.
Others wore manacles but Mary was not shackled, and she was allowed visits from her daughter.
A military tribunal was chosen as the venue for the trials, and all eight conspirators
were tried simultaneously.
Mary was allowed a bonnet, fan and veil for hide her face, and she was ill during her
trial.
She was charged with aiding, abetting, concealing and harbouring her co-defendants.
It was clear that the conspirators met inside her boarding house, and this was confirmed
by a number of witnesses.
The defence claimed that the other defendants came to the house without Mary knowing what
was going on, and when the trial ended Mary Suratt was so ill that she had to stay in
her cell.
However she was found guilty, and was sentenced to death despite being very ill, and being
the only woman who was linked to the conspiracy.
A death sentence was passed and the night before the execution, Suratt’s priests and
her daughter came to visit Powell and asked him to try and saw Mary’s life.
But this would not happen, and there were more pleas for her life.
Construction of the gallows for the hanging of the conspirators began on the 5th July
after the execution order.
It was made in the south part of the Arsenal courtyard, and was 12 feet high and 20 feet
squad in its size.
The nooses were made, and he man who made it made Mary’s noose the night before the
execution with 7 loops rather than the regulation 7 as he thought the government would never
hang a woman.
The nooses were tested and they held out, and soldiers were forced to dig the graves.
At noon on the 6th July, Mary was told she would be hanged the next day, and she wept
a great deal.
The Priest remained with her until the next day, and she was still in great pain.
Her daughter even went to the White House to beg for her mother’s life, and this was
rejected again.
At 11:25am further tests of the gallows continued and before noon Mary was taken from her cell
and was sat on a chair near the entrance of the courtyard.
It was a very hot day, and at 1:15pm on the 7th July 1865, the four condemned prisoners
were escorted up the steps.
Each prisoner’s ankles and wrists were bound, and Mary Suratt led the way.
Over 1000 officials were there to watch, and also family members looked on.
The order for the execution was read, and Mary weak from illness or swooning in fear
had to be held up by two soldiers and her priests.
The condemned were in chairs and Mary collapsed into hers.
White cloth bound her arms to the sides and her ankles and thighs together, and from the
scaffold Powell said, ‘Mrs Surratt is innocent, she doesn’t deserve to die with the rest
of us.’
Two priests held a crucifix to her lips, and a white bag was then placed over her head.
The noose was then secured, and Surratt’s bonnet was taken off as the noose was placed
over her neck.
She complained that the bindings hurt her arms, and then the prisoners were asked to
move forward to the nooses.
Chairs are taken away and her last words were, ‘Please don’t let me fall.’
Surratt stood on the drop for around 10 seconds, and then the Captain clapped his hands.
Four soldiers knocked out the supports, and the condemned fell.
Mary had moved forward enough to barely step on the drop, and her body snapped tight at
the end of the rope, and swung back and forth.
She died quickly with little struggle.
Mary’s body was inspected by a doctor and was left to hang for 30 minutes before it
was cut down.
Mary’s body was cut down at 1:59pm, and as she was cut down her head fell forward.
Mary Suratt was the woman who owned a boarding house where the members of the Lincoln conspiracy
would meet and plan their actions.
Many believed that she was innocent and should not have been killed, and she was a woman
who despite this would known intricately about the plan to assassinate Lincoln.
Incriminating evidence was found at her boarding house, but she was very weak and ill when
she was executed, and in her final days she suffered a great deal.
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