“They had to pass the open graves to reach the gallows steps and could gaze down into the shallow holes and even touch the crude boxes that were to receive them.” –William Coxshall, charged with dropping the trap door on the gallows
She proclaimed her innocence with dramatic effect. The 42 year old widow thought she would be acquitted. When convicted, she thought her death sentence would be overturned. Neither happened and she was led to the gallows, supported by two soldiers who held her erect. She, and the other three that would hang with her, were seated in chairs on the scaffold. The death warrants were read as an umbrella covered her from the 100 degree sun. The woman, dressed in black, and the others were forced to stand as bags were placed on their head and the nooses fitted. The command was given and the supports below the flooring were knocked away. She, and the others, dropped the five to six feet and death came quickly. The first woman ever executed by the United States Government was pronounced dead for conspiracy in the death of Abraham Lincoln, 150 years ago, on July 7, 1865.
Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt was born in Waterloo, Maryland. Her parents were not Catholic but sent her to the Academy for Young Ladies, where she chose to convert to the school’s religion. She remained a lifelong devout Catholic. She married John Surratt and they purchased a Maryland farm from his family. They opened a tavern there and purchased several other businesses, including a post office, in the area. John became an abusive alcoholic and died suddenly of a suspected stroke, leaving his family with tremendous debt. His widow Mary sold the businesses she could to pay down the debt and leased the tavern and farm. She moved her family to 604 H Street, NW in Washington, DC which she made into a boarding house. Her son, John, Jr was serving the Confederacy as a spy. He attracted several sympathizers as tenants in the family boardinghouse. John Surratt, Jr developed a plan to kidnap Abraham Lincoln on March 17, 1865 as he attended a play, Still Waters Run Deep, at Campbell Military Hospital. His mother was allegedly quite aware and supportive of this plan. Lincoln was not able to attend the theater that evening, ruining the kidnapping plans. Their grand design to eliminate President Lincoln turned to murder with John Wilkes Booth as the assassin and key planner.
Surratt boardinghouse sometime tenants Lewis Payne (as it appears on his death warrant; aka Lewis Powell or Paine), David Herold and George Atzerodt were brought into the scheme. Lewis Payne, with assistance from David Herold would murder Secretary of State William H. Seward who was recovering from serious injuries from a carriage accident. George Atzerodt would kill Vice President Andrew Johnson, thereby eliminating the three top elected officials of the government. This would possibly force an appointment of a southern sympathizer to the White House.
Mary Surratt would visit her farm and tavern lessee John Lloyd twice in several days. The visit on April 11th told him that the “shooting irons”, delivered by John Surratt, David Herold and George Atzerodt would be called for. On April 14th she delivered a pair of binoculars, given to her by John Wilkes Booth needed to be added to the guns.
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, his wife Mary, Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris (substitutes for General and Mrs. Grant) attended a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater. Famed actor John Wilkes Booth, a familiar face to theater employees was able to get access to the presidential box as Lincoln’s bodyguard was drinking at a nearby tavern. The shot was fired by Booth and Lincoln’s death the next morning fulfilled that part of the plan.
Lewis Payne knocked on the door of Secretary of State Seward’s residence with a supposed prescription for Seward. A large, young and strong man, he pushed his way past the servants. He was then confronted by the Secretary’s son, Assistant Secretary of State Frederick Seward. The younger Seward tried to stop him and Payne placed a pistol to his head. The pistol misfired and Payne beat Seward with the Pistol, putting him into a six week coma. He located the elder Seward and slashed him several times around the face and neck, a splint saving him from certain death. Sergeant George F. Robinson and Seward’s other son Augustus lunged at Payne and were both stabbed. Augustus drew a pistol and Payne ran out the front door, his accomplice Herold had already fled leaving Payne, unfamiliar with the area to flee in the wrong direction. Herold joined with Booth for the last days until their capture. When the Union soldiers surrounded their hide out at Garret’s farm, Herold surrendered and Booth was fatally shot by Sgt. Boston Corbett. George Atzerodt, a man of limited fortitude was chosen to assassinate Vice President Andrew Jackson at the Kirkwood House where they both were residents. He panicked at the moment and went out and became inebriated instead. The military police then conducted a search of Atzerodt's room on April 15 and found that he had not slept in it the night before. Additionally, he had a loaded revolver concealed under his pillow, as well as a concealed Bowie knife. The police also found a bank book belonging to Booth in the room. Atzerodt was arrested on April 20. He was apprehended at the house of his cousin, Hartman Richter, in Germantown, Maryland
Eventually police descended on the Surratt boardinghouse, questioning Mary Surratt. On April 17, Payne showed up after dark at the boarding house claiming to be a ditch digger hired by Mary Surratt. She denied knowing him and it was not long that their connections were discovered. John Surratt, who was not in Washington at the time of the assassination fled to Canada, eventually to Egypt, arrested and returned to the States for trial and the statutes of limitation had run out. He was released on bail.
The trial was a military tribunal, not a civilian trial. One explanation was that the city was at martial law at the time. Eight went on trial; Dr. Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold, and Michael O'Laughlen were given life sentences. Louis Weichmann was released for his testimony. Another accused conspirator Edmund “Ned” Spangler received a six year sentence.
Mary Surratt, Lewis Payne, David Herold and George Atzerodt were sentenced to death by hanging. Many believed Surratt’s death sentence would be overturned for life in prison. When presented with this, President Andrew Johnson refused. “She kept the nest that hatched the egg,” he replied.
July 7, 1865 was a blistering hot day when the sentences were carried out. When the scaffold floor dropped, David Herold took five minutes to succumb to the ligation. Lewis Payne, young and strong took several more moments to die, not from a broken neck, but by asphyxiation. Twenty-five minutes later, they were pronounced dead and placed in simple pine coffins buried next to the scaffold (the four saw their respective containers and graves).
Later, the bodies were disinterred to be released to the families. Mary Surratt lies in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Washington, DC. Lewis Paine’s remains were moved several times and his skull was later discovered at the Smithsonian Institute and was buried, presumptively, with his remains in the Geneva Cemetery in Seminole County, Florida. David Herold’s remains were interred in a family plot in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC. George Atzerodt is buried in Old Saint Paul’s Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.
Presidential assassins never seem to learn that by killing their political nemesis, they make them into martyrs where their goals and dreams are carried forward. The best political death is by the ballot box, not by a gun.
“The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.” –Abraham Lincoln