Posted on 07/03/2025 8:35:55 AM PDT by Red Badger
Tennis courts now mark the spot where 4 of John Wilkes Booth's comrades died 150 years ago.
The crowd watches on as Mary Surratt (left), Lewis Powell, David Herold and George Atzerodt hang from the gallows at the Old Arsenal Penitentiary. Photograph by Alexander Gardner/via Library of Congress.
=======================================================================
On July 7, 1865, shortly after 1 PM, three men and one woman were lead to the gallows in the prison yard of the Old Arsenal Penitentiary, on the shores of where the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers meet. It was hot that day, reportedly a hundred degrees. Sweat surely dripped down the accused’s faces as they passed by the cheap pine coffins and shallow graves that had been dug for them.
The doomed were Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt, four of the co-conspirators in the plot to assassinate officers of the federal government. Their sentence had come after a seven-week trial that had found them guilty of “treasonable conspiracy.” While the group, along with five others that were either already dead or had been given less severe sentences, had been successful in one part of their plan—the murder of President Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth—they had failed at the other two. Powell attacked Secretary of State William Seward at his home, but managed only to injure him. Seward would eventually recover and purchase Alaska for the United States. Herold guided Powell to Seward’s house and, after abandoning Powell when it was clear the plan had gone astray, aided Booth in his attempts to evade authorities after his escape from Ford’s Theater. Azterodt had been assigned the task of assassinating Vice-President Johnson, but he didn’t going through with it. Instead, Azterodt got drunk and wandered the streets mumbling. He was soon arrested for suspicious behavior. During the trial, witnesses would call him a “notorious coward.”
Surratt faced a more tenuous case. Her son, John Surratt Jr., was a Confederate spy who had befriended Booth, a famed actor and Southern sympathizer. He often had Booth over to his mother’s tavern and boarding house for conversations and drinks. Soon, those conversations turned into conspiracy. It’s often been debated what and how much Mary Surratt knew about what went on in her place of business. Today, historians believe there was no way that Surratt was clueless about the plot. During the trial, the landowner who leased the property to Surratt testified about her knowledge of weapons being stored at the house. When reviewing the death sentence given to Surratt, President Johnson reportedly said, “She kept the nest that hatched the egg.”
The four were forced to climb the hastily built gallows that they had heard being tested the night before from their prison cells. A crowd of nearly thousand had come with their exclusive tickets to see this execution. Nooses were placed around the accused’s necks and hoods placed over their heads. Ever since the sentences had been handed down a week ago, Surratt’s lawyers and her daughter Anna had been fighting and pleading for her death sentence to be changed. In fact, many in attendance thought that Surratt would be saved from the gallows at the last minute. It was not to be.
After last rites and shortly after 1:30 PM, the trap door was opened and all four fell. It was reported that Atzerodt yelled at this very last moment, “May we meet in another world.” Within minutes, they were all dead. The bodies continued to hang and swing for another 25 minutes before they were cut down.
Today, Fort McNair sits on the land where the Old Arsenal Penitentiary once was. Tennis courts occupy the exact location of the Lincoln co-conspirators’ hanging.
How crazy is that, they put an umbrella over her to protect her from the sun. “We don’t want you to get a sunburn before we kill you”
May the many traitors in politics, the judiciary, and the Enemedia face similar trials, convictions, and punishment, only in locations where tens of thousands can come to watch and record.
I’m a student of the assassination. Mary surratt was guilty as sin and she had it coming.
It was her son, not her brother, who was one of the conspirators, but he was away in Canada in a mission for the confederate spy agency. They conspirators met repeatedly at her boarding house. She facilitated Booth’s abortive retrieval of guns after the assassination at the family-owned inn in Surrattsville, MD. A couple days after the assassination she was being interrogated at the house by an army officer when who should stumble in but Lewis Powell, who unsuccessfully tried to assassinate Secretary of State Seward. He didn’t know DC and had slept in trees for a couple nights to evade the dragnet. She falsely claimed she didn’t know him. A prime conspirator? No, but she knew what was going to go down. An early example of FAFO. But a minister thoughtfully held a parasol over her head to protect her from the sun while she was on the scaffold waiting to be hanged, so that’s nice
I was recently in DC. I always go to Ford’s Theater and Peterson House where Lincoln died. I find them to still be incredibly somber places
But for this trip I also learned that the boardinghouse still stands, though it is now a Chinese restaurant and karaoke bar (!) named “Wok n’ Roll.” Little or no of the historic interior remains. Historically the main entrance was on the second floor. The stairs are gone, the door converted into a window, and the entrance is on the first floor. From years of having my palate degraded by Panda Express, I can tell you that the Chinese food was excellent! I highly recommend it for anyone going to DC
Burnett's Description of Seward attack
The doorbell rang and was responded to by Bell, the colored waiter. Immediately upon the opening of the door, Payne stepped into the hall. He was a tall, broad-shouldered, muscular man, as agile and ferocious as a panther; a low-browed, scowling, villainous-looking specimen of humanity, the animal predominating largely in every feature of his visage and expression of his countenance.
Years ago, after I put up great grandfather’s memories of the investigation, trial and aftermath, I was called by a gentleman from Ford’s Theater who wanted permission to play ggf in some tourist event. I gave it, of course. My cousin still had his sword and tunic, which she said was very small. A re-enactor’s group took over maintenance of his grave and had an historical marker made up. One of my fun memories was standing on the stairs of the monument and giving a talk to them.
I want to Gettysburg College and had a psychology professor, Dr. Mudd. His (great?) Grandfather had patched up John Wilkes Booth leg after the assassination.
Different time, different country. There is no justice in the US today.
The Investigation
FIRST STEPS
As I have said before, while it was rumored and generally believed, that J. Wilkes Booth was the assassin, for some days this rested only upon the statements of some of the persons at the theatre that they believed it was Booth; they thought they recognized him as he ran across the stage, but could not be certain about it.
The first evidence which conclusively established his identity in the minds of those investigating the facts, was obtained about the 21st or 22nd of April. It was known that the assassin had injured himself when he jumped from the President's box, that he limped as he ran across the stage, and it was subsequently ascertained that he had broken one bone of his left leg.
He was traced to Dr. Mudd's house near Bryantown, Maryland, and there, on the 21st, was secured the boot which Dr. Mudd had out from his leg, when he set the bone. On the inside of the boot was the number of the boot, the name of the maker, and the words "J. Wilkes." As soon as the boot was received at the War Department, I had ex-Marshall Murray put aboard a special engine and sent to New York to look up the maker and ascertain for whom the boot was made. That night a telegram was received from him saying the boot was made for J. Wilkes Booth.
This settled the identity of the assassin in our minds beyond all doubt, and was the basis on which we proceeded in our investigations as to who were the aiders and abettors of the assassin and who were his co-conspirators.
Panda Express is about as Chinese as Taco Bell...................
And there was a chair...................
Never tried Panda Express, but LOVE Taco Bell. Was there last week.
So, it was “J. Wilkes Boot-”..............😏
Panda Express is the McDonald’s of Chinese food.
It’s okay once in a while. But I still prefer the real thing, made by hand by Mexicans at our local Thai, Vietnamese and Korean owned Chinese restaurants!.
I only learned to cook Chinese and Indian food because the local restaurants burned my mouth off. The days of eating Szechuan food, as it was meant to be eaten, are long past. But I do have memories of San Francisco as a food mecca and am so glad my memories are old enough not to be tainted by today’s reality.
Then you had best not ever eat at a Thai Restaurant!...............😎
One might think the hangman was incompetent but a more logical explanation especially in light of the hoods is strangulation was intentional.
The hoods prevented the public seeing the faces of the condemned as they suffered slow strangulation,and possibly evoking sympathy or outrage.
Good analysis.
Rice and beef/chicken satay. Period. Have yet to get a decent satay recipe to make at home. I keep looking.
Same reason the feet & legs are tied together…so the condemned are not kicking and swinging.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
