Sunday, February 16, 2025

Mary Surratt - Lincoln Conspirator

 


Mary Surratt ran a boardinghouse on H Street in the District where the conspirators often met. Her husband died suddenly in 1862. Her son Isaac traveled south to Texas in 1861 to join the Confederate Army before the war. Her other son, John Surratt, stayed in Maryland, where he became a member of the Confederate Secret Service.

From the day she was arrested, it has been argued to death whether she was an innocent bystander or had knowledge of the plots to kidnap and assassinate Lincoln. Others argue Mary Surratt, not John Wilkes Booth, was the mastermind behind the entire conspiracy.

It would be hard to say Mary Surratt was innocent based on the evidence. The conspirators frequently met at her boarding house. Early on the day of the assassination, she rode to Surrattsville and left a package for Booth with John Lloyd. John Wilkes Booth visited her three times that day, the last, just an hour before the assassination.

She had to suspect something terrible was about to happen. But, more likely, Mary Surratt knew about Booth’s plan and kept the information to herself rather than alert the authorities.

 

Lewis Payne (Powell) - Lincoln Conspirator

 


Lewis Payne (Powell) was just sixteen when he enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1861. He fought in the Peninsular Campaign, the battles of Chancellorsville and Antietam, and then Gettysburg. Unfortunately, he took a bullet during the charge upon the Federal center at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. 

He was taken prisoner and made a nurse in a Union hospital in Pennsylvania. Not long after that, he transferred to another hospital on Pratt Street in Baltimore. He deserted in October 1863 and rejoined the Confederate cavalry at Fauquier. He deserted again in January 1865 and made his way back to Baltimore. It was there he renewed his acquaintance with John Wilkes Booth.

Payne said he was recruited in a plot to kidnap the president. He was “acting under orders of his government” and still considered himself a Confederate soldier. Even though what he did now appears “foolish and wicked,” he “thought he was right then.” Payne was a realist. When sentenced to die, he told reporters he did not fear death. It would “end the terrible life he had been living this past four years.”[i]

 



[i] Burlington Free Press. July 14, 1865.

George Atzerodt - Lincoln Conspirator

 


George Atzerodt was a thirty-three-year-old German immigrant. He was short and stubby, with thick, rounded shoulders. He had “brown hair, a light-colored mustache, and unpleasant green eyes.”[i] He worked as a blockade runner in Port Tobacco, Maryland. Booth and John Surratt recruited him to ferry them across the Potomac after capturing Lincoln. Booth never gave him any money. Instead, he told him if they were successful, he should want nothing.[ii]

“I am one of the party who agreed to capture the President of the United States,” Atzerodt told the court. “But I am not one of the party to kill the President of the United States, or any member of the Cabinet, or General Grant, or Vice President Johnson. The first plot to capture failed, the second to kill I broke away from the moment I heard of it.”[iii]

He met with Booth and Payne at Herndon House at 8 p.m. on April 14. Booth said he would take care of Lincoln and Grant. Lewis Payne would kill William Seward. Atzerodt was supposed to take care of Vice President Andrew Johnson.

Atzerodt said he would not do it. Booth hollered and told him he was a damn fool. “He would be hung anyhow, and it was death for every man that backed out.”[iv]

After the meeting broke up, Atzerodt wandered the streets until about 2 a.m. Then he went to Kimmel House. The next day, he pawned his pistol at Georgetown and went to stay with his cousin in Montgomery County. He was arrested there on April 19.



[i] Evening Star. July 7, 1865.

[ii] Burlington Free Press. July 14, 1865.

[iii] Evening Star. July 7, 1865.

[iv] Evening Star. July 7, 1865.

David Herold - Lincoln Conspirator

 


David Herold was just twenty-one and averse to performing any type of manual labor. He loved dogs, horses, guns and was never without something to boast about. Closer to the assassination, when he was drinking more, he hinted he would soon be rich and famous.

Herold attended Charlotte Hall Academy with John Surratt. When they met again in 1864, Surratt introduced him to John Wilkes Booth.

They recruited Herold because he knew the roads and paths in lower Maryland like the back of his hand and could easily guide the conspirators to safety.

Herold testified he was okay with the original plot to kidnap Lincoln. When the talk turned to murder, he backed out of it. He told Booth he would not disclose his “terrible secret.” He would keep his part of the bargain and help Booth escape through southern Maryland.

On the night of the assassination, Herold led Payne to Seward’s mansion. He waited outside to watch the horses while Payne went inside to perform his ghastly deed. When he heard a commotion coming from inside the house, Herold rode off and left Payne on his own to make his escape.

At the trial, Herold’s attorney, Frederick Stone, tried to show Herold had the mentality of an eleven-year-old.[i] That caused many reporters to describe him as simple-minded or half-witted, but that was far from the truth. David Herold had a good education. He studied pharmacy at Georgetown College. After graduation, he worked as a pharmacy assistant at several drug stores in the Washington area.



[i] Pittman, Ben. President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators. 1865. P. 274. “Who is Herold, and what does the testimony disclose him to be? A weak, cowardly, foolish, miserable boy. On this point there is no conflict. Dr. McKim, who probably knew him best, and in whose employ he had been, declared his mind was that of a boy of elven years of age, although his age actually was about 22 – not naturally visicous, but weak, light, trifling, easily persuaded, good tempered, ready to laugh, and applaud, and ready to do the bidding of those around him. Such a boy was only wax in the hands of a man like Booth.”

John Surratt - Lincoln Conspirator


 John H. Surratt was a member of the Confederate Secret Service. In 1863, he became a messenger for the Confederacy, carrying secret messages to boats on the Potomac River. Some of that information included troop movements around Washington.

Most accounts of the conspiracy say Dr. Samuel Mudd introduced Surratt to Booth on December 23, 1864. However, in 1898, Surratt told George Alfred Townsend, Dr. Mudd never introduced him to Booth. Instead, he had received “a letter of introduction from a valued and trusted friend.”[i]

From the very first, he looked on Booth as a “hot-headed, visionary man.” His “wild scheme” of kidnapping Abraham Lincoln made him laugh in Booth’s face. Booth was eager to draw him into the conspiracy because he “knew every crossroad, bypath, and hiding place in northern Virginia and southern Maryland.”

“Booth said he was willing to take any chance,” said Surratt. “I believe he was a monomaniac on the subject. John Wilkes Booth had brooded over the South’s wrongs so much that his mind was unsettled on the subject...He was unquestionably insane when he shot Lincoln. No man in his right mind would have done that. [John Wilkes Booth] was the South’s worst enemy.”[ii]

John Surratt’s whereabouts on the night of the assassination have been hotly debated for over one-hundred and fifty years. He claimed to be in Elmira, New York, conducting business for the Confederate Secret Service. When he learned about the assassination, Surratt fled to Canada and Rome, becoming a member of the Papal Guard. He was later captured in Alexandria, Egypt, and returned to the United States in 1867. The Government tried John Surratt in a civil court and dropped all charges against him, making Surratt the only conspirator to escape prosecution.

The newspapers summed it up best. “Many thousands of dollars must have been expended to bring about the capture of John Surratt, but now having obtained his body, the authorities seemed totally at a loss to know what they should do with him. Since it was far from certain that John Surratt was guilty, the most generous and politic course was to let him have the benefit of the doubt.”[iii]

 



[i] Evening Star. July 7, 1865.

[ii] Semi-Weekly Messenger. April 19, 1898.

[iii] Public Ledger. November 17, 1868.

John Wilkes Booth - Assassin


 John Wilkes Booth was the perfect assassin. He was charming, well-mannered, and striking in his appearance. If Booth did not exist, it would be necessary to make him up.[i] His sister, Asia, remembered John Wilkes singing one of his favorite tunes, in 1865 When Lincoln Shall be King.[ii] Booth sincerely believed when the war ended, Abraham Lincoln would proclaim himself emperor of the United States.

Since the beginning of the war, he blamed the South’s troubles on Abraham Lincoln. Then, as the war dragged on, he felt the need to do something—maybe kidnap or kill Lincoln.

The attack at Ford’s Theatre was not the first time Booth contemplated murdering President Lincoln. On August 13, 1864, he played an engagement in Meadville, Pennsylvania. When he checked out of the McHenry House, employees found a large inscription scratched in the window. “Abe Lincoln departed this life Aug. 13th, 1864, by the effects of poison.” 

No one thought much about it at the time. After the assassination, the windowpane was removed from the building. It was framed against a black background next to Booth’s signature cut from the desk log. It now belongs to the War Department.[iii]

While not an actual assassination attempt, it shows Booth contemplated murdering the President as much as eight months before he pulled the trigger at Ford’s Theatre. This occurred at the same time he was assembling his kidnap team. Did Booth plan to kill Lincoln all along? No one will ever know, but it is a real possibility.

Saturday, October 5, 2024

Actress Helen Thill

 


Helen Thill was known for her sultry beauty and commanding stage presence. Born in 1895, she quickly rose to prominence with her captivating performances.

 

Her breakout role came in 1916 with the Broadway production of The Scarlet Plume, where she portrayed a strong and mysterious heroine. Critics praised her ability to command the stage, and her performance marked the beginning of a long and successful career. Following her Broadway success, she continued to dazzle audiences with her roles in productions like The Midnight Rose (1919) and The Silver Mask (1922). She was known for playing fierce, independent women with complex emotions, a type of role that suited her dramatic talents perfectly.

 

In the early 1920s, Thill made the jump to silent films, where her striking looks and ability to express deep emotion through her eyes made her a natural for the silver screen. She starred in the Passions of the Night (1923) and The Siren’s Call (1925), where her performances were well-received by audiences and critics. Although her film career didn’t reach the heights of her stage work, she was still regarded as a standout actress.

 

Helen Thill’s personal life was as dramatic as her on-stage performances. She was linked to several steamy romances that made headlines. One of her most famous relationships was with actor Robert Carlisle. Their affair was full of difficulties, and though frequently spotted together, the relationship ended in a very public breakup.

 

Thill was also rumored to have had a fling with a married European diplomat. While neither party confirmed the affair, whispers of their relationship circulated through Hollywood, adding to her reputation as a woman who lived by her own rules.

 

As silent films gave way to talkies, Helen Thill’s career slowed down. She returned to the stage for a few performances, but eventually retired from acting altogether.