1. Mary Elizabeth Surratt was an American boarding house owner in Washington, DC, who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy which led to the assassination of US President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.
70 Facts About Mary Surratt
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Mary Surratt maintained her innocence until her death, and the case against her was and remains controversial.
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Mary Surratt wed John Harrison Surratt in 1840 and had three children with him.
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Tired of doing so without help, Mary Surratt moved to her townhouse in Washington, DC, which she then ran as a boardinghouse.
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Shortly before killing Lincoln, Booth spoke with Surratt and handed her a package containing binoculars for one of her tenants, John M Lloyd.
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Mary Surratt was convicted primarily due to the testimonies of Lloyd, who said that she told him to have the "shooting irons" ready, and Louis J Weichmann, who testified about Surratt's relationships with Booth.
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Mary Surratt was hanged on July 7,1865, and later buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery.
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Mary Surratt had two brothers: John Jenkins, born in 1822, and James Jenkins, born in 1825.
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Mary Surratt's father died in the fall of 1825 when Mary was either two or five years old, and Mary's mother then inherited their property.
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Mary Surratt stayed at the Academy for Young Ladies for four years, leaving in 1839, when the school closed.
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Mary Surratt remained an observant Catholic for the rest of her life.
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Mary Surratt's family had settled in Maryland in the late 1600s.
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The Neales divided their farm among their children, and Mary Surratt inherited a portion of it.
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Mary Surratt's background has been described by historian Kate Clifford Larson as "questionable", and he had fathered at least one child out of wedlock.
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Mary Surratt became involved in raising funds to build St Ignatius Church in Oxon Hill, but John was increasingly unhappy with his wife's religious activities.
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Mary Surratt moved with her children into the home of her cousin, Thomas Jenkins, in nearby Clinton.
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Mary Surratt initially refused to move herself and the children into the new residence.
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Mary Surratt took up residence on the old Neale farm, but John sold both the Neale farm and Foxhall in May 1853 to pay debts and she was forced to move back in with him in December.
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Mary Surratt expanded his family's holdings by selling off land, paying down debt, and starting new businesses.
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In 1858, Mary wrote a letter to her local priest, telling him that Surratt was drunk every single day.
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The Surratt tavern was being used as a safe house for Confederate spies, and at least one author concludes that Mary had "de facto" knowledge of this.
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Mary Surratt quickly uncovered evidence of a large Confederate courier network operating in the area, but despite some arrests and warnings, the courier network remained intact.
23.
John Mary Surratt collapsed suddenly and died on either August 25 or August 26 in 1862.
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Mary Surratt was tired of running the farm, tavern, and other businesses without her son's help.
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Mary Surratt began moving her belongings into the townhouse that month, and on November 1,1864, Anna and John Jr.
26.
Some scholars have raised questions about Mary Surratt's move into the city.
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Historians Kate Larson and Roy Chamlee have noted that although there is no definite proof, a case can be made that Mary Surratt made the move into the city in furtherance of her and her son's espionage activities.
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For example, Larson and Chamlee say that on September 21,1864, John Surratt wrote to Louis J Weichmann, observing that the family's plans to move into the city were advancing rapidly "on account of certain events having turned up," perhaps a cryptic reference to either his Confederate activities in general or the conspiracy to kidnap or kill Lincoln.
29.
Mary Surratt stayed at the Surratt boarding house in February 1865, but he proved to be a heavy drinker, and Surratt evicted him after just a few days.
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Mary Surratt continued to visit the townhouse frequently afterward, however.
31.
Mary Surratt said that she made the trip to collect a debt owed her by a former neighbor.
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However, according to her tenant, John Lloyd, Mary Surratt told him to get the "shooting irons" ready to be picked up.
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Mary Surratt gave her a package, later found to contain binoculars, for Lloyd to pick up later that evening.
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Mary Surratt did so and, according to Lloyd, again told Lloyd to have the "shooting irons" ready for pickup and handed him a wrapped package from Booth.
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Mary Surratt lied to the detectives that her son had been in Canada for two weeks.
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Mary Surratt did not reveal that she had delivered a package to the tavern on Booth's behalf only hours earlier.
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Mary Surratt was later identified as the man who had attempted to assassinate Secretary of State William Seward.
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Sources disagree as to whether Mary Surratt was forced to wear it.
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Mary Surratt was given a rocking chair and allowed visits from her daughter, Anna.
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Mary Surratt was permitted a bonnet, fan, and veil to hide her face from spectators.
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Mary Surratt was charged with abetting, aiding, concealing, counseling, and harboring her co-defendants.
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Anna Mary Surratt testified that it was Weichmann who had brought Atzerodt into the boarding house, that the photograph of Booth was hers, and that she owned photographs of Union political and military leaders.
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The former servant and the former slave both said Mary Surratt had given Union soldiers food.
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Mary Surratt reiterated that Lloyd and Weichmann were unreliable witnesses and that the evidence against her was all circumstantial.
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Bingham concluded by reiterating the government's key point: Powell had returned to the Mary Surratt house seeking Mary Surratt, and that alone was proof of her guilt.
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Mary Surratt was so ill the last four days of the trial that she was permitted to stay in her cell.
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The defense never followed up on inconsistencies in Weichmann's chronology of Mary Surratt's last visit to the tavern, which could have undermined Weichmann's entire credibility.
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Mary Surratt's guilt was the second-last to be considered, as her case had problems of evidence and witness reliability.
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Mary Surratt was sentenced to death, the first woman executed by the federal government.
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Anna Mary Surratt pleaded repeatedly for her mother's life with Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, but he refused to consider clemency.
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Mary Surratt attempted to see President Andrew Johnson several times to beg for mercy but was not granted permission to see him.
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Mary Surratt tested the nooses that night by tying them to a tree limb and a bag of buckshot and then tossing the bag to the ground.
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Mary Surratt spent the night on her mattress, weeping and moaning in pain and grief, ministered to by the priests.
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Shortly before noon, Mary Surratt was taken from her cell and then allowed to sit in a chair near the entrance to the courtyard.
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Mary Surratt led the way, wearing a black bombazine dress, black bonnet, and black veil.
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The condemned were seated in chairs, Mary Surratt almost collapsing into hers.
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Mary Surratt was seated to the right of the others, the traditional "seat of honor" in an execution.
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The cloths around Mary Surratt's legs were tied around her dress below the knees.
59.
Mary Surratt doesn't deserve to die with the rest of us.
60.
Mary Surratt's bonnet was removed, and the noose put around her neck by a US Secret Service officer.
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Mary Surratt, who had moved forward enough to barely step onto the drop, lurched forward and slid partway down the drop, her body snapping tight at the end of the rope, swinging back and forth.
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Mary Surratt appeared to die relatively quickly with little struggle.
63.
Mary Surratt was reprimanded, and the other bodies were cut down more gently.
64.
Anna Mary Surratt unsuccessfully asked for her mother's body for four years.
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Mary Surratt was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, DC, on February 9,1869.
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Anna Mary Surratt moved from the townhouse on H Street and lived with friends for a few years, ostracized from society.
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Mary Surratt had seven children, the only one of Mary's children with issue.
68.
Isaac Mary Surratt returned to the United States and lived in Baltimore.
69.
Mary Surratt was portrayed by Robin Wright in the 2011 film The Conspirator, which was directed by Robert Redford.
70.
Mary Surratt was portrayed by Carrie Lazar in the 2024 television series Manhunt by showrunner Monica Beletsky.