Media Coverage of the Conspiracy Trial

[ReignetteC]

And on the day following the execution, the "New York Herald" provided "Sketches of the Criminals," highlights of which are noted as follows:


Surratt
"Mrs. Surratt, who was naturally a woman of strong mind and nerves, appears to have gradually contracted a habit of decision not characteristic of or common with her sex. She appears to have been masculine not only in person and manners, but mind; and throughout every detail of the conspiracy she appears as stolid and determined as Payne and as desperate and dramatic as Booth."

Paine/Payne/Powell
"A tall figure, thickly but squarely built, a stolid and indifferent expression of countenance, wearing his hair long and neglected, a low forehead lit up by two bright, glaring eyes, and with general features of a desperate cast, he formed a picture in admirable keeping with that of Mrs. Surratt."

Herold
"He had acquired at Washington such a reputation as a liar for lying’s sake; was so fond of being thought to excel in vice, would tell of such deeds of iniquity as all knew he never had performed, and was withal at times so perverse that while people around the Navy Yard call him a fool, many vary the description by styling him a wicked fool and a slanderer."

Atzerodt
"His peculiar face and manner made one instinctively distrust him. . . . The manners of Atzerodt were rough and unpleasant in the extreme, his jests obscene and coarse."