The evidence that sealed Mrs. Surratt's fate

[John E.]

(05-09-2013 10:00 PM)John Stanton Wrote:  As for Mary, as a Catholic, as a Mother, as a woman, and a citizen, she didn't want a murder. If she learned there would be a murder -that night - by 10 PM she was a "limp rag" -she couldn't think of her own name.

I don't agree with you John. She may have been nervous that night but she was as cool as could be in the face of pretty intense questioning. She knew what she got in to. She asked Weichmann to pray for her intentions, did Booth's bidding that day and hoped for the best.

She regretted getting caught and lied to avoid death. Say what you will about John's cowardice but he was cunning enough to cover his tracks and/or get out of town. I don't believe anything he could have said or done would have saved his mother's life .

Do we know of anything John did that would have gotten him hanged? As far as evidence is concerned, he did about as much as O'Laughlen and Arnold.

Did he hide weapons?
Did he help Booth escape?
Was he assigned to kill anyone?
No one can say.

He was used to working in the shadows and he kept it that way.