John Surratt, Jr.

[L Verge]

I have spent fifty years of my life trying to figure out the bonds between mother and son and who would blink first. I truly do not believe that Mary Surratt ever considered the fact that she would be found guilty (much less be sentenced to death) by the military tribunal. She was willing to do prison to keep her son safe, and I think she would have (and did) gone to the gallows to protect him.

On the other hand, I believe that John felt the same way - his mother would not hang and might even escape prison based on her gender and her age. There may have been one other underlying factor. The Catholic Church. Throughout its history, has it not always been a sanctuary for anyone seeking its help? The Vatican had to agree to extradition, which was highly unlikely if a death sentence would be imposed on the person being extradited. Couldn't John assume that the Vatican would refuse to turn him over to the U.S. and that there was not enough evidence to hang his mother? In essence, the church was deciding their fate?

If any woman had been hanged by the U.S. previous to 1865, I think both John and Mary would have had reason to be wary about her escaping the gallows. But, to try and place bets and your life on a first-time case is pretty gutsy.

P.S. I also believe the point made in the Killing Lincoln movie of a few years ago that Fr. Jacob A. Walter may well have been a go-between for communication between the U.S. and the Vatican. After all of this, he certainly was an advocate/defender of Mrs. Surratt and the Catholic Church, as was the teacher from Gonzaga, John Brophy.