My Journey on Lincoln's Assassination

[L Verge]

(09-18-2018 04:12 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(09-17-2018 11:00 AM)KLarson Wrote:  Mary helped Booth in any and every way she could. She wanted Lincoln dead. She was a Confederate sympathizer. Period. She was guilty and died for her role.

Based on what I have read, Laurie and Kate are totally correct regarding Mary's wartime sentiments. Mike, at the John Surratt trial, a witness named John T. Tibbett stated, "I heard her (Mary Surratt) say she would give any one $1,000 if they would kill Lincoln." Do you think Tibbett created his story?

If Tibbet (I think it was really spelled Tippet) fabricated his story, then my great-grandfather Huntt created one just like it. My grandmother (born in 1874) said that he often spoke of Mrs. Surratt visiting T.B. and cursing and damning the "black-hearted Lincoln" and offering money to anyone who would kill him. Since the lady was already in deep debt, I wonder where that money would come from?

I have posted this before, but when Mr. Huntt offered his sympathies to Mrs. Surratt's younger brother, James Archibald Jenkins, he was told that "she got just what she deserved. She knew what she was doing."

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(09-18-2018 05:14 AM)Gene C Wrote:  It seems that both sides of the discussion agree that Weichmann and Lloyd were afraid for their life. Were they afraid of the US Government or Confederate sympathizers, or maybe both
If we are going to believe in a government or big business conspiracy to kill Lincoln and other high ranking officials, killing Weichmann or especially Lloyd, because of what they know and might testify to, would not have been that difficult considering the resources still available to either group.

For those of you more familiar with Lloyd's and Weichmann's testimony, could Mary have been convicted (perhaps given a less severe sentence) without either one's testimony?
Is there any written record of Mary's statements while under questioning regarding the assassination?
What about Anna's statements?

I think Weichmann and Lloyd both had every right to be afraid of the War Department's wrath. I don't think the Confederacy was in any position to threaten them, but Lloyd had to come back to Southern Maryland and Surrattsville neighbors after his ordeal - and that meant dealing with folks who had supported the Confederacy and, in many cases, the underground agents - just like Mrs. Surratt had.

We know that Lloyd did come back to the tavern and home, but public opinion was against him. He was a native of Charles County, which was heavily pro-Confederate, so he didn't run there. Instead, he moved to Washington City.

As to Mary's and Anna's statements: In 1980, Mr. Hall handed me copies of original, handwritten papers from the War Department files and asked me to transcribe them and put them in booklet form for sale in the Surratt Museum's shop. It was during my transcribing Mary's that I became completely convinced that she was a part of the conspiracy. She was just too calm in her statements and even haughty at times. It seemed that she fully anticipated what her interrogators were going to ask and was prepared.

As for Anna, her statement is straightforward answers to the officials based on her brother's activities and the goings-on at the boardinghouse.

That 1980 booklet is still sold at our museum ($20 + $4 postage). Entitled From War Department Files: Statements Made by the Alleged Lincoln Conspirators under Examination, 1865, it contains the statements of Herold, Arnold, Spangler, Mudd (2), Atzerodt, Anna Surratt, and two from Mary Surratt (April 17 and April 28, 1865). All were taken from National Archives files M-599.

Finally, as to who put the final nail in Mrs. Surratt's coffin, I vote for Lloyd when he testified to her late-afternoon visit to the tavern on April 14 and her instructions to him to have the shooting irons ready for parties that would call that night...and, the rifles were ready.