Assassination Photos

[BettyO]

Quote:Maddie, your enhancement of these photos is incredible. They are very powerful images. I can feel the tension. How long did it take for the entire drama of the hanging to play out from the time they were brought outside until they fell? The stress must have been unbearable. Yes, they were found guilty, but I feel for them.

I most certainly have to agree, Maddie! This is a powerful image - but the color only enhances the tragic tension....

Yes, I agree with you as well Anita. From the time the condemned stepped though the arsenal door (about a 31-37 foot walk - not the "Long Mile" which was portrayed in the movie The Conspirator, the entire affair took about 30 minutes to an hour from the time they walked to the scaffold, the formalities of reading the Order, prayers, etc. were completed and the actual binding and hooding and the drop - was about 30 minutes. The drop fell at about 1:20-1:25 PM. They hanged for an additional 20 minutes or so (the last to die, Powell, died approximately 8 minutes after the drop) and they were allowed to hang until all movement had ceased; they were cut down and then examined by a team of doctors before being put into the "coffins" and buried about 2 PM. I, too feel for these folk. Hanging is a cruel and inhumane death and when you consider their ages (two college-age kids - 21 and 23 years old) and one woman, (it must have been a tragic nightmare for Annie Surratt who watched her mother's death) plus an "innocent" (Atzerodt) who committed no crime, other than upholding the actual conspiracy - it is indeed tragic. Of course, they were guilty (guilt by association - plus Powell did assault the Seward family), but such a cruel death was indeed tragic, if warrented.