Killing Lincoln: The Real Story

[Steven Hager]

I saw The Conspirator on Netflix in February and was stunned at the manipulations used to convict Mary Surratt, and then immediately hang her. I started researching immediately afterwards, but didn't start writing about the case until late summer. This was so much easier to research than JFK, where almost all documents remain hidden. This case was "snowed over" just like JFK, which means the investigations include a tremendous amount of meaningless details leading nowhere. My concentration was on the military tribunal and the witnesses who lied for profit, and who really orchestrated that event. I guess you know Stanton was a Democrat who switched parties when he got his post in the Cabinet. Charles Dunham was allegedly a Democratic Party dirty tricks specialist, who undoubtedly became Stanton's secret agent because he was the one who paid and groomed the witnesses. When John Surratt was captured and brought back for trial, Dunham visited Surratt in jail and offered him a bribe if he would implicate Jefferson Davis in the plot. Surratt refused and won his court case anyway, despite the manipulations against him.