Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth

[Gene C]

Chapter 9 - The Executions

This is the last chapter. One can't help but feel sadness as the conspirators meet their punishment. Little is said about those who are not executed.

Describing the scene on p71
"And not far from these, in silence and darkness beneath the prison where
they had lain so long and so forbodingly, the body of John Wilkes Booth,
sealed up in the brick floor-, had long been mouldering
(the deception that his body was dumped in the Potomac didn't last long)

Regarding the spectators
"Cigars were sending up spirals of soothing
smoke. There was a good deal of covert fear that a reprieve might be
granted. Inquires were many and ingenuous for whisky, and one or two"
were so deeply expectant that they fell asleep."

John Surratt was not forgotten- p 72.
"Her base and fugitive son, to know the infamy of his cowardice and die of his shame,
should have seen his mother writhing in her seat upon the throne his
wickedness established for her."

Regarding Payne, he writes
"Payne, the strangest criminal in our history, was alone dignified and
self- possessed...
His height, his vigor, his glare made
him the strong central figure of this interelementary tableaux.
Now and then he looked half pityingly
at the woman, and only once moved his lips, as if in supplication. Few
who looked at him, forgetful of his crime, did not respect him."

Few kind words for Davey Harold, p73
"Harold would have enjoyed this execution vastly as a spectator. He
was, I think, capable of a greater degree of depravity than any of his accomplices."

And even fewer for George Atzerodt, p73
"Atzerott was my ideal of a man to be hung...
His spiritual adviser stood behind him, evidently disgusted with him."

"They were, altogether, a motley and miserable set.
...but these people, aspiring to overturn a nation, bore the appearance
of a troop of ignorant folks, expiating the blood-shed of a brawl."

Details of the scene on the scaffold and then a few touching comments about Anna, p78
" The misery of the pretty and heart-broken daughter of Mrs. Surratt is
the talk of the city.
She visited her constantly, and to-day made
so stirring an effort to obtain her life that her devotion takes half the disgrace
from the mother."

What are your impressions on the book?