My Journey on Lincoln's Assassination

[RJNorton]

(09-07-2018 03:48 PM)mikegriffith1 Wrote:  I see some evidence that Mrs. Surratt and Mudd might have been involved in the kidnapping plot.

Mary Surratt was convicted even though some evidence against her was not known until after the trial (many years later). Here are three examples:

1. In his "lost confession,' George Atzerodt wrote, "Booth told me that Mrs. Surratt went to Surrattsville to get out the guns (Two Carbines) which had been taken to that place by Herold. This was Friday."

2. Mary Surratt was convicted by the court without hearing the following story which Weichmann did not testify to at the trial but waited until afterwards to make public: when he was taking her to Surrattsville on the day of the assassination, Weichmann and Mary were traveling along the same road Booth would use later that night to escape from Washington. Weichmann and Mary were in the buggy when they saw some soldiers along the roadside. Mary stopped the buggy and asked an old farmer why the soldiers were there. She was told that they were pickets. Mary then asked if they remained on guard all night. The farmer said that they were usually called in at about 8 in the evening. Mary replied, "I am glad to know that." Weichmann and Mary then continued on. (story from page 166 of Weichmann's book). It seems to me that Weichmann did not make this story up. (I realize that is debatable; just my opinion.) On the face of it, it would appear to me that Mary knew Booth was going to act that night and that she wanted to make sure the road would be clear after 10:30 P.M. when Booth would be riding hard to her tavern at Surrattsville to pick up the carbines and field glasses stored there. This would explain her "I am glad to know that" statement when hearing the pickets would be long gone before Booth rode by.

3. Richard Smoot did not testify but wrote that he visited the boardinghouse at about 9:30 the night of the assassination. He talked to Mary Surratt, and was given strong indication that something was going to happen that night. Nervously, she told him not to be seen at her house again. It sure appears from Smoot's book that Mary knew Booth was going to act that night (kidnapping or assassination? I am sure she knew of the kidnapping plot but may not have known about the assassination plan). See Smoot's The Unwritten History of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.