biography
| name: |
Surratt, Mary Eugenia
|
| |
née Jenkins
|
| sex:
| female
|
| lived:
| (1817–65)
|
| biography:
| Alleged assassination conspirator, along with John Harrison Jr (1844–1916), both born in Waterloo, Maryland, USA. Mrs Surratt was widowed in 1864 and opened a boarding house in Washington, DC. It was here that John Wilkes Booth allegedly plotted the assassination of President Lincoln with his colleagues, and her young son John, who had served as a message runner for the Confederacy, was alleged to have been involved in some way. Following Lincoln's assassination, John escaped to Canada while his mother was arrested and tried (10 May–30 Jun 1865) for participating in the conspiracy. Although she insisted she had no part in the plot, she was hanged on 7 July 1865 (along with three others). John returned to the USA and was acquitted by a civil court in 1867. He later became a freight agent for the Baltimore Packet Co. |
|
|
