ExEcution Of Mary Surratt First Woman eXecuted By The U.S. Federal Government
On the 7th July 1865, the four conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln were hanged.
Mary Surratt, whose boarding house was the place the plot was hatched, was the first woman exEcuted by the US federal government.
Mary was charged with conspiracy and aiding the assassins in their escape.
For two weeks after her arrest and before her trial, she was held on board a warship.
Her cell had only a straw pallet and a bucket.
Her head was enclosed in a padded canvas bag, to prevent a suicide attempt.
She was manacled, and constantly guarded by four soldiers.
During the trial, a newspaper described Mary Surratt as a rather attractive five-foot-six-inch buxom forty-year-old widow.
Mary Surratt was tried along with the seven men.
In court, she dressed in black, with her head covered in a black bonnet.
Her face was mostly hidden behind a veil.
At noon on 6th July, Mary Surratt was informed that she would be hanged the following day.
She wept profusely.
She was joined shortly by a Catholic priest, her daughter Anna, and a few friends.
She was allowed to wear looser handcuffs and leg irons during this period, but was kept hooded.
Mary spent the night praying and refused breakfast.
Her friends were ordered to leave her at 10:00 that morning, and her heavy manacles were put back on
She spent the final hours of her life with her priest.
On 7th July 1865, around 1:15 pm, a procession consisting of the four prisoners, Mary, Lewis Powell, and two other male conspirators, were led through the courtyard.
With their hands manacled and their legs chained with heavy irons and 75lb iron balls, the condemned walked past their own graves, and up the thirteen steps to the gallows.
Mary Surratt wore a long black tightly corseted dress and black veil.
She was seated in a chair while her chains and shoes were removed.
Her wrists were tied behind her, her arms were bound to her sides, and her ankles and thighs were tied together, using white cloth instead of rope.
The noose was placed around her neck, and a thin white cotton hood was placed over her head.
Over one thousand men, women, and children had come to watch her die.
General Winfield Scott Hancock read out the death sentences in alphabetical order.
He then clapped his hands three times, and the supporting posts were knocked away, releasing the platform.
The conspirators then dropped five to six feet – which proved insufficient to break their necks.
Mary Surratt strained slightly against her restraints, and made wheezing and gagging noises for less than three minutes.
She then died.
Mary Jenkins Surratt was pronounced dead and cut down at 2:15 pm, the first woman to be eXecuted by the United States government.
She was 42 years old.
Her last words, spoken to the guard who put the noose around her neck, were ~
“Please don’t let me fall.”
Mary’s body was stripped naked, and her clothes were given to charity.
She was wrapped in a sheet, and placed in a simple pine coffin with a glass vial containing her name to help identify the body.
She was then buried in a shallow grave next to the prison walls.
Several pieces of the rope that had ended her life, and some locks of her hair, were sold as souvenirs.
