Chasing Lincoln’s Killer

1. Chasing Lincoln’s Killer Conversation between Mary Surratt and David Herold By: Emily Clark

2. David Herold • Good day, M’Lady

3. Mary Surratt • And to you, Mr. Herold

4. David Herold • Not to be nosy, but have you heard from your son?

5. Mary Surratt (page 107) • I’m afraid not, sir. He left Canada and fled to Europe long ago. It’s looking like I’m going to stay with the rest of you convicts to the end!

6. David Herold • The government actually wants John Surratt, and are willing to trade you for him. But I’d like to know how much do you actually know about what happened that April? I was with Booth most of the time, I could tell you most of the events!

7. Mary Surratt • Surprisingly, I know very little. I was told to have the weapons ready for Booth’s great escape, but I had no idea of the exact events that would occur later that night. If you could, it would be wonderful if you could give me the whole story. The newspapers are rather discreet.

8. David Herold • Well, as you know, when the South began to surrender, an-

9. Mary Surratt (page 9) • When the Confederate capital, Richmond, fell to Union forces on April 3rd, and Robert E. Lee surrendered at the Courthouse on April 9th, Booth was beginning to get upset.

10. David Herold (page 10) • Yes ma’am. Booth was a Confederate supporter at heart, and, as you know, he has been planning to murder the President for a while. He just so happened to be at Ford’s Theater on April 14th in the afternoon, when news came that Lincoln would be visiting that evening.

11. Mary Surratt • The play that evening would be ‘Our American Cousin’, correct?

12. David Herold (page 11) • Yes ma’am. The production would be ‘Our American Cousin’, a play Booth knew inside and out, but he had never acted in.

13. Mary Surratt • And it was helpful that he was an actor at Ford’s, so he knew his way around, and the people at the theater were familiar with him and his regular visits.

14. David Herold (page 13) • That’s correct. That afternoon, John Wilkes Booth had less than 8 hours to prepare for the assassination of President Lincoln.

15. Mary Surratt • And in that time, he came to my boardinghouse to ask us to ready the supplies, and that he would be there late that night to pick them up.

16. David Herold (page 16) • That’s right, ma’am. He already had the one-shot Derringer, and a knife just in case, but they wouldn’t be very helpful for a life on the run.

17. Mary Surratt • So he had me store the weapons and supplies so that he could ride away from the assassination scene quickly and unnoticeably, without many supplies.

18. David Herold • After his meeting with you that afternoon, he did some small errands that would help him follow through successfully with the assassination.

19. Mary Surratt • And some of those errands was meeting with the other conspirators, and readying the President’s box at the theater?

20. David Herold (page 34) • Yes ma’am. Later that night, after all of the peepholes had been drilled, and the letters sent, John Wilkes Booth handed the reigns of his horse to John Peanut, the ‘stable hand’, and entered the theater.

21. Mary Surratt • Do you think that any of the people at the theater suspected that John Wilkes Booth was going to do something dangerous that night?

22. David Herold (page 37-39) • Absolutely not. He paid regular visits to the theater. He waited a long time until there was only one man on stage, and then he fired, using only a one-shot derringer. In the confusion, Booth stayed in the box to confirm that he had indeed shot the president.

23. Mary Surratt • Now that was a mistake on his part!

24. David Herold (page 42) • Yes indeed. The General of the Union army was there with the Lincoln’s, and he challenged Booth. With only a knife, Booth had very little chance to escape.

25. Mary Surratt • But he did anyway! He got away almost unharmed!

26. David Herold (page 43) • But he did hurt himself. He got caught up in the banners, and then he fell on his leg, breaking it. Adrenaline is the only thing that kept him going without any pain. He jumped up onto the stage, and shouted to the audience “Thus Always Tyrants! The South is Avenged!”

27. Mary Surratt • Did he make it out without much trouble?

28. David Herold (page 64-74) • He told me that only one man chased him, and he was far behind. Booth knew the theater’s twists and turns well. After narrowly escaping Ford’s theater, he crossed the bridge with little trouble, and I met up with him in Maryland.

29. Mary Surratt (page 84) • Your next stop was my tavern to pick up the supplies!

30. David Herold (page 93) • Yes ma’am. But we couldn’t stay too long, for we wanted to stay ahead of the cavalry, and get Booth medical help for his broken leg. From your tavern, we rode to Dr. Samuel A. Mudd’s house. He let us stay for almost 24 hours, while we were still ahead of the news. Once he heard what Booth had done, he gave us directions to the next safe house, but wanted nothing to do with us anymore.

31. Mary Surratt • And it was right around that time that Lincoln actually died from the wound.

32. David Herold (page 102) • Yes, at 10 seconds past 7:22 A.M. on April 15th, 1865, Abraham Lincoln took his last breath.

33. Mary Surratt (page 143) • Now the militia and the cavalry were even more determined to find the suspects. Over the course of the investigation, they offered over $100,000 and $140,000 for Lincoln’s killers, correct?

34. David Herold (page 144-155-173) • Yes ma’am. And around this time, was when Jones helped the two of us cross the Potomac creek. We had gone too far, so we had to rest for a night, and then row back the way we came. When we got to where we wanted to go, Richard H. Garrett housed Booth and me for a couple of nights. There at the Garrett’s farm is where Booth and I were captured, and Booth was shot through the neck, while inside a burning tobacco barn.

35. Mary Surratt • Did he die right away?

36. David Herold • No, he laid on the porch of the Garrett’s house a he said his last words… “Useless, Useless.”

37. Mary Surratt • So this is the end, I suppose. We’d better keep quiet so that they don’t hear us talking!

38. David Herold • Yes ma’am.

39. “Epilogue”: THE RESULT Mrs. Demuro-I added more than just 20 facts, I just didn’t highlight them all or add page numbers, due to not having a book…just letting you know that I wasn’t just doing the minimum amount of work! Thanks and sorry!