Mary Surratt Is Guilty

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Mary Surratt Is Guilty On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was shot fatally by a famous actor, John Wilkes Booth, at a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. It was just five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee ended the American Civil War. On April 26, the assassin Booth was killed by a sergeant. Four of Booth’s co-conspirators were executed by hanging on July 7, 1865. Mary Surratt was one of them, who became the first woman being hanged by the federal government in the American history. However, the dispute whether Mary Surratt is guilty or innocent became a controversial problem. Today, many people believe that Surratt is innocent. Robert Redford even directed a movie called “The Conspirator” in 2010, which implies Mary Surratt is innocent. However, according to all the evidences against Mary Surratt, she is guilty. Mary Surratt was born in May 1823. Her family were confederates sympathizers, of course, including her. She owned a boarding house at 541 H Street, Washington, D.C. , where other undisputed conspirators regularly met. President Andrew Johnson considered Mary Surratt the keeper of "the nest that hatched the egg." Many witnesses reported John Wilkes Booth, Lewis Powell ( the conspirator who killed the Secretary of State William H. Seward) and other conspirators as frequent visitors to Surratt's boarding house in Washington, D.C. On April 17, after eleven at night, a team of military investigators arrived at the Surratt’s boarding house to interview her and other residents about the assassination. While they were still interviewing, Lewis Powell, carrying a pick-axe, knocked on the door. He claimed that he was hired by Ms Surratt to dig a gutter, which is not likely to happen at night. One of the very important incriminating evidence is that Mary Surratt refused to back up his story, and she told investigators,

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