The Case of Mrs. Surratt: Her Controversial Trial and Execution for Conspiracy in the Lincoln Assassination

On the hot, windless July 7 of 1865, Mary E. Surratt, who had been found guilty of complicity in the assassination of President Lincoln, was hanged with three of the men who had participated in the plot. When Mrs. Surratt was hanged, almost no one doubted her guilt. It was an accepted fact that she had given aid to John Wilkes Booth. And it was generally believed that, at her Washington boardinghouse, "she kept the nest that hatched the egg."

But the execution was hardly over when there were murmurs that Mrs. Surratt was not guilty. With the passing of time and the appearance of evidence that tends to discredit the testimony of the chief witnesses against her, the verdict of guilt has come increasingly under fire. Partisan writers and speakers have attempted to establish her guilt or innocence, but until publication of this volume no one had made a complete and unbiased presentation of the evidence.

What, then, is the truth about Mrs. Surratt? Was she guilty or innocent? In this book, Guy W. Moore presents an objective, impartial review of the case to establish, so far as possible, the truth of Mrs. Surratt's position.

Moore takes into consideration the people and the events with which Mrs. Surratt was involved in the days preceding the assassination and on that fateful day itself; he interprets the official stenographic report of the assassination trial and the diaries and papers of people concerned with the trial. From these sources, along with the reports in contemporary newspapers and periodicals, he presents evidence designed to clarify the controversy which has raged about the name of Mrs. Surratt since her death that scorching Friday afternoon in 1865.

Guy W. Moore was an avid student of American history. He received B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Oklahoma and undertook this study of the circumstances surrounding Mrs. Surratt's execution at the suggestion of his wife, who felt there was grave doubt about Mrs. Surratt's guilt.