The Judicial Murder of Mary E. Surratt

First published in 1894, “The Judicial Murder of Mary E. Surratt” looks at the case of Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt (1820 or 1823– 1865), an American woman who was convicted of participating in a plot to assassinate U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Despite maintaining her innocence and the fact that the case made against her was arguably weak, she became the first women to be executed by the US federal government. Her son John Surratt was also tried at a later date, but acquitted d...