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Ford's Theatre

Infamous site of the Lincoln Assassination

Updated October 2024

Posted January 2022

Ford's Theatre is the building next door to the right of the current entrance:

Fords Theatre Building

Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. memorializes a day ingrained in American history: the day President Lincoln was assassinated.
April 14, 1865:
Just five days after General Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, America's transfer from civil war to peace was made more difficult when Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed. John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor, desperate to aid the dying Confederacy, stepped into the president's box. Booth's decision to pull the trigger altered the nation's power to reconstruct after the war. Booth escaped into the night as Abraham Lincoln was carried to the Petersen boarding house across the street. It was there that President Lincoln died early the next morning, and became the first American president to be assassinated.
https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/explore-parks/fords-theatre-national-historic-site

Following Lincoln's death:
After the President was fatally shot, the nation went into mourning and the Theatre went into darkness for over one hundred years.

The public demanded the closure of the Theatre, threatening the building with destruction and its owners with bodily harm. For almost ninety years, Ford's Theatre no longer functioned as a theatre, but instead served intermittently as a museum, office space and storage facility.

In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a Congressional act to restore the Theatre, and reconstruction began ten years later. Frankie Hewitt, who had lobbied to have the Theatre restored to its former glory, founded the Ford's Theatre Society, a not-for-profit organization with the sole rights to produce within the space. Due in large part to her extraordinary efforts, Ford's Theatre reopened in 1968 as both a historic site and working theatre, and has since presented more than two hundred plays, musicals and special events.

https://www.americanheritage.com/content/fords-theatre-national-historic-site

Assassination FAQs:

Q: What happened here?

On April 14th, 1865, actor John Wilkes Booth entered the state box. The state box is the flag draped theatre box located in the balcony to your right as you face the stage. It was then that John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head with a .44 derringer pistol during a performance of the play Our American Cousin. Upon being shot, President Lincoln was immediately unconscious and subsequently examined by a Dr. Charles Leale. Dr. Leale determined that the head wound was mortal. He made the decision to have President Lincoln carried to the closest bed that was available in proximity to the theatre. Dr. Leale and several men carried the unconscious president to the Petersen Boarding House across the street from the theatre. A boarder at the house, Henry Safford, directed the group to the boarding house, and ushered them into a small room at the end of a first floor hallway. Lincoln was laid down onto a wood-framed spindle bed, diagonally as the bed was too short, and there died 9 hours later at 7:22 a.m. on April 15, 1865.

Q: How many people were in attendance on the night of Lincoln's assassination?

From eyewitnesses, we know that several attendees moved around the theatre for better seats, suggesting that it was not a completely full house. So, the number is likely to be around 1500, though we will never know very precisely. Through the years, many would later claim to have been present, and those claims can be difficult to substantiate because no list of attendees was taken or kept at the time.

Q: Who else besides President Lincoln was seated inside the state theatre box on the night of April 14th, 1865?

President Lincoln was seated in the rocking chair situated to your far right as you face the state box. Seated alongside the president, on a black wooden cane-bottomed chair, was his wife Mary Lincoln. Two guests, friends of the Lincolns, Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancee Miss Clara Harris were also in the box. Rathbone was seated on the love sofa in the far back left area and his fiancee, Miss Clara Harris seated in the chair to the far left (looking up from the stage).

Q: Was anybody in the other boxes that night?

None of the other boxes were occupied for that night's performance.

Q: What show was President Lincoln watching when he was shot, and what was it about?

The play was Our American Cousin, a comedy and satire about American Life and Culture written by a playwright named Tom Taylor in the 1850s. The play centers around an English refined aristocrat who attempts to show the backwardness and crude nature of an American living through a country bumpkin named Harry Hawk. The play was written for a British audience in 1852 by a successful playwright, Tom Taylor, but never performed in Britain. The play reads as a melodrama about a country bumpkin from Vermont, who travels to England in order to claim an inheritance and incidentally saves the family from a villainous lawyer, Mr. Coyle. The humor of the play arises as the upper-class English aristocrats fall all over themselves to curry favor with the country bumpkin, Asa Trenchard, because they think that he is rich.

Actress Laura Keene got hold of the script in New York in the late 1850's. Laura Keene did not consider the script to be of a high-quality. She thought that the only way the play would be a success was if she were to cast the highest quality actors of the time to perform within it. Two famous actors she recruited were Joseph Jefferson and Edward Askew Southern. E.A Southern agreed to play the part of the English aristocrat, Lord Dundreary, but only if he were allowed to completely ad-lib his part. He created a ridiculous stammer for his character and added a host of nonsensical aphorisms (e,g. "birds of a feather gather no moss") to his ad-libbed speeches. Joseph Jefferson, playing the role of Asa Trenchard was supposed to be the lead of the play, but instead E.A. Southern's role of Lord Dundreary took over the play, turning what was originally a melodrama into more of farce.

The play was a huge hit in New York in 1858 and then in London in 1861. It also created a merchandising boom related to the character of Lord Dundreary. The play made the careers of Laura Keene, Joseph Jefferson and E.A. Southern, each of whom had their own traveling productions of the play by 1865. Abraham Lincoln was watching Laura Keene's production of the play the night of the assassination.

Q: How old was President Lincoln when he was shot?

Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 and died on April 15, 1865. He was 56 years, 2 months, and 3 days old.

Q: What were Lincoln's last words?

President Lincoln's very last words were "She won't think anything about it." The Lincolns had drawn close together and were holding hands. Lincoln's words were in response to Mary asking, "What will Miss Harris think of my hanging on to you so?" Five minutes later, John Wilkes Booth would enter the presidential box.

Q: Where was the Secret Service when President Lincoln was shot? Why wasn't Lincoln guarded?

Although Abraham Lincoln signed the bill creating the Secret Service on April 14, 1865, the day of the assassination, their primary mission was the prevention of counterfeiting and they were a part of the Treasury Department. The Secret Service was not assigned to protect the president until after 1901 with the assassination of President William McKinley. Some Secret Service agents had protected the president previously on occasion, but the agency was not charged specifically with presidential protection. Prior to 1901, there was no policy as to who protected the president, and presidents and those around them would grab whatever law enforcement agent was close at hand.

As for the evening of April 14, 1865, there was a lone Washington, D.C. police officer named John Parker assigned to escort the President from the White House to Ford's and back. His whereabouts at the time of the assassination are unknown. Some have suggested Lincoln may have invited him to take a seat with a better view elsewhere in the theatre. There is some evidence that he may have taken a drink over at the Star Saloon next door with the president's coachman and messenger at intermission, but there is no evidence on whether he remained there or not. Presidential security was a much more casual affair in the 19th century and keeping a constant guard on the president, as we might expect today, would not have been part of Parker's duties.

Q: Did theatre visitors witness the shooting?

Virtually no one inside the theatre actually witnessed the shooting except for one recorded eye-witness account. James P. Ferguson, owner of a restaurant directly north of Ford's, was seated in the Dress Circle (balcony level) directly across from the president's box and stated, "I saw a flash of the pistol right back in the box." Ferguson described President Lincoln's head as leaning slightly forward and turned somewhat to his left at the time of the flash. Many others would report hearing the sound of the shot, and even Major Rathbone, in the box itself, only heard the report from the gun, and only saw Booth through the smoke after the shot was fired.

https://www.nps.gov/foth/learn/historyculture/faq-the-assassination.htm

John Wilkes Booth:
Booth and a co-conspirator called David Herold escaped in the uproar from the Ford Theatre and rode away together. They fled south into Maryland, hiding in the woods and presently crossing into Virginia. Meanwhile, George Azerodt had made no attempt to kill the vice-president, but Lewis Powell had attacked and injured William Seward.

By April 24th Booth and Herold had reached Port Royal in Virginia, almost 90 miles south of Washington. The war department had offered a reward of $100,000 (worth more than $1.5 million today) for information leading to the arrest of Booth and his accomplices and federal troops were searching for them. The fugitives took refuge at the farm of a man called Richard H. Garrett, who apparently knew nothing of what had happened and let them sleep in one of his barns.

A band of soldiers arrived at the farm in the early hours of April 26th and surrounded the barn. Herold surrendered to them, but Booth defied them and they set the barn on fire. One of them saw Booth raise his gun to shoot – or said he did – and fired at him. Mortally wounded, he was dragged to the farmhouse where he died, after saying ‘Tell Mother I died for my country'.

https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/death-john-wilkes-booth

Assassin FAQs:

Q: Why did John Wilkes Booth assassinate President Lincoln?

John Wilkes was also a native of the State of Maryland and in the very early stages of the War, President Lincoln took the unprecedented action of suspending the "writ of Habeas Corpus" within Maryland itself in order to ensure the safe passage of union forces making their way to the federal city. The suspension of the writ also allowed Lincoln the power to arrest and hold individuals without the right of trial by jury or charge for as long as Lincoln deemed necessary. In September of 1861, Lincoln used this power in order to arrest 31 secessionists members of the Maryland State Legislature the day before the assembly was to vote on Maryland's secession from the Union. From Lincoln's perspective, this drastic measure was necessary in order to prevent Washington, D.C., from falling into Confederate hands. Moreover, after the surrender of Fort Sumter, Abraham Lincoln ordered an expansion of the Army and a questionable naval blockade of Southern ports without the consent of Congress. He also disbursed $2 million to supply the Union Army with equipment without the consent of Congress. To John Wilkes, these constitutionally questionable war measures came as a shock to both his southern aristocratic and libertarian sensibilities.

As the Civil War dragged on and the horrific death and destruction which followed in its wake continued, John Wilkes came to believe more and more that President Lincoln himself was ultimately responsible for this misfortune upon the country and particularly upon the people of the South. Booth came to believe that if the North prevailed over the South, President Lincoln would then make himself into a permanent ruler or king monarch similar to Ancient Rome's Julius Caesar and as a result, America's republican form of government would be forever doomed.

Booth sought to assassinate the political head of the regime as opposed to the military, thereby giving the Confederate South perhaps a chance to attain its independence as a separate country. Booth's plan, however, immensely backfired and caused the South much more loss and difficulties. Most historians today agree had President Lincoln lived to oversee the country re-united, the South would have been somewhat spared much of its subsequent ordeal.

Q: Was John Wilkes Booth able to roam the theatre at will?

Booth was a personal friend of the theatre owner John T. Ford, and because of this relationship and because of his fame as an actor, it was not unusual for Booth to be seen around the theatre. Booth had also performed at the theatre several times, including once with the Lincolns in attendance in 1863. Booth was a frequent visitor at Ford's and would always have his mail delivered to the Theatre whenever he was staying in Washington, D.C. Since actors in those days generally did not have a permanent residential address, they would have had their mail delivered to where they actually worked as performers. Booth was informed of the President's intended visit to Ford's while picking up his mail on the morning of April 14.

Q: Was John Wilkes Booth carrying any other weapons when he entered the state presidential theatre box?

Yes, Booth was also armed with a large dagger. After shooting the president, Booth dropped the single-shot derringer to the floor of the box and gripped the dagger in his right hand. Booth struggled with Major Rathbone and attempted to stab the Major in his chest. Rathbone lifted his arm in defense and was wounded with a deep cut from Booth's dagger in the left upper arm. The wound had cut an artery and bled profusely. After jumping to the stage, numerous witnesses mention Booth brandishing the dagger while shouting "Sic Semper Tyrannis" and running out to the back of the stage. Booth tossed the dagger aside in the alley before mounting his horse, and it was later discovered by a government official.

Q: What is the distance from the Presidential Box to the stage?

The distance from the theatre box wooden balustrade where the American flag is draped across to the stage floor is approximately 12 feet. Some eyewitness accounts suggest that the original height was closer to 9 feet, and a sketch done soon after the assassination suggests the distance was 10 feet, 7 inches. The distance may never be known, as the theatre was gutted for renovation in 1866, and none of the original box remained intact to be precisely measured.

Q: How did John Wilkes Booth break his left leg?

Many people believed that John Wilkes broke his leg as a result of jumping from the state presidential box onto the theatre stage where he landed somewhat off balance. Today however, some historians speculate that Booth may have in fact broken his left leg when the horse that he was riding, galloping away from the murder scene at a high rate of speed, tripped on something and fell on its left side. The weight of the horse's left side then landed upon Booth's left leg causing an injury to the fibula of the leg; a leg injury that is common to equestrian type leg injuries. Moreover, the left side of the horse Booth was riding was injured as well. In any event, by the time Booth arrived at the Surratt Tavern that night at around midnight, (his first stop during his twelve days on the run as a fugitive) his left tibia was definitely broken, and he was clearly in pain as a result. Booth himself, in his diary, writes that "in jumping broke my leg" just following his shooting of the president. It's likely that we will never know definitively exactly how the actor broke his left leg.

Q: How did Booth escape the theatre?

John Wilkes Booth ran across the stage and escaped out of the theatre through a rear back door by the extreme rear left back side of the stage area. That door led out to an alley way, where his horse was being held by a young theatre worker Joseph "Peanuts" Burroughs. Booth mounted his horse and escaped down the alley, and up to F street. In 1865, the passageway was known as Baptist Alley because the first theatre building originally served as a Baptist church, established around 1833. The church was converted into a theatre by the Fords in 1860-1861.

Q: Did John Wilkes Booth act alone, or was he part of a larger conspiracy?

Booth was in fact part of a larger conspiracy in the plan to try to kidnap President Lincoln and transport him to the Confederate South as a hostage. It was both Booth's and other confederate agents' hopes that by holding Lincoln as ransom, they might then be able to force the Lincoln administration to resume the exchange of prisoners of war which Lincoln earlier had halted. The other motivation was that by holding Lincoln as hostage, the Confederate government could possibly force "peace terms" from the Lincoln administration that would be favorable to the South.

Booth alone was the master mind in the plan to assassinate not only President Lincoln on the night of April 14th, 1865 but also Secretary of State William Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson. Booth assigned Lewis Powell and George Atzerodt, respectively, to carry out those assassinations. Of the conspiracy to assassinate, we now know that Powell, Atzerodt and David Herold all had knowledge and were complicit in the President's murder that day. The question of Mary Surratt's guilt or innocence regarding knowledge of Booth's plan to murder Lincoln, however, is still debated and somewhat controversial among historians.

Most people subscribe to the simple conspiracy theory positing that Booth and nine other conspirators were responsible for the assassination as described above. Probably the next most popular conspiracy theory would be the "grand" conspiracy theory which posits high level confederate government involvement in the assassination.

Some historians argue that the assassination was part of a broad Confederate attempt to kidnap Lincoln that morphed at the last minute into a murder plan. "Grand conspiracy" historians speculate that Jefferson Davis may have had knowledge of an earlier plan to blow up the White House while Lincoln and his cabinet were in attendance there just days prior to his assassination. Four days before the assassination, John S. Mosby's men had been assigned to escort a bomb maker from the Confederate government's torpedo bureau into Washington to blow up the White House. Some evidence also suggests a money trail involving the Confederate Secret Service and Booth that linked the actor via his travel schedule to a Confederate clandestine apparatus that was run out of Montreal, Canada and included agents in the Northern Neck of Virginia and Southern Maryland. Though the circumstances are suggestive, no definitive evidence connecting these efforts to the Confederate leadership has yet emerged.

Q: How many conspirators altogether were tried and convicted in their involvement with John Wilkes Booth?

Altogether, eight of the conspirators were tried by a military court in time of war and convicted. Four of the conspirators were pronounced guilty of conspiracy to assassinate and given death sentences by hanging. They included George Atzerodt, David Herold, Lewis Powell, and Mary Surratt; the first woman ever to be executed by the federal government.

Three others of the conspirators were found guilty of conspiracy to kidnap President Lincoln. They included Samuel Arnold, Michael O'Laughlin and Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, all of whom were given life imprisonment sentences. The eighth conspirator to be sentenced was Edman Spangler who was found guilty of aiding Booth's escape out of Ford's Theatre by deciding to have his horse held for him behind the theatre. For this crime, Spangler was sentenced to six years of hard labor imprisonment. Michael O'Laughlin died in prison. The three conspirators that were left alive were pardoned by Andrew Johnson as one of his last acts in office (a presidential pardon does not absolve a person of a crime, however, just removes the punishment). A ninth conspirator, John Surratt, was caught much later and put on trial in civil court in June of 1867. John Surratt's trial resulted in a hung jury and he was never brought back to trial.

https://www.nps.gov/foth/learn/historyculture/faq-the-assassin.htm

Lincoln Assassination
The Conspirators:
https://www.nps.gov/foth/learn/historyculture/the-lincoln-conspirators.htm
In the two weeks following the assassination, hundreds of individuals were detained, questioned, and in some cases imprisoned, as federal agents tried to determine who was responsible for the assassination of President Lincoln. The investigators settled on ten individuals they believed were responsible for the crime: John Wilkes Booth himself, had been cornered and killed on Garrett's farm on April 26, 1865. John Surratt had fled the country and would not be tried until 1867. The remaining eight were charged in the conspiracy and tried by a military tribunal. Testimony from 366 witnesses took seven weeks, and at the conclusion: Four of the accused were sentenced to hang Four sentenced to imprisonment (three for life at hard labor, and one, Ned Spangler, for six years) Many others who assisted Booth in the plot or in his escape were brought in for questioning, but were released due to lack of evidence.
Samuel Bland Arnold A childhood friend of John Wilkes Booth, both were schoolmates at St. Timothy's School in Catonsville, MD in the 1850s. Arnold was a veteran of the Confederate Army, and was recruited by Booth to participate in the kidnapping plot in 1864. Arnold parted ways with Booth on March 15, 1865, following an argument in which he told Booth that his kidnapping plans were impractical. Arnold was not in Washington D.C. at the time of the assassination and probably did not have any knowledge of the plot to murder the president. He was arrested at Fortress Monroe Virginia on the morning of April 17, 1865, and investigators tied him to Booth and the kidnap plot. He was tried and convicted and sentenced to life in prison at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas off the Gulf Coast of Florida. Pardoned by President Andrew Johnson in 1869, Arnold lived until 1906, long enough to publish a memoir he hoped would vindicate his name. He is buried in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, the same final resting place as John Wilkes Booth and conspirator Michael O'Laughlen.
George A. Atzerodt 30 years old, German-born Atzerodt was a carriage painter and boatman who was known to ferry Confederate spies and supplies across the Potomac River between Maryland and Virginia. Recruited by Booth for his knowledge of the waterways and his ability to handle a boat, both of which would be useful in transporting a kidnapped President Lincoln. After Booth's plans changed from kidnapping to murder, he assigned Atzerodt to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson, who was staying at the Kirkwood Hotel a few blocks from Ford's Theatre. Atzerodt instead ordered a drink at the Kirkwood bar and lost his nerve, wandering the streets of the city through the night. Azterodt fled Washington and was arrested on April 20, apprehended at the house of his cousin Hartman Richter in Germantown, MD. Atzerodt was tried and convicted for conspiracy to commit murder, and he was executed by hanging on July 7, 1865. He is buried in an unmarked grave at Glenwood Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
David E. Herold 23 years old, Herold first met Booth in 1863 after a performance at Ford's Theatre. Herold was friends with George Atzerodt and John Surratt and had met Michael O'Laughlen through Atzerodt. His role in the assassination plot was to guide Powell to Secretary of State Seward's home and then aid his escape out of the city. He fled after hearing the screams coming from the Seward home following Powell's attack. He met up with Booth in Maryland and stayed with Booth until his capture at Garrett's farm. Herold was brought back to Washington D.C. for trial. Described in the trial as dull-witted and simple-minded in an attempt to convince the court that he was easily duped by Booth and should not be held responsible for his role. Herold had actually studied pharmacy at Georgetown and worked as a druggist's assistant. and his answers to an interrogator suggested a quick and agile mind. David Herold was convicted and hanged July 7, 1865. He is buried in Congressional Cemetery, Washington, D.C., his grave site marked only by the tombstone of his sister buried beside him.
Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd 32 years old, Mudd was a graduate of St. John's College and Georgetown College (now University), and got his medical degree from the Baltimore Medical College in 1856. He and his wife Sarah had 4 children, and they lived on the 200+ acre tobacco plantation "Oak Hill," near Bryantown Maryland, that had been in the Mudd family for seven generations. He met Booth on several occasions and his house may have been planned as a safe stop for the kidnap plot. Booth and Herold arrived at Dr. Mudd's farm at about 4 a.m. on April 15, seeking medical assistance for Booth's broken leg. Doctor Mudd treated the leg and made a splint for him, and allowed Booth and Herold to stay upstairs the rest of the night. Booth and Herold left Dr. Mudd's the next afternoon, heading into the Zekiah Swamp and the route southward. Mudd later insisted that he did not recognize Booth and that he did not know that Lincoln had been assassinated. He was evasive and nervous while questioned, was tried and convicted of conspiring to kill the president, and given a life sentence at hard labor. He was sent to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, Florida. He was pardoned and released by President Andrew Johnson in 1869. He lived the rest of his life at his farm and fathered five more children. Dr. Mudd died January 10. 1883 at the age of 49 and is buried In the cemetery at Saint Mary's Catholic Church in Bryantown, Maryland.
Michael O'Laughlen O'Laughlen was a childhood friend of John Wilkes Booth, living across the street from the Booth family in Baltimore. An ex-Confederate soldier and one of Booth's earliest recruits in the fall of 1864, O'Laughlen agreed to assist in the plot to kidnap President Lincoln. At trial, he admitted to participating in the failed abduction of Lincoln on March 17, 1865, but withdrew from other abduction attempts when it seemed that Booth's plans were not at all feasible. He is unlikely to have had any role in the assassination plot. O'Laughlen turned himself into authorities Monday, April 17, two days after the assassination. He was tried as a conspirator and sentenced to life in prison. Sent to Fort Jefferson in the Florida Keys, he died there of yellow fever in 1867. He is buried in Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore, MD, in the same cemetery as John Wilkes Booth and Samuel Arnold.
Lewis Thornton Powell (alias "Lewis Paine") 21 years old, Powell was a former Confederate soldier with the 2nd Florida Infantry who was wounded and captured at the battle of Gettysburg. After recovering from his wounds, he escaped and joined Mosby's Rangers in Virginia. Powell was introduced to Booth through John Surrat in January 1865, an became an important part of Booth's plan to kidnap President Lincoln. He used the aliases "Paine" or "Payne" so that his family would not find out about his role in the kidnap or murder if he was killed in the attempts. Tall and strong, he was recruited to bring the muscle for the kidnapping. When the plan failed and Booth turned to murder, he assigned Powell to kill Secretary of State William Seward. Powell entered the Secretary's home in Lafayette Square and severely injured Seward and others in the house. He was tried and convicted, and executed by hanging on July 7, 1865. His remains were moved from place to place, and the only remains to survive, his skull, was eventually interred in the family plot at Geneva Cemetery in Geneva, Florida.
Edman "Ned" Spangler 40 years old, Spangler was a stagehand and carpenter at Ford's Theatre who had met John Wilkes Booth years earlier while doing carpentry work on the Booth home "Tudor Hall" in Bel Air, Maryland. Spangler renewed their friendship while both were working at Ford's. Booth asked Apngler to hold his horse in the back alley behind Ford's the night of the assassination, and Spangler turned that duty over to young "Peanut John" Burrows. It is unlikely that Spangler knew anything about Booth's plots or intent. Even so, he was found guilty of helping Lincoln's assassin escape and was sentenced to six years of hard labor at Fort Jefferson Prison in the Dry Tortugas, Florida. Spangler was befriended by Dr. Mudd in prison, and when both were pardoned by President Johnson in 1869, he moved to Maryland and did odd jobs around the Mudd farm until his death in 1875. He is buried In St. Peter's Cemetery in Waldorf, Maryland.
John Harrison Surratt, Jr 21 years old, Surratt was one of Booths most valuable and capable conspirators. He was a Confederate spy with a college education who ran mail and correspondence across Union lines, and worked with Confederate Secret Service agents in Canada. He introduced Herold and Atzerodt to Booth, and also brought Powell into Booth's orbit. John took part in the failed abduction attempt in March 1865, but was in Elmira New York at the time of the assassination. He fled to Canada, then England, when he heard news of the crime. He lived as a fugitive for several years, serving with the Papal Guards for the Vatican until he was recognized and apprehended in Egypt in 1866. Extradited back to the United States, he was tried by a civilian court in 1867. The case resulted in a hung jury and Surratt was set free and never tried again. John Surratt died in 1916, the last surviving Lincoln conspirator. Many blamed him for his mother's death, believing that had he surrendered himself in 1865, he would have been hanged in place of his mother. He is buried in New Cathedral Cemetery, Baltimore, MD.
Mary Elizabeth Surratt (nee Jenkins) Mary Surratt, a southern sympathizer, owned a boarding house in Washington D.C. where the conspirators met and planned the kidnap, and eventually the assassination, of President Lincoln. President Johnson called her boarding house "the nest that hatched the egg." Both Powell and Atzerodt also boarded there briefly. Following the assassination, John Wilkes Booth and David Herold stopped for supplies at the Surratt Tavern in Surrattsville Maryland (today Clinton MD), which Mary owned and had leased out to tenant John M. Lloyd. Earlier on the day of the assassination, she rode down to the tavern and gave Lloyd a package that Booth had given her earlier that morning. According to Lloyd, she asked him to "have the shooting Irons ready". Due mainly to the testimony of Lloyd, she received the death sentence for conspiring to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. Despite five of the judges at the trial asking that she be granted clemency by President Johnson because of her age and sex, she was put to death by hanging on July 7, 1865. She was the first woman executed by the federal government in the United States. Her guilt or innocence, and the appropriateness of the death penalty, has been much debated by historians. She is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery, Washington, D.C. The Surratt boarding house still stands today at 604 H St N.W. Washington D.C., and is currently in use as a Chinese restaurant and karaoke bar.

Fords Theater

Ford's Theatre is infamous for being the site of the assassination of United States President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865
Ford's Theatre:
Located in Washington DC
Opened in August 1863

1865:
After being shot in the head, the fatally wounded 56-year-old Lincoln was carried across the street to the Petersen House, where he died the next morning.

The theater was later used as a warehouse and office building, and in 1893 part of it collapsed, causing 22 deaths.

On June 9, 1893, the front section of the three interior floors collapsed when a supporting pillar was undermined during excavation of the cellar, killing 22 clerks and injuring another 68. This led some people to believe that the former church turned theater and storeroom was cursed

The building was repaired and Record and Pension Office clerks were moved back on July 30, 1894.
In 1928, the building was turned over from the War Department Office to the Office of Public Buildings and Parks of the National Capital. A Lincoln museum opened on the first floor of the theater building on February 12, 1932—Lincoln's 123rd birthday.[11] In 1933, the building was transferred to the National Park Service.
It was renovated and re-opened as a theater in 1968. The presidential box is never occupied.
During the 2000s, it was renovated again, opening on February 12, 2009, in commemoration of the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth. It has a current seating capacity of 665.

The Ford's Theatre Museum beneath the theater:
The collection includes multiple items related to the assassination:
The Derringer pistol used to carry out the shooting
Booth's diary
The original door to Lincoln's theater box
His coat (without the blood-stained pieces)
The blood-stained pillow from the President's deathbed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford%27s_Theatre