Most Americans know John Wilkes Booth as the assassin of Abraham Lincoln - shot dead during a play at Ford's Theater on April 14, 1865. However, the names of the conspirators who surrounded Wilkes Booth are relatively unknown, notably that of Mary Surratt. Mary Surratt, a mother and boarding house owner, was arrested and tried for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln along with her son, John Surratt. The pleas of her family, her lawyer and her fellow conspirators did not allow her to escape her fate and she was hanged for her crimes on July 7, 1865. Even from the scaffold, Lewis Powell, another conspirator sentenced to dead, exclaimed: “Mrs. Surratt is innocent. She doesn't deserve to die with all of us. So who was this woman, and above all, what role did she really play in the assassination of the President of the United States? Was she simply blindly helping her son and therefore innocent, as Lewis Powell claims, or did she play a more involved role in the plot? Mary Surratt opened her home to the conspirators and ended up paying the price for her decision. Mary Eugenia Surratt, née Jenkins, was born to Samuel Isaac Jenkins and his wife near Waterloo, Maryland. After her father died when she was young, her mother and older siblings kept the family and the farm together. After attending a Catholic girls' school for a few years, she met and married John Surratt at the age of fifteen. They had three children: Isaac, John and Anna. After a fire on their first farm, John Surratt Sr. began moving from one profession to another. Surratt worked briefly in Virginia as a railroad contractor before he was able to purchase land in Maryland and eventually open a store and tavern that became known as Surrattsville. However, the end of the family...... middle of paper ......mes, and Paul Boyer. Notable American Women, 1607-1950. Volume III: PZ. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971. Print. Pittman, Benn. The assassination of President Lincoln and the trial of the conspirators. New York, NY: Moore, Wilstach and Baldwin, 1865. 83-87. Print. Results achieved by the trial of the assassins. - In Brief." THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER July 8, 1865, printed. "SHRISTORY." New York Herald April 18, 1865, printed. "THE TRIAL." New York Herald May 26, 1865, printed. "What the South Intends of doing." THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER August 12, 1865, printed. James, Edward, Janet James, and Paul Boyer. Notable American Women, 1607-1950. Volume III: PZ Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971. Print. James, Edward , Janet James and Paul Boyer P.Z. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971. Print...