The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1916-04-10
Trial Of Lincoln Conspirators.

conspirators who brought about the assassina-
ton of Lincoln, from the lips of Washington
man, appears in the New York Times Magazine.
This man, Edward V. Murphy. is firmly of the
belief that Mrs. Surratt was innocent Mr.. Muir
ply, who has recently rounded out his 5oth year
OF service as official reporter of the United States
Senate assisted his brothers and the other official
reporters in taking down in the shorthand of a
day long gone and at a time when stenography
was in its infancy every word offered in evidence
at the trial
recollectons of the trial. and he entertains today
convictions as strong those he felt in youth.
Sitting in his Washington home few nights
ago, he said to representative of the New
York Times that of the eight persons tried for
completely in the murder Of Lincoln but two,
he believed should have paid the penalty OF DEATH
He said further that Mrs. Surratt went to her
death perjured testimony.
Nj Murphy and his elder brothers, D. F. and
~. j. Murphy, Robert r. Hit, and Richard SUIT
ton composed the reporting corps, and while the
trial was in progress they worked nearly twenty
"The Military Court by which the Lincoln
eonsplrstors were tried opened on May TO- 1905,
began Mr.. Murphy. Sessions were held IN the
old Penitentiary Building, which stood in the
Arsenal grounds on the point of land marking the
junction Of the Potomac River and the Eastern
Branch. Even while the trial was in progress the
body of John Wilkes Booth, whose mad deed
had started the whrlwind of passion which was
to consume four of the 'consprators,' lay buried
in secret beneath the floor of this building
"Mrs. Surratt convicted the testimony
of two Witnesses" said Mr.. Murphy. Zone had
received for years her mothery care, and was
Herold, and Atzerodt. Furthermore, he was
undoubtedly of the conspiracy to abduct
the President and participant in it, although at
the same time a clerk in the War Department
The other tavern keeper at Surrattsve,
Md, man terrified by detectives that he
made statements which would best serve their
purpose: s
life and character, a mother devoted to the care
and welfare of her children, and deyout Chris
tian. Every action of her life cries out against
her completely in Lincolns murder and against
the deep damnation of her taking off the
purchased and perjured testimony of two inter
ested and discredited witnesses
The late Father Walter OF St. Patricks
Church in Washington, who had been for years
her confessor, and who administered to her the
consultations Of religion down to the moment of
Of any knowledge of the crime. David Miller De
Witt, in his two books dealing with the trial,
proves the execution OF Mrs. Surratt to have
been judicial murder Reyerdy Johnson, long
the greatest leaders of the American bar, who
was her counsel, was of the same opinion
John Randolph Tucker, in his work The
Constitution of the United States in speaking
OF the military commission which tried her, said:
The military power was left without restraint
to work the death of its victims in defiance
Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, on the floor of the
House of Representatives, denounced John A.
Bingham, a fellow-member, and the man who
played the most active role in the prosecution,
as the murderer of innocent woman
"Benn Pitman, who was the Recorder of the
Military Commission, in the last days Of his life
proclaimed his belief in the innocence of Mrs.
Surratt.
q personally present during the entire
trial. and | assert now, | have from the
beginning, my firm conviction of the absolute
innocence of this unfortunate woman.
And furthermore, although it has frequently
been denied. it is nevertheless fact that for the
first few days OF the trial Mrs. Surratt was
brought into the courtroom with an iron ball
and chain fastened to her ankles and with her
hands manacled. The manacles removed
later because of comments made by the press.
Some or all of the other prisoners man
acled throughout the trial.
"Her demeanor during the dreadful ordeal
was such might be expected of any modest
matron. Overwhelmed with the terrible nature
Of the charges against her, and with the base
ingratudc of which she was the helpless victim,
she shrank from the gaze of those around her,
sorrowful and broken-hearted woman. 1t was
said by those who saw her led-or, rather, care
ried-to the place OF execution that she was
more dead than alive when the hangman's moose
was placed about her neck"