Research Paper On The Conspirator

The Conspirator was directed by Robert Redford. It was released in April 2011. The Conspirator is the true story of Mary Surratt, the only female charged as a co-conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Seven men and one woman are arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the President, the Vice-President, and the Secretary of State. Mary Surratt owned a boarding house where John Wilkes Booth and others met and planned the attacks. As the entire nation turns against her, she is forced to rely on her unwilling lawyer to find out the truth and save her life. Frederick Aiken defended Surratt before a military tribunal. As the trial unfolds, Aiken realized his client may be innocent and that she is being used as bait and prisoner

in order to capture her son, the only conspirator that had escaped an enormous manhunt. He later turned himself in after his mom was executed. The Conspirator had a few scenes that were not accurate, but overall this movie is historically accurate because after Lincoln was shot by Booth he was taken to a house across the street from the theater to be cared for, four of the captured conspirators were executed by hanging, and trial by military tribunal was deemed unconstitutional.
On the late evening of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, snuck into the viewing box where President Abraham Lincoln and others watched a play at Ford’s Theater. Booth shot him in the back of the head near the ear region at a close range. The President was moved across the street to a gentleman’s home where he was pronounced dead the following morning. According to Lincoln’s family physician, Dr. Robert King Stone in a statement he had made during the trial “I was sent for by Mrs. Lincoln immediately after the assassination. I arrived there in a very few moments. . . . [I] found that the President had been removed from the theatre to the house of a gentleman living directly opposite the theatre, had been carried into the back room of the residence, and was there placed upon a bed. I found a number of gentlemen, citizens, around him. . . .” The movie showed clear evidence of President Lincoln being carried out of Ford’s Theater and taking across the street and a man comes out his door and says “In here”, and they carried Lincoln inside to a back room and laid him on a bed. There were so many people all around the room and inside the house. According to an article on Lincoln’s library of what happened at Ford Theater that night, “Lincoln had no pulse, but once Charles Leale, an army surgeon got to him, and removed a blood clot, his breathing improved. Lincoln was in a deep coma, and was moved across the street, however not much could be done to save him. The next day, at 7:22 am Lincoln was pronounced dead.” If the movie would have gotten the assassination messed up all the historians would have torn this movie a part. As I was researching on the movie, I had seen that some of the little details were not accurate like the placing Lincoln’s body on the bed and that John Wilkes Booth did not have both a knife and a gun in hands at the same time.
Another reason why I think this movie is historically accurate is because four of the conspirators that were captured were executed by hanging.

On June 29th, 1865, Mrs. Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt, David Herold, Samuel Mudd, Michael O'Laughlin, Edman Spangler and Samuel Arnold were found guilty of being a part of the conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln. They were executed by hanging. In the movie they sent letters to Mrs. Surratt daughter Anna and a family priest to give to her son that she would be hung for her crimes. Surratt, Powell, Atzerodt and Herold were all sentenced to be hanged at Washington Penitentiary on July 7th, 1865. In the picture you can see that four conspirators were hung including Mary Surratt, Lewis Payne Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt. They were hooded and then a noose around their neck. The movie did not go in detail on if any of the victims struggled or died quickly. While looking up facts on Lincoln’s assassination and the trial, I found in a couple of excerpts that Mrs. Surratt and Herold died instantly and the other two struggled. In the ending of the movie it was stated that Mary Surratt became the first women to be executed by the federal government. According to Spartacus Educational it states “Five out of the nine members of the Military Commission, recommended that Mrs. Surratt be shown mercy "due to her sex and age". President Andrew Johnson was later to say he was never told this and he gave the order to hang

the woman who he pointed out "kept the nest that hatched the egg".” I believe that this scene in the movie was very real according to the facts.
Lastly, I believe that this movie is historically accurate because Mary Surratt was tried by a military tribunal and some of her defenders that it was unconstitutional.

Acting President Andrew Johnson ordered that the conspirators to be tried by a military tribunal. According to an Order of the President that was signed by Andrew Johnson it states “That the persons implicated in the murder of the late President, Abraham Lincoln, and the attempted assassination of the Honorable William H. Seward, Secretary of State, and in an alleged conspiracy to assassinate other officers of the Federal Government at Washington City, and their aiders and abettors, are subject to the jurisdiction of, and lawfully triable before, a Military Commission.” In the picture to the right is a picture of the military commission. In the movie Reverdy Johnson, who was initially defending Mary Surratt, was talking to Aiken on the steps of the Capital saying “A military trying a civilian is an atrocity.” According to the definition of atrocity, an appalling or atrocious act, situation, or object, especially an act of unusual or illegal cruelty inflicted by an armed force on civilians or prisoners, it related the trial. In the Sixth Amendment in the United States Constitution is that all citizens have the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed. Mary Surratt was not granted a fair trial because the government

violated her natural rights. After the execution of the conspirators, John Surratt turned himself in and was tried by a civil court and the result case was a hung jury, and the government finally dropped the charges.
In conclusion, despite some of the flaws that were in the movie, it is historically accurate because after Lincoln was shot by Booth he was taken to a house across the street from the theater to be cared for, four of the captured conspirators were executed by hanging, and trial by military tribunal was deemed unconstitutional. I thought the movie was actually good. The title of the movie actually made me wanted to watch it and do research on it. I am into movies and shows about conspiracies dealing with assassinations or any high profile case. Although The Conspirator is about two hours long in length, it was very interesting. I was always told that John Wilkes Booth was the only person that was a part of the Lincoln Assassination; so to watch a movie that basically tells you what really happened, is considered a good movie in my opinion. I recommend everyone to watch this movie to get the view point of the only woman that was a part of the conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln.