1-633-019 - Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images

Hanging of the Lincoln assassination conspirators, Washington DC, USA, 7th July, 1865. The assassinination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth was part of a wider conspiracy. Vice-President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H Seward were also intended to be killed, but survived the attempts on their lives. Booth was killed by US Army soldiers in Virginia, but eight others involved in the conspiracy were arrested and tried by a military court. All the defendants were found guilty, with three sentenced to life imprisonment and one receiving a six year sentence. The other four, Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt, were sentenced to death and were hanged at the Old Arsenal Penitentiary.