‘Dirty Rat’ Lets His Mother Die

John H. Surratt wearing a Papal Zouave uniform in 1866

August 9, 1867 — In his celebrated career as a movie gangster, Hollywood star James Cagney never uttered the line often associated with him: “You dirty rat.” But one man who many believe deserved such a rebuke is John Harrison Surratt.

He was arrested on this day on a charge of conspiring to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Surratt avoided prosecution by going on the run and even did nothing when his own mother was put on trial, convicted, and hanged for the crime. He escaped from custody several times and once even jumped out of a prison window into a pile of excrement.

He was born on April 13, 1844 and brought up in Surrattsville, which is now Clinton, Maryland. John Surratt Snr was a farmer who owned six slaves, which meant that when the Civil War broke out the family’s main concern was to protect their comfortable way of life. The Surratts were fiercely loyal Confederates.

By late 1854, the Surratt family home was serving also as a tavern, a polling place, and a post office. John Jnr joined the Confederate secret service before he was 18 years old, while his sister, Anna, ran the tavern. There is ample evidence that the tavern was a safe house in the Confederate underground network which flourished in southern Maryland.

As a spy Surratt relayed dispatches regarding troop movements in and around the nation’s capital and delivered them to Confederate boats stationed on the Potomac River.

Surratt Snr died on August 26, 1862, probably of a heart attack, leaving his widow Mary deeply in debt. He had turned to drink after the farm and the tavern failed. Mrs. Surratt had no choice but to lease out the tavern and farm then, in October, 1864, moved to a townhouse which the family owned mere blocks from Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. She began running it as a boarding house.

Before becoming a spy Surratt Jnr had intended to enter the priesthood, encouraged by his mother, a devout Catholic. But fate decided otherwise and in 1864 his life changed forever when he met fellow Confederate sympathiser John Wilkes Booth. They were introduced to each other by another sympathiser, Dr Samuel Mudd.

Booth, a handsome, famous and rich actor, was also a passionate opponent of Lincoln, denouncing the President’s abolition of slavery. He outlined a plan to help the South win the war which involved kidnapping Lincoln and bartering for his life. Booth told Surratt he wanted the federal government at least to release thousands of Confederate prisoners. At best, Booth hoped he could negotiate better terms for the South.

The date was set: March 17, 1865, when Lincoln would be attending a play at the Seventh Street Hospital in Washington. But the kidnap attempt was abandoned when Lincoln decided at the last moment to cancel his visit. An enraged Booth insisted that murder was the next best option and four weeks after the failed kidnapping, he assassinated Lincoln at the newly opened Ford’s Theatre in Washington on April 14, 1865.

Ironically, Booth was one of the first leading men to appear at the theatre – taking on the role of a villain in a play that had been watched by President Lincoln and his wife. According to the Historic America website, a Mrs. Clay attended alongside the Lincolns and noticed that Booth directed several threatening lines directly at the President.

She remembered: "Twice, Booth in uttering disagreeable threats in the play, came very near and put his finger close to Mr. Lincoln's face. When he came a third time I said, 'Mr. Lincoln, he looks as if he meant that for you.' 'Well,' he said, 'he does look pretty sharp at me doesn't he?" The President was reportedly impressed by Booth's performance.

After Lincoln’s murder weeks later, a hunt began for Booth and his accomplices, as well as others suspected of having been involved in any way with the assassination. Because it was her boarding house where the group had met to hatch the plot, Mary Surratt was arrested on the night of April 17, 1865, and taken before dawn of the next day to prison.

Her trial before a military commission began on May 9, and continued until June 29, when she was sentenced to death despite defence witnesses attesting to her reputation as a gentle and deeply religious woman. Along with three other convicted conspirators she was hanged on July 7, 1865, marking the first time the US government had executed a woman.

They faced a military tribunal rather than a civilian court because the assassination was considered an act of war. Other conspirators including Samuel Mudd, were given life sentences. They named Surratt as an accomplice but he was nowhere to be found. Federal officials put out a bounty of $25,000 for information leading to his arrest, the modern equivalent of $400,000.

Surratt was in New York at the time of the assassination, and fled to Canada, then England. He lived as a fugitive for several years, serving with the Papal Guards for the Vatican (the Papal Zouave) until he was recognised and arrested in Egypt in 1866.

After being extradited back to the United States, he was tried by a civilian court in 1867. But the case resulted in a hung jury – eight for acquittal and four for conviction – and Surratt was set free. He died of pneumonia at the age of 72 in 1916, the last surviving Lincoln conspirator.

Many blamed him for his mother’s death, believing that if he had surrendered himself in 1865 he would have been hanged in her place.

As some might say: You dirty rat!

Published: July 12, 2023
Updated: August 1, 2023