There have been many examples of crazy last words from death row inmates (how about that clever John Wayne Gacy and his immortal “Kiss my ass” right before his execution). I decided though to focus on the last words of the Lincoln assassins and conspirators.
John Wilkes Booth was a native of Maryland and somewhat of an aristocrat. He was born into a family of actors and he himself was one of the more famous actors of his day. Despite his Confederate sympathies, Booth continued to live and work in the North throughout the Civil War. As the war was coming to a close and it was clear the Confederacy was doomed Booth and a few associates hatched a desperate plot. Just maybe, they decided, the South still had a chance if they could kidnap President Lincoln and take him to Richmond where he would be ransomed in exchange for independence. Unfortunately for them, Lincoln failed to appear where the gang expected him. Days later the Confederate army of Robert E. Lee surrendered, effectively ending the Civil War. Booth now hatched a new plan seeking revenge. He and his co-conspirators would each assassinate a key US leader, with Booth himself killing Lincoln. All the others either chickened out or failed. Booth of course was successful, with Lincoln dying on April 15, 1865.
After shooting Lincoln, Booth fled the scene. Unfortunately, as he leaped from Lincoln’s box at Ford’s Theater he caught his spur on a banner draped on the box, causing him to fall awkwardly and break his leg. Still, Booth and fellow conspirator David Herold made their way on horseback to Garrett’s farm near Port Royal, VA. There, Union cavalry caught up with the pair, trapping them in a tobacco barn. Herold quickly surrendered but Booth refused, vowing to fight it out. In response, the soldiers set the barn on fire, hoping to drive Booth into their arms. Instead, one of the soldiers claimed he saw Booth about to fire at him so he shot Booth, killing him within hours. The soldiers dragged Booth to the steps of the farmhouse. Booth’s final words before passing away were, “Tell my mother I died for my country.” Followed by, “useless … useless.”
Booth’s death has been a subject of controversy ever since that fateful day in 1865. Almost immediately stories began to circulate that the man who was shot was not John Wilkes Booth but a lookalike. According to the story Booth escaped to Texas where he adopted the pseudonym John St. Helen. The story continues that many years later St. Helen was lying on his death bed and confessed to being Lincoln’s assassin so many years earlier. However, St. Helen survived his close call with death and once again had to flee. Finally, this man committed suicide in Oklahoma while living under the name David E. George.
As for the other Lincoln conspirators who met their death at the end of a hangman’s noose on July 7, 1865. First, there was Mary Surratt. Born, Mary Elizabeth Jenkins (1820 or May 1823 – July 7, 1865), she was an American boarding house owner in Washington, D.C. who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. She has the dubious honor of being the first woman in the US to be executed. The Surratt boarding house was located where the present-day Wok and Roll Restaurant, located at 604 H Street NW. Mary Surratt's last words, spoken to a guard as he put the noose around her neck, were purported to be, “Please don't let me fall. Please don't let me fall.“
The next of the Lincoln conspirators to be hanging on the gallows that day was Lewis Powell (aka Payne). Powell’s part in the conspiracy was to assassinate the then Secretary of State, William Seward. Seward had been involved in an accident and was confined to bed in his home.
Powell went to Seward’s home on the pretext that he was delivering medicine. He pushed his way past the servant who was opening the door in an attempt to make his way to Seward’s room. He was confronted by Seward’s son, whom he attacked thus leaving him unconscious. Next, he overcame George Robinson, Seward’s bodyguard, before he was able to make it into Seward’s room before attacking him with a knife. Robinson quickly recovered and with the help of two others thwarted the attack. Powell escaped but was captured three days later at the Surratt House. He was brought before a military court. He was found guilty of conspiracy and he was sentenced to hang with three other of his conspirators. His last word was a simple, “Good-Bye.”
David Herold again is known in infamy as a Lincoln conspirator. He guided Lewis Powell to Steward’s house. but in the mayhem, he became frightened and fled the scene, leaving Powell to fend for himself. Herold somehow met up with John Wilkes Booth and the two fled on horseback ending up in a barn in Port Royal, Virginia. There the US Calvary caught up with them and surrounded the barn. Herold quickly surrendered. The last words spoken to Herold from Booth were, “When you go out, don't tell them the arms I have.” Herold’s own last words have been forgotten with time.
George Atzerodt was the final conspirator to hang on that infamous date. Atzerodt was supposed to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson. He checked into the same hotel as Johnson but he developed cold feet and didn’t even attempt to complete his part of the plot. However, he had aroused the attention of a hotel employee with his suspicious behavior. The employee contacted military police who searched Atzerodt’s room where they found a loaded revolver, a large knife, a map of Virginia, and the bank book of John Wilkes Booth. Despite not attempting to complete his assignment, Atzerodt was convicted and sentenced to hang with the others. His last words were, ”May we all meet in the other world. God, take me now.”
As for our 16th President himself, his last words, spoken in Ford’s Theater moments before he was shot were, “She won’t think anything about it.” He was responding to his wife who had just asked him what the lady in the next box would think if she saw them holding hands.
One final chapter in this tragic story is that of Major Henry Rathbone. Rathbone, being a friend of Abraham Lincoln’s, was at the president’s side on the night of the assassination. Although Rathbone was seriously wounded trying to help Lincoln when Booth stabbed him he was tormented his entire life at the thought that he should somehow have stopped Lincoln’s murder. He married shortly after the war and the couple had three children. The family eventually relocated to Germany where Rathbone’s mental decline continued. On December 23, 1883 Rathbone attacked his children and murdered his wife. He was acquitted by reason of insanity and lived the remainder of his life in a mental institution, dying in 1911.
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