The Conspirator
On April 14, 1865, five days after the Civil War ends with the South's surrender to the North at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, lawyer and Union veteran Frederick Aiken, with his friends, William Thomas Hamilton and Nicholas Baker, and girlfriend, Sarah Weston, celebrate. Later that same night, Southerner Lewis Payne unsuccessfully attempts to kill Secretary of State William Seward, only seriously wounding him. German immigrant and carriage repair business owner George Atzerodt is assigned to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson but becomes afraid and runs away. Meanwhile, actor John Wilkes Booth enters Ford's Theatre and sees his target, President Abraham Lincoln. Booth sneaks into the President's box and shoots Lincoln, mortally wounding him. Booth stabs diplomat and military officer Henry Rathbone who was a guest in Lincoln's box, and leaps onto the stage, shouting, "Sic Semper Tyrannis! The South is avenged!" before escaping. A crowd, including Aiken, Hamilton and Baker, watch in horror as the unconscious President is taken to a nearby boarding house where he dies early the next morning.
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton orders all suspects, including Mary Surratt, arrested. Booth and David Herold manage to evade capture for some days, but Union soldiers find a barn where they suspect the conspirators are hiding and set it on fire. Herold is arrested, while Booth is shot and killed by sergeant Boston Corbett.
Maryland Senator Reverdy Johnson is Mary Surratt's lawyer. Her son, John Surratt, had escaped with hundreds of agents looking for him. Feeling unable to defend Surratt because he's a Southerner, Reverdy asks Aiken, a Northerner, to take over, but he tries to refuse. He is ordered to defend her and tells Sarah and his friends, who are shocked to hear this.
Aiken visits Mary in her cell to question her. Mary asks Aiken to look in on her daughter Anna. Aiken does so and searches the boarding house for clues. He finds a ticket with the initials "LJW" (Louis J. Weichmann). At the court, Weichman - a seminary friend of Mary's son John, is the first witness and describes John Surratt's meetings with Booth. Aiken incriminates Weichman, making him appear as guilty as the rest of the conspirators.
Aiken again tries to give up defending Mary, believing her guilty. He meets with her, intending to get evidence of her guilt. She explains that John and the others conspired to kidnap Lincoln, not to kill him. They were about to attack a carriage but were stopped by Booth who reported that Lincoln was elsewhere. She says John left town and went into hiding after this, two weeks before the assassination. Aiken asks Anna for information to help with his trial preparations, but she refuses.
At the court, Chief Prosecutor Joseph Holt brings Innkeeper John Lloyd to the stand. Lloyd claims that Mary sent binoculars to Booth and prepared shooting irons and whiskey for Booth and Herold on the night of the assassination. Aiken angers Lloyd, implying that he was bribed for his testimony in whiskey. Lloyd is dragged out of the courtroom after threatening Aiken.
While attempting to attend a party at the Century Club, Aiken finds his membership has been revoked due to his defending Mary Surratt. This triggers an argument with Sarah and she disowns and abandons him. Aiken asks Anna to testify next. Anna testifies that Mary had no part in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, but that it was her brother John instead. Anna visits Aiken at his house and tells him about Booth and John, and sends him to where John Surratt is hiding. He brings the message that John must surrender or his mother will hang for his crimes. On July 6, Mary is found guilty on all charges and, with Stanton's intervention, sentenced to hang with three others on the 7th. Aiken procures a writ of habeas corpus to try Mary in civilian court, but President Johnson suspends the writ and Mary is hanged.
Sixteen months later, Aiken visits John Surratt, who was captured abroad and is in jail. John thanks him for his kindness to his mother. Aiken offers him Mary's rosary but he declines. The epilogue goes on to state that a year later the Supreme Court ruled that citizens were entitled to trial by a civilian jury and not a military tribunal, even in times of war (Ex parte Milligan). A jury of Northerners and Southerners could not agree on a verdict for John Surratt so he was freed. Aiken left the law and became The Washington Post's first City Editor.
revenge, sentimental, murder, flashback