Lincoln Assassination Trial

Lincoln Assassination Trial. Site of Lincoln Conspirators Gallows. On April 14, 1865 John Wilkes Booth (of Maryland) assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Fords Theater in downtown Washington. Booth's conspirators were arrested and tried by a Military Court here in Building 20 from May 9 to June 30, 1865. One member of the Military Court was Major General Lew Wallace who went on to write Ben Hur., At this site four of the conspirators involved in President Lincoln's Assassination were hung and buried on July 7, 1865. They were George Atzerodt, David Herold, Lewis Paine and Mary Surratt (the first woman to be executed in a Federal trial). General Winfield Hancock of Gettysburg fame was in overall command of the trial and execution., The conspirators were disinterred in 1867 and returned to their families. Immediately thereafter the Penitentiary was razed with the exception of the portion of the building where the trial occurred. This building which is now Building 20 has been renovated a number of times since the Civil War. It was originally built in 1831 as the female quarters of the Washington Penitentiary. At the start of the Civil War in 1861 it was used as a shoe factory.