The 1865 Conspiracy
The Lincoln Conspirators: What History Got Wrong
Eight people were tried. Four were hanged. But the man who actually pulled the trigger walked free — and history never noticed.
Order the Book NowThe Official Story Has Always Had Gaps
The Lincoln assassination conspirators are among the most studied figures in American history — yet the official record contains a glaring omission. John Wilkes Booth is named as the shooter, but investigator Paul Mellen spent decades in the U.S. National Archives, Canadian government records, British historical documents, and Papal Zouaves records building a case that someone else fired the fatal shot. This page documents every known conspirator, their fate, and the one figure the history books left out.
The Lincoln Conspirators: A Complete Record
John Wilkes Booth
Shot dead — April 26, 1865
The ringleader and actor who organized the conspiracy. Booth coordinated simultaneous attacks on Lincoln, Vice President Johnson, and Secretary of State Seward. He fled Ford's Theatre after the shooting and was cornered at the Garrett farm in Virginia twelve days later. Official history names him as the shooter — Paul Mellen's investigation challenges that conclusion.
Mary Surratt
Hanged — July 7, 1865
Boardinghouse keeper whose Washington, D.C. establishment served as the conspirators' meeting place. The first woman executed by the U.S. federal government, Surratt maintained her innocence to the end. Her son John Surratt — the man Mellen identifies as the actual shooter — escaped prosecution for years.
Lewis Powell
Hanged — July 7, 1865
Confederate veteran tasked with assassinating Secretary of State William Seward. Powell forced his way into Seward's home and stabbed him repeatedly, leaving him severely wounded. Seward survived. Powell was captured, tried, and hanged alongside Mary Surratt.
David Herold
Hanged — July 7, 1865
A young pharmacy clerk who guided Lewis Powell through Washington's streets and then accompanied John Wilkes Booth during the twelve-day flight south. Herold surrendered at the Garrett farm; Booth did not. Herold was tried and hanged as a co-conspirator.
George Atzerodt
Hanged — July 7, 1865
A carriage painter assigned to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson at the Kirkwood House hotel. Atzerodt lost his nerve, spent the night drinking, and never made an attempt. He was arrested days later, tried, and hanged for his role in the broader conspiracy.
John Surratt
Escaped — fled to Europe, Vatican, Canada
Mary Surratt's son and a Confederate spy who, according to Paul Mellen's investigation, was the actual shooter at Ford's Theatre. Surratt escaped to Canada, then England, then the Papal States where he enlisted in the Papal Zouaves under an assumed name. Extradited in 1866, his trial ended in a hung jury. He walked free and lived until 1916.
Samuel Mudd
Imprisoned — pardoned 1869
A Maryland physician who set Booth's broken leg during the flight south. Mudd claimed he did not recognize Booth, a claim historians dispute. Convicted of conspiracy, he was sentenced to life imprisonment at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. President Johnson pardoned him in 1869 after Mudd helped contain a yellow fever outbreak.
Michael O'Laughlen
Imprisoned — died 1867
A childhood friend of Booth who participated in the earlier plot to kidnap Lincoln. O'Laughlen was convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to life imprisonment at Fort Jefferson. He died of yellow fever during the 1867 outbreak, one of the conspirators who never saw freedom again.
Samuel Arnold
Imprisoned — pardoned 1869
Another Booth associate involved in the kidnapping plot who withdrew before the assassination. Arnold was nonetheless convicted of conspiracy and imprisoned at Fort Jefferson. He was pardoned by President Johnson in 1869 alongside Samuel Mudd and Edman Spangler.
Edman Spangler
Imprisoned — pardoned 1869
A stagehand at Ford's Theatre who held Booth's horse in the alley and allegedly helped him escape. Spangler maintained he was simply following orders and had no knowledge of the plot. Convicted and sentenced to six years, he was pardoned in 1869 and spent his remaining years on Samuel Mudd's farm.
The Conspirator History Missed
Paul Mellen's book 'Who Really Shot Abraham Lincoln' presents archival evidence that John Surratt — not John Wilkes Booth — fired the fatal shot. Surratt was a trained Confederate operative with the motive, means, and opportunity. His extraordinary escape route — Canada, England, the Papal States, Egypt — and his enrollment in the Pope's personal army under a false name suggest a level of protection that goes far beyond a lucky fugitive. Mellen traces this protection to the highest levels of the Catholic Church, drawing on records from the U.S. National Archives, Canadian government files, British historical documents, and Papal Zouaves regimental records.
Fort Jefferson & the Dry Tortugas: America's Island Prison
Three of the convicted Lincoln conspirators — Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold, and Michael O'Laughlen — were sent to one of the most remote and brutal prisons in American history: Fort Jefferson, a massive unfinished fortress on Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas, 70 miles west of Key West, Florida. Accessible only by sea, it was effectively escape-proof.
Location
Garden Key, Dry Tortugas — 70 miles west of Key West, Florida. Surrounded by open ocean with no land in sight.
Construction
Built between 1846 and 1875, Fort Jefferson was the largest masonry structure in the Western Hemisphere — 16 million bricks, six bastions, walls 8 feet thick and 50 feet high. It was never completed.
Conditions
Prisoners endured extreme heat, humidity, disease, and isolation. The fort had no fresh water supply — all water was collected from rain. Yellow fever outbreaks were frequent and deadly.
Samuel Mudd
Sentenced to life for setting Booth's broken leg. Mudd attempted escape in September 1865 but was recaptured. During the catastrophic 1867 yellow fever outbreak that killed the post surgeon and dozens of soldiers, Mudd took over medical duties. President Johnson pardoned him in February 1869.
Michael O'Laughlen
Sentenced to life imprisonment. O'Laughlen contracted yellow fever during the 1867 outbreak and died on September 23, 1867 — the only Lincoln conspirator to die in prison. He was 26 years old.
Samuel Arnold
Sentenced to life for his role in the kidnapping plot. Arnold survived Fort Jefferson's brutal conditions and was pardoned alongside Mudd in 1869. He later wrote a memoir maintaining he had withdrawn from the conspiracy before the assassination.
The 1865 Military Tribunal: Justice or Cover-Up?
The Lincoln conspirators were not tried in a civilian court. President Andrew Johnson ordered a military tribunal — a decision that remains one of the most controversial legal proceedings in American history. Critics then and now have argued the tribunal was designed to ensure convictions, not to find the truth.
May 1, 1865
President Johnson orders a military tribunal
Over the objection of Attorney General James Speed, Johnson convened a nine-officer military commission to try the conspirators. The decision denied defendants the right to a civilian jury trial.
May 9–June 29, 1865
Trial proceedings
The tribunal heard testimony from 366 witnesses over 49 days. Defense attorneys had limited ability to cross-examine witnesses or challenge evidence. The proceedings were closed to the public for portions of the trial.
June 29–30, 1865
Verdicts delivered
All eight defendants were found guilty. Four were sentenced to death: Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt. Four received prison sentences: Mudd (life), O'Laughlen (life), Arnold (life), and Spangler (6 years).
July 5, 1865
Johnson approves the sentences
Five of the nine commissioners signed a clemency petition for Mary Surratt, citing her age and sex. Johnson later claimed he never saw the petition. Surratt was hanged two days later.
July 7, 1865
Four conspirators hanged
Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt were hanged in the yard of the Old Arsenal Penitentiary in Washington, D.C. — the first woman executed by the U.S. federal government.
1867
John Surratt's civilian trial ends in hung jury
When John Surratt was finally extradited and tried in a civilian court — the very forum denied to his mother — the jury deadlocked. He was released and never retried. Paul Mellen argues this outcome was not coincidental.
Paul Mellen's investigation raises a pointed question: if the military tribunal was designed to deliver swift justice, why did the one man Mellen identifies as the actual shooter — John Surratt — escape its reach entirely? Surratt was abroad when the tribunal convened, but his mother was hanged on evidence that many historians consider circumstantial. The tribunal convicted the people it had. The man Mellen names as the shooter walked free.
Booth's Twelve-Day Flight: The Official Escape Route
After the shooting at Ford's Theatre on the night of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth fled south through Maryland and Virginia in what became a twelve-day manhunt. The official account ends at the Garrett farm on April 26. Paul Mellen's investigation raises questions about what — and who — was actually cornered there.
April 14, 1865 — 10:15 PM
Ford's Theatre, Washington D.C.
The shooting occurs. Booth leaps from the presidential box to the stage, catching his spur on the bunting and fracturing his left fibula. He escapes through the back of the theatre to a waiting horse.
April 14–15, midnight
Navy Yard Bridge, Washington D.C.
Booth crosses the Navy Yard Bridge into Maryland, giving his real name to the sentry — a detail that has puzzled historians. David Herold crosses shortly after. Both head south.
April 15, 4:00 AM
Dr. Samuel Mudd's farm, Bryantown, Maryland
Booth arrives at Dr. Samuel Mudd's farm seeking treatment for his broken leg. Mudd sets the fracture and fashions a crude splint. Booth and Herold rest until the following afternoon.
April 16–20
Zekiah Swamp and the Cox farm, Maryland
Booth and Herold hide in the swamp and at the farm of Confederate sympathizer Samuel Cox. They wait for a guide to take them across the Potomac River into Virginia, sheltered by the Confederate underground network.
April 20–21
Potomac River crossing into Virginia
Booth and Herold attempt to cross the Potomac but are swept off course in the dark. They spend a day hiding on the Maryland shore before successfully crossing into Virginia on the night of April 22–23.
April 23–24
Port Conway and Port Royal, Virginia
Booth and Herold are ferried across the Rappahannock River by Confederate soldiers. They are directed to the farm of Richard Garrett near Bowling Green, Virginia.
April 26, 1865 — 2:00 AM
Garrett farm, Bowling Green, Virginia
Union cavalry surrounds the Garrett tobacco barn. Herold surrenders. The man inside refuses. The barn is set alight. A shot is fired — by Sergeant Boston Corbett, who claims he acted on divine instruction. The man inside is dragged out, mortally wounded, and dies at dawn. He is identified as John Wilkes Booth. Paul Mellen's investigation questions this identification.
The official account holds that Booth was shot and killed at the Garrett farm on April 26, 1865. Paul Mellen's investigation examines the identification evidence — the body was identified by a single witness under difficult conditions — and raises the possibility that the man who died at the Garrett farm was not John Wilkes Booth. If Booth escaped, the question of who actually fired the shot at Ford's Theatre becomes even more urgent.
"Four were hanged. Four were imprisoned. One escaped to three continents, enlisted in the Pope's army, and walked free. Paul Mellen's investigation names him as the actual shooter."
Read the Full InvestigationFrequently Asked Questions
Read the Full Investigation
Paul Mellen spent decades in archives across four countries building the case that history got the Lincoln assassination wrong. 'Who Really Shot Abraham Lincoln' presents the evidence — document by document.
Order the Book on eBayDig Deeper
- John Surratt — the Confederate spy Paul Mellen identifies as Lincoln's real killer →
- Mary Surratt — the first woman executed by the U.S. government, and what her son's escape reveals →
- John Wilkes Booth — biography, motive, and the question of whether he fired the fatal shot →
- The Lincoln assassination — the full timeline and evidence trail →
- The second shooter theory — the archival evidence explained →
Uncover the Full Lincoln Conspiracy
Paul Mellen's fully illustrated book traces the conspirators, the cover-up, and the real shooter — as featured on Fox Nation.
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