Mary Surratt (1823-1865)

Mary Jenkins Surratt was the first female executed by the U.S. government. She owned the Surratt Tavern and boardinghouse, a safe house for Southern spies in Washington D.C. Her son, John H. Surratt, Jr., was a courier for the Confederate Secret Service. In 1864, John agreed to help John Wilkes Booth kidnap Lincoln. The Booth conspirators met in the boardinghouse. Mary Surratt’s role in the plot remains unknown; she was convicted and hanged on scant evidence.