14. Eight conspirators were tried by a military tribunal beginning in May 1865
Booth escaped from Washington on April 14, 1865, on a rented horse. After the assassination, the livery owner who rented the animal to him was arrested as a possible conspirator. So was John Ford, operator of Ford’s Theater. Junius Booth, John’s brother and a noted actor, was arrested in Cincinnati by federal troops. The operator of Mary Surratt’s tavern in Surrattsville, who recognized Booth on April 14th, was placed in custody. In Maryland, Samuel Cox and Thomas Jones, who aided Booth and Herold but later cooperated with federal authorities, found themselves arrested (it was Jones who informed the authorities that Booth had fled to Virginia). Louis Weichmann, who drove Mary Surratt to Surrattsville to deliver weapons for Booth to pick up on his flight, was arrested at her Washington boarding house. He later testified as to the extent of the kidnapping plot.
None of them, and several scores of others, ever stood trial for their knowledge of or participation in the kidnapping plot or the assassination or aiding the flight of the murderer. By the time Lincoln’s funeral train reached Springfield, Illinois on May 3, 1865, Stanton had all but one of the conspirators in custody. The sole exception was John Surratt, hiding in Canada. In May Stanton announced 8 conspirators would be tried by military tribunal, which he justified by citing the city had been under martial law at the time of the crime. Although legal scholars opposed the idea, Attorney General James Speed supported it. Speed was a long-time friend of Abraham Lincoln. Nine army officers were assigned to the tribunal, and a simple majority of five was all that was required for conviction. They decided the fates of eight of the conspirators.
