Speaker 1: You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Monkey. In the
Speaker 1: last surviving photos taken of Pauline Cushman in eight she
Speaker 1: looks quite impressive cradling a sword and wearing her Civil
Speaker 1: War military outfit. She's unquestionably feminine and unquestionably intimidating. Originally
Speaker 1: meant to show support for the men, and they're chosen
Speaker 1: side military style. A dresses for women became all the
Speaker 1: rage during and after the war. Most outfits were merely
Speaker 1: for show. However, Pauline's was not. You see, Pauline served
Speaker 1: as a Union spy. After an average start in life,
Speaker 1: the war changed everything. Her real name was Harriet Wood,
Speaker 1: and she was born on June tenth of eight thirty
Speaker 1: three in New Orleans to a moderately wealthy family. She
Speaker 1: had one sibling, a brother. Their father was a successful
Speaker 1: Spanish merchant, and her mother was the daughter of a
Speaker 1: prominent soldier in Napoleon's army. The children were very young
Speaker 1: when the family moved to Michigan their father started a
Speaker 1: successful trading post. At seventeen, she left home to pursue
Speaker 1: a career in acting, changing her name to Pauline. For
Speaker 1: a year, she lived in New York City, trying to
Speaker 1: break into stage work. Things didn't work out as planned, though,
Speaker 1: and Pauline moved back to New Orleans a year later.
Speaker 1: Her hometown is where she found love, marrying musician Charles Dickinson.
Speaker 1: The happy couple settled down and had two children of
Speaker 1: their own. When the war broke out, Charles joined the
Speaker 1: army as a musician, hoping that would keep him out
Speaker 1: of combat and harm's way, and it worked sort of.
Speaker 1: Diseases spread quickly within the ranks, and soon after being discharged,
Speaker 1: Charles fell ill, probably with dysenterry. He died in eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty two, leaving Pauline in financial straits. She sent the
Speaker 1: children to live with relatives and returned to the stage,
Speaker 1: finding work in Union occupied Louisville, Kentucky, at the Woods Theater.
Speaker 1: In April of eighteen sixty three, Confederate soldiers approached her
Speaker 1: after her performance in the Place Seven Sisters. They offered
Speaker 1: to pay her three hundred and fifty dollars to make
Speaker 1: a toast to the Confederacy during her next performance at
Speaker 1: Staunch Union supporter. Pauline went to Union Colonel Orlando Moore
Speaker 1: for advice. He told her to take the money and
Speaker 1: make the toast, then report back to him. That night,
Speaker 1: she raised her glass on stage, toasting Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
Speaker 1: Her toast brought down the house. The theater promptly fired Pauline.
Speaker 1: Another job awaited her, though, Union colonel William Trusdale offered
Speaker 1: her possion is a spy and sent her to Nashville,
Speaker 1: Tennessee to gather intel. Easing her acting skills, Pauline posed
Speaker 1: as a woman looking for her lost brother in the
Speaker 1: Confederate camps. While there, she carefully noted the size and
Speaker 1: location of the camps, the number of supplies, and whether
Speaker 1: they were building fortifications. She memorized at all notes would
Speaker 1: risk imprisonment or death if they were found. During one
Speaker 1: camp visit, she befriended a soldier who had drawn fortification maps.
Speaker 1: Unable to memorize at all, she stuffed the maps into
Speaker 1: her boots and made her way to Union minds. Her
Speaker 1: risk didn't pay off, though she was captured and sentenced
Speaker 1: to death. No one rushed in to save her. As
Speaker 1: her execution drew near. Pauline fell ill at the Confederate
Speaker 1: camp her symptoms were on par with typhoid, and so
Speaker 1: when the Confederates left camp, they also decided that leaving
Speaker 1: her to die alone was just as fitting as a noose.
Speaker 1: But Pauline had faked her illness. She made it back
Speaker 1: to Union mines a few days later. Pauline Cushman hadn't
Speaker 1: been a damsel in distress. Should become her own hero,
Speaker 1: and she wasn't the only one. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. Welcome
Speaker 1: to American Shadows. Not much is known about Kate Warren's
Speaker 1: early life. Like Pauline Kushman, there are very few photographs,
Speaker 1: and Kate didn't write in a journal or diary. What
Speaker 1: we do know is that she was born to Israel
Speaker 1: and Elizabeth Hulbert in Aaron, New York. It's a small
Speaker 1: upstate town originally settled by Irish immigrants. When Kate was
Speaker 1: born in eighteen thirty, the town's population was a scant
Speaker 1: nine and seventy six people. Like the others in the town,
Speaker 1: Kate's parents worked hard for their rather modest lifestyle. Education
Speaker 1: for the children in immigrant towns was minimal at best.
Speaker 1: The children in Erin squeezed in schooling around owned helping
Speaker 1: with chores, working, and caring for younger siblings. Opportunities were limited.
Speaker 1: Like other Irish immigrant girls, Kate had a choice leave
Speaker 1: school and work to help support the family, or get married.
Speaker 1: At first, she wanted to become an actress, but her
Speaker 1: family didn't think theater was respectable work for a young lady.
Speaker 1: Unlacking a support system, Kate did as society requested of her.
Speaker 1: She married. When her husband died, Kate decided to follow
Speaker 1: her parents and brother to Illinois. She found work as
Speaker 1: a housekeeper, but found it unrewarding. Determined to do something
Speaker 1: more with her life, Kate set her sights much higher.
Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty two, twenty three year old Kate walked
Speaker 1: into the Pinkerton Agency in Chicago and asked for a job.
Speaker 1: She had done her homework. The agency had a flawless
Speaker 1: reputation and was looking to expand. Alan Pinkerton was fourteen
Speaker 1: years her senior, a voracious reader with an insatiable thirst
Speaker 1: for education. He had spent his earlier years balancing work
Speaker 1: and home life to become self taught, and when he
Speaker 1: was ten, his father had died, leaving the family in turmoil.
Speaker 1: He had been sent away to live with extended family.
Speaker 1: He learned to make wooden casks, barrels, vats, and buckets.
Speaker 1: Alan immigrated in eighteen forty two, settling in Chicago. At first,
Speaker 1: he stuck to his trade, working in a brewery. After
Speaker 1: a while, he decided he'd never make anything of himself
Speaker 1: while working for someone else and relocated to Dundee to
Speaker 1: start his own barrel making business. He cornered the market
Speaker 1: by making a far superior product than his closest competitor.
Speaker 1: During his quest for better materials, Allen became embroiled in
Speaker 1: a case surrounding counterfeiters. The accidental involvement sparked a new interest,
Speaker 1: and when he found he had a knack for investigation,
Speaker 1: Allen became the deputy sheriff for Kane County, and in
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty he served to Chicago's first police detective. He
Speaker 1: and Chicago attorney Edward Rucker formed the Northwestern Police Agency.
Speaker 1: Alan's brother, Robert, formed his own agency in eighteen fifty,
Speaker 1: called Pinkerton and Company. Robert specialized as a railroad detective,
Speaker 1: protecting the rail companies and their facilities from theft. His
Speaker 1: business thrived and grew even larger once Wells Fargo contracted
Speaker 1: him to guard their stage coaches. With a new contract
Speaker 1: in hand, Robert asked his brother to join him. Alan
Speaker 1: shuttered the doors to his already failing agency and quit
Speaker 1: the police department. While other detective agencies were going under
Speaker 1: or developing seedy reputations, Allan brought value and a valuable
Speaker 1: lesson to his brother's business. Be better than the rest.
Speaker 1: To do that, the brothers started with their employees. Instead
Speaker 1: of calling them detectives, which had garnered a violent and
Speaker 1: crude wrap, they called themselves operatives. They demanded their employees
Speaker 1: be well groomed and polite, and insisted on flawless record keeping.
Speaker 1: The brothers established practices that got consistent results. They were
Speaker 1: seen as more reliable than the competition. They expanded their
Speaker 1: services beyond detective work to include security and private military contracts.
Speaker 1: Regardless of the client. They specialized in taking on counterfeiters
Speaker 1: and robbers. In their first few years, they solved a
Speaker 1: series of high profile train robberies, which brought Allen into
Speaker 1: contact with one George McClellan. In the early eighteen fifties,
Speaker 1: the future Union General was the chief engineer and vice
Speaker 1: president of the Illinois Central Railroad. It also brought Allen
Speaker 1: into contact with the company's lawyer, Abraham Lincoln. Kate had
Speaker 1: really done her homework, but when she walked into Allan's
Speaker 1: office looking for a job, he assumed the young widow
Speaker 1: in front of him saw a role as a typist
Speaker 1: or perhaps cleaning the office. He informed her the company
Speaker 1: wasn't hiring in that capacity. Kate smile and shook her head.
Speaker 1: She informed him she was there for the job had
Speaker 1: posted in the paper Operative, and she was prepared to
Speaker 1: bring an offer to the Pinkerton agency that they couldn't
Speaker 1: pass up. At first, Alan was flabbergasted a woman operative,
Speaker 1: Kate insisted he hear her out. She could do things
Speaker 1: the men couldn't. Intrigued, he sat and listened. Women, Kate explained,
Speaker 1: went mostly unnoticed in many segments of society, making them
Speaker 1: practically invisible in certain situations where someone might be trying
Speaker 1: to tail a mark or get information, and she'd be
Speaker 1: able to make friends with wives, friends, and mothers of
Speaker 1: suspects who certainly wouldn't share info with men or anyone
Speaker 1: looking too official. Her time in the theater had taught
Speaker 1: her to develop an eye for detail, Her acting skills
Speaker 1: and ability to slip into character were certainly to her advantage,
Speaker 1: and she pointed out she knew men they liked to
Speaker 1: brag around ladies, a trait she was more than happy
Speaker 1: to take advantage of. It took some convincing, but he
Speaker 1: hired her. Two days later. He thought he had a
Speaker 1: case to test out his newest employee. The Adams Express
Speaker 1: Company transported freight and cargo throughout the Southeast. Alan had
Speaker 1: received a letter from the president, Edward Sandford, explaining that
Speaker 1: someone had stolen ten thousand dollars from a locked money
Speaker 1: pouch somewhere between Montgomery, Alabama and Augusta, Georgia. In Alan's opinion,
Speaker 1: someone inside the company had taken the cash. Sandford didn't
Speaker 1: believe one of his employees would do such a thing.
Speaker 1: Alan agreed to meet the president to talk further. By
Speaker 1: the time he arrived at the company headquarters, another forty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars had gone missing. Alan said he had a
Speaker 1: good idea of who did it. Nathan Moroney, the manager
Speaker 1: of the Montgomery office, had put the cash into a
Speaker 1: sealed pouch before sending it to New York. The pouch
Speaker 1: was empty upon arrival. A square hole had been cut
Speaker 1: into the side to get around the seal. Stanford hired
Speaker 1: the Pinkerton's to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Speaker 1: Twelve managers were investigated. Alan still thought Moroney was their
Speaker 1: best suspect, despite his excellent references. They had been a
Speaker 1: veteran of the Mexican War and the community loved him.
Speaker 1: His reputation initially seemed flawless. However, they uncovered that a
Speaker 1: circus had managed had gone bankrupt. Unaware that the Pinkertons
Speaker 1: were watching, Maroney began spending large sums of cash with Gusto.
Speaker 1: When he was arrested, neighbors and citizens bailed him out,
Speaker 1: heavily criticizing the Adams Express Company. To convict Maroney, the
Speaker 1: Pinkerton's needed evidence. Six operatives, including Warren, were assigned to
Speaker 1: the case. Kate slipped into character flawlessly. While in Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: visiting relatives, mus Moroney met Kate, who would take it
Speaker 1: on the identity of Madam Imbert. The two became fast friends.
Speaker 1: To Hedge Allan's bets, he had a second handsome operative,
Speaker 1: playing the part of an attorney by the name of
Speaker 1: mister DeForest, wooing the bank exect wife, often taking her
Speaker 1: to dinner and paying her compliments. When Nathan Maroney was
Speaker 1: arrested a second time, the Pinkerton's set the trap. The agent,
Speaker 1: posing as DeForest told MSUs Moroney he could free her husband,
Speaker 1: but the price would be high. This put her in
Speaker 1: a dilemma keep the money for herself or free her husband.
Speaker 1: DeForest tried to convince her to let him help, and
Speaker 1: so did Kate, posing as Madam Imbert. In the end,
Speaker 1: MSUs Moroney broke down Kate, spilling the beans to the
Speaker 1: woman she thought had become her friend. Her husband had
Speaker 1: stolen the fifty thousand dollars, but had done it to
Speaker 1: cover a gambling problem. Kate convinced her to not take
Speaker 1: the money and run, and Mrs Moroney led Kate to
Speaker 1: the seller where her husband had buried the money. Kate
Speaker 1: then convinced her to turn the money over. All but
Speaker 1: four hundred and eighty five dollars was accounted for, which
Speaker 1: Moroney had already spent. In June of eighteen sixty, Nathan
Speaker 1: Maroney was sentenced to ten years in the Alabama penitentiary.
Speaker 1: No charges were filed against his wife, who moved to
Speaker 1: Chicago in the eyes of the Pinkerton's Kate had more
Speaker 1: than proven herself. Little did they know she was just
Speaker 1: getting started. At two a m. On November six of
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty, a telegram notified Abraham Lincoln that had won
Speaker 1: the presidential election. Excited, he ran home to tell his wife.
Speaker 1: Within days, he and his new assistant were swamped with letters,
Speaker 1: and not all of them were very welcoming. The country
Speaker 1: was fractured before the election. Southern states had threatened to
Speaker 1: secede if Lincoln became president. Now it looked like they
Speaker 1: were prepared to follow through. While most letters were nothing
Speaker 1: more than nervous citizens expressing concerns, others were vile and brutal,
Speaker 1: threatening violence in depth. Lincoln didn't take all of them seriously,
Speaker 1: though some couldn't be ignored. The state of things made
Speaker 1: planning the presidential inauguration difficult. Adding to the stress, Lincoln
Speaker 1: wasn't one for pageantry. He refused military escort, even if
Speaker 1: it meant securing his safety, even saving his life. Those
Speaker 1: around him were frustrated with the new president. Rumors of
Speaker 1: a secessionist plot to destroy the railroad tracks connecting Washington
Speaker 1: to the rest of the country began to spread along
Speaker 1: with rumors of assassination plots. The president of the Railroads
Speaker 1: of Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore, Samuel Morris Felton, took the
Speaker 1: threats more seriously than Lincoln. He hired the Pinkerton Agency
Speaker 1: to gather as much intel about the rumors as possible.
Speaker 1: Lincoln and Allan Pinkerton were already acquainted with each other,
Speaker 1: making the investigation more palatable to the newly elected president.
Speaker 1: Allen quickly had operatives embedded into Baltimore society. What he
Speaker 1: found alarmed him. Though had known the South's strong dislike
Speaker 1: of Lincoln and their threat to secede, the ideals Lincoln
Speaker 1: represented had enraged them to dangerous levels. Harry Davies, a
Speaker 1: Pinkerton employee and native Southerner, took on the persona of
Speaker 1: an extreme anti Lincoln resident, offering his sympathies and cash
Speaker 1: to the South's interest. He met Otis Hillard, a devout
Speaker 1: and prominent secessionist who would go on to vouch for Davies.
Speaker 1: Now privy to meetings, Davies learned that the secessionists were
Speaker 1: not only well aware of Lincoln's route from Illinois, they
Speaker 1: were making plans for the present it and s arrival.
Speaker 1: Alan also went undercover, disguised as a wealthy stockbroker. He
Speaker 1: was introduced to Captain Sarapano Ferandini, who openly revealed the
Speaker 1: plot the South must rule. The captain told him he
Speaker 1: reiterated his hatred for Lincoln and assured Alan that Lincoln
Speaker 1: would never make it through Baltimore alive. With Davy's intel,
Speaker 1: Alan couldn't dismiss the captain's threat. The railroad wasn't the target.
Speaker 1: Lincoln was immediately Alan sent a warning to Lincoln. While
Speaker 1: Lincoln prepared his speech, the Pinkerton Agency piece together more
Speaker 1: of the captain's plans. Kate went undercover as a Southern lady,
Speaker 1: flirtatious of Baltimore's elite men. Her charm worked, and men
Speaker 1: easily confided in her. Some of them boasted they were
Speaker 1: in on the plot to assassinate the President on his
Speaker 1: way to Washington, d c. She learned that a large
Speaker 1: crowd would meet Lincoln at the Calvert Street depot in
Speaker 1: Baltimore on his way from Piladelphia. A few would create
Speaker 1: a diversion for the police force assigned to the President.
Speaker 1: In the midst of the commotion, did have people in
Speaker 1: place to shoot the president and others to aid in
Speaker 1: their escape. Alan trusted Kate to come up with a
Speaker 1: plan while he convinced Lincoln the threat was real. Only
Speaker 1: a few people were allowed the details, as the plan
Speaker 1: hinged on Lincoln being alone with only one or two
Speaker 1: operatives for protection. If Kate's plan failed, the country would
Speaker 1: suffer its first presidential assassination. The Confederate conspirators had spent
Speaker 1: months planning this attack. In Philadelphia on February eighteen sixty one,
Speaker 1: the train depot bustled with businessmen in long coats and
Speaker 1: ladies in wide dresses with their children. Endless rows of
Speaker 1: baggage awaited on the platform. At thirty pm, a train
Speaker 1: with a number of passenger cars arrived. A few business
Speaker 1: men checked their watches and adjusted their hats at odd angles.
Speaker 1: Three well built men exit at a car, followed by
Speaker 1: a somberly dressed woman and a tall, lanky man in
Speaker 1: a dark suit and a broad brimmed hat. The woman
Speaker 1: informed the conductor that she and her ailing brother were
Speaker 1: on their way to a family party and tipped him
Speaker 1: half a dollar to reserve a private double door sleeper.
Speaker 1: Birth They stepped aboard Kate drew the curtains, and the
Speaker 1: well built men joined them in the cabin. Alan Pinkerton
Speaker 1: was one of those men. Lincoln removed his hat and
Speaker 1: thanked Kate, then apologized for having put her in danger.
Speaker 1: Allan informed the president that Kate was one of his
Speaker 1: best and most competent operatives. When the train pulled into Baltimore,
Speaker 1: the crew spent a few nervous, sleepless hours while horses
Speaker 1: pulled the car through the city to the next station.
Speaker 1: Lincoln arrived safely in Washington, while the slew of conspirators
Speaker 1: waited in Baltimore, unaware that had been outwitted by one woman.
Speaker 1: While Kate thought protecting Lincoln that night would be the
Speaker 1: highlight of her career, her work for the president was
Speaker 1: far from over. In Charleston, on April twelfth of eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty one, Confederate cannons fired on Fort Sumter, starting the
Speaker 1: Civil War. Allen wrote to Lincoln nine days later, offering
Speaker 1: his agency's services once more. Before Lincoln could reply, General
Speaker 1: McClellan asked Allan to work for him as military intelligence
Speaker 1: under his command. By the end of July, Allen took
Speaker 1: Kate and two other operatives to set up headquarters in Ohio.
Speaker 1: The agency went on to stop several Confederate plots. As always,
Speaker 1: Kate slipped in and out of different covers easily. Ellen
Speaker 1: rewarded his star operatives efforts with a promotion to a
Speaker 1: new department that would eventually become the forerunner for the
Speaker 1: Secret Service. Decades later. After the war, she worked with
Speaker 1: Allan to find a bank robber who had murdered a
Speaker 1: teller and it off with a hundred and thirty thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: Kate went into cover and befriended the suspect's wife, eventually
Speaker 1: solving the case. Though Pate was the first of her kind,
Speaker 1: she was hardly the last. Allan created a female bureau
Speaker 1: of the Pickerton Agency and appointed Kate as a superintendent.
Speaker 1: At the time, women weren't allowed to be part of
Speaker 1: the police force, and Alan came under fire for his decision.
Speaker 1: He told prospective operatives that if they agreed to work
Speaker 1: with him, they'd go into training with one of his
Speaker 1: best Kate. She taught new women recruits everything they needed
Speaker 1: to know about the adventurous career. Sadly, Kate didn't live
Speaker 1: long enough to see the next wave of results in
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty eight, she died from a lingering case of pneumonia.
Speaker 1: During the Great Chicago Fire. Many of the records at
Speaker 1: the Pinkerton Chicago office were destroyed, including hers. It's unclear
Speaker 1: whether any of her family members were still alive when
Speaker 1: she passed. Ultimately, Alan, who had long thought of Kate's family,
Speaker 1: had her buried in the Pickerton plot in Chicago. In
Speaker 1: her short thirty four years, she accomplished what took many
Speaker 1: a lifetime. Kate Warren took nineteenth century sexism and not
Speaker 1: only used it to her advantage, but paved the way
Speaker 1: for women in law enforcement. In nineteen ten, women were
Speaker 1: finally allowed to join the force. Her obituary stated that
Speaker 1: Kate was a standout among her peers, with great mental
Speaker 1: power and an excellent judge of character. The reporter went
Speaker 1: on to say that she left a void in the
Speaker 1: female detective department which would be difficult to fill. She lived,
Speaker 1: as she died, a strong, pure and devoted woman. There's
Speaker 1: more to this story. Stick around after this brief sponsor
Speaker 1: break to hear all about it. Not all women's spies
Speaker 1: were as fortunate as Kate Warrene. Tobacco plantation owners Archibald
Speaker 1: and Elizabeth Jenkins lived on a sprawling estate in the
Speaker 1: southern town of Waterloo, Maryland. In eighteen twenty or eighteen
Speaker 1: twenty three, sources are uncertain about the exact year. The
Speaker 1: couple welcomed daughter, Mary Elizabeth. She was the second of
Speaker 1: three children, and neither she nor her brothers wanted for anything.
Speaker 1: Their good fortune didn't last, though, and when Mary was
Speaker 1: around five years old, her father died. Her mother inherited everything,
Speaker 1: but had difficulty managing the estate and three children. For years,
Speaker 1: Mary spent her time at Catholic boarding schools, not returning
Speaker 1: home until eighteen thirty nine. Once there, she met John
Speaker 1: Harrison Saratt, who was nine years her senior. His family
Speaker 1: was well known and established in the area, making him
Speaker 1: a financially sound match. His reputation was another matter, though.
Speaker 1: John had fathered children out of wedlock and turned his
Speaker 1: back on both mother and child. He also drank excessively.
Speaker 1: Despite this, John and Mary wet, eventually having three children
Speaker 1: of their own, Isaac, Elizabeth, and John Jr. The couple
Speaker 1: settled on two hundred and thirty six acres that John
Speaker 1: purchased from his father, naming his homestead Fox hall. Over
Speaker 1: the years, the couple acquired surrounding land and inherited property
Speaker 1: when John's mother died in eighteen forty five, and they
Speaker 1: also purchased property in Clinton, Maryland and built tavern and
Speaker 1: in there. The location became popular with travelers going to
Speaker 1: and from Washington, d c. Unfortunately, John's drinking problem caused
Speaker 1: the family to sell off land to pay his ever
Speaker 1: increasing debts. Mary wrote to her local priest asking for help,
Speaker 1: disclosing that her husband was completely drunk every single day.
Speaker 1: During the Civil War, the Surrates hosted gatherings for Confederate sympathizers.
Speaker 1: Their son, John Jr. Became a member of the Confederate
Speaker 1: Secret Service, using the tavern as a stopping point or
Speaker 1: a place to hide messages to couriers. Before long, the
Speaker 1: pub was a haven for Southern soldiers and spies. In
Speaker 1: late eighteen sixty one, the activity caught the attention of
Speaker 1: Union intelligence, and they sent one of their men to investigate.
Speaker 1: He confirmed that the tavern was a hotspot for Confederate couriers.
Speaker 1: While the Union made a few arrests, it barely made
Speaker 1: a dent in activity. John Senior continued to drink heavily
Speaker 1: every day until he collapsed and died in August of
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty two. He had left his family in substantial debt,
Speaker 1: and Elizabeth quit school to help her mother run the
Speaker 1: family business. The effort of sorting out debts, selling land,
Speaker 1: and running a business while hosting Confederate spies and courier
Speaker 1: proved too much. When wartime shortages increased, Mary leased the
Speaker 1: tavern to a Confederate sympathizer and moved to a d
Speaker 1: C town home. Though she had moved, Mary still helped
Speaker 1: run the tavern, causing historians to theorize that the deal
Speaker 1: helped draw attention away from her and John Junior's activities.
Speaker 1: By now, the pub also hid a cache of weapons,
Speaker 1: and in eighteen sixty four she had a regular who
Speaker 1: took part in Confederate meetings, John Wilkes Booth. Booth met
Speaker 1: with Mary on April fourteenth of eighteen sixty five, dropped
Speaker 1: off a package, and spoke to her about a plan
Speaker 1: the group had in place. That night, the plan went
Speaker 1: into action, and Booth fatally shot Lincoln. He returned to
Speaker 1: the tavern, where Mary handed him back to package and
Speaker 1: supplied him with weapons before he fled to the countryside.
Speaker 1: Police arrived shortly afterward and questioned Mary. They reportedly found
Speaker 1: her confidence and arrogant, claiming ignorance to any plot to
Speaker 1: assassinate the president. A one employee had a different story
Speaker 1: and told them what he knew. The police promptly arrested Mary,
Speaker 1: along with Dr Samuel Mudd, a country doctor who set
Speaker 1: Booth's leg. Late that night. Before daybreak, police arrested and
Speaker 1: imprisoned more suspected conspirators. Due to the nature of the
Speaker 1: crime an ongoing distrust between the North and South. Mary
Speaker 1: and the others were tried by a military tribunal. Though
Speaker 1: her priest and friends came to her defense, the evidence
Speaker 1: found at the inn, along with staff testimony against her,
Speaker 1: proved overwhelming. Mary was sentenced to death on June sixty.
Speaker 1: She would be the first woman executed in US history.
Speaker 1: In July, she stood with her co conspirators at the gallows.
Speaker 1: Dressed in black from head to toe. Mary's arrogance was
Speaker 1: gone as she begged a guard to not let her draw.
Speaker 1: She stood alongside her co conspirators for ten four seconds
Speaker 1: before the supports were knocked from under them. Unlike Kate,
Speaker 1: who found her way to a family plot or Pauline,
Speaker 1: who was given a military burial. Mary was given a
Speaker 1: different sort of interment. She was buried in the prison
Speaker 1: yard not that far from the gallows. American Shadows is
Speaker 1: hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This episode was written by Michelle Muto,
Speaker 1: researched by Ali Steed, and produced by Miranda Hawkins and
Speaker 1: Trevor Young, with executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick. To learn more about the show, visit Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild dot com. From more podcasts from iHeart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Two fo