Ever karaoke’d at Wok and Roll? Turns out, those very rooms are where the conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincon was formed.
Mary Surratt inherited the boarding house – located in what is now Chinatown – from her husband in 1864. John Wilkes Booth met other conspiracy members there to plan the assassination.
Police came to the house looking for Booth on the day of the assassination, and then again two days later, where they found a man who claimed Surratt had hired him to dig a ditch. Turns out, he was a co-conspirator who tried to kill Secretary of State William Seward. This all looked pretty bad for poor ole’ Mary.
Mary Surratt was hanged for her participation in the assassination (the first woman to ever be executed), but claimed her innocence until the end. There is still a debate regarding her guilt, but historians argue she knew exactly what went down.
