George Atzerodt (June 12, 1835 – July 7, 1865)[1][2] was a U.S. conspirator with John Wilkes Booth.
Atzerodt immigrated from Germany in 1843 when he was 8 years old. He opened his own carriage repair business in Port Tobacco , Maryland. He was deputed to assassinate Andrew Johnson in 1865, but failed in the attempt. He was tried and executed along with other conspirators Mary Surratt, Lewis Payne and David Herold.
The conspiracy
Some years after opening his carriage repair business, Atzerodt met John Booth in Gautier's Restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue. Atzerdot was willing to join in a conspiracy to kidnap US President Abraham Lincoln, as he later admitted in his trial which took place May 1, 1865. According to his prosecutors, Booth instructed Atzerodt to kill the Vice President, Andrew Johnson. Atzerodt was instructed to kill Johnson on April 14. On that morning, Atzerodt booked a room at the hotel Johnson was staying at. However, he could not build up enough courage to do so, so decided to start drinking at the hotel bar. He presumably became drunk, and spent the night perambulating the streets of Washington, DC.
When at the hotel, Atzerodt asked the bartender about the whereabouts of Vice President Johnson. This aroused suspicion after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated the next day. Ergo, an employee of the hotel contacted the police regarding a "suspicious-looking man [in] a gray coat" the next day. The military police conducted a search of Atzerodt's room on April 15, and found that he did not sleep in it on the night of April 14, had a loaded revolver concealed under his pillow, as well as a concealed bowie knife. Furthermore, the police also found a bank book belonging to his co-conspirator, John Booth. Atzerodt was arrested on April 20. He was found with his cousin Hartman Richer in Germantown, Maryland.
Atzerodt's attorney, Captain William Doster , stated to the court he intends "to show that [George Atzerodt] is a constitutional coward; that if he had been assigned the duty of assassinating the Vice President, he could never have done it; and that, from his known cowardice, Booth probably did not assign to him any such duty." However, this was to no avail. Atzerodt as well as three other convicted conspirators (Mary Surratt, Lewis Payne and David Herold) were hanged in Washington, DC on July 7, 1865. George Atzerodt's last words were: "May we all meet in the other world. God take me now."
References
The conspiracy
External links
Last updated: 05-07-2005 15:00:18
Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04
