Four alleged co-conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln — George Atzerodt, David Herold, Lewis Powell, and Mary Surratt – were “hanged by the neck until dead” at the Old Arsenal Penitentiary on 7 July 1865. Mary Surratt was the first woman executed by the US government, and the subject of Susan Higginbotham’s excellent book, Hanging Mary.
This book is as meticulously researched and accurate as any non-fiction work, but is given the additional readability that only story-telling can achieve. I cannot recommend this book highly enough if you want to find out more about the circumstances at the end of the Civil War and Lincoln’s assassination, but want to enjoy learning it as well.