Mary Surratt and the Lincoln Assassination

Joan Lee Chaconas

At age two, Joan Lee Chaconas moved with her family from Connecticut to Washington, D.C. She was educated in the District school system and studied commercial art at Abbott Art School.
She has worked as a cartographic draftsman for the Coast and Geodetic Survey of the Department of Commerce, as a technical illustrator for the Systems Design, Inc. in Bethesda, and as a layout artist for the Bulletin newspaper in Clinton, Maryland. She was a licensed DC tour guide for 20 years and was a tour coordinator for the Residents Associates program of the Smithsonian Institution.
In 1975, she became a member of the Surratt Society and was one of their first docents. She has held various offices in this organization, including serving two terms as its president and contributing many hours as a volunteer guide. With the help of James O. Hall, noted Lincoln assassination expert, she organized the popular John Wilkes Booth Escape Route Tour. She is a member and twice past president of the Lincoln Group of Washington D.C. and serves on the board of advisors for the Lincoln Forum as well as the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission’s advisory board. She is a member of both the Washington D.C. Historical Society and The Oldest Inhabitants.
Ms. Chaconas has appeared on and/or acted as a consultant for such television productions as “That’s Incredible,” “In Search of the Lincoln Conspiracy,” and a segment of PM Magazine” featuring the Surratt Society’s Booth Escape tour. She was a consultant for the television production by Phillip Kunhardt on Lincoln and provided numerous early photographs of Washington, D.C. for the video, “Out of the Wilderness,” produced by Gary Beebe.
She is a collector of Washingtoniana and has been studying the Lincoln assassination for the last 31 years. She has given talks on Lincoln’s Washington, History of Washington D.C., Mary Surratt, Fort McNair, and John Surratt, Jr. It was her good fortune to discover the long-lost Atzerodt statement, given to Provost Marshall McPhail in May of 1865 that has been hidden for years among the personal papers of William E. Doster, Atzerodt’s attorney. She has authored numerous articles for the Surratt Courier, Linconian, North & South Magazine and wrote a chapter on John H. Surratt, Jr. for the book, The Trial. She has co-authored “The Surratt House Museum—A Page in American History,” and “Everlasting in the Hearts of His Countrymen, Memorials to Lincoln in Washington, D.C.”
Presently, Joan is employed by The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and works at The Surratt House Museum in Clinton, Maryland as a museum historian.
Her talk this evening, “Mary Surratt and the Lincoln Assassination,” is about the woman who was found guilty and hanged for the part the government felt she played in Booth’s plans. Did Mrs. Surratt knowingly help Booth or was she duped by a cunning actor? Her guilt or innocence was controversial in 1865 and still is in the year 2006.
After her talk, Joan will take a poll to see how you feel about Mrs. Surratt. Did she or didn’t she?

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