George Atzerodt
George Andreas Atzerodt (born June 12, 1835 in Dörna / Thuringia , † July 7, 1865 in Washington, DC ) was a German - American conspirator in the murder of Abraham Lincoln .
The Conspiracy
Atzerodt emigrated with his family to the USA in 1843 and later opened their own car repair shop with his brother John in Port Tobacco, Maryland. A few years later Atzerodt met the Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth in Washington, DC In 1865 Atzerodt was ready to participate in a conspiracy to kidnap President Abraham Lincoln, as he admitted in the May 1, 1865 trial. According to the prosecutor's office, Booth gave Atzerodt orders on April 14, 1865 to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson . Atzerodt booked a room at the National Hotel that morning , where both Johnson and Booth were staying. Atzerodt, however, could not find the courage to murder Johnson. He got drunk in the hotel bar and spent the night drunk wandering the streets of Washington, DC
During his stay at the hotel, Atzerodt inquired about the whereabouts of Vice President Johnson. This raised suspicions the day after Abraham Lincoln was murdered. An employee of the hotel informed the police about a "suspicious looking man in a gray coat". The military police searched Atzerodt's hotel room on April 15th and found that on April 14th he had not slept in the room; A loaded revolver and a Bowie knife were found under his pillow . The police also found a savings account in his hotel room that belonged to his co-conspirator, John Wilkes Booth. Atzerodt was arrested on April 20 at his cousin Hartman Judge's home in Germantown , Maryland .
Atzerodt's attorney, William Doster, said in court that he intended to prove that George Atzerodt was a coward, that if he was really entrusted with the task of assassinating the Vice President, he would never have been able to, and therefore Booth him probably not assigned this task because of his known cowardice. However, this argument was unsuccessful. Atzerodt was hanged as well as the three other more or less convicted conspirators Mary Surratt , Lewis Powell and David Herold on July 7, 1865 in Washington, DC . George Atzerodt's last words were: “ May we all meet in the other world. God take me now. "(German:" May we all meet in the other world. God take me in now. ").
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Atzerodt, George |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Atzerodt, George Andreas |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Conspirators in the murder of Abraham Lincoln |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 12, 1835 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dörna , Thuringia |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 7, 1865 |
| Place of death | Washington, DC |