The Killing of Mary Surratt

This is a fun 26-minute film about the killing of Mary Surratt, the woman who ran a boarding house where John Wilkes Booth was staying when he shot President Abraham Lincoln. We'll probably never know if Mary was actually connected to Booth or not, but the country was eager to capture anyone who might have been involved, so Mary became the first woman to be executed in the US.

The film's producers do a great job in a very short time of portraying the story, leaving viewers eager to read more about the event themselves. Some questions are left unanswered in the film such as her request to see a doctor for severe "female pain" while she was in custody. Was she raped or just in pain from something else? The locations used for the story are all in the Sacramento historic area including Sutter's Fort, the Governor's Mansion, the Delta King boat, and Old Sacramento. I will have to watch the film again because I talked through it too often, saying "Oh, that's the stairway in the Governor's Mansion," or "that's the railing on the Delta King." It's worth watching again!