Abraham Lincoln’s assassination brought to life with colourised images showing the plotters behind president’s murder

COLOUR images of the men behind the assassination of US President Abraham Lincoln have been uncovered.

The striking images, featured in new book Retrographic: History in Living Colour, show the conspirators looking strangely calm before they were sentenced.

One incredible picture shows four of the men being fitted for nooses on the gallows in Washington DC, while another captures what is thought to be the last photograph taken of Lincoln before his death.

President Abraham Lincoln, who had successfully lead the Union through the bloody Civil War, was shot and killed by John Wilkes Booth on April 14 in 1865, just over a month after the Confederacy had surrendered to the United States.

Booth had been working with several men including David E. Herold, Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt and Samuel Arnold, in a conspiracy to kill top US politicians.

Edmund Spangler was controversially held responsible for helping Booth escape but was not executed, while Powell had carried out the bungled assassination attempt of the Secretary of State, William Seward.

Atzerodt had been planning an attempt on the life of the Vice President, Andrew Johnson, but is said to have lost his nerve.

The trial of the conspirators ended on June 30 with Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt all sentenced to death for their roles in the plot.

They were given a military trial as opposed to a civilian one, though, with much controversy over the way in which it was handled.

Author Michael D. Carroll said: "The trial, under military jurisdiction, was controversial in that the defence for the accused was not given time to prepare, the accused were forbidden from testifying in their own defence, a lower level of proof was required to convict than in civilian courts, and only a majority verdict among jurors was required for the death sentence to be imposed.

"The Southern states accused the North of imposing a military trial to avoid the opportunity for civilian jurors to show clemency towards the accused."

He also described the execution itself.

He wrote: "The prisoners stood for ten seconds, before Roth clapped his hands and four soldiers below the scaffold knocked out the supports for the platform they were standing on.

"They dropped, with Surratt’s rope snapping cleanly, with no movement after this.

"Atzerodt heaved before falling still, but Herold and Powell, the chief conspirators, were strangled for five minutes.
"Powell stuggled wildly, pulling his legs up in towards his chest several times, before he was eventually still."

The pictures emerged as a book telling the story of the death of Lincoln’s 12-year-old son three years before the murder won the prestigious Man Booker Prize.

George Saunders’ book Lincoln in the Bardo, about the death of Lincoln’s twelve-year-old son in 1862, was awarded the prestigious Man Booker Prize last week, making him the second American author to win the award in as many years.

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