Does Mary Surratt's Ghost Haunt Fort McNair in Southwest Washington?

Robert Redford's recent movie The Conspirator brought renewed attention to the 146 year-old debate over  Mary Surratt's conviction and death sentence by a military court for her role in the Lincoln assassination conspiracy.   In the hours after President Lincoln's assassination, a tip led detectives to Surratt's Washington boardinghouse, which had been frequented by John Wilkes Booth and other conspirators.   The 42-year old widow was eventually placed under arrest and transferred-- after an initial stay at the Old Capitol Prison-- to the Washington Arsenal Penitentiary on the grounds of what is today Fort McNair.

The military trial of Surratt and the other charged conspirators began on May 9, 1865 at the Washington Arsenal Penitentiary.  The tribunal found Surratt guilty and sentenced her to death along with three of Booth's conspirators whose guilt is unquestioned.  On the sunny afternoon of July 7, 1865, Mary Surratt was hung along with three of Booth's conspirators in the Washington Arsenal Penitentiary's prison yard. Her body was then buried nearby on the prison grounds before being re interred at Washington's Mt. Olivet cemetery in 1869  .But, is that the end of Mary Surratt's story?  Does this controversial figure-- linked just or unjustly, to one of our nation's most infamous crimes-- still linger somehow on the grounds of the former Washington Arsenal Penitentiary, now part of Fort McNair, where she was imprisoned, tried, and executed.