Ghost of Anna Surratt at the White House

Not every White House ghost is a former resident. For example, Anna Surratt, daughter of Mary Surratt, allegedly haunts the White House. Mary was a Confederate sympathizer who allowed John Wilkes Booth and other conspirators to plan the Lincoln assassination at her boarding house in downtown Washington, D.C.

After Lincoln’s murder, Mary Surratt was found guilty and sentenced to death. In response, Anna went to the White House to ask President Andrew Johnson to pardon her mother. Newspapers reported that the evening before the execution, Anna “was induced to take a seat in the East Room, where she stayed several hours, weeping silently, and springing up each time the front door of the mansion was heard to open, hoping to see someone who could aid her in seeing the president.”

Anna Surratt failed to reach President Johnson, the first lady, or their daughter, and returned to her mother’s cell. She attempted to breach the White House doors once more before the execution, and “finding all her tears, lamentations, and entreaties of no avail, she flung herself at last upon the stone doorsteps and there sobbed and sobbed in the agonies of her despair.” She was again unsuccessful, and on July 7, 1865, her mother Mary Surratt became the first woman executed by the federal government.

Legend has it that the ghost of Anna Surratt still knocks at the door of the White House, pleading for her mother’s life and has been seen laying on the steps outside sobbing.