Editing George Atzerodt (section)

==Involvement in conspiracy==
Atzerodt was one of Booth's henchmen in the failed attempts to [[Kidnapping|kidnap]] Lincoln in exchange for [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] prisoners, along with Booth's childhood friends, Michael O Laughlin and Samuel Arnold.

According to the prosecution, Booth assigned Atzerodt to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson on April 14, 1865.

On that morning, Atzerodt booked room 126 at the Kirkwood House in Washington, where Johnson was staying. But at 10:15 P,M., the same time that Booth shoot Lincoln at Ford's Theater and Lewis Powell nearly attacking Secretary of State William Seward at his mansion, Atzerodt could not muster the courage to kill Johnson. Instead, he began drinking at the hotel bar. He got drunk and spent the night walking the streets of Washington. He dropped his knife in a nearby gutter, and a sharp-eyed woman saw this and reported it to the police immediately.

During his stay at the hotel, Atzerodt had asked the bartender about Johnson's whereabouts. That aroused suspicion the next day after Lincoln was [[Assassination of Abraham Lincoln|assassinated]]. An employee of the hotel contacted the police regarding a "suspicious looking man in a gray coat."

The military police then conducted a search of Atzerodt's room on April 15 and found that he had not slept in it the night before. Additionally, he had a loaded revolver concealed under his pillow as well as a concealed Bowie knife. The police also found a bank book belonging to Booth in the room. Atzerodt was arrested on April 20. He was apprehended at the house of his cousin, Hartman Richter, in Germantown, Maryland.