David Herold: Lincoln Assassination Conspirator

David Herold was a conspirator in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. He was born in Maryland in 1842 and worked as a pharmacy clerk before joining the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Herold met John Wilkes Booth, the main conspirator in the assassination plot, in the early 1860s and became involved in the plan to kidnap Lincoln.

When the kidnapping plan failed, Booth and Herold went on the run and eventually ended up at the farm of Dr. Samuel Mudd in Maryland. Herold accompanied Booth to Virginia, where they were pursued by Union soldiers. On April 26, 1865, Herold was captured and arrested along with Booth at the Garrett farm in Virginia.

Herold was tried and convicted of conspiracy to assassinate the president and was hanged on July 7, 1865, along with three other conspirators.