David Herold

David Herold
Herold at the Washington Navy Yard after his arrest, 1865.
Born	David Edgar Herold (1842-06-16)June 16, 1842 Maryland
Died	July 7, 1865(1865-07-07) (aged 23) Washington, D.C.
Occupation	Pharmacist's assistant
Criminal penalty	Death by hanging
Criminal status	Executed
Parent(s)	Adam and Mary Porter Herold
Conviction(s)	Conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln

David Edgar Herold (June 16, 1842 – July 7, 1865) was an accomplice of John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. After the shooting, Herold accompanied Booth to the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd, who set Booth’s injured leg. The two men then continued their escape through Maryland and into Virginia, and Herold remained with Booth until the authorities cornered them in a barn. Herold surrendered but Booth was shot and died a few hours later. Herold was sentenced to death and hanged with three other conspirators at Washington Arsenal.

David E. Herold was born in Maryland, the sixth of eleven children of Adam George Herold (June 6, 1803 – October 6, 1864) and Mary Ann Porter (January 8, 1810 – February 16, 1883). Adam and Mary were married on November 9, 1828 in Washington, D. C. David was their only son to survive to adulthood. His father Adam was the Chief Clerk of the Naval Storehouse at the Washington Navy Yard for over 20 years. Herold's family was well-off financially and lived in a large brick house at 636 Eighth Street S. E. in Washington, D. C. near the Washington Navy Yard. David attended Gonzaga College High School, Georgetown College, Charlotte Hall Military Academy (at Charlotte Hall, St. Mary's County, Maryland), and the Rittenhouse Academy. In 1860 Herold received a certificate in pharmacy from Georgetown College. He then worked as a pharmacist's assistant and as a clerk for a doctor, and was an avid hunter. He became acquainted with John Surratt while attending classes at Charlotte Hall Military Academy in the late 1850s. A few years later, in December 1864, Surratt introduced him to John Wilkes Booth.

For a time in 1864, Herold was employed in Brooklyn, New York, by Francis Tumblety, a quack "Indian Herb" doctor who would be arrested in St. Louis, Missouri in the manhunt following the Lincoln assassination and released for lack of evidence. Years later, Tumblety would be named as one of the Jack the Ripper suspects.