Surratt and Louis J. Weichmann purchased a boat at Port Tobacco in Charles County, Maryland. Surratt, and to a much lesser degree Weichmann, were members of a group led by John Wilkes Booth which planned to kidnap President Abraham Lincoln and spirit him into Virginia, where he could be turned over to Confederate military authorities. The boat was needed to ferry Lincoln across the Potomac River. The two men then traveled to Baltimore on January 21. In testimony for the prosecution in June 1865, Weichmann said that Surratt had $300 which he needed to give to a man in Baltimore. Although Surratt never revealed the man's name, the prosecution at Powell's 1865 trial attempted to show that this man was Lewis Powell. Historian Edward Steers Jr. agrees that it is likely that Surratt met Powell at this time, while historians David Griffin Chandler and Elizabeth Trindal present their meeting at Parr's China Hall store as fact. Either in late January or early February 1865, Powell encountered John Wilkes Booth outside Barnum's Hotel in Baltimore. Booth treated Powell to lunch at the hotel, and recruited him into the plot to kidnap Lincoln. Powell became a fervent believer in Booth, and Booth came to trust Powell implicitly. Although several others had been part of the conspiracy for some time, Powell swiftly became the second most important person in the plot – next to John Surratt. Booth made arrangements for Powell to stay at Herndon House boarding house under the name "Reverend Lewis Payne" whenever he traveled to Washington, D.C. During this time, Powell used a variety of aliases in addition to "Lewis Payne", including use of the last names Hall, Kensler, Mosby, Paine, and Wood. Kidnap conspiracy at Surratt's boarding house In early February, Powell, using the alias "Mr. Wood", appeared at Mary Surratt's boarding house in Washington. Mary was John's mother, and she had taken up residence in the boarding house in the fall of 1864 after renting out her tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland, to former District of Columbia police officer John M. Lloyd. Powell asked for John Surratt, who was not at home. He then requested something to eat and a place to stay, and Mary granted both requests after her son returned home and vouched for "Mr. Wood". Powell told Louis J. Weichmann, who was a boarder in the house, that "Wood" was a clerk in Parr's china shop