Mudd Descendants visit Fort Jefferson NP

[John Fazio]

(07-25-2015 03:59 PM)BettyO Wrote:  Hey, John !

I believe what Steers believed. Mudd ( like all the guys ) was more involved with the Confederate underground than was led to be believed. Sure, he knew JWB , knew him well, but when Booth and Herold came on that Saturday morning, he didn't know JWB had shot Lincoln.

Betty:

That may be true, but if it is true, one has to discount or ignore the statements of Brigadier General Levi Axtell Dodd and Assistant Paymaster William F. Keeler (both of whom were aboard the Florida, which took the prisoners to Ft. Jefferson) that Dr. Mudd had admitted that he had recognized Booth immediately and that he knew he had murdered Lincoln. One also has to ignore Keeler's letter to his Congressman in which he said "In conversation with myself, & I think with others on our passage down he (Dr. Mudd) admitted what I believe the prosecution failed to prove at his trial ---viz---that he knew who Booth was when he set his leg & what crime he was guilty (of)." Add to these statements the testimony of Daniel J. Thomas, who said that Dr. Mudd had said to him, among other inflammatory things, that "the President, Cabinet and other Union men in the State of Maryland would be killed in six or seen weeks", and we have a fairly strong case that Dr. Mudd knew what was coming and who was likely to be the agent to accomplish at least part of it.

Further, if we accept the theory that Dr. Mudd was ignorant of the crime, we have to ask ourselves: What did Dr. Mudd suppose had happened to Booth and Herold, the famous actor and dandy whom he knew quite well, to cause them to show up on his doorstep at 4:00 am in a bedraggled state, in terrible condition, and, in Booth's case, with a broken leg? Common sense dictates that he must have realized that only some very extraordinary circumstance would put them there at that time and in that condition. That he does not appear to have inquired or made an issue of it suggests that he already knew or at least had a very good idea of what brought them there at that time. In other words, if we accept as fact Dr. Mudd's recognition of one of his callers as Booth (and the case for it is clear and convincing), then we are almost compelled to accept his knowledge of Booth's crime.

Further, if we accept the theory of ignorance, then we must suppose that all the help Booth and Herold received from the mail line operatives (Dr. Mudd, Cox, Jones, Hughes, Harbin, Baden, Bryant, Quesenberry, et al.) was spontaneous rather that prearranged. Does that seem likely? I think not,

Further, if we accept the theory of ignorance, we are almost forced to conclude that Dr. Mudd really and truly believed that Booth's conspiracy had kidnapping the President as its goal, rather than assassination, which, in my opinion, is absurd.

John