Lincoln Assassination Conspiracy Trial Jeopardy

[Leon Greene]

Dr. Luke Pryor Blackburn was the Kentucky physician who plotted to infect the North with yellow fever, an early form of germ warfare. The plan was to distribute items contaminated with yellow fever in Northern cities. His first shipment of clothing and bedding from yellow fever patients in Bermuda was contained in five trunks and a small valise. These items were shipped from Bermuda in March 1864. Blackburn himself referred to "Big #2" as the largest and most deadly of the trunks, able to kill a man at 60 yards. Thus, "Big #2" is a reference to Blackburn's own description of the size and the lethality of the contents of that trunk. The Confederate Secret Service simply repeated the moniker. Little did Blackburn know that mosquitoes were needed to infect a person with yellow fever. They were the "unindicted co-conspirators," so to speak. While Blackburn's efforts were unsuccessful, many people attributed some yellow fever epidemics to his evil deeds. It wasn't until about 1901 that Dr. Walter Reed discovered the role of the mosquito in the transmission of yellow fever.