My Journey on Lincoln's Assassination

[L Verge]

Dr. Mudd and his descendants should thank their lucky stars that the Mudd family had the ability to retain Thomas Ewing as his defense attorney. No doubt that he was a good lawyer, but he was also a Union military officer with good political connections that had been established by his father and other family members before the war. Despite this, Dr. Sam failed to hang by one vote. His fate seemed to depend on the defense showing that he had no contact with Booth from the time of the aborted kidnap in mid-March to the moment that the assassin and Herold came to his door early on April 15. BTW, Mr. Griffith - when I clicked on the link to your site that you provided above, I got only the 404 response.

Again, I would urge folks interested in details on both sides of the issue to read Dr. Steers's book on His Name Is Still Mudd as well as some good ones that date back well into the 20th century -- The Union vs. Dr. Mudd by Higdon and The Riddle of Dr. Mudd by Samuel Carter III. I can tell you from personal experience that Dr. Mudd's granddaughter, Louise Mudd Arehart (who saved the Mudd home and turned it into a museum based on the innocence of grandpa) hated Samuel Carter III!

Steers also edited The Trial, which contains not only the Pitman version of the trial transcript, but also detailed chapters on the major characters - each written by different scholars/authors in the field. Another excellent book along the same lines (individual chapters on individual defendants by individual scholars) is The Lincoln Assassination Riddle, compiled by Judge Frank Williams and Lincoln author Michael Burkhimer.