Dr. Mudd's Diagnosis

[Leon Greene]

Even though the official autopsy didn't report a compound fracture, this interesting report appeared in the New York Tribune on April 29, 1865:
"The surgeons who held the autopsy upon Booth assert that he must have endured untold anguish of body, as well as of mind, from the nature of the fracture of his leg, the small bone having cut its way through the flesh and protruded."

If true, this report adds additional information beyond the briefly-worded autopsy. The bone could have worked its way through the skin after the original injury, or could have occurred at the time of the fracture. Either way, it could have resulted in infection requiring an amputation in those days.

And, yes, severe tissue injury alone can worsen with time and additional trauma to the point of gangrene. Add a bit of infection, and things become worse more rapidly.

It seems that the more we think we know, the less we can really be certain. But all of you on this Forum are already aware of this phenomenon.