Mudd Descendants visit Fort Jefferson NP

[L Verge]

Thanks, Dave. Terry Alford was here this morning in conjunction with the second teachers' institute sponsored this month by Ford's Theatre. He had emailed me about some things just after I posted about Demond here, so I put the question to him about this man. Here's his response (after I apologized for missing Demond's name in the index for Fortune's Fool).

"The letters are prob from Barbee Papers at Georgetown or the Bates Papers there. One or the other has Demond letters.
Old-age stuff, very confused if I remember correctly."

The reference in the book is only to Demond's statement about Booth fleeing after the assassination (pg. 273). I asked about Demond's reference to the wee small hours of the night of April 13-14. Terry said he did not put it in his book because he did not believe it. If the only source is Bates, I would be extremely wary also. Even Barbee has some spurious ideas - such as Booth and Herold never stopped at the tavern here.

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(07-27-2015 06:23 PM)Lincoln Wonk Wrote:  Did anyone see this article on Tom Mudd in the Guardian. I think the statement from Tom about history being pliable is interesting. What do you all think?

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/...onspirator

As far as history being pliable, judging by the ways the assassination story has been bent, twisted, broken, etc. over the years, I tend to agree with Tom. In my opinion, however, his family is responsible for a lot of that "flexibility" when it pertains to Dr. Sam.

Revisionist historians will also prefer to manipulate history to suit current trends. Some of the "new" interpretations can be good and some not so good. Sticking to proven facts is always best.