Sam Mudd's Great-Great-Granddaughter

[GGGDaughter]

Hello,

I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Elizabeth "Elsabet" Kaplan. I am both Dr. Mudd's great-great-granddaughter and first cousin, six times removed, of President Lincoln's Aunt Mary (Mudd) Lincoln; she was Mordecai Lincoln's wife.

I joined the Symposium a couple days ago. When I did so, I wrote to Roger and told him who I am because I wanted to be certain he admitted me. I'm not just some weirdo, although my husband Brian might beg to differ.

This morning, I received Roger's request, asking me to post what I'd written to him. Here is the substantive portion of my email:

"I registered with the Symposium a moment ago. You won't have heard of me before, most likely. Stella (Mudd) Thelen is my mother. Tom Mudd is obviously my uncle. Richard Mudd was my grandfather, and I primarily grew up at his home. So obviously Sam Mudd was my great-great-grandfather. I am writing a book about what it has been like being part of this family.

When I was about 12, I learned Dr. Mudd had slaves. I didn't really want to know much more than that. But I loved my grandpa, so I sometimes went to his speeches. I was living in Virginia and working in DC when the DC appellate court heard the case on the ABCMR review. So I went with my family to the hearing. My experience of that situation was a bit different; I was in the Pentagon Metro station trying to go to work when the plane hit the building on 9/11. I well-understood the government's need to end terrorism in DC as promptly as possible. I was torn, as you can imagine.

Last September, 2025, I was nearly done writing a memoir about overcoming amnesia from a traumatic assault in 1987. I decided to investigate my great-great-grandfather's situation, certain of his guilt. I'd passed the Ohio bar and worked for a short time as a criminal defense attorney. I'd also worked for a US inventor who supplies engineering services to NASA and the USAF; I took charge of helping them stop an international criminal conspiracy and was successful. So I bring something new to the table.

I am currently conducting my own investigation into my ancestor's story, unbiased as much as possible because I truly do want to know what happened. I want to understand my family's penchant for hiding secrets because I believe that led, in part, to my amnesia."

---

That was my email. I was sure of Dr. Mudd's guilt when I started reading about him in an investigative fashion last September. I thought it might take me about a day or so to learn all I needed to know. I started out by reading "Blood on the Moon" because I figured that was a good intro to the other side of the story. But it left me with more questions than answers. I'm now well into my third read-through of the trial transcripts and numerous writings. I hope to be done with that this month. I'll probably be done with this umpteenth draft around June. So I'll have a somewhat completed manuscript sometime this fall. Hopefully!

I'm scheduled to speak at the Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table in May of 2027.

I look forward to meeting each of you. Please feel free to introduce yourself. If you have a story to share about my family, I'd love to hear it. Also, if you want to tell me your opinion, I'm open to that too. I'm expecting some people to hate me, some people to be proud of me, and most people to be in the middle.

[jbarry]

(04-08-2026 09:06 AM)GGGDaughter Wrote:  Hello,

I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Elizabeth "Elsabet" Kaplan. I am both Dr. Mudd's great-great-granddaughter and first cousin, six times removed, of President Lincoln's Aunt Mary (Mudd) Lincoln; she was Mordecai Lincoln's wife.

I joined the Symposium a couple days ago. When I did so, I wrote to Roger and told him who I am because I wanted to be certain he admitted me. I'm not just some weirdo, although my husband Brian might beg to differ.

This morning, I received Roger's request, asking me to post what I'd written to him. Here is the substantive portion of my email:

"I registered with the Symposium a moment ago. You won't have heard of me before, most likely. Stella (Mudd) Thelen is my mother. Tom Mudd is obviously my uncle. Richard Mudd was my grandfather, and I primarily grew up at his home. So obviously Sam Mudd was my great-great-grandfather. I am writing a book about what it has been like being part of this family.

When I was about 12, I learned Dr. Mudd had slaves. I didn't really want to know much more than that. But I loved my grandpa, so I sometimes went to his speeches. I was living in Virginia and working in DC when the DC appellate court heard the case on the ABCMR review. So I went with my family to the hearing. My experience of that situation was a bit different; I was in the Pentagon Metro station trying to go to work when the plane hit the building on 9/11. I well-understood the government's need to end terrorism in DC as promptly as possible. I was torn, as you can imagine.

Last September, 2025, I was nearly done writing a memoir about overcoming amnesia from a traumatic assault in 1987. I decided to investigate my great-great-grandfather's situation, certain of his guilt. I'd passed the Ohio bar and worked for a short time as a criminal defense attorney. I'd also worked for a US inventor who supplies engineering services to NASA and the USAF; I took charge of helping them stop an international criminal conspiracy and was successful. So I bring something new to the table.

I am currently conducting my own investigation into my ancestor's story, unbiased as much as possible because I truly do want to know what happened. I want to understand my family's penchant for hiding secrets because I believe that led, in part, to my amnesia."

---

That was my email. I was sure of Dr. Mudd's guilt when I started reading about him in an investigative fashion last September. I thought it might take me about a day or so to learn all I needed to know. I started out by reading "Blood on the Moon" because I figured that was a good intro to the other side of the story. But it left me with more questions than answers. I'm now well into my third read-through of the trial transcripts and numerous writings. I hope to be done with that this month. I'll probably be done with this umpteenth draft around June. So I'll have a somewhat completed manuscript sometime this fall. Hopefully!

I'm scheduled to speak at the Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table in May of 2027.

I look forward to meeting each of you. Please feel free to introduce yourself. If you have a story to share about my family, I'd love to hear it. Also, if you want to tell me your opinion, I'm open to that too. I'm expecting some people to hate me, some people to be proud of me, and most people to be in the middle.

Welcome, Elsabet! I look forward to the discussion on what is among the most heavily contested aspects of the conspiracy. I look forward to the perspective and family knowledge you will bring to this forum.

Joe Barry

[RJNorton]

I second Joe!

[Anita]

Welcome Elsabet! I was very excited to see your post this morning. I second Joe and Roger.

[bob_summers]

Hi Elsabet. Welcome to Roger's Lincoln Symposium.

I think most historians agree that Dr. Mudd was innocent of having anything to do with the assassination of President Lincoln, but was guilty of lying to those hunting Booth after the assassination.

One of the military judges said after the trial that "Dr. Mudd attracted much interest and his guilt as an active conspirator was not clearly made out. His main guilt was the fact that he failed to deliver them, that is, Booth and Herold, to their pursuers."

Andrew Johnson's pardon said essentially the same thing: "I am satisfied that the guilt found by the said judgment against Samuel A. Mudd was of receiving, entertaining, harboring, and concealing John Wilkes Booth and David E. Herold, with the intent to aid, abet and assist them in escaping from justice after the assassination of the late President of the United States, and not of any other or greater participation or complicity in said abominable crime."

Dr. Mudd knew Booth well, having hosted him overnight at his farm house in November 1864, and meeting him again a month later in Washington.

So, why did Dr. Mudd mislead those hunting Booth?

He may have been afraid a captured Booth would implicate him in an earlier plot of Booth to kidnap the president. While there is no evidence that Dr. Mudd was ever part of that plot, he would have known about it if Booth had tried to recruit him into it during their two meetings.

You mentioned Dr. Dick Mudd and his son Tom Mudd. We are indebted to both for their hard work in researching and preserving what is known of Dr. Mudd's life. Dr. Dick's 2-volume Mudd Family of the United States is a genealogical treasure chest. He donated many of his research records to the Special Collections Division of the Lauinger Memorial Library at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Well worth a visit.

When Dr. Dick passed away, Tom Mudd invited the Family Search genealogists to digitize his father's files, which can be found at:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/cata...%20Library

You will also find a tremendous amount of well-researched information about Dr. Mudd at David Taylor's lincolnconspirators.com web site, and the many YouTube videos Dave has submitted.

And, of course, the members here at Roger's Lincoln Symposium are a wonderfully smart and non-judgmental resource always willing to contribute their helpful knowledge.

Happy hunting!

[wpbinzel]

I add my welcome as well! I am the president of the Surratt Society (which fosters research on Lincoln's assassination and all related topics), and I lead tours at the Dr. Mudd House Museum. I am also past-president of the Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia. This website is a vast wealth of information (thank you, Roger) and I think you will find an incredible willingness, for the sake of history, to share what information we have.

[wpbinzel]

(04-10-2026 09:12 AM)bob_summers Wrote:  Hi Elsabet. Welcome to Roger's Lincoln Symposium.

Happy hunting!

Bob - please email or pm me. Thanks. Bill

[Steve]

Welcome Elsabet!

Perhaps getting into contact with Dave Taylor might be helpful for you with a lot of information about Mudd's relationships with Booth and the conspirators, though he might be busy with his tours right now.

I would recommend watching his 7 part history of Mudd and the other prisoners at Fort Jefferson which can be found on his YouTube channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/@LincolnConspirators/videos