Report that Booth's Horse Fell on Him

[wsanto]

It is interesting that in the Townsend interview with Dr. Mudd that George Mudd gives his medical opinion on Booth's broken leg. Here we have another contemporary account by a party, intimately involved with the assassination, that recounts how Booth broke his leg in the leap to the stage as a matter of fact (remember Thomas Jones' book also states it as a matter of fact). He goes on to explain his medical opinion as to the mechanism of injury that caused the break. He never even mentions the horse fall as a possibility as this explanation was apparently universally disbelieved at the time of the interview.

It is apparent to me that as of April 28th 1865, when most newspapers were reporting Booth's capture, that the stage leap explanation become widely accepted as the truth. This was before Booth's diary was available to the press.