His Name Is Still Mudd: The Case Against Doctor Samuel Alexander Mudd

by Edward Steers Jr.

On April 15, 1865, Dr. Samuel Mudd treated the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth just hours after Booth murdered President Lincoln. Learning of the assassination, Mudd failed to turn booth over to local authorities. Since that time, a controversy has simmered regarding Mudd’s innocence or complicity in the conspiracy. Arguing forcefully and with the weight of great evidence, Dr. Edward Steers proves how mistaken modern efforts to exonerate Mudd are. Mudd knew booth well; he had entertained him as an overnight guest just months prior to the assassination. Mudd even plotted with Booth to capture Lincoln, and introduced Booth to key conspirators.

Genres: History, Civil War, Biography, Nonfiction, American Civil War, American History, Presidents

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1997

Reviews

[Rick Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dr Samuel Mudd was a traitor, a liar and a conspirator. This book makes that clear and erases a century of trying to Muddy the narrative by the Mudd family. Unfortunately the book is poorly organized, repetitive and rife with spelling errors. That’s what prevents me from giving the book a higher rating.

[David Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exceptional deep dive into the involvement of Dr. Samuel Mudd in the Lincoln assassination. Despite 150 years of attempts to clear his name, Mudd is shown to have repeatedly lied about how much he knew Booth and the circumstances of that and previous encounters.

[Ross Heinricy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book documents the many participants in the assassination of President Lincoln. In detail, the story is told from many different vantage points and allows for us to understand the many working of that fateful hour. What started out as a plot to kidnap the president turned into a murder conspiracy, not only of the President, but included three other heads of state as well. Dr. Mudd was found guilty of involvement in this conspiracy and was sentenced to prison in a federal prison in Florida. While there he was tried under a military tribunal and the legality of that type of trial is dealt with in the content of the book. Later, President Andrew Johnson acquitted Dr. Mudd, and he was pardoned, but his ancestry sought and fought for the record books to completely clear his name of any wrongdoing.

[Argum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and well researched but organization is a little strange. Partially chronological partially thematic it feels jumpy at times. It seems to me that Dr Mudd did in fact participate at least in the original kidnapping plan and no way he didn't know Booth for Booth straight off. Had no idea this was such a thing with Congressional and Presidential actions.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much more interesting than it sounds. ;)