Mudd's Descendants Disagree on Ancestor's Knowledge of Plot to Kill Lincoln

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A Prince George’s County woman and her brother will spend April 14 – the 150th anniversary of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln – proclaiming the innocence of their ancestor, Dr. Samuel Mudd, in the plot to kill the nation’s leader.

Lincoln died after he was shot by actor John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. Booth broke his leg as he fled the crime, and rode with accomplice David Herold into Charles County, where they arrived at Mudd’s home early on April 15. Mudd, a country doctor, splinted Booth’s leg and let the men rest at his house for several hours, according to the Dr. Mudd House Museum website.

Mudd was one of eight defendants convicted of conspiring to assassinate Lincoln. Four were hanged, while Mudd and three others served time in prison. He was pardoned after four years for his life-saving efforts treating fellow prisoners on an island in the Florida Keys, according to historians.

Some of Mudd’s great-grandchildren say their ancestor had no knowledge of Booth’s intentions, while another says the doctor and Booth had met previously.

“I’m a defender of my great-grandfather and I believe he was totally innocent,” Thomas Mudd, 74, of Saginaw, MI, told WTOP.

His sister, 86-year-old Mary Mudd McHale, 86, of Morningside, agrees, saying Dr. Mudd was caught up in the nation’s grief following Lincoln’s death

“He could not have known about the assassination,” McHale told WTOP, noting that Booth’s diary records that Friday, April 14, was the day he decided to shoot the president.

“There was no way to get the word down to Dr. Mudd,” McHale says.

However, another great-grandson, Robert K. Summers of Arlington, VA, believes that Mudd knew of Booth’s plan to kidnap Lincoln and exchange him for Confederate prisoners before the South surrendered, ending the Civil War.

“No he wasn’t guilty of having anything to do with the assassination,” Summers told NBC Washington. “Yes, he was guilty of harboring Booth.”

Thomas Mudd disagrees with that account, saying their ancestor told a cousin, Dr. George Mudd, about two suspicious men who had been at his house. That information was passed along to the authorities the next day, Thomas Mudd says, which helped capture the fugitives.

»Photo of Dr. Samuel Mudd from Dr. Mudd House Museum website; screenshot of Mudd’s home from NBC Washington