America’s National Parks Podcast
Society & Culture:Places & Travel
On a Sunday in November of 1864, John Wilkes Booth first made the acquaintance of Dr. Samuel Mudd. The men discussed a horse sale, and Booth was invited to spend the night at Mudd's home. On December 23, the two men met again, by accident, on a street in Washington, DC.
Four months later, John Wilkes Booth shot and killed President Abraham Lincoln. He broke his left leg in the process, leaping to the stage at Ford's Theater. He and his getaway man David Harold knocked on the door of Dr. Mudd at four in the morning for assistance. Mudd set, splinted, and bandaged the broken leg. The two stayed with Mudd for about 12 hours, as the doctor's handyman made a pair of crutches.
Within days Dr. Mudd was arrested and charged with conspiracy and with harboring Booth and Harold during their escape. Though he had met Booth on at least two prior occasions, Mudd told authorities he did not recognize his patient. He was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment, one vote shy of the death penalty.
Mudd was imprisoned in Fort Jefferson, in what is today Dry Tortugas National Park, an isolated Gulf of Mexico island fort. He attempted escape but failed before an epidemic of yellow fever broke out on the island. The fort's physician died, and Mudd took over the care sick. Due to his efforts, he received a full pardon from President Andrew Johnson and was released from prison a hero.
In 1936, a film was made loosely based on Mudd's story called THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND, and then 2 years later it was adapted into a radio drama, starring Gary Cooper as part of the Lux Radio Theater. On today's episode of America's National Parks, we're playing for you that program, which we've remastered and edited lightly.
Spooky Stories from National Parks
The Endangered Species Act
The 5 Senses of Death Valley
National Park News | Cave Waves, False Alarm Volcano, and More
Plains
Glacier Bay - Fisheries and Canneries
National Geographic’s ”America’s National Parks”: Interview With the Creators
The Year Of Water In America’s National Parks | National Park News
National Park Trip Planning with Jennifer Melroy of National Park Obsessed
Hampton - Enslavement and Manumission
National Park News | Access To Tallest Tree Blocked, Mobsters In The Bottom of Lake Mead
This Contested Land with McKenzie Long
The Failed Gold Rush
Restoring Yellowstone
News From the Parks | Yellowstone National Park is CLOSED, Plastic Sales Banned in Parks & More
Grand Register of the Yo-Semite Valley
Teddy Roosevelt’s Namesakes: One Man, Many Parks
Marsh Billings Rockefeller: Conservation on a Grand Scale
News FromThe Parks | ”Fee Free”Smokies to End, Rabbit Disease, Bird Migration & More
Betty Reid Soskin
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