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.
Ring, Grandfather, Ring
Changes to Free National Park Admission,World's Longest Fossilized Footprints | National Park News
Nevermore
Marconi
Second Century Camping
A Tale of Two Roads
New NPS Units, Bears, Rescues, and Fires | National Park News
Leave No Trace (or...How to Poop in the Woods)
The Million Dollar Room
Wolverines, an Overturned Tanker, and a $500,000 Fine | National Park News
Parks During a Pandemic
90 Years in the West
News From the Parks: New NPS Funding, Strange Blue Squares at Zion, Cuyahoga Dams Removed
The Complexities of Climate Change
Pullman
Sand Creek
News from the Parks | Big Bend Closes, Yosemite Cancels Reservations
Hey Bear!
The Green Table
The Great American Outdoors Act
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