In today's police jargon, Dr. Samuel A. Mudd would be referred to as a 'known associate' of presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth. What or how much he knew of Booth and his schemes is still a matter of interpretation. It is certain on that night that Booth and accomplice David Herrold came knocking at his door to mend Booth's broken leg as a result of jumping off the balcony at Ford's Theater after shooting Abraham Lincoln, Mudd had no way of knowing what had just happened.
He was acquainted with Booth, it was no accident Booth stopped by that night, he knew where a doctor was. Mudd obfuscated the facts and that might just have earned him the trip to the Dry Tortugas.
The Prisoner of Shark Island overlooks these details. What it does not do is overlook the complete disregard for due process. Booth, his confederates in the assassination plot against top government officials, and those like Mudd who got drawn into the orbit of Booth were tried by drumhead military tribunals as is shown. It's also to be remembered that we were five days after Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Other armies like Joe Johnston's, Richard Taylor's were still in the field. Confederate elected officials like Jefferson Davis were also at large. It was by no means an easy time for the justice system. Abraham Lincoln himself had suspended habeas corpus during the war and Dr. Mudd got caught in that order.
Warner Baxter and Gloria Stuart make a fine Dr. and Mrs. Mudd. Baxter articulates well the man caught in a Kafkaesque nightmare. Also note some fine performances that John Ford elicited from Claude Gillingwater as Baxter's unreconstructed rebel father-in-law, Harry Carey, Sr. as the prison commandant, and John Carradine as the stockade sergeant who has a burning hatred for Mudd the man accused of complicity in Lincoln's death. Such was the public opinion of most in the north.
The Prisoner of Shark Island also graphically illustrates Mudd's heroism in fighting the yellow fever epidemic in the Dry Tortugas prison. That part is completely factual and did win him a pardon in 1869 from outgoing President Andrew Johnson. That by the way is no accident. Johnson by that time had broken with the Radical Republicans and had escaped removal from office via impeachment by one vote in the Senate. The power to pardon however remains the sole property of the president and I'm sure that was Johnson's way of thumbing his nose at incoming President Ulysses S. Grant. There was no love lost between those two. We've recently seen an example of the abuse of the pardoning power with Bill Clinton's last days in the White House and I'm sure Scooter Libby will get a similar pardon from George W. Bush as he leaves office.
Dr. Mudd however really earned his and if you watch The Prisoner of Shark Island, I'm sure you'll agree.
He was acquainted with Booth, it was no accident Booth stopped by that night, he knew where a doctor was. Mudd obfuscated the facts and that might just have earned him the trip to the Dry Tortugas.
The Prisoner of Shark Island overlooks these details. What it does not do is overlook the complete disregard for due process. Booth, his confederates in the assassination plot against top government officials, and those like Mudd who got drawn into the orbit of Booth were tried by drumhead military tribunals as is shown. It's also to be remembered that we were five days after Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Other armies like Joe Johnston's, Richard Taylor's were still in the field. Confederate elected officials like Jefferson Davis were also at large. It was by no means an easy time for the justice system. Abraham Lincoln himself had suspended habeas corpus during the war and Dr. Mudd got caught in that order.
Warner Baxter and Gloria Stuart make a fine Dr. and Mrs. Mudd. Baxter articulates well the man caught in a Kafkaesque nightmare. Also note some fine performances that John Ford elicited from Claude Gillingwater as Baxter's unreconstructed rebel father-in-law, Harry Carey, Sr. as the prison commandant, and John Carradine as the stockade sergeant who has a burning hatred for Mudd the man accused of complicity in Lincoln's death. Such was the public opinion of most in the north.
The Prisoner of Shark Island also graphically illustrates Mudd's heroism in fighting the yellow fever epidemic in the Dry Tortugas prison. That part is completely factual and did win him a pardon in 1869 from outgoing President Andrew Johnson. That by the way is no accident. Johnson by that time had broken with the Radical Republicans and had escaped removal from office via impeachment by one vote in the Senate. The power to pardon however remains the sole property of the president and I'm sure that was Johnson's way of thumbing his nose at incoming President Ulysses S. Grant. There was no love lost between those two. We've recently seen an example of the abuse of the pardoning power with Bill Clinton's last days in the White House and I'm sure Scooter Libby will get a similar pardon from George W. Bush as he leaves office.
Dr. Mudd however really earned his and if you watch The Prisoner of Shark Island, I'm sure you'll agree.