Dr. Samuel Mudd, the mind behind Lincoln's assassination

Dr. Samuel Mudd has been called the mind behind Lincoln's assassination, but was he really?

Mudd was a physician who treated John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated Lincoln, after Booth broke his leg during his escape from the Ford's Theatre.

Dr. Mudd was a physician from Maryland who had been involved in a conspiracy to kidnap Lincoln during the Civil War. When that plot failed, Mudd supposedly helped Booth escape from Washington, D.C. after the assassination. He was later arrested, tried, and convicted of being a co-conspirator in the assassination.

Mudd was arrested and imprisoned for his role in Booth's escape, but he was never charged with any crime related to the assassination.

Mudd's trial was a media circus, and he was convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison. While in prison, Dr. Mudd maintained his innocence, saying that he had no idea Booth was going to kill the President. He even wrote a letter to Lincoln's widow, begging for her forgiveness.

He was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson in 1869, but he remained a divisive figure in American society.

Mudd died in 1883 out of pneumonia, but his role in Lincoln's assassination remains a mystery.

Did he know of Booth's plans? Was he simply a innocent bystander? Or was he part of a larger conspiracy?

We may never know the truth, but one thing is certain: Dr. Samuel Mudd played a significant role in one of the most momentous events in American history.