You Sockdologizing Old Man Trap!!
I will teach thing!
I will educate you on something!
Here’s a quote!!
‘You sockdologizing old man-trap!’
The significance of this quote (from the play ‘Our American Cousin’) pertains to its role as one of the play’s most laughed at lines. Knowing this, John Wilkes Booth waited for this line so that he could shoot Abraham Lincoln in the head at DC’s Ford Theatre & be on his way before anyone understood what happened. He then jumped from the box some twelve feet before tangling his riding spur in a treasury flag, causing him to break his leg according to some sources.
Interestingly...the narrative that he broke his leg is contested. That said, this prompted his visit to one Dr Mudd for treatment (which destroyed the physicians good name...‘your name is Mudd’.)
He was then arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment for possibly conspiring with Booth.
Imprisoned on an island to the west of the Florida Keys (the Dry Tortugas) he served his time until 1867 when a severe outbreak of Yellow Fever killed many...including the prison doctor. Rising to the occasion, Dr Mudd agreed to take over the dead physician’s position.
From this position he was able to rise to the challenge, inspiring hope while stemming the spread of disease.
In light of this, soldiers stationed at the fort wrote a petition drawing then President Johnson’s attention to Mudd’s role.
Finally, two years later, in 1869, Mudd was pardoned by the outgoing Johnson. He returned to Maryland where he resumed farming and even entered low level politics. He died in 1883 at the age of 49 from pneumonia.
In the end it would appear that Mudd’s sole role in the assassination was reportedly ‘naively’ attending to Booth’s ‘leg fracture’ when his physician services were called on.
Since his pardon, the general consensus is that Mudd was innocent...prompting post humous apologies to the Mudd family (nearly a century later) from both Jimmy Carter & Ronald Reagan.