Here's the latest adventure in my (Rob) encounters with ghosts and spirits. This one took me awhile to write up, and I've been meaning to post it since this past weekend. Tom and I took our friend Laureen to the Samuel Mudd House on September 6, 2009 when she was visiting us from New Hampshire. - Rob
PHOTO: Laureen, Tom, Rob
Samuel A. Mudd was a Maryland physician who was accused and imprisoned for conspiring with and helping John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of President of the 16th U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln. Booth killed Lincoln at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865 by firing a bullet into the back of Lincoln's head. Booth, an actor and southern sympathizer, broke his left leg while fleeing the theatre. Booth met David Herold after the assassination and they fled together through southern Maryland enroute to their destination in Virginia. They stopped at Mudd's house around 4 a.m. ET on April 15 where a reluctant Dr. Mudd set, splinted and bandaged Booth's broken leg. Further, Mudd arranged for John Best, a local carpenter, to make crutches for Booth.
Henry Lowe Mudd, gave his Samuel 218 acres of farmland as a wedding present, where he built a new house for Samuel.
Dr. Mudd's house still stands today as a museum at 3725 Dr. Samuel Mudd Road, Waldorf, Maryland 20601. Property consists of the House Museum, Gift Shop, Kitchen, Exhibit Building and some outbuildings located on 10 acres. Tours are given and there are some stories of paranormal activity.
Tom and I took our friend Laureen to the Samuel Mudd House on September 6, 2009. The previous week, we had seen an episode of the Sci Fi Channel "Ghost Hunters" that featured their work in the Samuel Mudd House. During their investigation, they picked up an EVP, or electronic voice phenomena of a man's voice saying "I am innocent." Obviously, this was Dr. Mudd letting the Ghost Hunters know that he was not a co-conspirator with John Wilkes Booth in President Lincoln's assassination. The other incredible piece of evidence the Ghost Hunters found was the shape of a hooded figure crossing in front of them on their infrared camera while they were walking around outside of one side of the Mudd House!
On September 6, when Tom, Laureen and I pulled into the driveway of the Mudd House, I instantly developed a headache. That told me there were ghosts around, and they were also outside (just as the Ghost Hunters confirmed in their investigation). I didn't sense any specific ghosts outside, so we went inside and took the tour. Our guide was an older woman named Georgiana. She was extremely knowledgeable of the history of the Mudd family and all of the artifacts in the house, and she had a good sense of humor. She would also confirm some paranormal happenings.
The tour began on the first floor of the house. We walked in the front door which opened to a small hallway. The first door on the left went into the front parlor, but we walked past that and entered the second (and last) room on the left, the dining room. Tom, Laureen and I stood at the far wall of the dining room and my back was against the wall. No one was behind me.
Meanwhile, Georgiana, our tour guide, stood in the parlor and explained that Booth came to Mudd's house at 4 a.m. on that fateful morning in a disguise, and gave a different name, explaining that he fell off his horse and broke his leg. The doctor brought him into the front parlor and set him on a couch under the front windows, where Mudd set Booth's leg.
During Georgiana's talk I whispered to the entity that I was sensing "I know you're here, please give me a sign." Moments later, I felt two fingers tap my right shoulder! I turned and looked behind me and there was a bare wall, about four inches from my back. No one was behind me. I sensed that there was a male presence there with me, and the ghost had confirmed it through tapping me. I felt it was Dr. Mudd himself. I then asked the ghost to do it again to make sure I actually felt what I did. I waited for the confirmation, but it didn't take long.
The tour guide then brought us upstairs, through a small hallway that connected to two bedrooms, the doctor's office and a door to the attic. We entered the front bedroom and learned Booth recovered in that room. I didn't feel anything there. We then moved into the hallway and I leaned against the banister that faced open air over the stairway that we climbed to the second floor. It was there that I received the second sign by way of a tap once in the middle of my back!
The confirmation of tactile experiences in the house came immediately. When Georgiana took us into the second bedroom she asked "Has anyone been touched on the hand, here?" I told her about being touched on the shoulder on the first floor, and again being touched in the center of my back in the hallway. She said it has occurred numerous times in the house. In fact, she said that in that hallway where I was tapped, another tour guide was explaining about the house when the nearby door to the attic swung open and the guide felt a burst of cold air sweep past him. It was obviously a ghost, between the action of opening door and the cold air (ghosts draw heat and energy out of the atmosphere to manifest themselves).
PHOTO: Outside of Dr. Mudd's office where I was touched again, this time on the elbow.
The last room upstairs that we entered was the small doctor's office. I took five steps inside the office and was at the doctor's desk next to a window facing the back of the house. There, I was touched on the elbow! When I walked back into the hallway, Georgiana asked me if I was touched again, and I told her I was touched on the elbow!
We then exited the house and walked around the backyard, where Dr. Mudd's tombstone was located in a small wooden shed. However, I didn't sense any ghosts in the backyard, nor did I receive any further touches before we departed.
