Edman Spangler, a stagehand who often minded Booth's horse, got six years in prison on testimony that a 1940 history calls false.
Edman Spangler, born in York, Pennsylvania, in 1825, was a carpenter and stagehand at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., who had known John Wilkes Booth, the actor who shot President Abraham Lincoln, since working on the Booth family estate in the 1850s [1].
A military court (a panel of officers of the Union Army, the army of the United States side in the Civil War, acting as judge and jury) did not find him guilty of the murder plot but sentenced him to six years in prison for helping Booth escape. He was sent to Fort Jefferson, a prison on the Dry Tortugas islands off Key West, Florida, and pardoned in 1869.
On the night of the shooting Booth rode into the alley behind the theatre and asked Spangler to hold his horse; Spangler, busy backstage, handed it to a theatre worker who sold peanuts. Another stagehand, Jacob Ritterspaugh, told investigators Spangler hit him and told him not to say which way Booth went, and an officer said Spangler looked most like the man near the back door. A 2020 U.S. Army history of the assassination says it is uncertain how accurate Ritterspaugh's statement was.
Historian George Bryan (1940) argues Spangler could not have known of Booth's plan and that Ritterspaugh, who wanted reward money, bore false witness. After prison, Dr. Samuel Mudd, whom he befriended there, gave him five acres of land to farm.
[Report #200] WHO. 'Edman Spangler was born on 10 August 1825 in York, Pennsylvania.' (
history.army.mil) 'In the 1850s, Spangler worked as a carpenter on the Booth family estate in Bel Air, Maryland, where he met John Wilkes Booth.' (
history.army.mil) At the theatre 'He frequently spent the night in the theater or in the stable behind it and often took care of Booth’s horse while there.' (
history.army.mil)
14 APRIL 1865. 'Booth arrived in Baptist Alley behind the theater around 2130 and asked Ned Spangler to hold his horse.' (
history.army.mil) 'Spangler, who had duties backstage, handed the horse off to Joseph Burroughs, who was nicknamed “Johnny Peanut” because he sold peanuts at the theater.' (
history.army.mil)
ARREST. 'On 15 April, the Ford’s Theatre stagehand Edman Spangler was arrested due to his connections to Booth' (
history.army.mil).
THE TRIAL. 'In the end, only eight individuals would stand trial as apprehended conspirators, accused of conspiracy to murder Lincoln, Johnson, Seward, and Grant.' (
history.army.mil) 'The trial began 10 May 1865, three weeks after Lincoln’s assassination, and ended on 30 June.' (
history.army.mil) Under its rules 'only a majority vote was needed to gain a conviction, although a two-thirds vote was necessary to give the death penalty' (
history.army.mil). 'Jake Rittersback (also known as Jacob Ritterspaugh), told authorities that when he tried to chase Booth out the back of the theater, Spangler had hit him in the face and told him not to say which way Booth had gone.' (
history.army.mil) 'It is uncertain how accurate this statement was.' (
history.army.mil) Major Stewart testified that 'Spangler looked “more like the person [he] saw near the door than anybody else.”' (
history.army.mil)
VERDICT AND SENTENCE. 'Unlike the others, Spangler was not found guilty of the conspiracy charge, but he was sentenced to six years in prison for aiding Booth in his escape.' (
history.army.mil) Bryan: 'Edman Spangler was to be imprisoned at hard labor for six years.' (
archive.org) 'Their accomplices—Arnold, Mudd, O’Laughlen, and Spangler—were sent to prison at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas near Key West, Florida.' (
history.army.mil)
DISPUTED. Bryan (1940): 'Several circumstances show that Spangler could have had no knowledge of Booth's design.' (
archive.org) 'We know that Jake Ritterspaugh, who bore false witness against Spangler, had been heard to say he would like to get some of the reward money' (
archive.org). 'It was believed by many that scene shifter Edman Spangler cut the rough mortise that was found in the wall behind the vestibule door, supplied the wooden bar, and bored the quarter-inch hole in the door of box 7.' (
archive.org) 'There is no evidence that he did any of these things.' (
archive.org) Army guide and Bryan both held.
AFTER 1869. 'In 1869, Spangler and the others were pardoned by President Johnson.' (
history.army.mil) 'Having become friends with Spangler while in prison, Dr. Mudd gave him five acres of land to farm.' (
history.army.mil)
HELD. 'Uncertainties remain over the veracity of the evidence, the witness statements, and the degree of guilt of those who were tried by the commission.' (
history.army.mil)