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HomeShop at BookSurgeReferenceGeneralBackstage With Booth: Behind the Scenes of the Lincoln Assassination with the Innocent 'Conspirator' |
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3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Very Interesting! Mar 17, 2009
I enjoyed this book because it's not the same old rehash of Booth sneaking into Ford's Theater, creeping across the back of the dress circle, slipping into the President's dimly lit box, shooting Lincoln in the head and then making his quick getaway. That's all well documented and written about due to the fact that a lot of theater patrons actually saw what happened that night of April 14, 1965. That is, from audience's point of view. But in this book the author uses his extensive knowledge of the theater to go backstage of Ford's Theater and tell the story from a different perspective, that of the stagehands - namely a particular man by the name of Edmond `Ned' Spangler.
In theater parlance, Ned Spangler was what they called a sceneshifter. He did general carpentry around the theater including building sets, specialized props and so forth and, during the actual performance of the play he helped shift the background props to accommodate the various scenes. It was a busy job that kept Ned jumping from the time the play opened until the end of the last act. So he didn't have time to do much else. Plus, it gave Ned a kind of bird's eye view of the action in the theater. But there was something about Ned that bothered the investigators of Lincoln's shooting. First, he was a long time personal acquaintance of John Wilkes Booths. That alone was enough to arouse suspicion. And, second, he had been seen earlier that evening talking to Booth in the alleyway at the back door to the theater. In fact, Booth had asked Ned to hold his getaway horse - another highly suspicious act. So Ned was arrested.
Now it would be unfair of me to give away any more of the mystery. Namely, was Ned Spangler guilty or innocent? Suffice it to say, that in my opinion, Backstage With Booth: Behind the Scenes of the Lincoln Assassination with the Innocent 'Conspirator' though not as highbrow as maybe some other books on the subject, it is, nonetheless, an interesting read.
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