Even so, he was found guilty of helping Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, escape and sentenced to six years of hard labor.

In the early 1850s, Spangler and Gifford helped to construct Tudor Hall, the summer retreat for the Booth family.

It was during this time that Spangler met future stage actor John Wilkes Booth who was then a child.

In 1861, the couple relocated to Washington, D.C., where Spangler began working as a carpenter and scene shifter at Ford's Theatre.

Although he became disagreeable after drinking too much, friends described him as a generally congenial and endearing "drudge" when sober and noted his love for practical jokes, children, and animals.

Five days later President Lincoln and his wife Mary attended a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater.

During that afternoon Spangler was asked by his employer, Harry Clay Ford, to help prepare the State Box for the President's anticipated attendance that evening.

When Spangler came out, Booth asked him to hold the mare he was riding, which he had hired from the stables of James W. Pumphrey.

Pumphrey had warned Booth that the horse was high spirited and she would break her halter if left unattended.

At about 10:15 PM John Wilkes Booth entered the president's box and assassinated Lincoln and then quickly escaped from the theater.

[7] Within a month of the assassination eight individuals including Spangler had been apprehended and sat in a military courtroom charged with conspiring to "kill and murder" President Lincoln and the three above named high level government officials.

The crime was done, "maliciously, unlawfully, and traitorously, and in aid of the existing armed rebellion against the United States of America".

A sense of the War department's attitude towards the defendants and the purpose of a military trial can be gleaned by the following three quotes.

[10] During his closing argument for the prosecution, Assistant Judge Advocate John Bingham stated, Who will dare to say in time of civil war "no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, and property, without due process of law?"

In peace, that wise provision of the Constitution must be, and is, enforced by civil courts; in war, it must be, and is, to a great extent, inoperative and disregarded".

"[16] Five days previously orchestra leader William Withers Jr. testified, "Where I stood on the stage (at the time of Booth's escape) was not more than a yard from the door.".

[18] Finally, John Sleichmann, a property man for the theatre, testified that when Booth had arrived he had spoken to Spangler and asked, "You'll help me all you can, won't you?

[18] Four of the eight defendants, Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt were sentenced to be hanged.

When the Holliday Street Theatre burned down in 1873, Spangler accepted an offer to live at Dr. Mudd's farm in Bryantown, Maryland (The two men had become friends in prison).

[23] He was buried in a graveyard connected with St. Peter's Church which was about two miles (3 km) from Dr. Mudd's home in Charles County, Maryland.

[24] Spangler's statement reads in part: I was born in York County, Pennsylvania, and am about forty-three years of age, I am a house carpenter by trade, and became acquainted with J. Wilkes Booth when a boy.

[...] I have acted as scene shifter in Ford's Theater, ever since it was first opened up, to the night of the assassination of President Lincoln.

A boy, Joseph Burroughs, commonly called 'Peanut John,' took care of them whenever Booth was absent from the city.

On the Monday evening previous to the assassination, Booth requested me to sell the horse, harness, and buggy, as he said he should leave the city soon.

I took them the next morning to the horse market, and had them put up at auction, with the instruction not to sell unless they would net two hundred and sixty dollars; this was in accordance with Booth's orders to me.

I was very busy at work at the time on the stage preparatory to the evening performance, and Rittespaugh went upstairs and brought one down.

In about a half hour afterward I heard a shot fired, and immediately saw a man run across the stage.

I never heard Booth express himself in favor of the rebellion, or opposed to the Government, or converse upon political subjects; and I have no recollection of his mentioning the name of President Lincoln in any connection whatever.

[25][excessive quote] Murdock MacQuarrie portrayed Edmund Spangler in The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936).

Tom London portrayed Edmund Spangler in the Wagon Train episode "The John Wilbot Story" (1958).