John Wilkes Booth observed President Lincoln and his party arriving at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865, Good Friday. Around nine o’clock, he enters the theater to determine how much time was left in the play. He then leaves and goes to the stables, where he had left his horse earlier in the day. He saddles her up and tries to get stagehand Ned Spangler to hold her reins. Spangler refuses, because he is working, and they convince another employee, John “Peanut” Burroughs, to do so instead. Then, Booth goes through an underground passageway under the stage to walk out of the front of the theater. He goes to the Star Saloon and has a drink.

Around 10 o’clock, he returns to Ford’s Theatre. Booth goes to the door of the vestibule that leads to the president’s box. There, he shows a document to the president’s valet, Charles Forbes, who lets him enter. Earlier in the day, Booth had hidden a wooden music stand in the vestibule that he now uses to block the vestibule door from being opened from the outside. Then, he walks into the president’s box during Act 3, Scene 2, of the play.