Why was Booth admitted into the presidential box?

[loetar44]

Roger, there is not the slightest doubt in my mind, that there was “someone” sitting near the outer door of the president’s box, but there is no hard evidence to support that this “someone” was most definitely Charles Forbes.

Booth said to David Herold that “a soldier or officer [was] trying to prevent him from going into the box”. I think that, if true, this man was in uniform. There were a lot of military men in the audience and dress circle. So, in that case, definitely not Forbes.

There are seven extant accounts by Dr. Leale. Five date from 1865, one from 1867, and one as you mention, from 1909. The 1865 accounts are nearly identical copies and does not mention a brief encounter between Booth and a man: “I arrived at Fords Theatre about 8¼ p.m. April 14/65 and procured a seat in the dress circle about 40 feet from the Presidents Box, The play was then progressing and in a few minutes I saw the President, Mrs Lincoln, Major Rathbone and Miss Harris enter; while proceeding to the Box they were seen by the audience who cheered which was reciprocated by the President and Mrs Lincoln by a smile and bow. The party was preceded by an attendant who after opening the door of the box and closing it after they had all entered, took a seat nearby for himself. The theatre was well filled and the play of “Our American Cousin” progressed very pleasantly until about half past ten, when the report of a pistol was distinctly heard and about a minute after a man of low stature with black hair and eyes was seen leaping to the stage beneath, holding in his hand a drawn dagger.”

The 1867 account also does not mention a brief encounter between Booth and a man. The 1909 account is substantially different, because Leale added details that are not present in his 1860s accounts. However, it’s forty-four years after the assassination ! That is not immediate and indisputably tarnished by the passage of time (and maybe influenced by stories of others). Even in this account Leale does not speak about Forbes but about an usher, most definitely an employee of Ford's. You think that it seems possible that the man was Forbes, but to me it just underlines that the man was not Forbes.