New Search - HELP

[Pamela]

Wow, thanks, Susan. There's a wealth of information. I noted than Clara lived in Galveston for 23 years; we don't know the date of her divorce, but it may have been just prior to her move. If that's the case, she would have been still married in 1897 at the time Chris Ritter arrived in Anderson. Chris Ritter was described as a "stockily built German", apparently about 50 years old, born in 1849. He would have been 16 at the time of the assassination. He was said to have a "broken accent" but spoke in good English. How odd is it for an immigrant who lived in Germany long enough to develop an accent, which he retained, to take on the Lincoln assassination conspiracy to the degree he did.

It sounds crazy, but the Chris Ritter story is crazy, but could he have been a relative of Clara's husband, who Clara and John Surratt recruited to torment Louis in Anderson? John and Clara would have kept up correspondence all those years.

According to Ewald, Weichmann lived in relative anonymity in Anderson for ten years, until an article written by Victor Louis Mason appeared in Century magazine in 1896 and Weichmann recieved unwanted publicity, nationwide. Eight months later Chris Ritter arrived in Anderson with his accusations and story.

There are several reasons that Ewald gave to substantiate his belief that Ritter was not your run of the mill crackpot. First he made a point to meet Weichmann, a "chance" encounter outside a restaurant, and he later claimed they recognized each other as former members of the Knights of the Golden Circle. From the Tailspinner and the Witness: "But, Chris Ritter's story is much different in one significant respect. It had a purpose behind it that transcended the usual desire on the part of the tailspinner to capitalize on the public's insatiable addiction to sensationalism." Ewald noted that Ritter sought to paint Weichmann as a secret Confederate sympathizer. "...it was Ritter's deep familiarity with assassination lore that gave his tale considerable currency in the Anderson community. Ritter was much too knowledgeable of the assassination and it's major and minor characters to be a mere crackpot. His wealth of detail, ever escalating in scope and range marked him as someone who knew his subject well....Ritter's expansion of the original tale is most interesting because it appears to be an attempt to shift complicity away from the Surratts and on to Dr. Mudd."

"The author (Ewald) has already indicated...on the sketchiest evidence and deduction, that Ritter's role was to draw Louis Weichmann further into the net of known conspirators and sympathizers of Lincoln's assassination. Chris Ritter, whoever he may have really been, was not just an ordinary crackpot on the make. He was carefully prepared for the intense scrutiny that his wild story engendered, and it is not improbable that he was connected, in some way, with some of the players in the great drama of Lincoln's assassination....If the reader would but humor the author and accept the premise that Chris Ritter was hired, or solicited for the purpose of harassing Weichmann, then another, darker question arises: Who enlisted his services?"

Ritter arrived in Anderson 8 months after Weichmann's location was publicized, and he attempted to portray Weichmann as a Confederate sympathizer and shift guilt away from John Surratt. He also claimed to be writing a book. He abruptly left town 7 or 8 months later. You can read these articles in the link Gene provided in the first post of the Louis Weichmann thread which is currently on page 7 of threads.

I just remembered that John Surratt traveled to South America following his release. At least I think so. I can't remember which country he went to. Part of Chris Ritter's tale involves Brazil. "...he certainly had knowledge of Santarem/Belem (Para) area. Such knowledge was much less arcane in his century than ours and it is probable that he could have become familiar with the "Confederadoes" and their colonies through the various emigration tracts of the times."