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Jenny · (This post was last modified: 01-21-2018 09:11 PM by Jenny.)

(11-20-2017 07:12 PM)Steve Wrote: I found a possible candidate for Ella/Nellie Starr in a later records. There was a prostitute of the same name and age living in Baxter Springs, Kansas in 1870. Although the census record lists a different birthplace Canada instead of Maryland and there may be a younger sister or relative named Carrie Starr at the Baxter Springs brothel which as far as I can tell isn't mentioned in any of the accounts of Booth's Ella Starr. Also don't forget the 1883 newspaper accounts of the fight over Ella's brother estate seem to imply Ella was living in Maryland or New York.

So I'm not sure these two Nellie Starrs are the same person but I thought I'd share what I've found to see what your thoughts are.

Baxter Springs, Kansas Nellie Starr 1870 census:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MCJJ-HDG

Baxter Springs Museum webpage mentioning Nellie Starr (scroll down to "THE MURDERS OF OUR TWO MARSHALS"):

http://www.baxterspringsmuseum.org/Cowtown.html

18 November 1870 Emporia Weekly news blurb mentioning Baxter Springs Starr:

Hi Steve,

I have honestly gone through about 10 to 15 possible marriages that involve different women named Nellie/Ella Starr/Turner (and every combination of the sort), mostly around the Maryland/DC/Virginia/NY/Pennsylvania area. It's been impossible to trace most of them while several have just plain ended up clearly not being Booth's Ella. Trying to find her through brothel records is even *worse* because there were a LOT of prostitutes all over the country with her name or variations of it in the late 1800s. At least the marriage records have the names of potential husbands and families to look into because brothel/police records have next to nothing.

Searching for what happened to her is one of the single most frustrating things I've attempted; I can absolutely see why even Mr. Hall had trouble with her! So I have to say that I am skeptical of her being the Nellie Starr from Canada in Kansas. Wink

PLUS even the article says that this Nellie Starr was formerly from Kansas City while Booth's girl was born in Baltimore.

Quote:From what I've read Ella was a half-sister to John and Mollie, sharing the same mother but having an unknown father after the elder Starr's death. Now I suppose the half-sister could be a daughter of the elder Starr's first marriage, but what if Mollie just told the reporter that Ella was living in New York to try and send the reporters on a snipe hunt? Some of the other details she gave the reporter, like Ella actually marrying Booth (untrue) or having another deceased sister who had been married to a Senator (dubious) would suggest that possibility.

You are correct. It would seem that John and Mary Jane/Mollie were the children of Ellen Flin Starr and a John Starr Sr. who died in 1838 while Ella's father is unknown... since Mrs. Starr was a prostitute herself (she's the one who actually established the house in DC in 1862), it wouldn't surprise me if Ella was an accident from a client.

That family appeared to have had a lot of issues. During the "Starr Family Bruhaha" as I call it, John W. Starr's widow, Sarah, even claims at one point that elderly Mrs. Starr was her deceased husband's step-mother, not his real mother. And of course neither Sarah or Mrs. Starr would acknowledge Mary Jane being related at all despite a clear physical resemblance (apparently no one in the court room who knew both brother and sister could deny it) and records of her being a Starr by blood.

In her interviews regarding her claim to her brother's money, Mary Jane Treakle/Turner was full of it imo. While it isn't impossible Ella was living in New York as stated, Mary Jane is an extremely questionable source at best, just as you surmised. An uncle worth "$9,000,000"? Booth married her sister? An unknown sister who was married to a Senator? Ugh.

Anyway, the absolute last piece of evidence regarding Ella's life at this time the cemetery plot her mother bought for her in 1888. Said plot wasn't used by her (an unrelated gentleman was buried in it in the 1940s when it was obvious no one was going to use it).

Now in the October 5th 1902 edition of The Richmond Dispatch, there is a mention of her living as "an honest woman" and "the honest wife of an honest mechanic" in Maryland... but unfortunately the article is about David E. George and is full of nonsense so I highly doubt it's accurate despite the author claiming to have "a highly credible source." I even tried to follow up on that improbable lead, but nothing has come of it.

It's almost as though she wanted to disappear after the assassination; if that was her intent, she has succeed so far. Dr. Terry Alford claims to have found a marriage for her that he can prove is actually her, but I'll believe it when it see the proof (no offense to him).