When I first starting reading about the assassination and doing research, I avoided the topic of Booth's lady friends like the plague. Isabel Sumner, Ella Starr, Lucy Hale, they all seemed to be temporary flings that Booth used and then disposed of. While I still feel that way to a large extent about two of the ladies, I have come around to the belief that Booth thought he loved Lucy Hale. I say he thought he loved her because I don't know how capable Booth was loving someone other than himself.

I main evidence for believing that Booth and Lucy were actually in love is not only the collections of the Booth family who supported the idea of an engagement but also Booth's own words. Some of Booth's final thoughts were of Lucy and this is demonstrated in his diary.

It is largely forgotten or ignored that the very first words written in Booth's diary are "Ti Amo". "Ti Amo" is Italian but seems to me to be an understandable misspelling of the Spainish "Te Amo". Regardless, both translate into English as "I love you". This announcement of love, coded a bit, always struck me as odd. Before starting his manifesto about why he shot the President, Booth was compelled to write a brief note of love to someone. I propose that this someone was Lucy Hale.

Senator Hale had been appointed minister to Spain and all of the Hales were in earnest to learn some Spainish before heading abroad. Though it may just be the romantic in me, I believe this Ti Amo was Booth's final message to the woman he loved, Lucy Hale. It was a message she would know was meant for her and for no one else. It was a way for him to announce his love for her, for the last time, without endangering her further.

I cannot say what their relationship would have been like if he had not assassinated the President, perhaps it was always doomed to fail due to his womanizing. But I believe that John Wilkes Booth and Lucy Hale were secretly engaged, and that in his final days on the run, he thought, of and loved, Lucy.

Good point on the Spanish, which Robert Lincoln, John Hay, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. were supposedly practicing during lunch times on the Mall. Also I like the notion that ti amo was his last, exclusive message to Lucy.

(10-17-2015 11:09 AM)L Verge Wrote:  

(10-17-2015 06:23 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  I have never seen a photo, but James Patton Ferguson, who owned the bar/restaurant next to Ford's Theatre, said "she was one of the most beautiful women I ever saw."

Ferguson also said, "After the assassination, when she heard that I was the first man to report the murder at the police station, she sent me word that she would blow my head off the next time she saw me."

(Source: Terry Alford's book)

Somewhere, I remember reading that Ella was a petite redhead. Didn't we have a thread going on Lucy and the Hales early on that included a full-length photo of Lucy from the Hale museum up north? It showed a much more attractive Lucy than this standard CDV. I have often questioned whether or not the CDV is actually Lucy, but everyone seems to accept that it is.

Terry Alford tells me that he traced Ella after 1865 and that she married well. I have begged for further information, but so far I have not coaxed it out of him. I was hoping that he would include it as a side note in Fortune's Fool, but... For some of us, that would have been the "scoop" of the day for his book.

Do you mean this picture of Lucy?

http://www.picturehistory.com/product/id/15951

The one of her and her sister in Terry Alford's book is quite winsome.

Those full length photos are of Harriet Lane, not Lucy, I believe.
The one in Alford's book referenced by Susan plus the head shot CDV on Booth are the only pictures of a young Lucy (of which I am aware).

(10-17-2015 11:09 AM)L Verge Wrote:  Somewhere, I remember reading that Ella was a petite redhead.

I have seen the "redhead" description, too, but in John Wilkes Booth - Oilman, Ernest C. Miller writes:

"The handsome assassin was also accused of spending considerable time with blonde Ella Turner, originally a native of Richmond, but who had come to Washington and resided with her sister on Ohio Avenue. She is said to have been his mistress for a period of several years."

In his book Roscoe describes her as "strawberry blonde."

The "petite description" seems unanimous among authors (at least in the books I've seen).

(10-17-2015 12:08 PM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  

(10-17-2015 11:09 AM)L Verge Wrote:  

(10-17-2015 06:23 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  I have never seen a photo, but James Patton Ferguson, who owned the bar/restaurant next to Ford's Theatre, said "she was one of the most beautiful women I ever saw."

Ferguson also said, "After the assassination, when she heard that I was the first man to report the murder at the police station, she sent me word that she would blow my head off the next time she saw me."

(Source: Terry Alford's book)

Somewhere, I remember reading that Ella was a petite redhead. Didn't we have a thread going on Lucy and the Hales early on that included a full-length photo of Lucy from the Hale museum up north? It showed a much more attractive Lucy than this standard CDV. I have often questioned whether or not the CDV is actually Lucy, but everyone seems to accept that it is.

Terry Alford tells me that he traced Ella after 1865 and that she married well. I have begged for further information, but so far I have not coaxed it out of him. I was hoping that he would include it as a side note in Fortune's Fool, but... For some of us, that would have been the "scoop" of the day for his book.

Do you mean this picture of Lucy?

http://www.picturehistory.com/product/id/15951

The one of her and her sister in Terry Alford's book is quite winsome.

Thank you, Susan. That is the one I was referring to. She appears warm and friendly as well as very fashionable. The profile CDV is nice also, but just gives off a different vibe, imo.

Unless Ella was a "Strawberry Blonde" -

As a natural red head (mine is more of a deeper coppery/auburn red - or WAS!! HA!)

Strawberry Blonde hair can range from light almost bright blonde to deeper red (like mine)


   

Quote:Those full length photos are of Harriet Lane, not Lucy, I believe

I do believe you are correct, Jenny. The photo is more or less Harriet Lane; NOT Lucy....

(10-17-2015 12:25 PM)Jenny Wrote:  Those full length photos are of Harriet Lane, not Lucy, I believe.
The one in Alford's book referenced by Susan plus the head shot CDV on Booth are the only pictures of a young Lucy (of which I am aware).

Yeah, I see that thread now. Whoops!

These are the two pictures of "young" Lucy:


(I believe that's Lucy on the right, reading to her older sister Lizzie.)


The "Booth" CDV.

Personally, I think Lucy's pose in this head shot gets her as it doesn't really enhance her beauty at all. I mean, it's like a "half of a profile shot" when you look at the placement of her shoulders, hair, and how you can see her right eye lash if you look carefully. From experience, a pose like this "half-profile" does *no one* favors.

Harriet Lane (in the same outfit from this particular photo op):




Gorgeous, glowing lady who gives off a friendly vibe, but definitely not Lucy Hale.

You are so right, Jenny. Someone at photo gallery goofed in their identification, and I apologize for passing on bad info.

P.S. One of my Surratt House dresses years ago was very much like Harriet's in this photo. Mine was purple with light blue trim, and I got lots of compliments - especially because my belt had "tail feathers" that draped half-way down the back. My mother fashioned it by consulting a period Godey's print. She also added a dainty lace collar that she robbed off of a Victorian dress in one of our old trunks.

Sounds very nice Laurie. Did you have your photo taken wearing it?

Remember the fun we had discussing this a while back?
http://seacoastnh.com/arts/please042098.html

Jenny, thanks for posting the picture of Lucy Hale and her sister. Do you know how old she was when it was taken? Looks so different compared to the CDV portrait! So nice - lovely composition at all!

(10-17-2015 04:59 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Sounds very nice Laurie. Did you have your photo taken wearing it?

Remember the fun we had discussing this a while back?
http://seacoastnh.com/arts/please042098.html

I was photographed in it many times by visitors, but I don't ever remember having a personal photo for my album. It was one of three that I wore out over the thirty years I was giving tours. I miss those days.

The clip from seacoast also reminded me that several of us were on the hunt for the hair ring that Lucy supposedly gave to Booth. A lady from California was really digging for it, and I think that Betty O was in on the search also.

Here is a little teaser "How John Wilkes Booth Deceived His Abolitionist Fiancee" from this show "Lincoln's Last Day" coming next week
http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/videos...ncee/37789

Many thanks to Blaine for sending these images. His note reads:

"Here's an image of Lucy Hale later in life, and another image believed (but not proven) to be an image when she was young.

The note page is from the files of James O. Hall."

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