Booth's mistress, Ella Starr, and other "unknown" Booth ladies!

[Susan Higginbotham]

I suppose it's possible that Booth was behind the "Etta" letter himself

When you mentioned this possibility, I thought of the Clara letter which also came from New York. Mike Kauffman feels Booth was also behind the Clara letter. We have discussed the Clara letter previously, but I have forgotten...did we determine that Clara Ritter definitely wrote the Clara letter? Or is the author a mystery like the Etta letter? If the author were a mystery, it would be interesting to compare the handwriting in both letters.

Everything in the Clara letter points to it having been written by Clara Pix-Soon-to-Be-Ritter (who was indeed in New York at the time the letter was written). The initials she mentions correspond with people she knew; the "surprise" she refers to is likely her own marriage, which occurred just days after the letter was written; and we know from evidence collected by investigators that she was friendly with Weichmann, the recipient. The styles of the letters are very different--Etta's letter has a faux-elegant style; Clara's is girlish and rambling. And there doesn't seem to have been any reason to concoct the letter, as there's nothing in it that could be used against either Clara or Weichmann--except for the mere fact of their acquaintance.

Here is the last page of the Clara letter.