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

[Jenny]

Howdy everyone!

A while back we had some discussions about several of the more “unknown” ladies in John Wilkes Booth's life such as his mistress Ellen Starr, 16 year old Isabel Sumer, Carrie Bean, Sarah Slater, etc. and I thought I'd start up a thread about them here at Roger's urging. Some of you know I've spent a lot of time attempting to research Ellen “Ella” Starr "Turner," and I'll share everything I've found here. Feel free to chime in with other details or facts about the other ladies as well!

Laurie, I copied a post of yours regarding Ella Starr from a while back and I hope you don't mind me posting it first of all as it really does sum everything up that we know about this lady!

As most of you know, Miss Starr was Booth's "mistress of the night." William Doster described her as "a rather pretty, light-haired, little woman." I have often romanticized that she might have been a love of Booth's since he seemed to go back to her repeatedly, even though he had his share of ladies and LADIES to choose from. I have also wondered what became of Ella after the assassination and Booth's death. Like Sarah Slater, she slipped out of sight - despite years of searching by James O. Hall.

Her mother was Ellen Flynn, who married John Starr in Baltimore on July 5, 1831. He died on May 2, 1838, leaving at least two children with Ellen, John W. Starr and Mary Jane Starr. However, in 1844 or 45, Mrs. Starr gave birth to another daughter, our Ellen (father unknown - at least to us). It appears that Mrs. Starr supported herself as a prostitute, turned madame.

Sister Mary Jane married a printer, Henry C. Treakle, in Baltimore on December 23, 1852, and the couple moved to Petersburg, Virginia, where the marriage broke up. The two sisters, Mary Jane and Ellen, moved to Richmond, maybe Norfolk, and then to Washington. Their mother came to Washington in the late-1850s and established a small business in a very bad neighborhood that would later be named Hooker's Division in "honor" of the CW general. This would be in D.C.'s Federal Triangle today (bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue, Constitution Avenue, and 15th Street - some of the best real estate in the country!). Land records show that Mom purchased a house on "square 257" in 1862. This might have been on C Street.

It appears that Mary Jane (now known as Mollie Turner, despite having married a pimp named John C. Burns ca. 1863-64) ran that establishment. In the Provost Marshal's inventory of bawdy houses in 1865, it is listed as a class 1 house with 3 inmates. This is apparently where Ellen was living when she gave her statement to the police on April 15, 1865. In that statement, she uses the name "Nellie Starr" and says that she came to D.C. about a week before Christmas (interesting that that is just about the same time span when the kidnap plot gets heated up). She also states that she has known Booth for about three years, saw him last about two weeks before the assassination, but that they had not been on good terms for over a year. She admits to being a prostitute at a house kept by Miss Eliza Thomas at 62 Ohio Avenue. She/or an official then proceeds to sign her statement as: Nellie Starr, Ella Starr, Fannie Harrison.

By April 1865, Mama Starr has retired from her business and has returned to Philadelphia to live off of her profits. Sister Mollie/Mary Jane - who has acquired somehow the last name of Turner - is in New York. This leaves little Ellie to face heartbreak and the scandal of Booth by herself. How did she handle it? She attempted suicide.

The Evening Star of April 15, 1865, pg. 2, Col. 6 gives details: "THE MISTRESS OF BOOTH ATTEMPTS TO COMMIT SUICIDE. Ella Turner [no idea where that came from unless she adopted her sister's technique of taking a different last name], the mistress of John Wilkes Booth, No. 62 Ohio Avenue, attempted to commit suicide this morning by taking chloroform. About 11 o'clock, some of the inmates of the house entered Ella's room and found her lying upon the bed apparently sleeping. Efforts to rouse her proved fruitless, several physicians were called in, when it was discovered that she had taken chloroform. The proper remedies were immediately applied, when Ella soon revived and asked for Booth's picture, which she had concealed under the pillow of her bed, at the same time remarking to the physicians that she did not thank them for saving her life. The house No. 62 Ohio avenue is kept by Ella Turner's sister."

Roy Chamlee stated in Lincoln's Assassins that "Throughout the trial, Ewing kept a notebook in which he recorded the names of possible witnesses and the subject of their testimony. One entry read, 'Nellie Starr 62 Ohio Ave. See her and find if Booth did not tell her the conspiracy was to capture the President.'" She was subpoenaed, but never put on the stand.

Mother Starr ended up back in Baltimore, where she worked for a Catholic school. In 1888, she deeded a lot in the New Cathedral Cemetery to "my daughter Ellie..." Nellie must have been still alive and around somewhere, but I don't think anyone has found her. Mr. Hall speculated that she changed her name to Nellie LaRue and was operating a house in her old DC haunts in the early-1870s, but couldn't prove the link. He did locate the name of a niece, Mary Virginia Treakle, who married a Giles Bartlett in Huron, Ohio, in 1873, and had two children.

(All of the above in italics is credited to Laurie Verge – thank you!!)

I found several newspaper quotes that are probably in her file at the Surratt House Museum as Laurie mentioned a few of them, but I'll post them here anyway. Some of these are in multiple newspapers.

From The Evening Star (Washington D.C.) on April 15, 1865:
THE MISTRESS OF BOOTH ATTEMPTS TO COMMIT SUICIDE.
Ella Turner, the mistress of John Wilkes Booth, No. 62 Ohio Avenue, attempted to commit suicide this morning by taking chloroform. About 11 o'clock, some of the inmates of the house entered Ella's room and found her lying upon the bed apparently sleeping. Efforts to rouse her proved fruitless, several physicians were called in, when it was discovered that she had taken chloroform. The proper remedies were immediately applied, when Ella soon revived and asked for Booth's picture, which she had concealed under the pillow of her bed, at the same time remarking to the physicians that she did not thank them for saving her life. The house No. 62 Ohio avenue is kept by Ella Turner's sister.

From The New York Times:
WASHINGTON, Monday, April 17 1865
This morning, Detective KELLEY and a detail of patrolmen of the Second Ward, by order of Judge OLIN, proceeded to the house of MOLLIE TURNER, on the corner of Thirteenth and Ohio-avenue, and arrested all the inmates, from the mistress to the cook, eight in all, and carried them to the police headquarters, to be held as witnesses. This is the house where BOOTH spent much of his time, ELLA TURNER, the woman who attempted suicide, being his kept mistress.

From the Richmond Whig on April 27th, 1865:
WHO BOOTH'S REPUTED MISTRESS WAS
Ella TURNER, the reputed mistress of J. Wilkes BOOTH, the assassin of the President, once lived in Petersburg, and subsequently Richmond, since the war, and then made her way North. Her right name is STARR, and she is a native of Baltimore. Her sister, at whose house in Washington she attempted suicide, married a printer and moved to Petersburg, where the conjugal relation was dissolved, and the two sisters, traveling about for a while from Petersburg to Richmond, finally returning to Washington.

From the Springfield Republican on April 28, 1865:
Booth’s Mistress.
The news of Booth’s death reached the ears of his mistress, Miss Ella Turner, while she was in a streetcar, which caused her to weep bitterly, and drawing a photograph likeness of the murderer from her pocket, kissed it fondly several times.

From The New York Herald, May 31, 1865:
BOOTH'S MISTRESS TO TESTIFY
The young woman, Ella Turner, who it will be remembered evinced her affection for J. Wilkes Booth by attempting suicide on learning of his crime and flight from the city, has been summoned as a witness by Payne's counsel, and much curiosity is manifested to learn what she may know of the conspiracy. She has been in the witness room at the arsenal since Saturday morning.

The book Lincoln's Assassins: A Complete Account of Their Capture, Trial, and Punishment by Roy Z. Chamlee mentions Ella in a paragraph regarding the rounding up of potential conspirators: Others, who certainly knew of the conspiracy, but against whom detective gathered no hard evidence, included Booth's brother, Junius Brutus, John Ford, Booth's mistress, Ella Starr, Anna Surratt and Sarah Slater. The Government held these in prison except for Ella Starr and Slater, who was soon apprehended.

In one book or another (of which I didn't write down the title for some reason), I read that Ella Starr was actually summoned to the Arsenal and sat in the witness room on three different occasions. Obviously she never actually testified though.

Here is a copy of her actual statement to police as well as what appears to be her signatures (sorry if this is huge):

My name is Nellie Starr. My native place is Baltimore, State of Maryland. I have been in Washington DC since a week before Christmas. I am about nineteen or twenty years of age. I am not married. I have known John Wilkes Booth about three years; he was in the habit of visiting the house where I live kept by Miss Eliza Thomas, No. 62 Ohio Avenue in the City of Washington. The house is one of prostitution. I have never heard him speak unfavorable of the President. I heard him speak of the President as being a good man just as other people did. I do not distinctly recollect how he was dressed when I last saw him; I think he had on dark clothes. I think he wore a slough hat. I do not think it is the one shown me by the district attorney. I know nothing more about the case. I know now with whom he associated with, as I have not been on good terms with him for over a year. The last time I seen Mr. Booth was two weeks ago, at the said house.

(Signed) Nellie Starr, Ella Starr, Fannie Harrison

Interestingly enough, I've read in several different places that John Wilkes Booth was the one who paid to move Ella from Baltimore to her sister's bawdy house in Washington D.C. on December 12, 1864. Funny how she didn't mention that in her statement. I personally think her statement is full of it because if she and Booth were on such "bad terms," why would he have moved her to Washington D.C. (and she agreed, obviously) and why would she have attempted suicide on April 15th? Not to mention the note from her to Booth found in his trunk...

Does anyone have an actual *source* for the date of Booth moving Ella to Washington D.C. on December 12, 1864? That is something I haven't been able to find.

For fun, here are some close-ups of her signatures in case someone wants to start a "signatures" thread again.




There was a note from Ella found in Booth's trunk at the National Hotel although it was not properly cataloged and/or lost in the investigation. It read:

My Darling Baby
Please call
this evening or as soon as you receive this note. I will not
detain you five minutes -for
gods sake.

Yours Truly,
E.T.

If you will not come
write a note the reason why
Washington Feb. 7th
1865

I'm not quite finished yet as I need to write out several stories I found in newspaper articles from the early 20th century involving Ella Starr, but I'm going to go ahead and post this because it's long enough already.

More to come, including more on Ella's early history, a possible marriage reference in a newspaper, an actress named "Ella Turner" sometimes confused with Booth's Ella Starr, interesting theories, and a story from actor Harry Hawk. I also might have found an image of the bawdy house Ella was living in when she was arrested.

I'll be here all night, folks!

(And remember, this thread isn't strictly for Ella Starr - feel free to add info about others!)