John Wilkes Booth Ring

[PaigeBooth]

Thanks to everyone for all the feedback to my post. I have been curious about this topic for a long time and appreciate everyone's answers.

I've also wondered if maybe, the Union cavalry may have stolen the ring from Booth after they shot and captured him. Just a thought.....?? The cavalry probably took whatever money Booth would have had on him at the time as well...??? Looking forward to hearing more.

[Jim Garrett]

I don't believe there was a ring listed on the inventory of items taken from Booth and Herold at the Garrett farm. If anything would have been taken, it would probably been the stick pin.

[PaigeBooth]

(09-17-2014 11:29 AM)Jim Garrett Wrote:  I don't believe there was a ring listed on the inventory of items taken from Booth and Herold at the Garrett farm. If anything would have been taken, it would probably been the stick pin.

Hi, Jim-- Do you think if the Union cavalry stole something from Booth, they would have bothered to write it on the inventory list? Is it possible they might have conveniently slipped items they wanted into their pockets and left those items off the list? Would that have been possible?

This is something I have wondered about for some time. Thank you for any information you know about this. If you have any other information, please let me know-- I would like to learn more!

[L Verge]

(09-17-2014 12:25 PM)PaigeBooth Wrote:  

(09-17-2014 11:29 AM)Jim Garrett Wrote:  I don't believe there was a ring listed on the inventory of items taken from Booth and Herold at the Garrett farm. If anything would have been taken, it would probably been the stick pin.

Hi, Jim-- Do you think if the Union cavalry stole something from Booth, they would have bothered to write it on the inventory list? Is it possible they might have conveniently slipped items they wanted into their pockets and left those items off the list? Would that have been possible?

This is something I have wondered about for some time. Thank you for any information you know about this. If you have any other information, please let me know-- I would like to learn more!

I don't have an answer for this, but I think a lot would depend on how many people had sole access to the body long enough to steal things. While he lay dying, the officers in charge and Lucinda Holloway would have prevented theft (I would think). In getting the body transported to D.C. and on board the monitor would be the time for this, but there would be a few witnesses and probably a bit of a scuffle in people trying to grab what they wanted.

Jim is probably correct that the stick pin was the most valuable thing on him, and I don't believe this was found until his clothing was removed down to underwear and the pin was found holding together a tear in his undershirt.

[Jim Garrett]

I think that Conger and Doherty were pretty much no nonsense men, who if they caught a soldier taking something, there would be severe consequences. I don't think anyone dare cross either of them.

[Sally]

I’ve read Sam Chester’s account of Booth repeatedly kissing a ring while they were drinking together in New York, and intimating to Chester that he had received the ring from a “lady”. But did Chester actually name Lucy Hale as the lady? I seem to recall he was circumspect about her identity in his statement, only saying that she was well-known and respectable and he did not wish to besmirch her name. The assumption is he was referring to Lucy, but is there any other evidence that the ring Booth was fawning over was a hair ring? I may be wrong, but I don’t think Chester specifically mentions it was a hair ring. Could it have been one of Lucy’s own rings that Booth asked for as a memento of her? (Didn’t Victorian-era swains do that sort of thing?)

As for the hair ring, I have a printout from fold3 of the receipt from Tiffany’s dated February 21, 1865 stating that a “braiding hair ring” was sold to J. Wilkes Booth for $150.00. And in “John Wilkes Booth: Day by Day”, Art Loux states “Despite being low on cash and having borrowed $1,000 from friends, Booth justified to himself spending $150 at Tiffany and Company for a braiding hair ring, presumably for Lucy Hale.” So it doesn’t seem that this hair ring was a gift from Lucy to Booth. If anything, it was vice versa.

As for what became of any ring Booth may have been wearing when he was shot, if it was connected in any way to Lucy Hale, is it possible her father may have used whatever little influence he still had in Washington to suppress it and keep a record of its existence out of the “official” documents? Maybe he even managed to get the ring back? It’s often pointed out that there is no evidence that Lucy or any member of her family were questioned after the assassination. This seems odd, since Stanton was determined to question anyone who had any connection at all to the conspirators. Given that Lucy’s alleged engagement to Booth was reported in the newspapers, and many of the people from The National Hotel who were interrogated might have mentioned that Booth and Miss Hale had been keeping company that winter, it seems unlikely that nobody in the Hale family was questioned. Could it be this mysterious ring might have been dealt with the same as whatever statements may have been made by the Hale family? I’m thinking maybe Stanton deemed them irrelevant to the investigation and had them expunged from the record as a courtesy to the new Minister to Spain?

[L Verge]

Sally, I had much the same thoughts about the hair ring when the topic came up between a few of us over the past few years. I thought that Booth was giving it to Lucy, not vice versa. Betty was in on this, so I hope that she will chime in.

You have excellent points about the Hales. I hope that KateH is following this thread because I believe that she's one of our Hale researchers.

[LincolnToddFan]

(09-16-2014 06:36 PM)Gene C Wrote:  I found this interesting picture on google of a hair ring

http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Hair+Ri...044255.jpg

I am going to be having a week's worth of nightmares....

At LEAST!

[PaigeBooth]

Yes, I also believe the hair ring was given from Booth to Lucy. But, wasn't there another ring given from Lucy to Booth? I had always thought the ring Booth was showing Chester was the one given to him by Lucy.

And in response to Sally's question "But did Chester actually name Lucy Hale as the lady?" I referred back to page 205 of my copy of American Brutus and found the following quote:

"Chester noticed that as Booth talked, he kept kissing a ring on his little finger. He explained that he was engaged to be married, and despite what Chester thought, this was not just another crazy idea; he was deeply in love with the lady. She came from a good family, and in fact it was she who had given him a ticket to the inauguration. Her only objection to Booth, he said, was that he was an actor; his only objection to her was that she was an abolitionist."

Although Lucy's name is not actually said, the description of this lady fits Lucy Hale perfectly.

[Carolyn Mitchell]

(09-16-2014 04:35 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Pinky rings were very popular with men of the middle and upper classes during the 19th century, so it would not have been unusual for Booth to have owned several. My mind is fading with age, but I believe there was one still in the family that was brought along by a descendant on one of our Booth tours in the early-1980s.

If you want to believe the medical examiners who supposedly x-rayed the Booth mummy back in the 1930s, there is one in the mummy's tummy - even engraved with the letter "B."

Finally, there is a lady in California (who may be a member of this forum) who has been tracing the hair ring supposedly given by Lucy to her beloved. I know she found a sales receipt for such a ring (from Tiffany's?), but I got caught up on other things at work and have not stayed on top of this. Perhaps Betty or Dave has???

You're talking about Suzie Nash in California. She's an expert on Lucy Hale and a long time Booth researcher. She's also put together a detailed Booth family tree on ancestry.com, expanding on what the late Dinah Faber put together years ago. I'll send her this post.

[L Verge]

(05-13-2015 09:04 PM)Carolyn Mitchell Wrote:  

(09-16-2014 04:35 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Pinky rings were very popular with men of the middle and upper classes during the 19th century, so it would not have been unusual for Booth to have owned several. My mind is fading with age, but I believe there was one still in the family that was brought along by a descendant on one of our Booth tours in the early-1980s.

If you want to believe the medical examiners who supposedly x-rayed the Booth mummy back in the 1930s, there is one in the mummy's tummy - even engraved with the letter "B."

Finally, there is a lady in California (who may be a member of this forum) who has been tracing the hair ring supposedly given by Lucy to her beloved. I know she found a sales receipt for such a ring (from Tiffany's?), but I got caught up on other things at work and have not stayed on top of this. Perhaps Betty or Dave has???

You're talking about Suzie Nash in California. She's an expert on Lucy Hale and a long time Booth researcher. She's also put together a detailed Booth family tree on ancestry.com, expanding on what the late Dinah Faber put together years ago. I'll send her this post.

Would love to hear from Ms. Nash and have her join this forum to share some of her research with us. However, the lady who found the Tiffany receipt is Angela Smythe. I believe that several of our friends here are in touch with her. She was especially intrigued with Booth's ties to the Richmond Greys when I was corresponding with her.