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Lot 200
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John Wilkes Booth Escapes to South America, According to German Butcher in 1897
John Wilkes Booth Escapes to South America, According to German Butcher in 1897
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Description:

John Wilkes Booth Escapes to South America, According to German Butcher in 1897

[LINCOLN ASSASSINATION.] Typescript Article, with story of Christopher C. Ritter, January 29, [1897], Anderson, Indiana, includes a few handwritten corrections; published in the Morning Herald (Anderson, IN), January 31, 1897. 10 pp., 8" x 13". Expected folds, minor edge tears, thin paper, very good.

This typescript purports to tell the story of how Christopher C. Ritter (1843-1901), a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle, allegedly aided John Wilkes Booth after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln and escaped with him to South America. The Knights of the Golden Circle was a secret society founded in 1854 to spread slavery into the Caribbean. During the Civil War, southern sympathizers in the North belonged to the Knights of the Golden Circle or its successor, the Order of American Knights. Ritter insisted that fellow actor Edward Fox, rather than Booth, was killed by Union soldiers in 1865 in a case of mistaken identity.

A few months after the Morning Herald published this story, the rival Anderson Bulletin reported that Ritter was at work on a book about his claims. Ritter apparently left Anderson in August 1897, and died at the Eastern Indiana Hospital for the Insane in Delaware County, Indiana, in February 1901. His death certificate lists his cause of death as "chronic mania," from which he had suffered for four years.

In the April 1992 issue of the Surratt Courier, the newsletter of the Surratt Society, member Erick L. Ewald (b. 1948) of Anderson, Indiana, presented the text of this story as it appeared in the Anderson Morning Herald in 1897 under the title "Helped Booth." Ewald was convinced that Ritter told the story "to harass" key prosecution witness in the Lincoln conspiracy trials Louis J. Weichmann (1842-1902). Weichmann moved to Anderson in 1886 and lived there until his death. In the March 1993 issue of the Surratt Courier, Ewald insisted that Ritter intended to portray Weichmann not as a patriot but as a secret Confederate.

Whether the handwritten "Edward C. Jones" at the end of the typescript identifies the author of the story or an owner remains unclear.

Excerpts:
"Three months ago Christopher C. Ritter came to Anderson from Eminence, Kentucky, and opened a meat shop in the outskirts of the City. He was a stoutly built German, apparently about fifty years of age."

"Ritter lifted to the light a Knights of the Golden Circle Watch charm, one of those that were worn by a coterie of men in Washington, just prior to the assassination of President Lincoln."

"A few days later Ritter became confined to his residence place with a carbuncle on his neck. His condition became serious and he was taken to the hospital. He is now threatened with blood poisoning and in this condition consented to tell the correspondent the story of his life, the rescue of John Wilkes Booth, and his conversation with the actor and assassin through a course of many years. He says Booth is living yet, or was five months ago, and is on the stage in South America, traveling under the name of Enos."

"In 1863 Ritter, then in his nineteenth year, went to Stuttgart, to sell a lot of horses for his Father. He there met by accident Para Adeline Unoth, the daughter of Andrew Unoth, then living in Para, Brazil.... The friendship of the two ripened quickly into love and a week later John Wilkes Booth and the older sister Carrie Viola Unoth were introduced to Ritter."

"Booth had just come to Europe and under an assumed name was soliciting men and supplies for the confederate troops."

"Ritter believed that the Confederate cause was right, and finding a ready sympathizer in Booth, the relation of the two young men became very close in the few short days of their joint courtship. This was in May, 1863."

"Under a passport of another man, he [Ritter] came to America, arriving in Buffalo, N. Y. Oct. 14th of the same year. There he met John Wilkes Booth. The two went to Washington together from there to Louisville, Ky. then to Lexington and at that place Ritter joined Morgan's Confederate troops. Three months later, he was wounded at the battle of Cynthiana. A bullet entered his left shoulder. He went back to Cincinnati and was in a hospital at Covington for some time. In his brief experience on this side of the ocean he had come to change his belief in regard to the righteousness of the confederate cause, and was sick and tired of the life. He went to Washington saw Booth and returned to Germany to try and regain the graces and good will of the father whose sentiments he had betrayed.... The young man in a measure, gained his father's benediction and after remaining at home but a few weeks returned. He arrived in Washington March 9, 1865."

The inner circle of the Knights of the Golden Circle in Washington "desired to kidnap the President and hold him until jurisdiction could be forced from Congress which would require the Union to pay for the slaves that were liberated.... 'I thought' said Ritter that they were going to make me some kind of a catspaw to pull chesnuts out of the fire and I told him I would have nothing to do with the scheme[.] 'My Father' I said [']used to know old Abe and liked him; I have met him and I like him and I will take part in nothing that will harm him.'"

"Lincoln was shot in the night of April 14. A benefit performance was to be given to Laura Deming [Keene], the actress, and John Wilkes Booth was to be there. That evening about six o’clock, Booth found Ritter at the bar in the Pennsylvania hotel."

"Ritter went back to the Club rooms and engaged in a game of Six to Six. About ten O’clock a great noise was heard on the streets below. Bells soon began tolling and out of the bedlam there could be heard up stairs that cries that Lincoln was killed.... in less than a moment, a key turned in the lockes, the door pushed open and John Wilkes Booth came in very much excited and limping.... Booth threw up his hands and cried ‘Men I have killed Old Abe, but I broke my leg doing it.’ He then turned to Ritter and said ‘David will you stay with me?’ The thoughts overwhelmed those about and especially Ritter. After some meditation he said, ‘I have sworn to Jonathan I will.’ The members of the Knights of the Golden Circle were paired off one of each pair was called David and the other Johnathan. The two on initiation took oath with daggers at their breast that when one was in distress the other would remain with him until death. Booth and Ritter constituted one of these pairs."

"Booth ordered him to go to Fox's livery stable and get three horses.... It was nearly two O’clock in the morning by the time they had started down the alley and out of Washington."

"Stinton returned to Washington that morning and left Booth in the care of Ritter. The faithful friend bandaged and re-bandaged the broken limb the best he could every day for a week. In that time several secret emissaries had come out from Washington and Booth was kept informed as to the President’s condition and the high state of feeling that existed."

"When Booth had left his clothes in the rear of the Dago’s he had left in them letters and documents that were the most importance he had, and were positively incriminating. He had to get possession of them again if possible. He correspondingly sent word by Stinton to have Edward Fox, an actor and close friend and Edward Derrole [David Herold] to bring them. He went into directions so minutely as to order Fox to put on his clothes and Derrole to put on Stinton’s and for the two to meet in Richter’s [Garrett’s] barn on the Potomac on the morning of the 23rd. At two O’clock that morning Booth was placed on a donkey at Jones house and with Jones and Ritter walking they made their way to a feny [ferry] about five miles away, Ritter walked a half mile in front of Booth and Jones and carried a torch light in the air. When there was any danger ahead he was to dip the torch. They got to the feny, turned the donkey loose, and rode across the river. Then they undertook a march of nearly ten miles to the barn.... 'The movements' says Ritter were beyond my comprehension, I quite endeavoring to look ahead or have any care for the future. I did what Booth had me to do and depended upon fate for our salvation. For several hours they stayed in the hut and Ritter paid all his attention to Booth’s leg. At last a man unknown to him opened the door and came in. He struck Booth on the shoulder and said 'Booth you are a dead man. You were killed a while ago.['] He then quited down some what and explained what he meant. He said that Derrole and Fox had ridden out of Washington and had intended having their horses at a hut near by and walking to the barn. In getting off his horse, Fox was kicked by the other horse and hurt in the leg. He could not walk to the barn, so he rode and Derrole walked beside him. Near the barn he dismounted and limped inside. The plan for the meeting had evidently been betrayed and by a man, Ritter believes to be a Confederate officer. At any rate United States men were around the barn. They saw Derrole and Fox go in, the later limping.... they charged on the barn. Fox drew his pistol and was shot dead. Derrole then threw up his hands, was captured, and afterward hung. Fox resembled Booth quite closely, had on Booth’s clothes and carried Booth’s letters and Documents."

"Booth was kept at the hut two days longer. He was then put in a boat by Ritter and they went up the Potomac to Philadelphia, arriving there May 6. They left the same day on a boat for South America. The boat caught fire and put in at Trinida’s. They went over land by donkey’s to the Amazon and then by boat and rail to Para Brazil. When Ritter got off the boat he wore his German suit and down at his side hung a dagger.... They went to the home of Wm. Enas and two days later Ritter married the younger daughter.... [Booth] waited until Fall when he married to the older daughter."

"Booth began playing in Brazil under the name Enos. He had an illegitimate child in this Country and for years gave it an allowance of $800 annually. This was paid to it through Ritter. Ritter attended Booth’s second wedding in Hanover, Germany in 1886. His first wife had died and the second wife was an actress who had played in Brazil."

"The story above being true the first question that will appear in the reader’s mind will be ‘Why has he not told it sooner?’ He answers this question himself. The oath of his lodge bound him to secrecy for thirty years. That time was up a year ago last April."

[Handwritten:] "Edward C. Jones"

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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