October 18, 2023 • 38 mins
Welcome to the first murder trial in the American judicial system; it’s March 31, 1800 and you are here. Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr defend their client, Levi Weeks, who’s been charged with the beating and murder of his girlfriend Elma Sands. In this episode, Elma’s cousin recounts the night of the murder. Elma’s uncle creates chaos in the courtroom. Several boarders from their house testify about Elma, and a theory emerges that could ruin the prosecution’s case.
Erased: The Murder of Elma Sands is released weekly, every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. To hear all six episodes right now, ad-free, subscribe to Lava for Good+ on Apple Podcasts.
Erased: The Murder of Elma Sands is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Elma Sans was twenty two years old when she was
murdered in New York City. Her body was thrown into
the Manhattan Well on December twenty second, seventeen ninety nine,
and this became a sensational story. It was gruesome, it
was shocking, it was scandalous. Everyone called it the crime
of the century. But now nobody knows the name Elma Sands.
(00:30):
When I stumbled upon the Manhattan Well, I was working
as a tour guide. It's in the basement of a
clothing store in Soho. It's unmarked, seemingly random. It's this
big pillar of old bricks, incongruous with everything around it,
and I watched people pass by it with no idea
that a twenty two year old was killed right there, and.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I couldn't believe that.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
But when stories don't get told and histories aren't protected,
they get erased. Elma's murder case went to trial, and
that trial shaped the justice system that we have today.
The defense lawyers on the case were Aerin Burr and
Alexander Hamilton, and their client, the guy Elma was sleeping with,
faced a death sentence. Everyone knew it would be a
(01:14):
big show, so for the first time in US history,
there were stenographers in the courtroom taking notes, leaving us
several partial written accounts of this trial. I've created this
dramatic adaptation of all my research to share this truly
unbelievable story with you. I'm Alison Flom and this is
(01:38):
erased the Murder of Elma Sans.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Are you ready?
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Our story begins on March thirty first, eighteen hundred, at
City Hall on Wall Street. The proceedings were scheduled for
ten am and the trial was open to the public.
The courtroom was packed with massive crowds spilling out onto
the streets chanting, and inside the courtroom.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Order constable, can you shut the windows?
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Good?
Speaker 5 (02:31):
Bring in the prisoner.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
They brought Levi Weeks into the courtroom in chains. Levi
was this refined, privileged guy who was looking way different
than usual. He'd been sitting in jail for three months
and it showed. And this was the first time people
were seeing Levi since things were normal since before he
was indicted for the brutal beating and felonious murder of
Alma Sands.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
The prisoner, Levi Weeks fleets not.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Guilty, accused, was actually not allowed to testify in their
own trials, so Levi would sit silently the entire time.
So you won't hear from Levi in the courtroom, but
you'll hear a lot about.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Him rather than defending his own case. Levi, Weeks has
exercised a new American right to a private council.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Which means he hired private defense attorneys, which people didn't
usually do at this time. This was all new and
completely revolutionary. Levi sat at a table with his lawyers
Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton standing beside him. Notorious frenemies, yes,
but they worked as a team on this case. They'd
been preparing for months, and they were excited for this performance.
Speaker 6 (03:40):
You look forward to presenting your case, Ran.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
And then at the opposite table was a sweaty, anxious,
very underprepared prosecutor, the Assistant Attorney General, Kidwalader d Coldet.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Good morning, folks.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
There were several stenographers in the courtroom to take notes
and publish their account of the trial, which had never
happened before.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Of the New York States of Freemia, and.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Judge John Lansing presided. He was boisterous, he was emphatic,
he was excited, about justice, but he didn't know how
it should go. The key players here knew that they
were figuring it all out along the way, but at
the beginning most of them acted like they knew exactly
what was going on.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Proceed, mister Colden, right, yes, your opening remarks, Coldon right now,
right at your earliest convenience.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
If you're thinking Coldin is fumbling this from the beginning,
you're not wrong. Coldon's career as a lawyer so far
has been pushing papers. It's been admin He's never done
anything like this before. The jurors were all friends and
colleagues with each other and with Alexander Hamilton and the
judge and Aaron Burr, but not Colden. So Colden was
(05:02):
left out. He was underqualified and underconnected. He started by
trying to paint a vivid picture of Alma Sans for
the jury like this.
Speaker 7 (05:12):
Her name was Julielma, but everyone called her Alma.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Everybody liked her.
Speaker 8 (05:20):
She was a sweet, happy, virtuous girl until she met
that man right there, Levi Weeks murdered Alma in cold blood.
Speaker 7 (05:32):
Levi tricked her because he's a liar. He lured her in,
deluded her into thinking they'd be married, and she believed him,
poor poor thing. The night of December twenty second, Alma
Sands thought Levi was going to marry her, but instead
he strangled her then tossed her body into the Manhattan Well,
(05:55):
Levi is malicious, dangerous, guilty. I'll prove to you the
undeniable truth that Levi Weeks murdered Alma Sands and he
thought he'd get away with it. Mister Weeks should be
prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
The law is whatever we say it is.
Speaker 6 (06:15):
You got that right.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Your client took a human life. Mister Burke.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
They get easy cold, and you look nervous.
Speaker 7 (06:20):
And do you look like a murderer's attorney, mister Hamilton.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Call your first witness coldon.
Speaker 7 (06:26):
Shouldn't I wait for the defense to make their opening statement.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
No, they'll do that later after you present your case.
Speaker 7 (06:32):
Proceed, okay, the prosecution.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
So the first witness called to testify was Catherine Ring,
Alma's cousin. Catherine was intense and New Yorky, but she
was a farm girl at heart. She had curly red
hair tucked up into her bonnet, and she was like
calm and confident as she walked past the jury up
to the witness stand. As soon as Coldon introduced her, Missus.
Speaker 7 (06:53):
Ring is the wife of Alias Ring. The two of
them run a boarding house and millinery out of their home.
Are you comfortable, Catherine?
Speaker 9 (07:01):
I'm fine? Can I start testifying?
Speaker 10 (07:03):
She was ready to go.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
The first questions for Catherine were about her boarding house
two eight Grenade Street, so the jury could get a
sense of where Elma lived.
Speaker 7 (07:12):
Can you tell us about it?
Speaker 11 (07:15):
My house has seven bedrooms we have My house has
seven bedrooms that can be rented out, plus my bedroom
or the one I share with my husband. Of course,
the house is for young single people. Our borders are
usually new to New York, or working or not quite
(07:36):
ready to get married yet. Outside the house, the borders
do what they want. Inside the house, they follow my rules.
They have a nightly curfew, and they pay rent to
me each month.
Speaker 7 (07:46):
Did Alma pay rent to you?
Speaker 9 (07:48):
No? Alma was family. She worked for me in the
hat shop with Hope, another one of our boarders.
Speaker 6 (07:55):
Does your husband help?
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Of course I do.
Speaker 9 (07:58):
Of course he does.
Speaker 6 (08:00):
Mister Ring helps you in the hatshock.
Speaker 11 (08:02):
Oh no, he doesn't really help with that Elias is
really busy.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Running the house, protecting the property, keeping track of the finding.
Should I actually come up there, it might be easy.
Speaker 6 (08:15):
Mister Ring, sit down.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
I want to help my wife.
Speaker 9 (08:18):
I was just saying that.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Just say anything else, your honor.
Speaker 12 (08:22):
The defense requests that the witness's husband be removed from
the chambers.
Speaker 6 (08:26):
He's disrupted.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
I'm helping my wife.
Speaker 7 (08:29):
Do you need help, Catherine?
Speaker 13 (08:31):
No?
Speaker 9 (08:31):
Can I keep going?
Speaker 14 (08:32):
Hold on missus Ring. We have to figure this.
Speaker 12 (08:35):
Missus Ring's testimony easily could be influenced by her husband's energy.
Speaker 15 (08:39):
My energy is fantastic, your honor, remove him.
Speaker 14 (08:44):
The witnesses distracted, your honor me.
Speaker 11 (08:47):
I'm not the one who got distracted, mister Hamilton.
Speaker 9 (08:50):
I'm trying to testify.
Speaker 14 (08:51):
I refuse to continue until Elias Ring is removed from
the chamber.
Speaker 7 (08:56):
So we're gonna do this every time a married woman
testifies in an American court room, for fear shall be distracted.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Constable remove Elias Ring from the chambers.
Speaker 7 (09:05):
On what grounds it.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
Horror.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
So, after Elias was escorted out of the courtroom, the
lawyers and judge used Catherine's time on the stand to
start establishing rules and customs for how everything should go.
Before she could even begin telling the jury about Elma,
the defense attorneys distracted her and tried to diminish her credibility,
But Catherine powered through those distractions. She knew Alma the
(09:34):
best of anyone.
Speaker 7 (09:36):
On the day of the murder, Alma and Levi were
planning to Elo.
Speaker 11 (09:38):
Alma said Levi would pick her up at eight, they'd
be married and then home before curfew.
Speaker 12 (09:43):
Wait, objection, Oh what now, Hamilton, Statements from the deceased
are not admissible evidence.
Speaker 9 (09:50):
Wait, I can't tell you what my cousin said to me.
Speaker 6 (09:53):
No, you cannot, missus Ring.
Speaker 9 (09:55):
That can't be.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
No yet, that's not a real rule.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Counselors, you're upsetting missus Ring.
Speaker 11 (10:00):
I'm not upset. I just don't understand how this could
be a rule.
Speaker 6 (10:03):
Can we make this simpler for missus Ring somehow?
Speaker 11 (10:06):
No, I don't need anything simplified, mister Hamilton, Thank you.
Levi wanted to keep Alma a secret. They didn't want
anyone to know they got.
Speaker 14 (10:13):
Married, and ejection conjecture ruled conjecture.
Speaker 6 (10:17):
Conjecture, take it easier, That was conjecture.
Speaker 11 (10:20):
Elma and Levi started seeing each other last September.
Speaker 9 (10:23):
When I went out of town.
Speaker 7 (10:25):
Where did you go?
Speaker 9 (10:26):
I went upstate to quarantine.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
The winter of seventeen ninety nine to eighteen hundred was
a devastating one in New York City. It was freezing
and gray and the height of the yellow fever epidemic,
so people were falling into delirium and dying. By the thousands.
New Yorkers were staying home to shelter from the bitter
cold and the raging fever, getting out of Manhattan if
(10:49):
they could to avoid the fever. Catherine and the other
women in the house went up to New Cornwall in
September seventeen ninety nine, but Alma stayed home.
Speaker 7 (10:58):
And when you left, what was the dynamic between Elma
and Levi?
Speaker 9 (11:02):
Well, they were basically strangers when I left.
Speaker 11 (11:04):
At that point, Levi was romantically involved with Margaret, another
one of our borders. But then I got a letter
from my husband saying that Elma and Levi were sleeping
in the same room and likely having premarital sex. I
came home shortly after.
Speaker 7 (11:24):
That, because you had the instinct that Levi might hurt Elma.
Speaker 12 (11:28):
Excuse can we hold the witness's husband is back in
the chambers?
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Your honor. The bench attorneys are scaring my wife, missus ring.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Would you be less frightened if your husband stayed in here?
Speaker 11 (11:40):
Oh, I'm seldom frightened, your honor, good constable, Get him
out of here.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Your honor.
Speaker 7 (11:58):
Okay, So how did you find out about their plan?
Speaker 9 (12:03):
The night before Alma died, we were in her room.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
So Catherine testified about her time with Alma in the
twenty four hours leading up to her death. She told
the jury about this moment they had in Elma's room
the night before Alma was murdered. I picture Catherine like
doing Elma's hair, and Alma explains enthusiastically.
Speaker 13 (12:25):
Eloping is modern and dignified. I thought you'd be into
this idea. No more premarital sex.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
In your house.
Speaker 16 (12:32):
Plus, I know you hate scandals and crowds and fuss.
Speaker 9 (12:35):
But I like weddings.
Speaker 17 (12:36):
Don't you want a wedding?
Speaker 2 (12:38):
What shoes do you think I should wear tomorrow?
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Ding?
Speaker 16 (12:40):
Do you think Hope will lend me her good slippers?
Speaker 11 (12:44):
Not your most subtle topic change, but Hope slippers are
too big for you.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
They're warm in case I have to walk.
Speaker 11 (12:50):
There will be no walking to your wedding. Tell Levi
to pick you up in a sleigh with blankets.
Speaker 13 (12:57):
Levi doesn't have horses, will hum borrow's brother's Ezra has
tons of horses.
Speaker 16 (13:02):
I don't want to ask him to ask Ezra for anything.
Speaker 11 (13:06):
Hold on, did Leevi I din get his brother's blessing
for this? What does Ezra have to say about it all?
Speaker 13 (13:11):
My sweet angel cousin, I am excited to marry Levi tomorrow.
Please be excited for me, or at least pretend everything
is normal.
Speaker 7 (13:26):
The next day, so it's the day of the murder?
Right December twenty second, seventeen ninety nine. What do you remember?
Speaker 9 (13:35):
Levi went out to his brother's house.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
In the morning.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
When did Levi return to the house around noon?
Speaker 11 (13:42):
When he came in, I was making soup and the
Borders were at the table looking at the newspapers.
Speaker 18 (13:50):
Whoo, Levis with the new law.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
You're mocking really weird, Levi.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
I slipped on some ice this morning. Oh no, you
fell busted my knee. It's no big deal.
Speaker 5 (14:02):
It looks bad. You should rest.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
I'm all right for.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
Really, you should stay in tonight and play King's Cop
with us.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
I can't rest. I've got plans tonight plans.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
It's Sunday night and it's freezing here.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Let me wrap your knee, okay, So Elma wrapped up
his knee in cloth, which was kind of an intimate act.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Sit I gotcha.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
But the people in the house already knew that Alma
and Levi were seeing each other. That's part of the
reason there was so much pressure on them to get married,
because the house was meant for single people. So Catherine
went on telling the court that after Elma wrapped up
Levi's knee, they sat together in the parlor for a while.
Speaker 11 (14:42):
Tea till mid afternoon, and then Levi left again, and
Alma went upstairs to get dressed.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
And when did you come back downstairs?
Speaker 9 (14:51):
Around eight pm?
Speaker 17 (14:54):
She looked so beautiful, hey, everyone.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
So Alma came down into the parlor all dressed up.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
Whoa, Alma, what is that gorgeous thing?
Speaker 16 (15:05):
It's a hand muff. Rich people have them.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
If you can't picture this weird accessory, it's like a
big piece of rigatoni made of scarf material that you
can put both your hands in for warmth. If they
come back into fashion, you're welcome.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
I borrowed it from missus Osbourne.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
Oh, missus Osborne.
Speaker 13 (15:22):
Yeah, she said, if I don't give it back tomorrow morning,
she'll have my spleen on a silver spoon or something.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
Well, you look amazing, way better than usual.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
What's sweet?
Speaker 5 (15:31):
And what's the occasion? Just going for a walk all
dressed up like that?
Speaker 17 (15:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I wanted to feel good.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Why do you keep looking at the front door?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I don't what time is it?
Speaker 5 (15:44):
Ato? Six? H?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Really?
Speaker 5 (15:46):
Ato seven?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Maybe your time piece is fast?
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Are you waiting for someone?
Speaker 9 (15:52):
Leave her alone, Russell?
Speaker 5 (15:54):
I want to know.
Speaker 11 (15:55):
Well, Alma doesn't have to tell you anything, drunkie. You
are maxed out on whiskey for the night, Russ, I'm
cutting you off.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
Fine, then I'm off to bed. And everyone's so boring lately.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
So after Russell went off to bed, there were no
other borders in the room. It was just Catherine, Alma,
and Elias, who Catherine explained was in and out of sleeping.
And then a few minutes after eight, Levi came in.
He and Elma had a weird performative interaction in the doorway.
Speaker 13 (16:25):
It went like this, Oh it's Levi, What a surprise, Hey, Alma,
this is right. I was just headed out for a while,
and I was just swinging by so pleasant, running into you.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
Likewise Elma and everyone nice, running into everyone here where
we all live.
Speaker 11 (16:42):
Bye, Alma, Bye, okay bye.
Speaker 13 (16:47):
I'll see you at some point in the future when
we let me see each other.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Honey, Catherine, what's going on?
Speaker 17 (17:01):
Oll'swell, Elias? You dozed off?
Speaker 4 (17:04):
What time is it?
Speaker 17 (17:05):
It's eight ten, sweetheart.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Oh, let's go.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
To bed, all right, I'm headed out for a bit.
Speaker 17 (17:14):
Wait didn't didn't you just get home?
Speaker 4 (17:17):
I did? And now I'm going back out. I'll be
home by kurfey.
Speaker 9 (17:22):
Wait, Levi before you go?
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Yeah, are you?
Speaker 17 (17:29):
Are you a man with integrity?
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Would you say?
Speaker 7 (17:31):
Like?
Speaker 17 (17:31):
Are you a good man?
Speaker 4 (17:33):
I have tons of integrity? Catherine like, maybe even too much?
Speaker 9 (17:37):
No, Wow, that's a.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
Sweet dreams.
Speaker 17 (17:43):
Okay, good night.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Back in the courtroom, Catherine tries to continue testifying through
the constant interruptions.
Speaker 11 (17:52):
Moments later, as I tucked my husband into bed, the
front door opened and shut again, And then I heard
whispers from my front porch.
Speaker 6 (18:00):
Hold on, missus Ring, you heard whispers?
Speaker 9 (18:03):
Yeah, I did, mister Hamilton through my window?
Speaker 6 (18:05):
Who was whispering?
Speaker 9 (18:07):
LEVI weeks talking to someone?
Speaker 11 (18:09):
What were they saying, Well, they were quiet whispers, so
I couldn't exact.
Speaker 12 (18:13):
You don't know who was whispering or what they were saying,
so you have no information.
Speaker 9 (18:18):
Really, I have information.
Speaker 12 (18:20):
This is Ring a simpler question. How far is your
bedroom from the porch where you heard the whispers.
Speaker 11 (18:26):
Up one staircase out the door, and how far is
your bedroom from the stairs.
Speaker 9 (18:32):
I'm not sure two yards.
Speaker 6 (18:34):
Maybe you don't seem sure of anything, Catherine.
Speaker 11 (18:37):
I'm very sure. I heard whispers on my porch. I
tucked my husband into bed, and then I went back downstairs.
I sat in the rocking chair for a while. I
was awake when Levi got home after he murdered my.
Speaker 9 (18:50):
Cousin, checktion, conjecture, curfew came and passed.
Speaker 11 (18:53):
I sat there, thinking, maybe Elma and Levi slept elsewhere,
a friend's house perhaps, but they never.
Speaker 9 (18:59):
Communicated any plan like that.
Speaker 11 (19:02):
Levi's apprentice had been expecting him home, waiting up for hours.
Speaker 14 (19:06):
His apprentice, missus Ring.
Speaker 11 (19:09):
Levi's a house carpenter and always has a young man
shadowing him. At this point it was this kid, William Anderson.
The carpenter shares a rented room with the apprentice, while
he studies.
Speaker 10 (19:22):
Is it okay? If I sleep right here on.
Speaker 17 (19:25):
The floor, you'll be freezing.
Speaker 10 (19:27):
I'm so tired, missus Ring.
Speaker 17 (19:29):
LEVI I should have told you he was going out.
Speaker 10 (19:32):
It's all right.
Speaker 9 (19:33):
No, he's selfish.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
I don't like that.
Speaker 10 (19:36):
I think he's just eccentric, ma'am.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
It's not eccentric.
Speaker 9 (19:40):
He locked you out of your room on a Sunday night.
Speaker 10 (19:43):
Well, it's really his room, Missus Ring.
Speaker 11 (19:46):
It's my house and it's your shared room as long
as you work for him.
Speaker 17 (19:50):
Goodness, this makes me frustrated. I'll bring you a pillow
at least.
Speaker 10 (19:55):
Oh, mister Weeks.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Oh, didn't think anyone would be awake.
Speaker 18 (20:01):
We're awake.
Speaker 9 (20:03):
Where's my cousin?
Speaker 10 (20:05):
Good evening, mister Week's.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
Uh?
Speaker 10 (20:07):
May I have the keys?
Speaker 17 (20:08):
It's past curfew, LEVI sorry, mister Anderson.
Speaker 10 (20:12):
Here you go, Thank you, sir.
Speaker 19 (20:14):
I'll leave it unlocked unless are you sleeping in Elma's room?
Speaker 4 (20:19):
Go to bed now? Oh?
Speaker 10 (20:21):
Sorry, sorry, good night, sir, Missus Ring.
Speaker 9 (20:26):
Good night?
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Where were you? LEVI?
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Where's Hope?
Speaker 17 (20:32):
What did you say?
Speaker 5 (20:33):
Hope?
Speaker 4 (20:34):
I'm just wondering what's Hope doing? Is she sleeping?
Speaker 17 (20:37):
Probably she's been in her room since before.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Tea, is Elma sleeping too? No, No, Elma's not sleeping.
Speaker 17 (20:45):
Alma is not home yet?
Speaker 6 (20:47):
Really, but where is she?
Speaker 17 (20:50):
Wasn't she with you tonight?
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Naturally, Catherine got worried and then suspicious where was Alma?
The fact that Levi came home after curfew with no
idea where Elma was and was then unfazed to hear
that she wasn't home yet when they were supposed to
be getting married. It left Catherine completely shook, and so
Levi's reaction that night became central to the prosecution's case
(21:14):
against him.
Speaker 7 (21:15):
And how exactly did mister Weeks respond when you asked
about Elma?
Speaker 9 (21:19):
He looked pale and agitated, like he was hiding.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Something, objection speculation.
Speaker 9 (21:25):
Leeve I didn't say anything.
Speaker 14 (21:27):
He just did this, wait, what do you mean, missus Rain?
Speaker 11 (21:32):
He took his hand like this, He covered one of
his eyes and half of his mouth, and he took
a deep breath. It was strange behavior, even for him.
Speaker 14 (21:43):
Did you tell mister Weeks, hey, you're acting strange right now?
Speaker 9 (21:48):
Why would I say that, mister Burr.
Speaker 6 (21:51):
What did you say to Leva?
Speaker 11 (21:53):
I told him I thought Elma was still out, probably alone.
Speaker 6 (21:56):
Are you trying to stress him out?
Speaker 11 (21:59):
I was trying to figure out where my cousin was.
Mister Hamilton, Levi went up to bed. Didn't seem worried
at all that Alma was still out in the cold,
totally vulnerable.
Speaker 6 (22:08):
Mister Weeks was tired, missus ring. He had a full day.
Speaker 9 (22:12):
I was tired too, mister Hamilton. But I stayed up
waiting all night for Elma. She never came home.
Speaker 11 (22:20):
Around sunrise, I searched the whole house again, double checked
every room. But then it was time to make food
for the borders. Levi came to breakfast in a panic.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
Where is she? Catherine? I searched the house. She's not
here anywhere.
Speaker 10 (22:37):
Do we have more biscuits on a trey?
Speaker 9 (22:40):
Honey? But be careful, Levi.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Can you come here for a moment.
Speaker 17 (22:48):
Enough, I'm very worried. Tell me where Alma is.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
I don't know, Catherine. You're the one who always knows
where she.
Speaker 17 (22:55):
Is, except when she's with you.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
Maybe she's hiding from me?
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Hiding?
Speaker 17 (23:00):
Would she hide from her husband?
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Hold on husband?
Speaker 17 (23:04):
Oh, don't bother pretending, Levi. Alma told me everything.
Speaker 11 (23:08):
She said that you two went to a loaf last
night and that I could expect you both home before curfew.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
You're crazy, That is so ridiculous.
Speaker 9 (23:18):
You not gaslight me, Levi. I know you two got married.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
I've never married girl that Ezra's consent. Can you imagine
he killed me?
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Alma said you had his blessing.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Well I don't. Zra says I shouldn't date anyone right now.
He has huge dreams for me. Liar, my brother thinks
Alma is below me.
Speaker 10 (23:33):
Alma is so.
Speaker 17 (23:34):
High above you in literally every category.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
I was born into a specific group. Catherine, Alma is
just an orphan.
Speaker 10 (23:41):
If that were true, she'd still be perfect.
Speaker 9 (23:43):
But Alma isn't an orphan.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
Yes she is.
Speaker 10 (23:46):
You don't know her at all.
Speaker 11 (23:47):
She has a dad in the South somewhere, and her
mom is upstate.
Speaker 9 (23:50):
I just saw her in September.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
I thought she had no family.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
I am her family, and you are a stranger. Alma
was with you last night, and now she's missing.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
She's not missing.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Then tell me where she is.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 17 (24:05):
Then go find her.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
What if I can't, you have to.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
So when Catherine confronted Levi the next morning, he immediately
just started crying, trembling, yelling, what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Levi stopped.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
All he could say was he's ruined, over and over
and over.
Speaker 11 (24:30):
He cried and cried, saying his future is doomed. All
I could think about with Alma.
Speaker 14 (24:37):
Was Levi still limping at this point?
Speaker 4 (24:40):
What was that, mister Burr during.
Speaker 14 (24:42):
This conversation with missus Ring. I'm just wondering, was Levi
Weeks still limping from his slip several days before?
Speaker 9 (24:52):
I have no idea. He was wailing in my kitchen,
going on and on and on.
Speaker 14 (24:56):
You weren't paying attention to his disposition.
Speaker 6 (25:00):
He was walking.
Speaker 11 (25:01):
His disposition was crisis distressed.
Speaker 14 (25:03):
You would say, Levi Weeks has a kind disposition in general,
a kind yes, missus Ring, A kind disposition.
Speaker 9 (25:12):
Sure, he's kind.
Speaker 14 (25:14):
Gentleman of the jury, Catherine Ring admits that Levi Weeks
is kind. She always liked him.
Speaker 11 (25:23):
That's not what I said, mister Burr.
Speaker 14 (25:25):
But you found him to be kind, missus Ring. Where
did almiss sleep?
Speaker 17 (25:34):
Huh?
Speaker 11 (25:34):
Her room was on the third floor, but last fall
she started sleeping in the back room on the second
floor with Levi sometimes, missus Ring.
Speaker 12 (25:41):
A quick question about that back room on the second floor,
is that the room that shares a wall with your
neighbor's house.
Speaker 11 (25:48):
Yes, mister Watkins built that plaster partition a few years ago.
Speaker 12 (25:53):
Is that the second floor bedroom the most secluded and
isolated of the rooms in the house.
Speaker 9 (25:58):
I mean, I suppose.
Speaker 11 (26:01):
That might be why Levi and Alma spent so much
time in there, just to have some privacy.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Oh, your nails feel so good?
Speaker 7 (26:10):
WHOA?
Speaker 4 (26:11):
Keep doing that on my chest.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I'm practicing my penmanship.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Wait, can you read and write pretty well?
Speaker 2 (26:20):
I'm getting a little better.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
Oh huh. I wonder if my brother knows that you're literate.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
You never asked me about myself? So how it is?
Speaker 1 (26:29):
R No?
Speaker 6 (26:30):
I ask you stuff all the time.
Speaker 16 (26:33):
Ask me something right now, anything, I'll answer.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 6 (26:39):
Do you.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Think I'm going to be rich and successful?
Speaker 18 (26:46):
That's your question for me? Like?
Speaker 4 (26:48):
What if I become so important that one day they
name a holiday after me?
Speaker 2 (26:52):
If I who would name a holiday after you?
Speaker 6 (26:55):
Wow? Elma?
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Wow? I knew you didn't believe me. Of course I
believe is No, No, you don't.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
You don't wake up, mister Watkins.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
I don't care. Rise and shine, mister Watkins. Morning, wakey,
wakey out you have.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
To speak quieter.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
Fine, fine, fine.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Come here, give you your face. I love you.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Oh, we've got a situation. You're gonna be late to mass.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
No, it's not even a thirty yet.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
But your nightgown is suddenly disappearing. It's it's a mystery.
Is that somehow these bloomers are flying down your legs.
They can't be stopped.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
I wonder where they're going.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
I know where I'm going.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Hey, just jumping in here to keep it PG. Also,
Alma and Levi were often interrupted by their creepy housemate
like this, god o.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
Sure, pervert.
Speaker 6 (27:58):
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Was just a were you watching her?
Speaker 20 (28:01):
Oh, don't flattery yourselves.
Speaker 6 (28:04):
I was going to fight the fact that next door.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Wawkins doesn't even sell cigarettes on Sundays.
Speaker 16 (28:09):
This room isn't even on your way to the Watkins.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
You were trying to see Elma naked again. You're a
creep Croucher, Get out of here.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Richard Croucher was an older British merchant who lodged at
the boarding house. Croucher was like menacing, ugly, scary and mean.
He'd ultimately actually be declared criminally insane. More on that later,
but in seventeen ninety nine. He was just grossly obsessed
with Elma, and he did not.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Like Levi Weeks.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
So Coldon used Croucher's testimony to further illustrate Levi's unpredictable,
suspicious behavior after Alma disappeared.
Speaker 20 (28:44):
My name is Richard Croucher. I'm a lodger at two
hundred and Night, Greenwich.
Speaker 7 (28:49):
Straight and you witnessed closely Levi and Elma's relationship.
Speaker 6 (28:53):
I watched Leevi ruin.
Speaker 20 (28:54):
Hey, guess Elma changed when she started singing the defendant.
Her light dimmed in his company. I'm certain she was
frightened of him. He's a frightening man.
Speaker 7 (29:06):
Look at him, mister Croucher, How did you know Levi
was guilty?
Speaker 20 (29:11):
My bedroom is right below Levi's. He didn't sleep for
days after Wilma disappeared. I found that most suspicious. I
could hear Levi all through the night, dragon furniture, hammering, hasting.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
Gentlemen of the jury. While everyone else in New York
City looked for Alma Sands. Levi Weeks was moving furniture,
not sleeping.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
And though this seemed like a win for Colden's case,
it was probably naive of him to call a witness
who was notoriously controversial and gossipy. So to confirm what
we just heard, Colden called Levi's apprentice to the stand.
Speaker 7 (29:45):
William Anderson. You share Levi's bedroom at the Ring's house.
Is that right?
Speaker 10 (29:50):
I share his room and I know he was sleeping.
Speaker 7 (29:53):
So he wasn't awake worried about Alma.
Speaker 14 (29:55):
You're contradicting yourself.
Speaker 7 (29:57):
So Levi week slept soundly on December twenty second to
your note.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Because you have no case he did. Yes, And the
night after that this is so hard to watch.
Speaker 10 (30:06):
Levi slept soundly again.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
And the third night called in, your embarrassing yourself. Please
answer me, sir?
Speaker 14 (30:12):
Can someone get Cad Walader a calendar?
Speaker 4 (30:16):
The third night, Christmas night, Levi slept fine. Again.
Speaker 14 (30:19):
I think it's clear our client had no trouble sleeping
that week.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
What about the fourth night?
Speaker 7 (30:24):
Is this a joke?
Speaker 6 (30:25):
Objection your honor?
Speaker 5 (30:27):
One more question, then move it along, cold In.
Speaker 7 (30:29):
I'm just asking, mister Anderson, did Levi show signs of
anxiety or have trouble sleeping on the fourth night after
Alma disappeared? I suppose so, but so yes, you saw
change in Levi's behavior after Alma had been gone for
three days.
Speaker 19 (30:44):
Well, first I thought he'd caught the fever. But he
wasn't sweating. He was just shaky, shaky, how shaky, like
his girlfriend just died.
Speaker 7 (30:54):
I don't know. Hold on, did Levi I seem to
know Alma was dead at this point.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
On the fourth night after Alma disappeared, Levi woke up
in the middle of the night with bad dreams. According
to his apprentice, William, this was the first time since
Alma's disappearance that Levi showed any real concern about it.
That Levi even seemed phased about Elma disappearing.
Speaker 10 (31:21):
Sorry, how are you?
Speaker 11 (31:28):
No?
Speaker 7 (31:29):
No me?
Speaker 13 (31:29):
It's your apprentice, help me.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
You're having a.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Mind right, So Levi's anxiety continued to increase after Elma disappeared,
and to reinforce this even further, and to confirm that
Levi's behavior following the murder was erratic, Coldon called up
Hope Sands, Alma's second cousin and another resident at the
boarding house. Hope was a freckly, dark haired girl with
(32:01):
a heart of gold. She was self assured and she
had no problem speaking her mind about Levi To the jury.
Speaker 10 (32:07):
She told them.
Speaker 18 (32:08):
Levi was a total zombie. After Alma vanished, he was
exhausted and pale, and he came to me completely Mannic Hope,
come here, I am working Levi. I need to talk
(32:31):
to you, and I need to finish these hats. The
Rings are struggling with the rent because of those empty rooms.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
Yes, I help the Rings too, we all do.
Speaker 18 (32:38):
You are helping Catherine and Elias with their financial issues?
How specifically?
Speaker 4 (32:42):
I paid two months re in advance just to keep
their doors open.
Speaker 18 (32:45):
You didn't pay anything. Everyone knows your brother pays for you,
so so as Roe's rich, I've seen his house, I
don't feel.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Bound for you.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
I'm in crisis.
Speaker 17 (32:56):
Stop pig.
Speaker 15 (32:56):
You're messing with this brette, but get off of my sewing.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
That hats are not urgent. I'm your friend and I
need your help.
Speaker 18 (33:02):
So you're not really my friend. You're a housemaid who
I accidentally slept with a few times.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
What do you want?
Speaker 16 (33:07):
Le Bay?
Speaker 4 (33:08):
Just sign this? What is it?
Speaker 7 (33:12):
It's standard?
Speaker 18 (33:15):
This basically says you've hooked up with every girl in
this house.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
No, no, it says I treated every girl the same
way I treated Elma.
Speaker 18 (33:23):
Where did you even get a document like this.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
My brother hired attorneys just in case, just in case,
what just in case, just if the body is found
close to here or nearby body.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
So everyone was still hopeful that Alma might come home
or that she would be found alive, except for Levi Weeks.
He assumed that Alma was dead and that he would
be implicated. And as Hope asked, where did he even
get a legal document like this? At the time of
this trial, Levi's older brother, Ezra was building a mansion
(33:57):
uptown for Alexander Hamilton. It's called The Grain. It's still
there right now. And in New York, guys like Hamilton
and Burr had all the power socially, politically, legally financially,
but personally they didn't have any cash. So both Burr
and Hamilton were in debt all the time, and for
the mansion project, Hamilton would have owed a favor to
his architect extraordinaire, Ezra Weeks. The least he could do
(34:21):
was draw up some preliminary legal paperwork to protect Ezra's
little brother Levi, but Hope refused to sign. She knew
something wasn't right.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
It's just a precaution. Keep me protected so the police
don't show up and hould me off to Bridewell in Chain's.
Speaker 18 (34:36):
Can you imagine he's Alma dead?
Speaker 4 (34:38):
I don't know if she said her life, just sign.
Speaker 18 (34:40):
This and I said no way, And then he had
the audacity to ask me to get Catherine's signature.
Speaker 6 (34:50):
And did you, of course not, Hope.
Speaker 12 (34:55):
Do you think people liked Levi before he was accused
of this horrible thing?
Speaker 14 (35:00):
Uh?
Speaker 18 (35:00):
You know, like everyone was fine with him when he
moved in last July.
Speaker 6 (35:04):
And clearly you liked him, maybe a little too much.
Speaker 18 (35:09):
People liked Levi, yes, until he murdered.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Elma, and Hope went on to testify about an interaction
that she had with Levi a few nights after the murder.
She was in Catherine's room at the time, trying to
figure out where Elma could be, and Levi barged in there.
Speaker 11 (35:25):
Like this Belleview is first thing on your list tomorrow,
but then you have to check all the hospitals.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
Oh ladies, ladies, you're being such down as you're bumming
everybody out.
Speaker 15 (35:35):
Go away, Levi.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
Oh Catherine, girls, just let this go. She's gone, What
Alma's gone? Nothing to do about it? Shut up?
Speaker 18 (35:46):
Why would you say that.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Alma probably got sick of this depressing boarding house and
ended it just like she said she would.
Speaker 18 (35:55):
Yeah, I heard her say that, but she never meant
like in her life. It is a figure of speech.
Speaker 12 (36:02):
Everyone says it to clarify everyone threatens to end their
own lives.
Speaker 18 (36:08):
Yes, yes, I've said. You know, if blah blah blah,
I'd kill myself.
Speaker 15 (36:15):
There's no possible way that Alma wanted to commit suicide.
Speaker 6 (36:19):
How would you know that?
Speaker 18 (36:21):
I knew Alma very well, mister.
Speaker 6 (36:23):
Hamilton, but not as well as Levi I did.
Speaker 18 (36:25):
Right, Maybe Levi I knew her more intimately at the end.
Speaker 12 (36:29):
So if Levi said that Alma probably killed herself, then
Elma probably killed herself.
Speaker 6 (36:34):
Wouldn't you say?
Speaker 4 (36:36):
No?
Speaker 18 (36:36):
I wouldn't say that at all, Sir.
Speaker 11 (36:38):
Alma never said anything like that, your honor, you have
to believe us.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
Hope didn't be here.
Speaker 15 (36:42):
I was only saying if Alma accidentally took too much laudanum,
but her psycho boyfriend drove her to do it. So
Alma's death is Levi's fault regardless.
Speaker 6 (36:54):
Wonderful. Nothing further but I step.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Down, man, And once it was said from the witness
stand that Elma may have once colloquially threatened to take
her own life. The defense attorneys were ready to build
their case on that idea. But if Levi Weeks had
an alibi, why didn't that come out right away? And
why were the most powerful attorneys in Manhattan so focused
(37:19):
on eviscerating the character of the dead twenty two year old.
In the next episode, the prosecution stumbles upon a secret
that threatens the defense's entire case. This is erased, Stay
with Us erased. The Murder of Elma Sands is a
(37:41):
production of Lunch Plans and Lava for Good Podcasts in
association with Signal Company Number One. The show is narrated, written,
and produced by me Alison Flamm. It stars Alison Williams
as Catherine Ring, Tony Goldwyn as Alexander Hamilton, Barry Sheck
as Aaron Burr, and Jason as Judge John Lansing.
Speaker 4 (38:02):
Our executive producers are.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Alison Williams, Jason Flamm, and Kevin Wartis. This show is
produced by Goldhalk Productions. The show is sound designed and
mixed by Steve Bond. The music is composed and performed
by Sasha Putnam. The producer for goldhalk Is Andy Goddard,
with production management from Emma Hearn, the executive producer for
(38:24):
goldhalk Is John Scott Dryden. You can listen to every
episode of Erased the Murder of Elma Sands right now
ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good plus on
Apple Podcasts. You can also follow the show on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook,
and Twitter at Lava for Good and For more information
on this story, plus a complete list of our incredible cast,
(38:45):
visit lavafgood dot com. Slash Erased
Elma Sans was twenty two years old when she was
murdered in New York City. Her body was thrown into
the Manhattan Well on December twenty second, seventeen ninety nine,
and this became a sensational story. It was gruesome, it
was shocking, it was scandalous. Everyone called it the crime
of the century. But now nobody knows the name Elma Sands.
(00:30):
When I stumbled upon the Manhattan Well, I was working
as a tour guide. It's in the basement of a
clothing store in Soho. It's unmarked, seemingly random. It's this
big pillar of old bricks, incongruous with everything around it,
and I watched people pass by it with no idea
that a twenty two year old was killed right there, and.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I couldn't believe that.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
But when stories don't get told and histories aren't protected,
they get erased. Elma's murder case went to trial, and
that trial shaped the justice system that we have today.
The defense lawyers on the case were Aerin Burr and
Alexander Hamilton, and their client, the guy Elma was sleeping with,
faced a death sentence. Everyone knew it would be a
(01:14):
big show, so for the first time in US history,
there were stenographers in the courtroom taking notes, leaving us
several partial written accounts of this trial. I've created this
dramatic adaptation of all my research to share this truly
unbelievable story with you. I'm Alison Flom and this is
(01:38):
erased the Murder of Elma Sans.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Are you ready?
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Our story begins on March thirty first, eighteen hundred, at
City Hall on Wall Street. The proceedings were scheduled for
ten am and the trial was open to the public.
The courtroom was packed with massive crowds spilling out onto
the streets chanting, and inside the courtroom.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Order constable, can you shut the windows?
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Good?
Speaker 5 (02:31):
Bring in the prisoner.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
They brought Levi Weeks into the courtroom in chains. Levi
was this refined, privileged guy who was looking way different
than usual. He'd been sitting in jail for three months
and it showed. And this was the first time people
were seeing Levi since things were normal since before he
was indicted for the brutal beating and felonious murder of
Alma Sands.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
The prisoner, Levi Weeks fleets not.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Guilty, accused, was actually not allowed to testify in their
own trials, so Levi would sit silently the entire time.
So you won't hear from Levi in the courtroom, but
you'll hear a lot about.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Him rather than defending his own case. Levi, Weeks has
exercised a new American right to a private council.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Which means he hired private defense attorneys, which people didn't
usually do at this time. This was all new and
completely revolutionary. Levi sat at a table with his lawyers
Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton standing beside him. Notorious frenemies, yes,
but they worked as a team on this case. They'd
been preparing for months, and they were excited for this performance.
Speaker 6 (03:40):
You look forward to presenting your case, Ran.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
And then at the opposite table was a sweaty, anxious,
very underprepared prosecutor, the Assistant Attorney General, Kidwalader d Coldet.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Good morning, folks.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
There were several stenographers in the courtroom to take notes
and publish their account of the trial, which had never
happened before.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Of the New York States of Freemia, and.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Judge John Lansing presided. He was boisterous, he was emphatic,
he was excited, about justice, but he didn't know how
it should go. The key players here knew that they
were figuring it all out along the way, but at
the beginning most of them acted like they knew exactly
what was going on.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Proceed, mister Colden, right, yes, your opening remarks, Coldon right now,
right at your earliest convenience.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
If you're thinking Coldin is fumbling this from the beginning,
you're not wrong. Coldon's career as a lawyer so far
has been pushing papers. It's been admin He's never done
anything like this before. The jurors were all friends and
colleagues with each other and with Alexander Hamilton and the
judge and Aaron Burr, but not Colden. So Colden was
(05:02):
left out. He was underqualified and underconnected. He started by
trying to paint a vivid picture of Alma Sans for
the jury like this.
Speaker 7 (05:12):
Her name was Julielma, but everyone called her Alma.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Everybody liked her.
Speaker 8 (05:20):
She was a sweet, happy, virtuous girl until she met
that man right there, Levi Weeks murdered Alma in cold blood.
Speaker 7 (05:32):
Levi tricked her because he's a liar. He lured her in,
deluded her into thinking they'd be married, and she believed him,
poor poor thing. The night of December twenty second, Alma
Sands thought Levi was going to marry her, but instead
he strangled her then tossed her body into the Manhattan Well,
(05:55):
Levi is malicious, dangerous, guilty. I'll prove to you the
undeniable truth that Levi Weeks murdered Alma Sands and he
thought he'd get away with it. Mister Weeks should be
prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
The law is whatever we say it is.
Speaker 6 (06:15):
You got that right.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Your client took a human life. Mister Burke.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
They get easy cold, and you look nervous.
Speaker 7 (06:20):
And do you look like a murderer's attorney, mister Hamilton.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Call your first witness coldon.
Speaker 7 (06:26):
Shouldn't I wait for the defense to make their opening statement.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
No, they'll do that later after you present your case.
Speaker 7 (06:32):
Proceed, okay, the prosecution.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
So the first witness called to testify was Catherine Ring,
Alma's cousin. Catherine was intense and New Yorky, but she
was a farm girl at heart. She had curly red
hair tucked up into her bonnet, and she was like
calm and confident as she walked past the jury up
to the witness stand. As soon as Coldon introduced her, Missus.
Speaker 7 (06:53):
Ring is the wife of Alias Ring. The two of
them run a boarding house and millinery out of their home.
Are you comfortable, Catherine?
Speaker 9 (07:01):
I'm fine? Can I start testifying?
Speaker 10 (07:03):
She was ready to go.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
The first questions for Catherine were about her boarding house
two eight Grenade Street, so the jury could get a
sense of where Elma lived.
Speaker 7 (07:12):
Can you tell us about it?
Speaker 11 (07:15):
My house has seven bedrooms we have My house has
seven bedrooms that can be rented out, plus my bedroom
or the one I share with my husband. Of course,
the house is for young single people. Our borders are
usually new to New York, or working or not quite
(07:36):
ready to get married yet. Outside the house, the borders
do what they want. Inside the house, they follow my rules.
They have a nightly curfew, and they pay rent to
me each month.
Speaker 7 (07:46):
Did Alma pay rent to you?
Speaker 9 (07:48):
No? Alma was family. She worked for me in the
hat shop with Hope, another one of our boarders.
Speaker 6 (07:55):
Does your husband help?
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Of course I do.
Speaker 9 (07:58):
Of course he does.
Speaker 6 (08:00):
Mister Ring helps you in the hatshock.
Speaker 11 (08:02):
Oh no, he doesn't really help with that Elias is
really busy.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Running the house, protecting the property, keeping track of the finding.
Should I actually come up there, it might be easy.
Speaker 6 (08:15):
Mister Ring, sit down.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
I want to help my wife.
Speaker 9 (08:18):
I was just saying that.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Just say anything else, your honor.
Speaker 12 (08:22):
The defense requests that the witness's husband be removed from
the chambers.
Speaker 6 (08:26):
He's disrupted.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
I'm helping my wife.
Speaker 7 (08:29):
Do you need help, Catherine?
Speaker 13 (08:31):
No?
Speaker 9 (08:31):
Can I keep going?
Speaker 14 (08:32):
Hold on missus Ring. We have to figure this.
Speaker 12 (08:35):
Missus Ring's testimony easily could be influenced by her husband's energy.
Speaker 15 (08:39):
My energy is fantastic, your honor, remove him.
Speaker 14 (08:44):
The witnesses distracted, your honor me.
Speaker 11 (08:47):
I'm not the one who got distracted, mister Hamilton.
Speaker 9 (08:50):
I'm trying to testify.
Speaker 14 (08:51):
I refuse to continue until Elias Ring is removed from
the chamber.
Speaker 7 (08:56):
So we're gonna do this every time a married woman
testifies in an American court room, for fear shall be distracted.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Constable remove Elias Ring from the chambers.
Speaker 7 (09:05):
On what grounds it.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
Horror.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
So, after Elias was escorted out of the courtroom, the
lawyers and judge used Catherine's time on the stand to
start establishing rules and customs for how everything should go.
Before she could even begin telling the jury about Elma,
the defense attorneys distracted her and tried to diminish her credibility,
But Catherine powered through those distractions. She knew Alma the
(09:34):
best of anyone.
Speaker 7 (09:36):
On the day of the murder, Alma and Levi were
planning to Elo.
Speaker 11 (09:38):
Alma said Levi would pick her up at eight, they'd
be married and then home before curfew.
Speaker 12 (09:43):
Wait, objection, Oh what now, Hamilton, Statements from the deceased
are not admissible evidence.
Speaker 9 (09:50):
Wait, I can't tell you what my cousin said to me.
Speaker 6 (09:53):
No, you cannot, missus Ring.
Speaker 9 (09:55):
That can't be.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
No yet, that's not a real rule.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Counselors, you're upsetting missus Ring.
Speaker 11 (10:00):
I'm not upset. I just don't understand how this could
be a rule.
Speaker 6 (10:03):
Can we make this simpler for missus Ring somehow?
Speaker 11 (10:06):
No, I don't need anything simplified, mister Hamilton, Thank you.
Levi wanted to keep Alma a secret. They didn't want
anyone to know they got.
Speaker 14 (10:13):
Married, and ejection conjecture ruled conjecture.
Speaker 6 (10:17):
Conjecture, take it easier, That was conjecture.
Speaker 11 (10:20):
Elma and Levi started seeing each other last September.
Speaker 9 (10:23):
When I went out of town.
Speaker 7 (10:25):
Where did you go?
Speaker 9 (10:26):
I went upstate to quarantine.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
The winter of seventeen ninety nine to eighteen hundred was
a devastating one in New York City. It was freezing
and gray and the height of the yellow fever epidemic,
so people were falling into delirium and dying. By the thousands.
New Yorkers were staying home to shelter from the bitter
cold and the raging fever, getting out of Manhattan if
(10:49):
they could to avoid the fever. Catherine and the other
women in the house went up to New Cornwall in
September seventeen ninety nine, but Alma stayed home.
Speaker 7 (10:58):
And when you left, what was the dynamic between Elma
and Levi?
Speaker 9 (11:02):
Well, they were basically strangers when I left.
Speaker 11 (11:04):
At that point, Levi was romantically involved with Margaret, another
one of our borders. But then I got a letter
from my husband saying that Elma and Levi were sleeping
in the same room and likely having premarital sex. I
came home shortly after.
Speaker 7 (11:24):
That, because you had the instinct that Levi might hurt Elma.
Speaker 12 (11:28):
Excuse can we hold the witness's husband is back in
the chambers?
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Your honor. The bench attorneys are scaring my wife, missus ring.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Would you be less frightened if your husband stayed in here?
Speaker 11 (11:40):
Oh, I'm seldom frightened, your honor, good constable, Get him
out of here.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Your honor.
Speaker 7 (11:58):
Okay, So how did you find out about their plan?
Speaker 9 (12:03):
The night before Alma died, we were in her room.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
So Catherine testified about her time with Alma in the
twenty four hours leading up to her death. She told
the jury about this moment they had in Elma's room
the night before Alma was murdered. I picture Catherine like
doing Elma's hair, and Alma explains enthusiastically.
Speaker 13 (12:25):
Eloping is modern and dignified. I thought you'd be into
this idea. No more premarital sex.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
In your house.
Speaker 16 (12:32):
Plus, I know you hate scandals and crowds and fuss.
Speaker 9 (12:35):
But I like weddings.
Speaker 17 (12:36):
Don't you want a wedding?
Speaker 2 (12:38):
What shoes do you think I should wear tomorrow?
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Ding?
Speaker 16 (12:40):
Do you think Hope will lend me her good slippers?
Speaker 11 (12:44):
Not your most subtle topic change, but Hope slippers are
too big for you.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
They're warm in case I have to walk.
Speaker 11 (12:50):
There will be no walking to your wedding. Tell Levi
to pick you up in a sleigh with blankets.
Speaker 13 (12:57):
Levi doesn't have horses, will hum borrow's brother's Ezra has
tons of horses.
Speaker 16 (13:02):
I don't want to ask him to ask Ezra for anything.
Speaker 11 (13:06):
Hold on, did Leevi I din get his brother's blessing
for this? What does Ezra have to say about it all?
Speaker 13 (13:11):
My sweet angel cousin, I am excited to marry Levi tomorrow.
Please be excited for me, or at least pretend everything
is normal.
Speaker 7 (13:26):
The next day, so it's the day of the murder?
Right December twenty second, seventeen ninety nine. What do you remember?
Speaker 9 (13:35):
Levi went out to his brother's house.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
In the morning.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
When did Levi return to the house around noon?
Speaker 11 (13:42):
When he came in, I was making soup and the
Borders were at the table looking at the newspapers.
Speaker 18 (13:50):
Whoo, Levis with the new law.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
You're mocking really weird, Levi.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
I slipped on some ice this morning. Oh no, you
fell busted my knee. It's no big deal.
Speaker 5 (14:02):
It looks bad. You should rest.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
I'm all right for.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
Really, you should stay in tonight and play King's Cop
with us.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
I can't rest. I've got plans tonight plans.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
It's Sunday night and it's freezing here.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Let me wrap your knee, okay, So Elma wrapped up
his knee in cloth, which was kind of an intimate act.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Sit I gotcha.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
But the people in the house already knew that Alma
and Levi were seeing each other. That's part of the
reason there was so much pressure on them to get married,
because the house was meant for single people. So Catherine
went on telling the court that after Elma wrapped up
Levi's knee, they sat together in the parlor for a while.
Speaker 11 (14:42):
Tea till mid afternoon, and then Levi left again, and
Alma went upstairs to get dressed.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
And when did you come back downstairs?
Speaker 9 (14:51):
Around eight pm?
Speaker 17 (14:54):
She looked so beautiful, hey, everyone.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
So Alma came down into the parlor all dressed up.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
Whoa, Alma, what is that gorgeous thing?
Speaker 16 (15:05):
It's a hand muff. Rich people have them.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
If you can't picture this weird accessory, it's like a
big piece of rigatoni made of scarf material that you
can put both your hands in for warmth. If they
come back into fashion, you're welcome.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
I borrowed it from missus Osbourne.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
Oh, missus Osborne.
Speaker 13 (15:22):
Yeah, she said, if I don't give it back tomorrow morning,
she'll have my spleen on a silver spoon or something.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
Well, you look amazing, way better than usual.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
What's sweet?
Speaker 5 (15:31):
And what's the occasion? Just going for a walk all
dressed up like that?
Speaker 17 (15:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I wanted to feel good.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Why do you keep looking at the front door?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I don't what time is it?
Speaker 5 (15:44):
Ato? Six? H?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Really?
Speaker 5 (15:46):
Ato seven?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Maybe your time piece is fast?
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Are you waiting for someone?
Speaker 9 (15:52):
Leave her alone, Russell?
Speaker 5 (15:54):
I want to know.
Speaker 11 (15:55):
Well, Alma doesn't have to tell you anything, drunkie. You
are maxed out on whiskey for the night, Russ, I'm
cutting you off.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
Fine, then I'm off to bed. And everyone's so boring lately.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
So after Russell went off to bed, there were no
other borders in the room. It was just Catherine, Alma,
and Elias, who Catherine explained was in and out of sleeping.
And then a few minutes after eight, Levi came in.
He and Elma had a weird performative interaction in the doorway.
Speaker 13 (16:25):
It went like this, Oh it's Levi, What a surprise, Hey, Alma,
this is right. I was just headed out for a while,
and I was just swinging by so pleasant, running into you.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
Likewise Elma and everyone nice, running into everyone here where
we all live.
Speaker 11 (16:42):
Bye, Alma, Bye, okay bye.
Speaker 13 (16:47):
I'll see you at some point in the future when
we let me see each other.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Honey, Catherine, what's going on?
Speaker 17 (17:01):
Oll'swell, Elias? You dozed off?
Speaker 4 (17:04):
What time is it?
Speaker 17 (17:05):
It's eight ten, sweetheart.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Oh, let's go.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
To bed, all right, I'm headed out for a bit.
Speaker 17 (17:14):
Wait didn't didn't you just get home?
Speaker 4 (17:17):
I did? And now I'm going back out. I'll be
home by kurfey.
Speaker 9 (17:22):
Wait, Levi before you go?
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Yeah, are you?
Speaker 17 (17:29):
Are you a man with integrity?
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Would you say?
Speaker 7 (17:31):
Like?
Speaker 17 (17:31):
Are you a good man?
Speaker 4 (17:33):
I have tons of integrity? Catherine like, maybe even too much?
Speaker 9 (17:37):
No, Wow, that's a.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
Sweet dreams.
Speaker 17 (17:43):
Okay, good night.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Back in the courtroom, Catherine tries to continue testifying through
the constant interruptions.
Speaker 11 (17:52):
Moments later, as I tucked my husband into bed, the
front door opened and shut again, And then I heard
whispers from my front porch.
Speaker 6 (18:00):
Hold on, missus Ring, you heard whispers?
Speaker 9 (18:03):
Yeah, I did, mister Hamilton through my window?
Speaker 6 (18:05):
Who was whispering?
Speaker 9 (18:07):
LEVI weeks talking to someone?
Speaker 11 (18:09):
What were they saying, Well, they were quiet whispers, so
I couldn't exact.
Speaker 12 (18:13):
You don't know who was whispering or what they were saying,
so you have no information.
Speaker 9 (18:18):
Really, I have information.
Speaker 12 (18:20):
This is Ring a simpler question. How far is your
bedroom from the porch where you heard the whispers.
Speaker 11 (18:26):
Up one staircase out the door, and how far is
your bedroom from the stairs.
Speaker 9 (18:32):
I'm not sure two yards.
Speaker 6 (18:34):
Maybe you don't seem sure of anything, Catherine.
Speaker 11 (18:37):
I'm very sure. I heard whispers on my porch. I
tucked my husband into bed, and then I went back downstairs.
I sat in the rocking chair for a while. I
was awake when Levi got home after he murdered my.
Speaker 9 (18:50):
Cousin, checktion, conjecture, curfew came and passed.
Speaker 11 (18:53):
I sat there, thinking, maybe Elma and Levi slept elsewhere,
a friend's house perhaps, but they never.
Speaker 9 (18:59):
Communicated any plan like that.
Speaker 11 (19:02):
Levi's apprentice had been expecting him home, waiting up for hours.
Speaker 14 (19:06):
His apprentice, missus Ring.
Speaker 11 (19:09):
Levi's a house carpenter and always has a young man
shadowing him. At this point it was this kid, William Anderson.
The carpenter shares a rented room with the apprentice, while
he studies.
Speaker 10 (19:22):
Is it okay? If I sleep right here on.
Speaker 17 (19:25):
The floor, you'll be freezing.
Speaker 10 (19:27):
I'm so tired, missus Ring.
Speaker 17 (19:29):
LEVI I should have told you he was going out.
Speaker 10 (19:32):
It's all right.
Speaker 9 (19:33):
No, he's selfish.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
I don't like that.
Speaker 10 (19:36):
I think he's just eccentric, ma'am.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
It's not eccentric.
Speaker 9 (19:40):
He locked you out of your room on a Sunday night.
Speaker 10 (19:43):
Well, it's really his room, Missus Ring.
Speaker 11 (19:46):
It's my house and it's your shared room as long
as you work for him.
Speaker 17 (19:50):
Goodness, this makes me frustrated. I'll bring you a pillow
at least.
Speaker 10 (19:55):
Oh, mister Weeks.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Oh, didn't think anyone would be awake.
Speaker 18 (20:01):
We're awake.
Speaker 9 (20:03):
Where's my cousin?
Speaker 10 (20:05):
Good evening, mister Week's.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
Uh?
Speaker 10 (20:07):
May I have the keys?
Speaker 17 (20:08):
It's past curfew, LEVI sorry, mister Anderson.
Speaker 10 (20:12):
Here you go, Thank you, sir.
Speaker 19 (20:14):
I'll leave it unlocked unless are you sleeping in Elma's room?
Speaker 4 (20:19):
Go to bed now? Oh?
Speaker 10 (20:21):
Sorry, sorry, good night, sir, Missus Ring.
Speaker 9 (20:26):
Good night?
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Where were you? LEVI?
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Where's Hope?
Speaker 17 (20:32):
What did you say?
Speaker 5 (20:33):
Hope?
Speaker 4 (20:34):
I'm just wondering what's Hope doing? Is she sleeping?
Speaker 17 (20:37):
Probably she's been in her room since before.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Tea, is Elma sleeping too? No, No, Elma's not sleeping.
Speaker 17 (20:45):
Alma is not home yet?
Speaker 6 (20:47):
Really, but where is she?
Speaker 17 (20:50):
Wasn't she with you tonight?
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Naturally, Catherine got worried and then suspicious where was Alma?
The fact that Levi came home after curfew with no
idea where Elma was and was then unfazed to hear
that she wasn't home yet when they were supposed to
be getting married. It left Catherine completely shook, and so
Levi's reaction that night became central to the prosecution's case
(21:14):
against him.
Speaker 7 (21:15):
And how exactly did mister Weeks respond when you asked
about Elma?
Speaker 9 (21:19):
He looked pale and agitated, like he was hiding.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Something, objection speculation.
Speaker 9 (21:25):
Leeve I didn't say anything.
Speaker 14 (21:27):
He just did this, wait, what do you mean, missus Rain?
Speaker 11 (21:32):
He took his hand like this, He covered one of
his eyes and half of his mouth, and he took
a deep breath. It was strange behavior, even for him.
Speaker 14 (21:43):
Did you tell mister Weeks, hey, you're acting strange right now?
Speaker 9 (21:48):
Why would I say that, mister Burr.
Speaker 6 (21:51):
What did you say to Leva?
Speaker 11 (21:53):
I told him I thought Elma was still out, probably alone.
Speaker 6 (21:56):
Are you trying to stress him out?
Speaker 11 (21:59):
I was trying to figure out where my cousin was.
Mister Hamilton, Levi went up to bed. Didn't seem worried
at all that Alma was still out in the cold,
totally vulnerable.
Speaker 6 (22:08):
Mister Weeks was tired, missus ring. He had a full day.
Speaker 9 (22:12):
I was tired too, mister Hamilton. But I stayed up
waiting all night for Elma. She never came home.
Speaker 11 (22:20):
Around sunrise, I searched the whole house again, double checked
every room. But then it was time to make food
for the borders. Levi came to breakfast in a panic.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
Where is she? Catherine? I searched the house. She's not
here anywhere.
Speaker 10 (22:37):
Do we have more biscuits on a trey?
Speaker 9 (22:40):
Honey? But be careful, Levi.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Can you come here for a moment.
Speaker 17 (22:48):
Enough, I'm very worried. Tell me where Alma is.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
I don't know, Catherine. You're the one who always knows
where she.
Speaker 17 (22:55):
Is, except when she's with you.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
Maybe she's hiding from me?
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Hiding?
Speaker 17 (23:00):
Would she hide from her husband?
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Hold on husband?
Speaker 17 (23:04):
Oh, don't bother pretending, Levi. Alma told me everything.
Speaker 11 (23:08):
She said that you two went to a loaf last
night and that I could expect you both home before curfew.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
You're crazy, That is so ridiculous.
Speaker 9 (23:18):
You not gaslight me, Levi. I know you two got married.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
I've never married girl that Ezra's consent. Can you imagine
he killed me?
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Alma said you had his blessing.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Well I don't. Zra says I shouldn't date anyone right now.
He has huge dreams for me. Liar, my brother thinks
Alma is below me.
Speaker 10 (23:33):
Alma is so.
Speaker 17 (23:34):
High above you in literally every category.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
I was born into a specific group. Catherine, Alma is
just an orphan.
Speaker 10 (23:41):
If that were true, she'd still be perfect.
Speaker 9 (23:43):
But Alma isn't an orphan.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
Yes she is.
Speaker 10 (23:46):
You don't know her at all.
Speaker 11 (23:47):
She has a dad in the South somewhere, and her
mom is upstate.
Speaker 9 (23:50):
I just saw her in September.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
I thought she had no family.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
I am her family, and you are a stranger. Alma
was with you last night, and now she's missing.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
She's not missing.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Then tell me where she is.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 17 (24:05):
Then go find her.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
What if I can't, you have to.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
So when Catherine confronted Levi the next morning, he immediately
just started crying, trembling, yelling, what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Levi stopped.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
All he could say was he's ruined, over and over
and over.
Speaker 11 (24:30):
He cried and cried, saying his future is doomed. All
I could think about with Alma.
Speaker 14 (24:37):
Was Levi still limping at this point?
Speaker 4 (24:40):
What was that, mister Burr during.
Speaker 14 (24:42):
This conversation with missus Ring. I'm just wondering, was Levi
Weeks still limping from his slip several days before?
Speaker 9 (24:52):
I have no idea. He was wailing in my kitchen,
going on and on and on.
Speaker 14 (24:56):
You weren't paying attention to his disposition.
Speaker 6 (25:00):
He was walking.
Speaker 11 (25:01):
His disposition was crisis distressed.
Speaker 14 (25:03):
You would say, Levi Weeks has a kind disposition in general,
a kind yes, missus Ring, A kind disposition.
Speaker 9 (25:12):
Sure, he's kind.
Speaker 14 (25:14):
Gentleman of the jury, Catherine Ring admits that Levi Weeks
is kind. She always liked him.
Speaker 11 (25:23):
That's not what I said, mister Burr.
Speaker 14 (25:25):
But you found him to be kind, missus Ring. Where
did almiss sleep?
Speaker 17 (25:34):
Huh?
Speaker 11 (25:34):
Her room was on the third floor, but last fall
she started sleeping in the back room on the second
floor with Levi sometimes, missus Ring.
Speaker 12 (25:41):
A quick question about that back room on the second floor,
is that the room that shares a wall with your
neighbor's house.
Speaker 11 (25:48):
Yes, mister Watkins built that plaster partition a few years ago.
Speaker 12 (25:53):
Is that the second floor bedroom the most secluded and
isolated of the rooms in the house.
Speaker 9 (25:58):
I mean, I suppose.
Speaker 11 (26:01):
That might be why Levi and Alma spent so much
time in there, just to have some privacy.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Oh, your nails feel so good?
Speaker 7 (26:10):
WHOA?
Speaker 4 (26:11):
Keep doing that on my chest.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I'm practicing my penmanship.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Wait, can you read and write pretty well?
Speaker 2 (26:20):
I'm getting a little better.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
Oh huh. I wonder if my brother knows that you're literate.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
You never asked me about myself? So how it is?
Speaker 1 (26:29):
R No?
Speaker 6 (26:30):
I ask you stuff all the time.
Speaker 16 (26:33):
Ask me something right now, anything, I'll answer.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 6 (26:39):
Do you.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Think I'm going to be rich and successful?
Speaker 18 (26:46):
That's your question for me? Like?
Speaker 4 (26:48):
What if I become so important that one day they
name a holiday after me?
Speaker 2 (26:52):
If I who would name a holiday after you?
Speaker 6 (26:55):
Wow? Elma?
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Wow? I knew you didn't believe me. Of course I
believe is No, No, you don't.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
You don't wake up, mister Watkins.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
I don't care. Rise and shine, mister Watkins. Morning, wakey,
wakey out you have.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
To speak quieter.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
Fine, fine, fine.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Come here, give you your face. I love you.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Oh, we've got a situation. You're gonna be late to mass.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
No, it's not even a thirty yet.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
But your nightgown is suddenly disappearing. It's it's a mystery.
Is that somehow these bloomers are flying down your legs.
They can't be stopped.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
I wonder where they're going.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
I know where I'm going.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Hey, just jumping in here to keep it PG. Also,
Alma and Levi were often interrupted by their creepy housemate
like this, god o.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
Sure, pervert.
Speaker 6 (27:58):
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Was just a were you watching her?
Speaker 20 (28:01):
Oh, don't flattery yourselves.
Speaker 6 (28:04):
I was going to fight the fact that next door.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Wawkins doesn't even sell cigarettes on Sundays.
Speaker 16 (28:09):
This room isn't even on your way to the Watkins.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
You were trying to see Elma naked again. You're a
creep Croucher, Get out of here.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Richard Croucher was an older British merchant who lodged at
the boarding house. Croucher was like menacing, ugly, scary and mean.
He'd ultimately actually be declared criminally insane. More on that later,
but in seventeen ninety nine. He was just grossly obsessed
with Elma, and he did not.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Like Levi Weeks.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
So Coldon used Croucher's testimony to further illustrate Levi's unpredictable,
suspicious behavior after Alma disappeared.
Speaker 20 (28:44):
My name is Richard Croucher. I'm a lodger at two
hundred and Night, Greenwich.
Speaker 7 (28:49):
Straight and you witnessed closely Levi and Elma's relationship.
Speaker 6 (28:53):
I watched Leevi ruin.
Speaker 20 (28:54):
Hey, guess Elma changed when she started singing the defendant.
Her light dimmed in his company. I'm certain she was
frightened of him. He's a frightening man.
Speaker 7 (29:06):
Look at him, mister Croucher, How did you know Levi
was guilty?
Speaker 20 (29:11):
My bedroom is right below Levi's. He didn't sleep for
days after Wilma disappeared. I found that most suspicious. I
could hear Levi all through the night, dragon furniture, hammering, hasting.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
Gentlemen of the jury. While everyone else in New York
City looked for Alma Sands. Levi Weeks was moving furniture,
not sleeping.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
And though this seemed like a win for Colden's case,
it was probably naive of him to call a witness
who was notoriously controversial and gossipy. So to confirm what
we just heard, Colden called Levi's apprentice to the stand.
Speaker 7 (29:45):
William Anderson. You share Levi's bedroom at the Ring's house.
Is that right?
Speaker 10 (29:50):
I share his room and I know he was sleeping.
Speaker 7 (29:53):
So he wasn't awake worried about Alma.
Speaker 14 (29:55):
You're contradicting yourself.
Speaker 7 (29:57):
So Levi week slept soundly on December twenty second to
your note.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Because you have no case he did. Yes, And the
night after that this is so hard to watch.
Speaker 10 (30:06):
Levi slept soundly again.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
And the third night called in, your embarrassing yourself. Please
answer me, sir?
Speaker 14 (30:12):
Can someone get Cad Walader a calendar?
Speaker 4 (30:16):
The third night, Christmas night, Levi slept fine. Again.
Speaker 14 (30:19):
I think it's clear our client had no trouble sleeping
that week.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
What about the fourth night?
Speaker 7 (30:24):
Is this a joke?
Speaker 6 (30:25):
Objection your honor?
Speaker 5 (30:27):
One more question, then move it along, cold In.
Speaker 7 (30:29):
I'm just asking, mister Anderson, did Levi show signs of
anxiety or have trouble sleeping on the fourth night after
Alma disappeared? I suppose so, but so yes, you saw
change in Levi's behavior after Alma had been gone for
three days.
Speaker 19 (30:44):
Well, first I thought he'd caught the fever. But he
wasn't sweating. He was just shaky, shaky, how shaky, like
his girlfriend just died.
Speaker 7 (30:54):
I don't know. Hold on, did Levi I seem to
know Alma was dead at this point.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
On the fourth night after Alma disappeared, Levi woke up
in the middle of the night with bad dreams. According
to his apprentice, William, this was the first time since
Alma's disappearance that Levi showed any real concern about it.
That Levi even seemed phased about Elma disappearing.
Speaker 10 (31:21):
Sorry, how are you?
Speaker 11 (31:28):
No?
Speaker 7 (31:29):
No me?
Speaker 13 (31:29):
It's your apprentice, help me.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
You're having a.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Mind right, So Levi's anxiety continued to increase after Elma disappeared,
and to reinforce this even further, and to confirm that
Levi's behavior following the murder was erratic, Coldon called up
Hope Sands, Alma's second cousin and another resident at the
boarding house. Hope was a freckly, dark haired girl with
(32:01):
a heart of gold. She was self assured and she
had no problem speaking her mind about Levi To the jury.
Speaker 10 (32:07):
She told them.
Speaker 18 (32:08):
Levi was a total zombie. After Alma vanished, he was
exhausted and pale, and he came to me completely Mannic Hope,
come here, I am working Levi. I need to talk
(32:31):
to you, and I need to finish these hats. The
Rings are struggling with the rent because of those empty rooms.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
Yes, I help the Rings too, we all do.
Speaker 18 (32:38):
You are helping Catherine and Elias with their financial issues?
How specifically?
Speaker 4 (32:42):
I paid two months re in advance just to keep
their doors open.
Speaker 18 (32:45):
You didn't pay anything. Everyone knows your brother pays for you,
so so as Roe's rich, I've seen his house, I
don't feel.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Bound for you.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
I'm in crisis.
Speaker 17 (32:56):
Stop pig.
Speaker 15 (32:56):
You're messing with this brette, but get off of my sewing.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
That hats are not urgent. I'm your friend and I
need your help.
Speaker 18 (33:02):
So you're not really my friend. You're a housemaid who
I accidentally slept with a few times.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
What do you want?
Speaker 16 (33:07):
Le Bay?
Speaker 4 (33:08):
Just sign this? What is it?
Speaker 7 (33:12):
It's standard?
Speaker 18 (33:15):
This basically says you've hooked up with every girl in
this house.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
No, no, it says I treated every girl the same
way I treated Elma.
Speaker 18 (33:23):
Where did you even get a document like this.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
My brother hired attorneys just in case, just in case,
what just in case, just if the body is found
close to here or nearby body.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
So everyone was still hopeful that Alma might come home
or that she would be found alive, except for Levi Weeks.
He assumed that Alma was dead and that he would
be implicated. And as Hope asked, where did he even
get a legal document like this? At the time of
this trial, Levi's older brother, Ezra was building a mansion
(33:57):
uptown for Alexander Hamilton. It's called The Grain. It's still
there right now. And in New York, guys like Hamilton
and Burr had all the power socially, politically, legally financially,
but personally they didn't have any cash. So both Burr
and Hamilton were in debt all the time, and for
the mansion project, Hamilton would have owed a favor to
his architect extraordinaire, Ezra Weeks. The least he could do
(34:21):
was draw up some preliminary legal paperwork to protect Ezra's
little brother Levi, but Hope refused to sign. She knew
something wasn't right.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
It's just a precaution. Keep me protected so the police
don't show up and hould me off to Bridewell in Chain's.
Speaker 18 (34:36):
Can you imagine he's Alma dead?
Speaker 4 (34:38):
I don't know if she said her life, just sign.
Speaker 18 (34:40):
This and I said no way, And then he had
the audacity to ask me to get Catherine's signature.
Speaker 6 (34:50):
And did you, of course not, Hope.
Speaker 12 (34:55):
Do you think people liked Levi before he was accused
of this horrible thing?
Speaker 14 (35:00):
Uh?
Speaker 18 (35:00):
You know, like everyone was fine with him when he
moved in last July.
Speaker 6 (35:04):
And clearly you liked him, maybe a little too much.
Speaker 18 (35:09):
People liked Levi, yes, until he murdered.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Elma, and Hope went on to testify about an interaction
that she had with Levi a few nights after the murder.
She was in Catherine's room at the time, trying to
figure out where Elma could be, and Levi barged in there.
Speaker 11 (35:25):
Like this Belleview is first thing on your list tomorrow,
but then you have to check all the hospitals.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
Oh ladies, ladies, you're being such down as you're bumming
everybody out.
Speaker 15 (35:35):
Go away, Levi.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
Oh Catherine, girls, just let this go. She's gone, What
Alma's gone? Nothing to do about it? Shut up?
Speaker 18 (35:46):
Why would you say that.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Alma probably got sick of this depressing boarding house and
ended it just like she said she would.
Speaker 18 (35:55):
Yeah, I heard her say that, but she never meant
like in her life. It is a figure of speech.
Speaker 12 (36:02):
Everyone says it to clarify everyone threatens to end their
own lives.
Speaker 18 (36:08):
Yes, yes, I've said. You know, if blah blah blah,
I'd kill myself.
Speaker 15 (36:15):
There's no possible way that Alma wanted to commit suicide.
Speaker 6 (36:19):
How would you know that?
Speaker 18 (36:21):
I knew Alma very well, mister.
Speaker 6 (36:23):
Hamilton, but not as well as Levi I did.
Speaker 18 (36:25):
Right, Maybe Levi I knew her more intimately at the end.
Speaker 12 (36:29):
So if Levi said that Alma probably killed herself, then
Elma probably killed herself.
Speaker 6 (36:34):
Wouldn't you say?
Speaker 4 (36:36):
No?
Speaker 18 (36:36):
I wouldn't say that at all, Sir.
Speaker 11 (36:38):
Alma never said anything like that, your honor, you have
to believe us.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
Hope didn't be here.
Speaker 15 (36:42):
I was only saying if Alma accidentally took too much laudanum,
but her psycho boyfriend drove her to do it. So
Alma's death is Levi's fault regardless.
Speaker 6 (36:54):
Wonderful. Nothing further but I step.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Down, man, And once it was said from the witness
stand that Elma may have once colloquially threatened to take
her own life. The defense attorneys were ready to build
their case on that idea. But if Levi Weeks had
an alibi, why didn't that come out right away? And
why were the most powerful attorneys in Manhattan so focused
(37:19):
on eviscerating the character of the dead twenty two year old.
In the next episode, the prosecution stumbles upon a secret
that threatens the defense's entire case. This is erased, Stay
with Us erased. The Murder of Elma Sands is a
(37:41):
production of Lunch Plans and Lava for Good Podcasts in
association with Signal Company Number One. The show is narrated, written,
and produced by me Alison Flamm. It stars Alison Williams
as Catherine Ring, Tony Goldwyn as Alexander Hamilton, Barry Sheck
as Aaron Burr, and Jason as Judge John Lansing.
Speaker 4 (38:02):
Our executive producers are.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Alison Williams, Jason Flamm, and Kevin Wartis. This show is
produced by Goldhalk Productions. The show is sound designed and
mixed by Steve Bond. The music is composed and performed
by Sasha Putnam. The producer for goldhalk Is Andy Goddard,
with production management from Emma Hearn, the executive producer for
(38:24):
goldhalk Is John Scott Dryden. You can listen to every
episode of Erased the Murder of Elma Sands right now
ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good plus on
Apple Podcasts. You can also follow the show on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook,
and Twitter at Lava for Good and For more information
on this story, plus a complete list of our incredible cast,
(38:45):
visit lavafgood dot com. Slash Erased
Host
Allison Flom
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