October 18, 2023 • 35 mins
Colden scrambles to debunk the suicide theory, calling witnesses who heard Elma’s screams the night of the murder. The defense team implicates Elma’s uncle Elias Ring in her death. Plus, a hectic interrogation of the murder site - Burr’s company’s well on land that he owns - which became notorious the moment Elma’s body was pulled out of water.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi, I'm Alison Flamm Welcome back to Erased the murder
of Elma Sans. In our last episode, Coldon tried to
establish his credibility as the prosecutor. Alma's cousin, Catherine was
the first person that he called to the witness stand.
She testified that Alma was excited. On December twenty second,
(00:24):
she got all dressed up with plans to marry Levi
and return home to the boarding house by curfew. So
Catherine was alarmed when Alma didn't come home that night
as she planned to.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
But Levi wasn't worried at all.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Levi's only concerns after Elma disappeared were himself and his reputation,
so Colden's argument was off to a pretty good start until.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
If Alma accidentally took too much flawed them her psycho
boyfriend drove her to do it. So Almah's death is
Levi felt, regardless wonderful.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
And.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Then he was in a tough spot. He suddenly had
to prove two things, one that Alma was actually murdered,
which he never thought he would have to prove at
a murder trial, and two that she was lured out
of the house and killed by Levi Weeks. So to
debunk this emerging suicide theory, he called Elias Ring to
the stand. That's Alma's uncle, Catherine's husband, and asked him
(01:27):
to describe Alma's character for the Jersey the jury.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Elma was joyous, careful, full of virtue until she was
ruined by Levi Weeks.
Speaker 6 (01:42):
That's right.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
I'm the one who caught them sneaking around my house
having pre marital sex.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
And that started last September, right, mister Ring.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Yes, when my wife went upstate, all the women and
children left the city to avoid the pandemic.
Speaker 7 (01:58):
But Elma stayed here.
Speaker 6 (02:00):
It was just Elma and all the boys.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
In the house. So Alma was in a vulnerable position
during that time. And I figured them out right away.
You see it.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
One morning I went into an empty room and I
found Elma's pantyhose and corset and Levis shirt like they've
just been in there together.
Speaker 8 (02:15):
Wait, you found Elma's clothes, but no Alma. She ran
back to her room in the nude.
Speaker 9 (02:22):
So much for cautious and full of virtue. If Elma
left her clothes all over the place, ran around the
boarding house naked, slept with the first man who paid
attention to her. It sounds like she was risky and promiscuous.
Speaker 8 (02:37):
Risky and promiscuous are the characteristics of a suicidal woman.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
You're on our speculation objection your honor, burn Hamilton. If
you start my line of questioning.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Any juror or attorney may ask questions at any time, regardless.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
The defense counsel's theory that Julielma took her own life
is both at landish and insane.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
I agree with it's insane.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Although there were significant holes in this emerging theory that
Alma took her own life. The defense lawyers thought they'd
found Coldon's achilles heel. If Elma sans drowned herself, then
there was no murder case closed their client walks, but
hold on. In seventeen ninety nine, it was nearly unheard
of to drown oneself in a well. Unfortunately, people did
(03:26):
kill themselves. That year was actually a very tragic one
in New York City, But the methods of the day
were hanging, poisoning, pistol shot. Are we to believe that
Elma pioneered a new method of suicide the very night
she got all dressed up, borrowed a fancy hand muff
from her neighbor, saying she'd return it the next day,
(03:46):
and told her cousin she was off to marry her love.
And if Elma took her own life, how do we
explain the bruises and wounds on her corpse?
Speaker 10 (03:56):
There is zero proof of suicide here. We have proof,
actually is no proof.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Alma was happy, she really was. It shattered me to
lose her she was.
Speaker 5 (04:08):
It was like losing the sunshine.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Thank you, mister Ring. Nothing further, mister Ring.
Speaker 9 (04:15):
On the day Elma disappeared, how was her disposition?
Speaker 5 (04:21):
Elma was cheery and sweet that day, as she always was.
I remember she asked my wife which handkerchief looked better?
Speaker 11 (04:31):
What color were the handkerchiefs?
Speaker 4 (04:34):
One was blue?
Speaker 11 (04:35):
I think, how sure are you about that?
Speaker 5 (04:38):
Pretty sure?
Speaker 9 (04:39):
Pretty sure?
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Pretty sure?
Speaker 8 (04:41):
Yes, So you're not totally sure of anything you're saying, mister.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
Ring, I'm totally sure. Two handkerchief options, and one was blue.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
She looked nice.
Speaker 11 (04:52):
Alma looked nice.
Speaker 9 (04:54):
Did you often think about whether Elma looked nice, mister Ring?
Speaker 8 (04:58):
Mister Ring, you did not a a proof of Elma
dating LEVI weeks right?
Speaker 9 (05:02):
And why did you have a say in who Elma
engaged with sexually.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
I don't approve a pre marital sex in general, counselors,
I'm quaker.
Speaker 9 (05:10):
Was Elma a Quaker?
Speaker 5 (05:12):
No, she wasn't, And no, I did not approve of
Levi as a partner for Alma. Elma was too sweet
for him and he's too rough.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
And this moment is such a microcosm of the two
sides of this case. On one side, the immaculately dressed
Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. They had shiny shoes and
fancy suits and huge reputations on the line with their
political careers and the election of eighteen hundred coming up
several months later. And then on the other side, Elias Ring,
(05:42):
this stout Quaker guy with a big hat and plain,
baggy clothes and a reputation for being a terrible businessman
who was too drunk all the time.
Speaker 11 (05:53):
If Alma committed suicide, she was murdered. If she committed.
Speaker 8 (05:56):
Suicide, mister Ring, would you consider yourself personally responsible?
Speaker 9 (06:02):
You were supposed to be her guarden.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Objection?
Speaker 9 (06:04):
Oh dare When Elma disappeared, you knew she was dead
and gone. What did you search for her?
Speaker 6 (06:11):
We all searched.
Speaker 9 (06:11):
Where did you search.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
All the borders searched, the tenements and the almshouses.
Speaker 9 (06:17):
I'll repeat myself, mister Ring, where did you look for Elma.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
My neighborhood, mister Hamilton, tenements and almshouses.
Speaker 9 (06:26):
I'll try again, mister Ring, Where did you personally look
for Elma Sands when she disappeared?
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Objection? Where's this going? Ask a different question, Hamilton?
Speaker 9 (06:35):
Mister Ring, did you hire a private search party to
dredge the East River in search of Elma's remains?
Speaker 5 (06:43):
I hired my friend mister Walgrove and his crew just
to be thorough.
Speaker 9 (06:49):
Yes, so what so you weren't looking for Elma. You
were looking for a corpse. Well, everyone else was looking
for an alive Elma. Elias the Ring was looking for
a dead Alma in the nearest body of water, which
tells us he knew she planned to drown herself close
to home.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Speculation. I didn't know anything.
Speaker 9 (07:11):
You knew Alma was dead before there was a suspect.
Speaker 10 (07:14):
You're a suspect, your honor. Elias Ring is not a
suspect here. He was at home, drunk and sleeping when
Elma was murdered.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
That's right, move on, castlers. I'm a good man.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
I was thinking at the time that if Elma had
died alone out there in the cold, that I'd want
to be the one to find her corpse to spare
the women and children from having to find it.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
That's all, gentlemen.
Speaker 10 (07:39):
Alma did not throw herself into the river or anybody
of water for that matter. Mister Ring's search was unsuccessful.
And why because Alma was found battered in a well,
not the river. And frankly, my colleagues idea that Alma
took her own life is lazy and downright dense. When
someone commits suicide, they do it alone. My next witnesses
(08:01):
will confirm Alma Sants was not alone at the Manhattan well.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
She was slaughtered.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
In light of the defense counsel's continued effort to paint
Alma as suicidal and flood the jury with other theories,
Coldon had to go back to the drawing board to
prove that Alma was in fact murdered. So to build
a full timeline for the jury of what happened that night,
he called up witnesses who had interacted with Alma after
she left the boarding house. He started with Alma's neighbor,
(08:29):
Kate Lyon.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Thank you for calling me, mister Colton.
Speaker 10 (08:33):
Thank you for being here, Missus Lyon. So can you
tell us about the night of December twenty second, seventeen
ninety nine.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I saw Alma just moments before she was murdered.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Was Elma alone when you saw her?
Speaker 2 (08:47):
I don't think she was alone? It was hard to see.
Speaker 9 (08:50):
Wait, you couldn't see anything.
Speaker 12 (08:52):
The lamps on our street are useless, mister Hamilton, covered
in soot. The man who died from walking into a
street lamb that was right near my house.
Speaker 9 (09:00):
So Elma might have been alone when you saw her, but.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
You don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
I didn't see anyone with her.
Speaker 9 (09:06):
You just said someone was with Elma. Now you're saying
she was alone, you're honor.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
There was someone calling out to her, hurrying her along.
Speaker 9 (09:13):
Be more specific, Missus Lyon. If we're to believe a
word you say.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
I'm trying, mister Hamilton.
Speaker 9 (09:18):
Where did you encounter Elma exactly?
Speaker 11 (09:20):
Are you certain it was her?
Speaker 9 (09:22):
I don't know how you could be certain of anything
if you couldn't see.
Speaker 12 (09:24):
But I saw Alma just on from the wings on
Greenwich Street, right near the water pump.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
I'm certain it was Alma. It was around eight pm.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
What were you doing?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
I was helping a friend who'd fallen in the snow.
Speaker 13 (09:37):
Oh, it's twisted, Missus Lyon. Alma, is that you?
Speaker 14 (09:42):
Yes?
Speaker 13 (09:42):
Yes? Are you okay? Do you need my lantern? Mary
slipped on the curb over here?
Speaker 4 (09:48):
What were you doing?
Speaker 13 (09:50):
I'm coming to help you, Missus Lyon. I can get
her home. Elma, it's all right, are you sure? Oh?
Just take my light at least?
Speaker 14 (10:00):
No.
Speaker 13 (10:00):
I'm okay, sweetheart, Thank you. You go have a fun night.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
So Elma walked north on Greenwich Street after she left
the boarding house. She stopped offering to help her neighbors,
and someone in the distance started rushing her along. Alma
continued walking, following that person, disappearing into the dark up
there street. Kate then took Mary home.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Then I walked north on Broadway towards Chatham Street.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Did you see Elma again that night, Missus Lyon?
Speaker 12 (10:27):
I never saw Alma again. No, But when I passed
the Listpernards.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I heard her voice. Speculation not speculation, mister Hamilton. I
heard Alma screaming.
Speaker 12 (10:38):
I was on Spring Street, the southernmost hill of the
Lispernard Meadows.
Speaker 13 (10:43):
What are you doing?
Speaker 14 (10:47):
Oh?
Speaker 13 (10:47):
No, no, no.
Speaker 15 (10:59):
The cries were shrill, a young woman's voice, most definitely.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Coldon had several witnesses who heard screams from the Manhattan
Well that night, including this guy, Henry Orr, a carpenter
and resident of the Third Ward. At this point, New
York was organized into wards instead of neighborhoods like we
have now.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Mister or The screams you heard did not sound like
a suicide, right.
Speaker 15 (11:22):
I don't know what suicide sounds like, mister Colton. But
at the Manhattan Well that night, I heard.
Speaker 11 (11:29):
Violence, sir.
Speaker 9 (11:31):
If you thought you heard violence.
Speaker 11 (11:32):
Well I heard violence.
Speaker 16 (11:34):
Sir.
Speaker 9 (11:35):
If you thought so, why didn't you intervene, get involved?
Maybe save the girl?
Speaker 15 (11:41):
Certainly that wasn't my job. Whose job wasn't another one.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Of the vice tenders?
Speaker 15 (11:47):
Maybe someone stronger than me, sir.
Speaker 9 (11:51):
If you had an instinct but she was being really hurt,
I'm sure you would have stopped to help.
Speaker 6 (12:06):
Murder someone help.
Speaker 14 (12:09):
The cries still haunt my dreams.
Speaker 6 (12:12):
She has constant nightmares. I mean they're constant.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Lawrence and Arnetta van Norden, who also heard the screams
that night, I think they were really cute.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
So you two were together when you heard Alma dne Oh.
Speaker 14 (12:26):
Yes, we were together. We were together that night. We
do everything together.
Speaker 15 (12:31):
What's the point in marrying someone if you don't want
to spend your every waking moment with them?
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Oh, honey, I love you so bad.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
I love you so bad.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Literally, imagine this amount of PBA in a modern courtroom.
It's iconic.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Can you too, please tell the Jerry what you were
doing that night? Around eight thirty.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
We were just getting ready to hit the.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
We were putting our pajamas on.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
What did you hear exactly?
Speaker 14 (13:00):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (13:00):
We heard the screams. The screams, the echoes, Elma Sands,
very last words ever spoken on this earth. Someone help me.
We rushed over to the window.
Speaker 6 (13:13):
We have a clear view of the Manhattan Well from
our bedroom.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
It's completely changed our neighborhood.
Speaker 14 (13:17):
But we have to look at it every day and
get re traumatized.
Speaker 6 (13:21):
We keep our shades closed all the time.
Speaker 10 (13:22):
Now, well, mister and missus van Norden, after you heard
the screams, what did you see from your window?
Speaker 11 (13:28):
We saw the murder.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
Mister calder objection overruled.
Speaker 14 (13:33):
The screams stopped By the time we got to the window,
all we saw was a man pacing around the well, pacing,
Missus van Norden, Yes, like he'd just thrown somebody into
the water and he.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
Didn't know what to do next.
Speaker 9 (13:48):
Order you're on.
Speaker 10 (13:50):
As we know, Levi is known for his anxious pacing,
and Levi was with Elma that night, so he is
evidently the murderer. Objection, Save your breath, Hamilton, I have
nothing further for these wonderful witnesses.
Speaker 9 (14:02):
Thank you, mister and Missus van Norton.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
Yes, mister Hamilton, nice to meet too.
Speaker 9 (14:08):
Why didn't you go outside when you first heard the screams.
Speaker 6 (14:13):
I'm a tailor, sir, not a hero.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
You're my hero, baby, Oh with.
Speaker 9 (14:19):
Your mind, dearish, So you hurt someone vaguely.
Speaker 14 (14:23):
Yelling, not someone and not vaguely. You know, we heard
a woman screaming murder.
Speaker 9 (14:29):
You heard screams, and then you stayed in your bedroom.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
We were terrified.
Speaker 8 (14:35):
Mister van Norton. How far is your home from the well?
Speaker 4 (14:39):
Four hundred yards?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
I'd say six hundred yards.
Speaker 6 (14:42):
Baby, final answer, five hundred yards.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Marriage is all about compromise.
Speaker 11 (14:48):
Gentlemen of the jury.
Speaker 8 (14:49):
That's too far away for a trustworthy eyewitness account.
Speaker 7 (14:53):
Tailors have excellent eyesight, mister.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
Bird, perfect eyesight, and they both heard Elma screaming.
Speaker 8 (14:59):
They I heard someone screaming and they didn't see anything
except someone pacing.
Speaker 9 (15:05):
Could have been Elma of pacing back and forth right
before throwing herself into the well.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Why would she scream murder while taking her own life,
mister Hamilton.
Speaker 9 (15:13):
Mister and Missus van Nord was the figure pacing with
a limp a limp. It's hard to say what his
gait was like because you couldn't see anything.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
We heard everything, mister Hamilton.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
In some ways that's worse.
Speaker 13 (15:31):
Well, let me go.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I didn't hand the screams, and this is Margaret Freeman
of the eighth Ward.
Speaker 17 (15:41):
But I saw the murderer and the victim right before
it happens.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Yet another person who was in the vicinity of the
murder site the night of December twenty second, Where.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Did you encounter the murderer, Missus Freeman.
Speaker 17 (15:53):
I was with my children headed home from meeting and
where is your church? Bowery off the list, Bernards.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
So on the night of December twenty second.
Speaker 17 (16:02):
Services ended at eight pm and we started walking home
right away because my son had to peek.
Speaker 13 (16:09):
I can't kiss my own hands.
Speaker 18 (16:11):
Mommy, walk closer to me, Harry, I've got you, Harry,
Harry Hey slowed down.
Speaker 7 (16:30):
You idiots, almost said, my kid, are you kidding me?
Speaker 13 (16:33):
Hey?
Speaker 7 (16:33):
Stop stop right there? But they didn't stop. They rushed away.
Speaker 9 (16:40):
Missus freeman, How could this single horse vehicle have overtaken
your son? Weren't you paying attention?
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Objection? Badgering?
Speaker 9 (16:48):
A horse and carriage is pretty large, It's hard to miss.
Speaker 7 (16:52):
It was dark.
Speaker 17 (16:53):
I didn't expect anyone to be on our street at
that time. Maybe my son was walking in the road,
but I didn't hear them coming because the horse.
Speaker 7 (16:59):
Had no belts. Whole keeps their horses with no bells.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Spoiler alert. One person who was known for keeping their
horses with no bells was Ezra Weeks, Levi's older brother.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Did you see the people inside the sleigh?
Speaker 17 (17:11):
It happened so fast after they almost hit my child? God,
but who did you see? I saw Alma Stands, Sir,
and two men with her who I now assume we're
Levi and Ezra Weeks.
Speaker 10 (17:22):
Speculation, Missus freeman, you saw Alma Sands in the sleigh?
Speaker 4 (17:26):
Correct.
Speaker 7 (17:26):
Yes, I saw Alma with either one or two men.
Speaker 9 (17:29):
If she couldn't tell whether it was one or two men,
how could you possibly tell it was Alma?
Speaker 7 (17:34):
I know it was her, I saw her, I felt her.
I still can't fathom.
Speaker 9 (17:39):
We do respect, missus Freeman. Our constitution doesn't care whether
you can fathom the victim's.
Speaker 11 (17:45):
Death, Missus Freeman.
Speaker 7 (17:49):
Yes, mister Burr, you told a lot of.
Speaker 11 (17:52):
People about your encounter with this sleigh.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I told some people.
Speaker 11 (17:57):
When did you start telling people.
Speaker 7 (17:59):
Whenever it came up in conversation?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Mister Birth, I'll.
Speaker 8 (18:02):
Be more specific, when did you start broadcasting this little
tale about your pre death encounter with Alma.
Speaker 7 (18:09):
Sans around January?
Speaker 11 (18:12):
Right after the victim's body was found? How convenient?
Speaker 2 (18:16):
What do you mean convenient?
Speaker 17 (18:17):
As soon as it became information, I would tell people
before that it was just another story.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
So Hamilton and Birth thought they could win this case
just by diminishing the credibility of all of Colvin's witnesses.
Their focus was just creating reasonable doubt, and since all
the jurors were their peers and colleagues who they knew
and could relate to, and since most of Colvin's witnesses
were women. It was all too easy.
Speaker 11 (18:43):
Did you tell any journalists about your story?
Speaker 7 (18:47):
I told friends, I told family, some journalists.
Speaker 11 (18:50):
Did you tell anyone in exchange for goods or money?
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Yes?
Speaker 7 (18:54):
I needed eggs and barley. I have two kids to feed.
Speaker 8 (18:57):
So what your honor?
Speaker 11 (18:58):
How can we trust a woman who sells her storring?
Speaker 7 (19:02):
Not today? I'm a Methodist, You're on and not a liar.
Speaker 17 (19:05):
I was taking my kids home from church and I
saw Elma right before Levi weeks killed her.
Speaker 7 (19:10):
She looked me in the eyes, I heard her.
Speaker 11 (19:12):
We have nothing further for this story, selling.
Speaker 17 (19:16):
Runner, I know it with Elma, I'm not telling stories.
Speaker 7 (19:18):
Found I am not telling stories. I know the truth.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
So several witnesses confirmed that there was a sleigh with
multiple passengers and no bells near the Lisbonnard meadows around
the time of the murder. More witnesses confirmed screams of
murder and help me around eight thirty and as you
might remember from the last episode, Levi didn't have access
to horses, but Catherine suggested that he could borrow his
(19:47):
brother's sleigh because Ezra had tons of horses. If Coldon
could just prove that Levi took Elma to the murder
site in his brother's sleigh. Case closed right, So to
put this all toge other, he tried to turn the
jury's attention to Ezra Weeks.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
It was Ezra Weeks.
Speaker 16 (20:05):
Ezra took out his horse and sleigh the same night,
the same hour Elma Sands was murdered.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
So Coldon called Ezra Weeks's neighbor on Nasau Street, Susannah Broad.
She was sitting in her house at the time of
the murder, and her window overlooked Ezra's horses in the yard.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
What time did Ezra's horse and slay leave the property
that night?
Speaker 16 (20:25):
Just before eight pm?
Speaker 4 (20:27):
And when did the vehicle return.
Speaker 16 (20:29):
Within the hour?
Speaker 4 (20:31):
One hour? Just enough time to pick up Elman Levi
on Greynnch Street, or.
Speaker 9 (20:35):
To go jaculating the witness.
Speaker 10 (20:37):
Or go to the Manhattan well and assist his brother
in a murder. Nothing further from the prosecution. Thank you, missus.
Speaker 9 (20:44):
Brod, missus Broad, Or may I call you Susannah?
Speaker 8 (20:49):
You may not, mister Hamilton, Susannah, why do you think
you saw Asras slay leaving the yards?
Speaker 16 (20:55):
But I don't think it, I know it.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
I saw it.
Speaker 9 (20:58):
Why do you think it was eight p I.
Speaker 16 (21:00):
Said it was a few minutes before eight pm. I
saw the sleigh right before my kids got home from services,
which ended at eight on Sunday nights.
Speaker 9 (21:08):
So your kids weren't home when you saw Asrarisley leave
the yard.
Speaker 16 (21:12):
No, my kids came home a few minutes after that.
So you were home alone, yes, until my kids came home.
Speaker 9 (21:18):
Where were your kids when as Risley came back in?
Speaker 16 (21:21):
I think they were downstairs?
Speaker 9 (21:22):
You think, yes, you don't know where your own kids
were at which point? Or were you home alone?
Speaker 13 (21:28):
When?
Speaker 11 (21:29):
Mister Hamilton, when was any of this?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
When was what?
Speaker 16 (21:32):
I saw Ezra's horse and sleigh leave the yard just
before eight?
Speaker 11 (21:36):
Then, s Hannah, what month?
Speaker 13 (21:38):
What did you say, mister Burr?
Speaker 11 (21:40):
Was it Christmas?
Speaker 16 (21:41):
Was what Christmas?
Speaker 8 (21:43):
Did you see Ezra Weeks in his lumber yard after
or before Christmas?
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I see him all the time. He's my neighbor.
Speaker 11 (21:50):
So you saw him after Christmas?
Speaker 5 (21:52):
Yes?
Speaker 16 (21:52):
I also saw him after Christmas?
Speaker 8 (21:54):
So you didn't see him on the night Alma went missing?
Speaker 9 (21:57):
I did, of course I did, sus Hannah, when did
you realize that you had important information about Ezra Week's.
Speaker 16 (22:03):
Slagh When I saw Elma San's corpse in the yard
of the boarding house early January. Everybody was talking about
the body in the box outside Elias and Catherine Ring's house.
I had to go see for myself.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Catherine put her cousin's body on display outside her house
for thousands of people like Susannah to come see for themselves.
More on that in the next episode. But Catherine Ring's
decision to display her cousin's corpse outside two o eight
Greenwich Street changed the course of like everything.
Speaker 9 (22:39):
So you saw the body and decided to spread a room. No,
mister Hamilton, I'm just having a hard time following what
you're saying.
Speaker 16 (22:47):
You continue to interrupt me, Sir. When I went to
see the body, people were saying it was the Week's boy,
Levi Weeks killed the girl. I knew Ezra was his
older brother.
Speaker 9 (22:59):
I thought, I So you thought you should start telling
people that you thought you saw Asra Sleigh maybe the
night Elma.
Speaker 16 (23:06):
Disappeared, just in case it mattered.
Speaker 9 (23:09):
So, before Elma's body was found, you never concerned yourself
with when or why Ezra Weeks took out his horses.
Speaker 16 (23:16):
It happens frequently, mister Hamilton's sold and.
Speaker 9 (23:18):
You happened to be home alone when you saw it
happen this time.
Speaker 8 (23:21):
Plus all this may have happened in January.
Speaker 9 (23:25):
So so this witness has zero credibility. Folks, she doesn't
know what she's talking about.
Speaker 7 (23:31):
I know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 16 (23:32):
I saw Ezra Weeks take his horse and slay out
on December twenty second.
Speaker 7 (23:37):
He keeps his horse with no I thought.
Speaker 8 (23:39):
Rushing went Ezra's sleigh to Alma Sand's death. Can we
move on from this tangent.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
Shurey disagreements to birth. Alma left the Ringses at eight
She was seen in a sleigh at eight fifteen.
Speaker 10 (23:52):
Her screams were heard from the Manhattan Well at eight
thirty five. If Levin murdered Elma thirty minutes after they
both left the.
Speaker 4 (23:57):
Boarding objection speculation said if and if Levi brought Alma
to the murder site in a sleigh, the only sleigh
he could borrow was Ezra's.
Speaker 11 (24:06):
Alma may have walked to the well.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
It was much too cold for her to walk from
Greenwich Street to the list of nards she was.
Speaker 8 (24:11):
Walking to end her life, Caldon, she wasn't thinking about
the temperature.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
She actually did consider the cold.
Speaker 10 (24:19):
Maybe she jogged, she borrowed a hand muff to stay warm.
She had plans to get married and then return the
hand muff, not into her life.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Plus it was almost Christmas.
Speaker 11 (24:29):
That's your evidence, coldon Christmas.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
What is a hand.
Speaker 10 (24:34):
Muff the accessory that Alma wore that night? Eleven days
after Alma vanished, a young boy found it floating in
the Manhattan Well, that's how her body was discovered in
the first place.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
The hand muff was an extremely important clue. Without it,
Alma's body may have never been discovered. This little dude
found it.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
The prosecution calls William Blank.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
And his testimony was vital for Coldon's case.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Sit down, I cannot see mister.
Speaker 10 (25:00):
Okay, I'm here, sit on these books.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
However, kids weren't really in school at this point. What
little education they were getting would have been from church.
So William's time on the stand went like this.
Speaker 13 (25:14):
That's better.
Speaker 10 (25:16):
So William tell the jury about that thing you found
in the Manhattan Well, well, I.
Speaker 7 (25:21):
Was playing snow Angel.
Speaker 11 (25:24):
You're under oath.
Speaker 7 (25:26):
You are very short, mister bird. He's been shorter than
the pictures in the paper.
Speaker 11 (25:30):
Do you know what an oath is Nope, but I.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Was playing snow Angel all the listen North and I
know how old are you?
Speaker 9 (25:37):
Boy?
Speaker 7 (25:39):
Almost thirteen? Are you Alexander Hamilton?
Speaker 9 (25:42):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (25:42):
I am.
Speaker 9 (25:43):
Can you read?
Speaker 13 (25:44):
No?
Speaker 7 (25:46):
Well, I can read at church?
Speaker 13 (25:47):
Can you read?
Speaker 6 (25:48):
Mister Hamilton, your honor?
Speaker 9 (25:50):
This is a child, not a credible source of information.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
He's one of my key eyewitnesses.
Speaker 6 (25:55):
I just can't admit his testimony.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
I'm sorry, Caldon.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
So if something didn't work for Hamilton and Burr, a
rule had to be made against it. Poor little William
Blank was removed from that witness stand faster than Hamilton
ran to Mariah Reynolds when Eliza left town.
Speaker 6 (26:11):
Sorry said it, William, Hey, buddy, you can go sit
back down.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Coldon had to scramble.
Speaker 13 (26:17):
This was a twist.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
He'd really been counting on little William.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
Wait, uh, okay, what about his parents? William? Do you
have a grown up in the courtroom with you?
Speaker 13 (26:27):
Yeah? My dad's in the back row.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
What's his name?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Andrew? Don't call him Andy. I don't mention the missing
buttons on his shirt because.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
He will get really mad.
Speaker 10 (26:36):
Andrew Blank. The prosecution calls Andrew Blank, father of William Blank.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
So Andrew Blank was not a witness that Coldon was
planning to call. He was only there in the courtroom
to accompany his son, who was called to testify about
the hand muff. But clearly that backfired, so Andrew Blank
came up to the stand and became an unexpected hero
for the prosecution.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Check this out, mister Blank.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Sun found Elma's hand muff right.
Speaker 6 (27:02):
That's right, mister Colton at the list Bannards. He knows
not to go near the well, but he saw it
floating right on the water. He carried it home to
me like a treasure. I followed him back to the well.
What did you see when you got there, mister Blank?
I noticed the sleigh track, a sleigh track, and the
footprints around the well.
Speaker 8 (27:18):
Alma's footprints most likely, mister Burr, you don't know whose
footprints they were. If there was only one set of footprints,
Alma must have been alone Coldon for her suicide.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
Or LEVI carried Alma from the sleigh straight to the
well and they were his foot PRIs or Alma walked
too likely to leave footprints.
Speaker 6 (27:36):
If I made your honor, yes, go ahead, mister Blake.
Speaker 9 (27:39):
Coldon, you don't make the rules.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
But yes, go ahead, mister Blank.
Speaker 6 (27:45):
The footprints I saw were large and flat, like heavy boots,
heavy boots, and missus rain Catherine.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Met Yes, yes, mister Colon.
Speaker 7 (27:55):
Should I come back up there?
Speaker 4 (27:56):
Not necessary?
Speaker 10 (27:57):
Just tell us about Alma's feet, please, Catherine, or her
shoes specifically.
Speaker 18 (28:02):
Actually, I always made fun of her little feet.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Her shoes were arched and dainty.
Speaker 13 (28:09):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 10 (28:10):
Alma had tiny little feet. Alma had tiny feet. But
the footprints at the well were heavy and flat. They
were Levi Weeks's footprints, your honor. He dumped Alma into
the well. He paced around in the snow injection. Clearly
no one had been to the well in days, or
the muff would have been discovered soon.
Speaker 11 (28:27):
You're on our objection.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
Move on, Colvin. Mister Blank, do you go to the
list Bonnards? Very often?
Speaker 6 (28:35):
It's near my house and I let my son play there,
but otherwise.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
Now, so your family doesn't get their water from the
Manhattan well.
Speaker 6 (28:41):
No, definitely not.
Speaker 10 (28:42):
But it's the closest well to your house, mister Blank,
Why don't you use it for water?
Speaker 6 (28:47):
The Manhattan Company doesn't care about clean water. They're frods.
Wells are scam. They're dirty, and they don't even pump
water to the homes that pay for it.
Speaker 4 (28:56):
Did you know that mister Burke created the Manhattan Company?
Shoot and you just admitted that Aaron Burr is untrustworthy
and corrupt.
Speaker 6 (29:04):
Yes, just the pipes are wood, not iron. And I've
lost so many friends to the fever. I didn't need
to offend anyone.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
You're not offending anyone.
Speaker 11 (29:12):
I'm offended your honor.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
And even though he's offended, Aaron Burr's company did own
the murder site. This is the unbelievable situation in the
late seventeen hundreds. As I've said, Aaron Burr and Alexander
Hamilton didn't have any money personally. They were both constantly
in debt, but they really wanted to control other people's money,
the city's money, Federalist money, Democratic Republican money, money, money,
(29:35):
money money. Aaron Burr wanted to start a bank, but
Hamilton shut him out of all things fiscal. After serving
as the nation's first Secretary of Treasury. He was not
about to let his frenemy get involved and start a bank,
so instead Aaron Burr started the Manhattan Company in seventeen
ninety nine, Aaron Burr knew that people were panicking about
(29:57):
the yellow fever potentially being caused by dirty bracket from
the collect So he saw an opportunity to start a
business and call it a municipal water works. He puts
some wells up around Manhattan, including the one where Elma
was murdered, and the Manhattan Company was created. But there
was some fine print in the whole Manhattan Company deal.
It said that the company aka Erin Burr himself, could
(30:20):
do whatever he wanted with its surplus money. So of
course he opened a bank. His concern was not clean
water nor good water wells, but he did use the
idea of clean water to start a company that's now
Chase Manhattan Bank. Dirty water, dirty money. Am I right?
Speaker 6 (30:39):
Well, I don't think mister Burr himself built the.
Speaker 8 (30:40):
Wells, obviously, I'm a public figure and politician, not a builder.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Oh, I didn't realize who built the wells, mister Blank?
Speaker 13 (30:50):
Do you know?
Speaker 6 (30:51):
Probably mister Weeks? Right, doesn't mister Weeks do all those
kinds of contrasts, dejection, relevance?
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Mister Blank? Did you say lee By Weeks built the
Manhattan well? No?
Speaker 6 (31:02):
No, not Levi Ezra.
Speaker 9 (31:07):
Your honor, Stop this, your honor, who cares if Ezra
Weeks does freelance work for us? It's tangential.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
Well, this is something, This is really just something.
Speaker 10 (31:18):
I didn't realize that Levi and Ezra Weeks are such
close friends with the opponents.
Speaker 9 (31:22):
In due respect, your honor, analyzing our relationship to our
client is a profound waste of the jury's time.
Speaker 10 (31:28):
I'd agree with that if Ezra built the murder site,
plus his horse and slay were used in the murder,
Plus he was always looking out for Levi, who wanted
his girlfriend Elma out of the picture.
Speaker 9 (31:36):
Your honor, questions, Colden.
Speaker 10 (31:38):
It's obvious to me that the Week's brother's murdered Elma
in cold blood, dumped her in the well, and they
thought they'd get away.
Speaker 13 (31:43):
With your finished defense, counsel, it's your witness for cross examination.
Speaker 11 (31:48):
Finally, mister Blank, good afternoon.
Speaker 6 (31:52):
Good afternoon, mister Burr.
Speaker 8 (31:54):
I'll disregard your assassination of my name and my company
and just ask you, how do you have so much
information about so many things?
Speaker 6 (32:07):
Excuse me?
Speaker 8 (32:08):
You seem to have a lot of intricate details for
someone who's not remotely important to this case. Your kid
found a hand muff and that's it. You're wasting the
jury's time.
Speaker 6 (32:21):
But I have found her. What, mister Blank, I helped
find Elma, which no one asked me about quite yet.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
Right, why hasn't this come up? You found Elma, Sir.
Speaker 6 (32:33):
On January second, eighteen hundred, from the Manhattan Well. I
was actually the first one to see her.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
That's right, Andrew Blank was there when Elma's body was found.
So Coldon had this unexpected triumph. He stumbled upon a
witness who helped pull Elma's corpse from the well and
could tell the jury in gruesome detail what it looked
like at that pint. Plus all those witnesses who saw
a sleigh, or heard screams, or interacted with Elma on
(33:06):
the night of the murder all strengthened Colden's case against
Levi weeks. He proved that both Levi and Ezra could
have been there with Elma when she was murdered. They
both knew the well very well. Ezra built it with
his own hands for his good friend Aaron Burr's scam company,
and of course it was Levi's idea for Elma to
be out that night. All dressed up to start forever
(33:28):
with him. The Week's brothers cared about public perception. They
worked on big contracts for high profile clients. They got
invited to fancy parties. Alma Sands was hardly the girl
that Ezra Weeks would have envisioned his little brother with.
Perhaps they wanted to get her out of the way permanently,
(33:49):
so a few hours into the trial, Colden was feeling
more confident. It seemed like he was bound to win.
But in the next episode, one of his star witnesses
turns against him, and Catherine's decision to display her cousin's
body to the public has earth shattering consequences. This is erased,
Stay with Us erased. The Murder of Elma Sands is
(34:18):
a 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 Katherine Ring, Tony Goldwyn as Alexander Hamilton, Barry
Sheck as Aaron Burr, and Jason Flamm as Judge John Lansing.
(34:39):
Our executive producers are Alison Williams, Jason Flamm, and Kevin Wardis.
This show is produced by Goldtalk Productions. The show is
sound designed and mixed by Steve Bond. The music is
composed and performed by Sasha Putnam. The producer for gold
Talk is Andy Goddard, with production management from Emma. The
(35:01):
executive producer for Goldhalk is John Scott Dryden. You can
listen to every episode of Erased the Murder of Alma
Sands right now add 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, visit Lava Forgod dot
(35:23):
com slash Erased
Hi, I'm Alison Flamm Welcome back to Erased the murder
of Elma Sans. In our last episode, Coldon tried to
establish his credibility as the prosecutor. Alma's cousin, Catherine was
the first person that he called to the witness stand.
She testified that Alma was excited. On December twenty second,
(00:24):
she got all dressed up with plans to marry Levi
and return home to the boarding house by curfew. So
Catherine was alarmed when Alma didn't come home that night
as she planned to.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
But Levi wasn't worried at all.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Levi's only concerns after Elma disappeared were himself and his reputation,
so Colden's argument was off to a pretty good start until.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
If Alma accidentally took too much flawed them her psycho
boyfriend drove her to do it. So Almah's death is
Levi felt, regardless wonderful.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
And.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Then he was in a tough spot. He suddenly had
to prove two things, one that Alma was actually murdered,
which he never thought he would have to prove at
a murder trial, and two that she was lured out
of the house and killed by Levi Weeks. So to
debunk this emerging suicide theory, he called Elias Ring to
the stand. That's Alma's uncle, Catherine's husband, and asked him
(01:27):
to describe Alma's character for the Jersey the jury.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Elma was joyous, careful, full of virtue until she was
ruined by Levi Weeks.
Speaker 6 (01:42):
That's right.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
I'm the one who caught them sneaking around my house
having pre marital sex.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
And that started last September, right, mister Ring.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Yes, when my wife went upstate, all the women and
children left the city to avoid the pandemic.
Speaker 7 (01:58):
But Elma stayed here.
Speaker 6 (02:00):
It was just Elma and all the boys.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
In the house. So Alma was in a vulnerable position
during that time. And I figured them out right away.
You see it.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
One morning I went into an empty room and I
found Elma's pantyhose and corset and Levis shirt like they've
just been in there together.
Speaker 8 (02:15):
Wait, you found Elma's clothes, but no Alma. She ran
back to her room in the nude.
Speaker 9 (02:22):
So much for cautious and full of virtue. If Elma
left her clothes all over the place, ran around the
boarding house naked, slept with the first man who paid
attention to her. It sounds like she was risky and promiscuous.
Speaker 8 (02:37):
Risky and promiscuous are the characteristics of a suicidal woman.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
You're on our speculation objection your honor, burn Hamilton. If
you start my line of questioning.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Any juror or attorney may ask questions at any time, regardless.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
The defense counsel's theory that Julielma took her own life
is both at landish and insane.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
I agree with it's insane.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Although there were significant holes in this emerging theory that
Alma took her own life. The defense lawyers thought they'd
found Coldon's achilles heel. If Elma sans drowned herself, then
there was no murder case closed their client walks, but
hold on. In seventeen ninety nine, it was nearly unheard
of to drown oneself in a well. Unfortunately, people did
(03:26):
kill themselves. That year was actually a very tragic one
in New York City, But the methods of the day
were hanging, poisoning, pistol shot. Are we to believe that
Elma pioneered a new method of suicide the very night
she got all dressed up, borrowed a fancy hand muff
from her neighbor, saying she'd return it the next day,
(03:46):
and told her cousin she was off to marry her love.
And if Elma took her own life, how do we
explain the bruises and wounds on her corpse?
Speaker 10 (03:56):
There is zero proof of suicide here. We have proof,
actually is no proof.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Alma was happy, she really was. It shattered me to
lose her she was.
Speaker 5 (04:08):
It was like losing the sunshine.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Thank you, mister Ring. Nothing further, mister Ring.
Speaker 9 (04:15):
On the day Elma disappeared, how was her disposition?
Speaker 5 (04:21):
Elma was cheery and sweet that day, as she always was.
I remember she asked my wife which handkerchief looked better?
Speaker 11 (04:31):
What color were the handkerchiefs?
Speaker 4 (04:34):
One was blue?
Speaker 11 (04:35):
I think, how sure are you about that?
Speaker 5 (04:38):
Pretty sure?
Speaker 9 (04:39):
Pretty sure?
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Pretty sure?
Speaker 8 (04:41):
Yes, So you're not totally sure of anything you're saying, mister.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
Ring, I'm totally sure. Two handkerchief options, and one was blue.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
She looked nice.
Speaker 11 (04:52):
Alma looked nice.
Speaker 9 (04:54):
Did you often think about whether Elma looked nice, mister Ring?
Speaker 8 (04:58):
Mister Ring, you did not a a proof of Elma
dating LEVI weeks right?
Speaker 9 (05:02):
And why did you have a say in who Elma
engaged with sexually.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
I don't approve a pre marital sex in general, counselors,
I'm quaker.
Speaker 9 (05:10):
Was Elma a Quaker?
Speaker 5 (05:12):
No, she wasn't, And no, I did not approve of
Levi as a partner for Alma. Elma was too sweet
for him and he's too rough.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
And this moment is such a microcosm of the two
sides of this case. On one side, the immaculately dressed
Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. They had shiny shoes and
fancy suits and huge reputations on the line with their
political careers and the election of eighteen hundred coming up
several months later. And then on the other side, Elias Ring,
(05:42):
this stout Quaker guy with a big hat and plain,
baggy clothes and a reputation for being a terrible businessman
who was too drunk all the time.
Speaker 11 (05:53):
If Alma committed suicide, she was murdered. If she committed.
Speaker 8 (05:56):
Suicide, mister Ring, would you consider yourself personally responsible?
Speaker 9 (06:02):
You were supposed to be her guarden.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Objection?
Speaker 9 (06:04):
Oh dare When Elma disappeared, you knew she was dead
and gone. What did you search for her?
Speaker 6 (06:11):
We all searched.
Speaker 9 (06:11):
Where did you search.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
All the borders searched, the tenements and the almshouses.
Speaker 9 (06:17):
I'll repeat myself, mister Ring, where did you look for Elma.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
My neighborhood, mister Hamilton, tenements and almshouses.
Speaker 9 (06:26):
I'll try again, mister Ring, Where did you personally look
for Elma Sands when she disappeared?
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Objection? Where's this going? Ask a different question, Hamilton?
Speaker 9 (06:35):
Mister Ring, did you hire a private search party to
dredge the East River in search of Elma's remains?
Speaker 5 (06:43):
I hired my friend mister Walgrove and his crew just
to be thorough.
Speaker 9 (06:49):
Yes, so what so you weren't looking for Elma. You
were looking for a corpse. Well, everyone else was looking
for an alive Elma. Elias the Ring was looking for
a dead Alma in the nearest body of water, which
tells us he knew she planned to drown herself close
to home.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Speculation. I didn't know anything.
Speaker 9 (07:11):
You knew Alma was dead before there was a suspect.
Speaker 10 (07:14):
You're a suspect, your honor. Elias Ring is not a
suspect here. He was at home, drunk and sleeping when
Elma was murdered.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
That's right, move on, castlers. I'm a good man.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
I was thinking at the time that if Elma had
died alone out there in the cold, that I'd want
to be the one to find her corpse to spare
the women and children from having to find it.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
That's all, gentlemen.
Speaker 10 (07:39):
Alma did not throw herself into the river or anybody
of water for that matter. Mister Ring's search was unsuccessful.
And why because Alma was found battered in a well,
not the river. And frankly, my colleagues idea that Alma
took her own life is lazy and downright dense. When
someone commits suicide, they do it alone. My next witnesses
(08:01):
will confirm Alma Sants was not alone at the Manhattan well.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
She was slaughtered.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
In light of the defense counsel's continued effort to paint
Alma as suicidal and flood the jury with other theories,
Coldon had to go back to the drawing board to
prove that Alma was in fact murdered. So to build
a full timeline for the jury of what happened that night,
he called up witnesses who had interacted with Alma after
she left the boarding house. He started with Alma's neighbor,
(08:29):
Kate Lyon.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Thank you for calling me, mister Colton.
Speaker 10 (08:33):
Thank you for being here, Missus Lyon. So can you
tell us about the night of December twenty second, seventeen
ninety nine.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I saw Alma just moments before she was murdered.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Was Elma alone when you saw her?
Speaker 2 (08:47):
I don't think she was alone? It was hard to see.
Speaker 9 (08:50):
Wait, you couldn't see anything.
Speaker 12 (08:52):
The lamps on our street are useless, mister Hamilton, covered
in soot. The man who died from walking into a
street lamb that was right near my house.
Speaker 9 (09:00):
So Elma might have been alone when you saw her, but.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
You don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
I didn't see anyone with her.
Speaker 9 (09:06):
You just said someone was with Elma. Now you're saying
she was alone, you're honor.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
There was someone calling out to her, hurrying her along.
Speaker 9 (09:13):
Be more specific, Missus Lyon. If we're to believe a
word you say.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
I'm trying, mister Hamilton.
Speaker 9 (09:18):
Where did you encounter Elma exactly?
Speaker 11 (09:20):
Are you certain it was her?
Speaker 9 (09:22):
I don't know how you could be certain of anything
if you couldn't see.
Speaker 12 (09:24):
But I saw Alma just on from the wings on
Greenwich Street, right near the water pump.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
I'm certain it was Alma. It was around eight pm.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
What were you doing?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
I was helping a friend who'd fallen in the snow.
Speaker 13 (09:37):
Oh, it's twisted, Missus Lyon. Alma, is that you?
Speaker 14 (09:42):
Yes?
Speaker 13 (09:42):
Yes? Are you okay? Do you need my lantern? Mary
slipped on the curb over here?
Speaker 4 (09:48):
What were you doing?
Speaker 13 (09:50):
I'm coming to help you, Missus Lyon. I can get
her home. Elma, it's all right, are you sure? Oh?
Just take my light at least?
Speaker 14 (10:00):
No.
Speaker 13 (10:00):
I'm okay, sweetheart, Thank you. You go have a fun night.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
So Elma walked north on Greenwich Street after she left
the boarding house. She stopped offering to help her neighbors,
and someone in the distance started rushing her along. Alma
continued walking, following that person, disappearing into the dark up
there street. Kate then took Mary home.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Then I walked north on Broadway towards Chatham Street.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Did you see Elma again that night, Missus Lyon?
Speaker 12 (10:27):
I never saw Alma again. No, But when I passed
the Listpernards.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I heard her voice. Speculation not speculation, mister Hamilton. I
heard Alma screaming.
Speaker 12 (10:38):
I was on Spring Street, the southernmost hill of the
Lispernard Meadows.
Speaker 13 (10:43):
What are you doing?
Speaker 14 (10:47):
Oh?
Speaker 13 (10:47):
No, no, no.
Speaker 15 (10:59):
The cries were shrill, a young woman's voice, most definitely.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Coldon had several witnesses who heard screams from the Manhattan
Well that night, including this guy, Henry Orr, a carpenter
and resident of the Third Ward. At this point, New
York was organized into wards instead of neighborhoods like we
have now.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Mister or The screams you heard did not sound like
a suicide, right.
Speaker 15 (11:22):
I don't know what suicide sounds like, mister Colton. But
at the Manhattan Well that night, I heard.
Speaker 11 (11:29):
Violence, sir.
Speaker 9 (11:31):
If you thought you heard violence.
Speaker 11 (11:32):
Well I heard violence.
Speaker 16 (11:34):
Sir.
Speaker 9 (11:35):
If you thought so, why didn't you intervene, get involved?
Maybe save the girl?
Speaker 15 (11:41):
Certainly that wasn't my job. Whose job wasn't another one.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Of the vice tenders?
Speaker 15 (11:47):
Maybe someone stronger than me, sir.
Speaker 9 (11:51):
If you had an instinct but she was being really hurt,
I'm sure you would have stopped to help.
Speaker 6 (12:06):
Murder someone help.
Speaker 14 (12:09):
The cries still haunt my dreams.
Speaker 6 (12:12):
She has constant nightmares. I mean they're constant.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Lawrence and Arnetta van Norden, who also heard the screams
that night, I think they were really cute.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
So you two were together when you heard Alma dne Oh.
Speaker 14 (12:26):
Yes, we were together. We were together that night. We
do everything together.
Speaker 15 (12:31):
What's the point in marrying someone if you don't want
to spend your every waking moment with them?
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Oh, honey, I love you so bad.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
I love you so bad.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Literally, imagine this amount of PBA in a modern courtroom.
It's iconic.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Can you too, please tell the Jerry what you were
doing that night? Around eight thirty.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
We were just getting ready to hit the.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
We were putting our pajamas on.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
What did you hear exactly?
Speaker 14 (13:00):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (13:00):
We heard the screams. The screams, the echoes, Elma Sands,
very last words ever spoken on this earth. Someone help me.
We rushed over to the window.
Speaker 6 (13:13):
We have a clear view of the Manhattan Well from
our bedroom.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
It's completely changed our neighborhood.
Speaker 14 (13:17):
But we have to look at it every day and
get re traumatized.
Speaker 6 (13:21):
We keep our shades closed all the time.
Speaker 10 (13:22):
Now, well, mister and missus van Norden, after you heard
the screams, what did you see from your window?
Speaker 11 (13:28):
We saw the murder.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
Mister calder objection overruled.
Speaker 14 (13:33):
The screams stopped By the time we got to the window,
all we saw was a man pacing around the well, pacing,
Missus van Norden, Yes, like he'd just thrown somebody into
the water and he.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
Didn't know what to do next.
Speaker 9 (13:48):
Order you're on.
Speaker 10 (13:50):
As we know, Levi is known for his anxious pacing,
and Levi was with Elma that night, so he is
evidently the murderer. Objection, Save your breath, Hamilton, I have
nothing further for these wonderful witnesses.
Speaker 9 (14:02):
Thank you, mister and Missus van Norton.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
Yes, mister Hamilton, nice to meet too.
Speaker 9 (14:08):
Why didn't you go outside when you first heard the screams.
Speaker 6 (14:13):
I'm a tailor, sir, not a hero.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
You're my hero, baby, Oh with.
Speaker 9 (14:19):
Your mind, dearish, So you hurt someone vaguely.
Speaker 14 (14:23):
Yelling, not someone and not vaguely. You know, we heard
a woman screaming murder.
Speaker 9 (14:29):
You heard screams, and then you stayed in your bedroom.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
We were terrified.
Speaker 8 (14:35):
Mister van Norton. How far is your home from the well?
Speaker 4 (14:39):
Four hundred yards?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
I'd say six hundred yards.
Speaker 6 (14:42):
Baby, final answer, five hundred yards.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Marriage is all about compromise.
Speaker 11 (14:48):
Gentlemen of the jury.
Speaker 8 (14:49):
That's too far away for a trustworthy eyewitness account.
Speaker 7 (14:53):
Tailors have excellent eyesight, mister.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
Bird, perfect eyesight, and they both heard Elma screaming.
Speaker 8 (14:59):
They I heard someone screaming and they didn't see anything
except someone pacing.
Speaker 9 (15:05):
Could have been Elma of pacing back and forth right
before throwing herself into the well.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Why would she scream murder while taking her own life,
mister Hamilton.
Speaker 9 (15:13):
Mister and Missus van Nord was the figure pacing with
a limp a limp. It's hard to say what his
gait was like because you couldn't see anything.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
We heard everything, mister Hamilton.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
In some ways that's worse.
Speaker 13 (15:31):
Well, let me go.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I didn't hand the screams, and this is Margaret Freeman
of the eighth Ward.
Speaker 17 (15:41):
But I saw the murderer and the victim right before
it happens.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Yet another person who was in the vicinity of the
murder site the night of December twenty second, Where.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Did you encounter the murderer, Missus Freeman.
Speaker 17 (15:53):
I was with my children headed home from meeting and
where is your church? Bowery off the list, Bernards.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
So on the night of December twenty second.
Speaker 17 (16:02):
Services ended at eight pm and we started walking home
right away because my son had to peek.
Speaker 13 (16:09):
I can't kiss my own hands.
Speaker 18 (16:11):
Mommy, walk closer to me, Harry, I've got you, Harry,
Harry Hey slowed down.
Speaker 7 (16:30):
You idiots, almost said, my kid, are you kidding me?
Speaker 13 (16:33):
Hey?
Speaker 7 (16:33):
Stop stop right there? But they didn't stop. They rushed away.
Speaker 9 (16:40):
Missus freeman, How could this single horse vehicle have overtaken
your son? Weren't you paying attention?
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Objection? Badgering?
Speaker 9 (16:48):
A horse and carriage is pretty large, It's hard to miss.
Speaker 7 (16:52):
It was dark.
Speaker 17 (16:53):
I didn't expect anyone to be on our street at
that time. Maybe my son was walking in the road,
but I didn't hear them coming because the horse.
Speaker 7 (16:59):
Had no belts. Whole keeps their horses with no bells.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Spoiler alert. One person who was known for keeping their
horses with no bells was Ezra Weeks, Levi's older brother.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Did you see the people inside the sleigh?
Speaker 17 (17:11):
It happened so fast after they almost hit my child? God,
but who did you see? I saw Alma Stands, Sir,
and two men with her who I now assume we're
Levi and Ezra Weeks.
Speaker 10 (17:22):
Speculation, Missus freeman, you saw Alma Sands in the sleigh?
Speaker 4 (17:26):
Correct.
Speaker 7 (17:26):
Yes, I saw Alma with either one or two men.
Speaker 9 (17:29):
If she couldn't tell whether it was one or two men,
how could you possibly tell it was Alma?
Speaker 7 (17:34):
I know it was her, I saw her, I felt her.
I still can't fathom.
Speaker 9 (17:39):
We do respect, missus Freeman. Our constitution doesn't care whether
you can fathom the victim's.
Speaker 11 (17:45):
Death, Missus Freeman.
Speaker 7 (17:49):
Yes, mister Burr, you told a lot of.
Speaker 11 (17:52):
People about your encounter with this sleigh.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I told some people.
Speaker 11 (17:57):
When did you start telling people.
Speaker 7 (17:59):
Whenever it came up in conversation?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Mister Birth, I'll.
Speaker 8 (18:02):
Be more specific, when did you start broadcasting this little
tale about your pre death encounter with Alma.
Speaker 7 (18:09):
Sans around January?
Speaker 11 (18:12):
Right after the victim's body was found? How convenient?
Speaker 2 (18:16):
What do you mean convenient?
Speaker 17 (18:17):
As soon as it became information, I would tell people
before that it was just another story.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
So Hamilton and Birth thought they could win this case
just by diminishing the credibility of all of Colvin's witnesses.
Their focus was just creating reasonable doubt, and since all
the jurors were their peers and colleagues who they knew
and could relate to, and since most of Colvin's witnesses
were women. It was all too easy.
Speaker 11 (18:43):
Did you tell any journalists about your story?
Speaker 7 (18:47):
I told friends, I told family, some journalists.
Speaker 11 (18:50):
Did you tell anyone in exchange for goods or money?
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Yes?
Speaker 7 (18:54):
I needed eggs and barley. I have two kids to feed.
Speaker 8 (18:57):
So what your honor?
Speaker 11 (18:58):
How can we trust a woman who sells her storring?
Speaker 7 (19:02):
Not today? I'm a Methodist, You're on and not a liar.
Speaker 17 (19:05):
I was taking my kids home from church and I
saw Elma right before Levi weeks killed her.
Speaker 7 (19:10):
She looked me in the eyes, I heard her.
Speaker 11 (19:12):
We have nothing further for this story, selling.
Speaker 17 (19:16):
Runner, I know it with Elma, I'm not telling stories.
Speaker 7 (19:18):
Found I am not telling stories. I know the truth.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
So several witnesses confirmed that there was a sleigh with
multiple passengers and no bells near the Lisbonnard meadows around
the time of the murder. More witnesses confirmed screams of
murder and help me around eight thirty and as you
might remember from the last episode, Levi didn't have access
to horses, but Catherine suggested that he could borrow his
(19:47):
brother's sleigh because Ezra had tons of horses. If Coldon
could just prove that Levi took Elma to the murder
site in his brother's sleigh. Case closed right, So to
put this all toge other, he tried to turn the
jury's attention to Ezra Weeks.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
It was Ezra Weeks.
Speaker 16 (20:05):
Ezra took out his horse and sleigh the same night,
the same hour Elma Sands was murdered.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
So Coldon called Ezra Weeks's neighbor on Nasau Street, Susannah Broad.
She was sitting in her house at the time of
the murder, and her window overlooked Ezra's horses in the yard.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
What time did Ezra's horse and slay leave the property
that night?
Speaker 16 (20:25):
Just before eight pm?
Speaker 4 (20:27):
And when did the vehicle return.
Speaker 16 (20:29):
Within the hour?
Speaker 4 (20:31):
One hour? Just enough time to pick up Elman Levi
on Greynnch Street, or.
Speaker 9 (20:35):
To go jaculating the witness.
Speaker 10 (20:37):
Or go to the Manhattan well and assist his brother
in a murder. Nothing further from the prosecution. Thank you, missus.
Speaker 9 (20:44):
Brod, missus Broad, Or may I call you Susannah?
Speaker 8 (20:49):
You may not, mister Hamilton, Susannah, why do you think
you saw Asras slay leaving the yards?
Speaker 16 (20:55):
But I don't think it, I know it.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
I saw it.
Speaker 9 (20:58):
Why do you think it was eight p I.
Speaker 16 (21:00):
Said it was a few minutes before eight pm. I
saw the sleigh right before my kids got home from services,
which ended at eight on Sunday nights.
Speaker 9 (21:08):
So your kids weren't home when you saw Asrarisley leave
the yard.
Speaker 16 (21:12):
No, my kids came home a few minutes after that.
So you were home alone, yes, until my kids came home.
Speaker 9 (21:18):
Where were your kids when as Risley came back in?
Speaker 16 (21:21):
I think they were downstairs?
Speaker 9 (21:22):
You think, yes, you don't know where your own kids
were at which point? Or were you home alone?
Speaker 13 (21:28):
When?
Speaker 11 (21:29):
Mister Hamilton, when was any of this?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
When was what?
Speaker 16 (21:32):
I saw Ezra's horse and sleigh leave the yard just
before eight?
Speaker 11 (21:36):
Then, s Hannah, what month?
Speaker 13 (21:38):
What did you say, mister Burr?
Speaker 11 (21:40):
Was it Christmas?
Speaker 16 (21:41):
Was what Christmas?
Speaker 8 (21:43):
Did you see Ezra Weeks in his lumber yard after
or before Christmas?
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I see him all the time. He's my neighbor.
Speaker 11 (21:50):
So you saw him after Christmas?
Speaker 5 (21:52):
Yes?
Speaker 16 (21:52):
I also saw him after Christmas?
Speaker 8 (21:54):
So you didn't see him on the night Alma went missing?
Speaker 9 (21:57):
I did, of course I did, sus Hannah, when did
you realize that you had important information about Ezra Week's.
Speaker 16 (22:03):
Slagh When I saw Elma San's corpse in the yard
of the boarding house early January. Everybody was talking about
the body in the box outside Elias and Catherine Ring's house.
I had to go see for myself.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Catherine put her cousin's body on display outside her house
for thousands of people like Susannah to come see for themselves.
More on that in the next episode. But Catherine Ring's
decision to display her cousin's corpse outside two o eight
Greenwich Street changed the course of like everything.
Speaker 9 (22:39):
So you saw the body and decided to spread a room. No,
mister Hamilton, I'm just having a hard time following what
you're saying.
Speaker 16 (22:47):
You continue to interrupt me, Sir. When I went to
see the body, people were saying it was the Week's boy,
Levi Weeks killed the girl. I knew Ezra was his
older brother.
Speaker 9 (22:59):
I thought, I So you thought you should start telling
people that you thought you saw Asra Sleigh maybe the
night Elma.
Speaker 16 (23:06):
Disappeared, just in case it mattered.
Speaker 9 (23:09):
So, before Elma's body was found, you never concerned yourself
with when or why Ezra Weeks took out his horses.
Speaker 16 (23:16):
It happens frequently, mister Hamilton's sold and.
Speaker 9 (23:18):
You happened to be home alone when you saw it
happen this time.
Speaker 8 (23:21):
Plus all this may have happened in January.
Speaker 9 (23:25):
So so this witness has zero credibility. Folks, she doesn't
know what she's talking about.
Speaker 7 (23:31):
I know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 16 (23:32):
I saw Ezra Weeks take his horse and slay out
on December twenty second.
Speaker 7 (23:37):
He keeps his horse with no I thought.
Speaker 8 (23:39):
Rushing went Ezra's sleigh to Alma Sand's death. Can we
move on from this tangent.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
Shurey disagreements to birth. Alma left the Ringses at eight
She was seen in a sleigh at eight fifteen.
Speaker 10 (23:52):
Her screams were heard from the Manhattan Well at eight
thirty five. If Levin murdered Elma thirty minutes after they
both left the.
Speaker 4 (23:57):
Boarding objection speculation said if and if Levi brought Alma
to the murder site in a sleigh, the only sleigh
he could borrow was Ezra's.
Speaker 11 (24:06):
Alma may have walked to the well.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
It was much too cold for her to walk from
Greenwich Street to the list of nards she was.
Speaker 8 (24:11):
Walking to end her life, Caldon, she wasn't thinking about
the temperature.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
She actually did consider the cold.
Speaker 10 (24:19):
Maybe she jogged, she borrowed a hand muff to stay warm.
She had plans to get married and then return the
hand muff, not into her life.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Plus it was almost Christmas.
Speaker 11 (24:29):
That's your evidence, coldon Christmas.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
What is a hand.
Speaker 10 (24:34):
Muff the accessory that Alma wore that night? Eleven days
after Alma vanished, a young boy found it floating in
the Manhattan Well, that's how her body was discovered in
the first place.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
The hand muff was an extremely important clue. Without it,
Alma's body may have never been discovered. This little dude
found it.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
The prosecution calls William Blank.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
And his testimony was vital for Coldon's case.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Sit down, I cannot see mister.
Speaker 10 (25:00):
Okay, I'm here, sit on these books.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
However, kids weren't really in school at this point. What
little education they were getting would have been from church.
So William's time on the stand went like this.
Speaker 13 (25:14):
That's better.
Speaker 10 (25:16):
So William tell the jury about that thing you found
in the Manhattan Well, well, I.
Speaker 7 (25:21):
Was playing snow Angel.
Speaker 11 (25:24):
You're under oath.
Speaker 7 (25:26):
You are very short, mister bird. He's been shorter than
the pictures in the paper.
Speaker 11 (25:30):
Do you know what an oath is Nope, but I.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Was playing snow Angel all the listen North and I
know how old are you?
Speaker 9 (25:37):
Boy?
Speaker 7 (25:39):
Almost thirteen? Are you Alexander Hamilton?
Speaker 9 (25:42):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (25:42):
I am.
Speaker 9 (25:43):
Can you read?
Speaker 13 (25:44):
No?
Speaker 7 (25:46):
Well, I can read at church?
Speaker 13 (25:47):
Can you read?
Speaker 6 (25:48):
Mister Hamilton, your honor?
Speaker 9 (25:50):
This is a child, not a credible source of information.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
He's one of my key eyewitnesses.
Speaker 6 (25:55):
I just can't admit his testimony.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
I'm sorry, Caldon.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
So if something didn't work for Hamilton and Burr, a
rule had to be made against it. Poor little William
Blank was removed from that witness stand faster than Hamilton
ran to Mariah Reynolds when Eliza left town.
Speaker 6 (26:11):
Sorry said it, William, Hey, buddy, you can go sit
back down.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Coldon had to scramble.
Speaker 13 (26:17):
This was a twist.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
He'd really been counting on little William.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
Wait, uh, okay, what about his parents? William? Do you
have a grown up in the courtroom with you?
Speaker 13 (26:27):
Yeah? My dad's in the back row.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
What's his name?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Andrew? Don't call him Andy. I don't mention the missing
buttons on his shirt because.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
He will get really mad.
Speaker 10 (26:36):
Andrew Blank. The prosecution calls Andrew Blank, father of William Blank.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
So Andrew Blank was not a witness that Coldon was
planning to call. He was only there in the courtroom
to accompany his son, who was called to testify about
the hand muff. But clearly that backfired, so Andrew Blank
came up to the stand and became an unexpected hero
for the prosecution.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Check this out, mister Blank.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Sun found Elma's hand muff right.
Speaker 6 (27:02):
That's right, mister Colton at the list Bannards. He knows
not to go near the well, but he saw it
floating right on the water. He carried it home to
me like a treasure. I followed him back to the well.
What did you see when you got there, mister Blank?
I noticed the sleigh track, a sleigh track, and the
footprints around the well.
Speaker 8 (27:18):
Alma's footprints most likely, mister Burr, you don't know whose
footprints they were. If there was only one set of footprints,
Alma must have been alone Coldon for her suicide.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
Or LEVI carried Alma from the sleigh straight to the
well and they were his foot PRIs or Alma walked
too likely to leave footprints.
Speaker 6 (27:36):
If I made your honor, yes, go ahead, mister Blake.
Speaker 9 (27:39):
Coldon, you don't make the rules.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
But yes, go ahead, mister Blank.
Speaker 6 (27:45):
The footprints I saw were large and flat, like heavy boots,
heavy boots, and missus rain Catherine.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Met Yes, yes, mister Colon.
Speaker 7 (27:55):
Should I come back up there?
Speaker 4 (27:56):
Not necessary?
Speaker 10 (27:57):
Just tell us about Alma's feet, please, Catherine, or her
shoes specifically.
Speaker 18 (28:02):
Actually, I always made fun of her little feet.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Her shoes were arched and dainty.
Speaker 13 (28:09):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 10 (28:10):
Alma had tiny little feet. Alma had tiny feet. But
the footprints at the well were heavy and flat. They
were Levi Weeks's footprints, your honor. He dumped Alma into
the well. He paced around in the snow injection. Clearly
no one had been to the well in days, or
the muff would have been discovered soon.
Speaker 11 (28:27):
You're on our objection.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
Move on, Colvin. Mister Blank, do you go to the
list Bonnards? Very often?
Speaker 6 (28:35):
It's near my house and I let my son play there,
but otherwise.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
Now, so your family doesn't get their water from the
Manhattan well.
Speaker 6 (28:41):
No, definitely not.
Speaker 10 (28:42):
But it's the closest well to your house, mister Blank,
Why don't you use it for water?
Speaker 6 (28:47):
The Manhattan Company doesn't care about clean water. They're frods.
Wells are scam. They're dirty, and they don't even pump
water to the homes that pay for it.
Speaker 4 (28:56):
Did you know that mister Burke created the Manhattan Company?
Shoot and you just admitted that Aaron Burr is untrustworthy
and corrupt.
Speaker 6 (29:04):
Yes, just the pipes are wood, not iron. And I've
lost so many friends to the fever. I didn't need
to offend anyone.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
You're not offending anyone.
Speaker 11 (29:12):
I'm offended your honor.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
And even though he's offended, Aaron Burr's company did own
the murder site. This is the unbelievable situation in the
late seventeen hundreds. As I've said, Aaron Burr and Alexander
Hamilton didn't have any money personally. They were both constantly
in debt, but they really wanted to control other people's money,
the city's money, Federalist money, Democratic Republican money, money, money,
(29:35):
money money. Aaron Burr wanted to start a bank, but
Hamilton shut him out of all things fiscal. After serving
as the nation's first Secretary of Treasury. He was not
about to let his frenemy get involved and start a bank,
so instead Aaron Burr started the Manhattan Company in seventeen
ninety nine, Aaron Burr knew that people were panicking about
(29:57):
the yellow fever potentially being caused by dirty bracket from
the collect So he saw an opportunity to start a
business and call it a municipal water works. He puts
some wells up around Manhattan, including the one where Elma
was murdered, and the Manhattan Company was created. But there
was some fine print in the whole Manhattan Company deal.
It said that the company aka Erin Burr himself, could
(30:20):
do whatever he wanted with its surplus money. So of
course he opened a bank. His concern was not clean
water nor good water wells, but he did use the
idea of clean water to start a company that's now
Chase Manhattan Bank. Dirty water, dirty money. Am I right?
Speaker 6 (30:39):
Well, I don't think mister Burr himself built the.
Speaker 8 (30:40):
Wells, obviously, I'm a public figure and politician, not a builder.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Oh, I didn't realize who built the wells, mister Blank?
Speaker 13 (30:50):
Do you know?
Speaker 6 (30:51):
Probably mister Weeks? Right, doesn't mister Weeks do all those
kinds of contrasts, dejection, relevance?
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Mister Blank? Did you say lee By Weeks built the
Manhattan well? No?
Speaker 6 (31:02):
No, not Levi Ezra.
Speaker 9 (31:07):
Your honor, Stop this, your honor, who cares if Ezra
Weeks does freelance work for us? It's tangential.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
Well, this is something, This is really just something.
Speaker 10 (31:18):
I didn't realize that Levi and Ezra Weeks are such
close friends with the opponents.
Speaker 9 (31:22):
In due respect, your honor, analyzing our relationship to our
client is a profound waste of the jury's time.
Speaker 10 (31:28):
I'd agree with that if Ezra built the murder site,
plus his horse and slay were used in the murder,
Plus he was always looking out for Levi, who wanted
his girlfriend Elma out of the picture.
Speaker 9 (31:36):
Your honor, questions, Colden.
Speaker 10 (31:38):
It's obvious to me that the Week's brother's murdered Elma
in cold blood, dumped her in the well, and they
thought they'd get away.
Speaker 13 (31:43):
With your finished defense, counsel, it's your witness for cross examination.
Speaker 11 (31:48):
Finally, mister Blank, good afternoon.
Speaker 6 (31:52):
Good afternoon, mister Burr.
Speaker 8 (31:54):
I'll disregard your assassination of my name and my company
and just ask you, how do you have so much
information about so many things?
Speaker 6 (32:07):
Excuse me?
Speaker 8 (32:08):
You seem to have a lot of intricate details for
someone who's not remotely important to this case. Your kid
found a hand muff and that's it. You're wasting the
jury's time.
Speaker 6 (32:21):
But I have found her. What, mister Blank, I helped
find Elma, which no one asked me about quite yet.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
Right, why hasn't this come up? You found Elma, Sir.
Speaker 6 (32:33):
On January second, eighteen hundred, from the Manhattan Well. I
was actually the first one to see her.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
That's right, Andrew Blank was there when Elma's body was found.
So Coldon had this unexpected triumph. He stumbled upon a
witness who helped pull Elma's corpse from the well and
could tell the jury in gruesome detail what it looked
like at that pint. Plus all those witnesses who saw
a sleigh, or heard screams, or interacted with Elma on
(33:06):
the night of the murder all strengthened Colden's case against
Levi weeks. He proved that both Levi and Ezra could
have been there with Elma when she was murdered. They
both knew the well very well. Ezra built it with
his own hands for his good friend Aaron Burr's scam company,
and of course it was Levi's idea for Elma to
be out that night. All dressed up to start forever
(33:28):
with him. The Week's brothers cared about public perception. They
worked on big contracts for high profile clients. They got
invited to fancy parties. Alma Sands was hardly the girl
that Ezra Weeks would have envisioned his little brother with.
Perhaps they wanted to get her out of the way permanently,
(33:49):
so a few hours into the trial, Colden was feeling
more confident. It seemed like he was bound to win.
But in the next episode, one of his star witnesses
turns against him, and Catherine's decision to display her cousin's
body to the public has earth shattering consequences. This is erased,
Stay with Us erased. The Murder of Elma Sands is
(34:18):
a 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 Katherine Ring, Tony Goldwyn as Alexander Hamilton, Barry
Sheck as Aaron Burr, and Jason Flamm as Judge John Lansing.
(34:39):
Our executive producers are Alison Williams, Jason Flamm, and Kevin Wardis.
This show is produced by Goldtalk Productions. The show is
sound designed and mixed by Steve Bond. The music is
composed and performed by Sasha Putnam. The producer for gold
Talk is Andy Goddard, with production management from Emma. The
(35:01):
executive producer for Goldhalk is John Scott Dryden. You can
listen to every episode of Erased the Murder of Alma
Sands right now add 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, visit Lava Forgod dot
(35:23):
com slash Erased
Host
Allison Flom
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