Duel with the Devil (38 page)

  
1
precipitating a neighbor’s baby into a well
:
NYS
, 8 March 1800.

  
2
“We swept near Rhinelander’s Battery”
: William Coleman,
Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks
, 89.

  
3
“in a little time the cries stopped”
: Ibid., 51.

  
4
within the
Proceedings of the Old Bailey
:
Proceedings of the Old Bailey
, 20 September 1797, case reference t17970920-59. No previous account of the Elma Sands murder has noted this
previous
criminal record of Croucher’s; it may the first new lead in the case since 1800.

  
5
a woman sentenced to whipping
:
Proceedings of the Old Bailey
, 20 September 1797, case reference t17970920-58.

  
6
a young mute caught stealing silver buttons
: Ibid., case reference t17970920-57.

  
7
a shoemaker’s shop by St. Paul’s
: Ibid., case reference t17970920-59.

  
8
birthday party at the house of Ann Ashmore
: William Coleman,
Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks
, 93.

  
9
a brandy-making firm in her house
:
Longworth’s American Almanack
(1800), 125.

10
“I have seen him very often in liquor”
:
Proceedings of the Old Bailey
, 20 September 1797, case reference t17970920-59.

11
Burr claimed that Elma was known to sneak out at night
: William Coleman,
Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks
, 65.

12
“those who have been instrumental and active”
:
NYDA
, 3 April 1800.

13
Come help me scrub my old room clean
:
Report of the Trial of Richard D. Croucher
, 4.

14
A forty-year-old man such as Croucher
:
Philadelphia Gazette
, 10 July 1800.

15
a slight, slender girl like Margaret
:
Report of the Trial of Richard D. Croucher
, 10. Witness Abiel Brown notes that the victim was not substantial in “shape or age”; on page 25, the prosecutor similarly notes that “her age—her size—her sufferings” warranted particular protection.

16
Her mother had already been upbraiding her
:
Report of the Trial of Richard D. Croucher
, 13.

17
others hardly discerned much impertinence
: Ibid., 10.

18
FALSE SHAME
!:
NYAC
, 23 April 1800.

19
Peter Schermerhorn … announced his withdrawal
:
NYDA
, 23 April 1800.

20
I was there—at the trial
:
Report of the Trial of Richard D. Croucher
, 23.

21
Margaret had been learning her lessons at school
: Ibid., 8.

22
We shall pack and clean in the morning
: Ibid., 5.

23
the same witness stand … the very man … another familiar face
: Ibid., 3.

24
“Thirteen”
: Ibid., 5. Unusually for trial transcripts, this one makes a particular and repeated note of the witness’s distress and crying on the stand. Newspaper accounts of the trial show other observers were also particularly struck by the girl’s suffering.

25
“every mark on his face”
:
Philadelphia Gazette
, 10 July 1800.

26
“He used force”
:
Report of the Trial of Richard D. Croucher
, 5.

27
“He whipped me, and turned me out of doors”
: Ibid., 7.

28
just like the Henry Bedlow rape trial
: Ibid., 18.

29
“If any thing of an improper nature has passed”
: Ibid., 15.

30
“It is said, her youth renders it impossible”
: Ibid., 18.

31
“our ill-judged mode of educating”
: Ibid., 19.

32
“She
knew
that a young woman had been cruelly murdered
”: Ibid., 23.

33
five minutes to find Croucher guilty
: Ibid., 27.

34
A MONSTER
:
Impartial Register
(Salem, Mass.), 14 July 1800.

35
“Every one must rejoice”
:
Philadelphia Gazette
, 10 July 1800.

  
1
“
AARON BURR
 … is using every wicked art
”:
NYAC
, 23 April 1804.

  
2
“upwards of twenty women of ill-fame”
: Chernow,
Alexander Hamilton
, 675.

  
3
spurned by President Jefferson
: Fleming,
Duel
, 145.

  
4
He’d run to the middle
: Ibid., 163.

  
5
“I had rather seen Lansing governor”
: Alexander Hamilton to Robert G. Harper, 19 February 1804,
Papers of Alexander Hamilton
, 26:192. Lansing almost instantly dropped out of the race, and the Republicans instead ran a weaker candidate, Morgan Lewis. Thanks in part to Hamilton’s efforts, they still managed to vanquish Burr in the election.

  
6
Burr lost the resulting election by a crushing margin
: Isenberg,
Fallen Founder
, 255.

  
7
“I send for your perusal a letter”
: William Coleman,
Collection of the Facts and Documents
, 1.

  
8
“Tis evident that the phrase”
: Ibid., 2.

  
9
“The question is not … grammatical accuracy”
: Ibid., 5.

10
“I should not think it right in the midst of a Circuit Court”
: Ibid., 15.

11
expression of apology flickering momentarily
: Ibid., 17.

12
“This is a mortal wound, Doctor”
: Ibid., 19.

13
“The streets were lined with people”
: Ibid., 42.

14
a city funeral procession
: Ibid., 36.

15
“their Indignation amounts almost to a frenzy already”
: Fleming,
Duel
, 337.

16
“The last hours of Genl H”
: Ibid., 344.

17
“throw away my first fire”
: William Coleman,
Collection of the Facts and Documents
, 26.

18
Hamilton had been in far more duels
: Fleming,
Duel
, 287.

19
“the shocking catastrophe which deprived America”
: William Coleman,
Collection of the Facts and Documents
, 1.

20
“got the paper out in good style”
: Allan McLane Hamilton,
Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton
, 72.

21
“Dueling” … “is now looked upon”
: William Coleman,
Collection of the Facts and Documents
, 181.

22
the vice president fled the state
: Fleming,
Duel
, 347.

23
“If thee dies a natural death”
: “The Manhattan Well Murder,” 929. The myth originated from an 1870 fact-based novel, Keturah Connah’s anonymously authored
Guilty, or Not Guilty: The True Story of the Manhattan Well
. (See my notes for chapter 20.) Though the myth has often been
repeated since then, this unsigned article in
Harper’s
appears to be the first instance of its being repeated as alleged fact.

24
left nearly destitute by his chaotic personal finances
: Fleming,
Duel
, 360.

25
a stateless and bankrupt shadow of a man
: Chernow,
Alexander Hamilton
, 719.

26
the strange fate reserved for the trial judge
: Barnes,
Life of Thurlow Weed
, 33.

27
lost his home within a year … and work as a mechanic
:
Longworth’s American Almanack
(1801), 161. In this edition Elias Ring is listed as a mechanic living on Lower Catherine Street.

28
debtor and bankrupt notices
:
NYDA
, 20 June 1803; and
American
(New York, N.Y.), 9 September 1820.

29
“for the continued intemperate use of intoxicating spirits”
: Kleiger,
Trial of Levi Weeks
, 199.

30
mown down by yellow fever
: Ibid., 198.

31
Croucher was granted a pardon
:
NYCA
, 18 February 1803.

32
mingling among Richmond merchants
:
NYAC
, 12 June 1803.

33
promptly robbed them
: Ibid., 4 July 1803.

34
Virginia bounty notices … “
R. D. CROUCHER
, about six feet high
”:
Alexandria (Va.) Expositor
, 22 July 1803.

35
“he was executed for a heinous crime”
: Lodge,
Alexander Hamilton
, 243. Croucher’s dark deeds outlived the man. His rape victim, Margaret Miller, never even made it to the age of twenty. Neighbors recalled a girl who simply cried and drank; then she married a brutal German sailor, who declared she was a whore and slit her throat. Asked afterward if he’d done it, he replied: “Yes, and I would kill a dozen like her, for she was a damn’d bitch.” See
Only Correct Account of the Life, Character, and Conduct of John Banks
, 8.

36
“the generalissimo of Federal editors”
:
NYAC
, 23 November 1801.

37
sworn enemy of pigs
: Muller,
William Cullen Bryant
, 62.

38
“The stranger that walks through this street”
: Ibid., 66.

39
He became one of the city’s great hoteliers
:
NYS
, 21 November 1801.

40
he served without incident on an 1806 jury
:
Connecticut Journal
, 31 July 1806.

41
defense counsel to a man charged with aiding Alexander Hamilton
:
NYG
, 12 January 1805.

42
mayor of New York in 1818
: Biographical Dictionary of the United States Congress,
http://​bioguide.​congress.​gov/​scripts/​biodisplay.​pl?​index=​C000604
.

43
Colden helped found the state’s first formally chartered scientific society
: Harris, “New York’s First Scientific Body,” 329.

44
founding officers of the Literary and Philosophical Society
:
Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New-York
, 1:17.

45
rose to the state supreme court and … to the U.S. Supreme Court
: Hall,
Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States
, 587.

46
helping to found Bellevue Hospital
: Sherk, “David Hosack, M.D., and Rutgers,” 23.

47
leading vaccination drives across the city
: Hosack,
Memoir of the Late David Hosack, M.D
., 319.

48
Their first meeting was in the Portrait Room
: Lamb,
History of the City of New York
, 3:505.

49
moved back to Deerfield
: Willard,
Willard’s History of Greenfield
, 164. The area he moved to is now known as South Deerfield, Massachusetts.

50
work in selling liquor and dry goods
: Kleiger,
Trial of Levi Weeks
, 202.

51
“Son” … “I wish I knew”
: Ibid.

52
In 1805, he ended his dry goods partnership
:
Republican Spy
(Springfield, Mass.), 3 September 1805.

53
“they were brought up among slaves”
: Levi Weeks to Epaphras Hoyt, 27 September 1812, Kleiger,
Trial of Levi Weeks
, 221.

54
recording his travels in a diary
: Kleiger,
Trial of Levi Weeks
, 215.

55
Levi and his belongings went toppling into the water
: Ibid.

56
“Ultimately” … “he became a vagabond”
: Willard,
Willard’s History of Greenfield
, 164.

  
1
a decade since the last Spanish garrison
: McLeMore,
History of Mississippi
, 1:171.

  
2
“Its vicinity is very uneven”
: Kleiger,
Trial of Levi Weeks
, 210.

  
3
fashionable Georgian and Federalist neoclassical design
: Black,
Art in M
i
ss
i
ss
i
pp
i
,
1720–1980
, 36.

  
4
“The brick house I am now building”
: Kleiger,
Trial of Levi Weeks
, 211.

  
5
fellow Massachusetts native, Lyman Harding
: Ibid.

  
6
trusted army friend of Aaron Burr’s
: Beveridge,
Life of John Marshall
, 3:364.

  
7
Ionic columns along the front of the house, topped by Corinthian entablature
: Kleiger,
Trial of Levi Weeks
, 211.

  
8
the inspiration for other grand mansions in the region
: Black,
Art in Mississippi, 1720–1980
, 36.

  
9
commissions for Natchez’s new city hall and college building
: Ibid., 35.

10
“Colonel Burr has been here”
: Kleiger,
Trial of Levi Weeks
, 202.

11
a ten-by-ten rented room
:
Private Journal of Aaron Burr
, 2:102.

12
dodging petty debts to Parisian shopkeepers: Ibid., 2
:108.

13
“Had one sous left”: Ibid., 2
:103.

14
“I must, infallibly, have been taken”: Ibid., 2
:101.

15
“I can sit in my chair”: Ibid., 2
:105.

16
a volume containing “abuse and libels”: Ibid., 2
:108.

17
“You are a scoundrel, sir!”
: Fleming,
Duel
, 404.

18
military pension denied by a Congress
: Isenberg,
Fallen Founder
, 399.

19
“very thin and straight, dressed in black”
: Morhouse, “Boy’s Reminiscences,” 340.

20
one of America’s first specialists in family law
: Isenberg,
Fallen Founder
, 389.

21
almost never heard him speak again of Alexander Hamilton
: Ibid., 406.

22
sometimes mused over: the death of Miss Elma Sands
: Parton,
Life and Times of Aaron Burr
, 148.

23
friend of William Coleman’s
: Slawinski, “Tale of Two Murders,” 368. I am indebted to Slawinski’s article for drawing my attention to Brown’s use of the Weeks trial in this story.

24
“A recent instance has occurred”
: Brown, “Trials of Arden,” 19.

25
“Of all men his lot was most disastrous”
: Ibid., 20.

26
reviews of both Coleman’s trial transcript
and
the newly published transcript of Croucher’s
: Slawinski, “Tale of Two Murders,” 398.

27
riot and attack Arden and then even the jury
: Brown, “Trials of Arden,” 26.

28
“Europe had been for a long time the theatre of his crimes”
: Ibid., 27.

29
an old Princeton classmate of Burr’s
: Isenberg,
Fallen Founder
, 418.

30
“Gulielma Sands—the unfortunate event”
: Freneau,
Collection of Poems
, 1:113.

31
the city filled in and platted out Lispenard’s Meadow
:
NYDA
, 29 June 1804. Specifically, this was an ad seeking cartmen to bid on a contract “for filling up to the level of the street, a number of Lots, situated on Spring-street, near the Manhattan Well.”

32
bought by John Jacob Astor
:
Southern Portrait
(Charleston, S.C.), 8 April 1848.

33
modern descendant
: Bank of the Manhattan Company,
Early New-York and the Bank of the Manhattan Company
, n.p.

34
the author was Keturah Connah
:
Orange County Times-Press
(Middle-town, N.Y.), 26 April 1910. Her authorship was revealed in this obituary placed by her family after her death in 1910 at the age of ninety.

35
“our story, or rather,
history
”: Connah,
Guilty, or Not Guilty
, 155.

36
originating the popular story of Mrs. Ring’s curse
: Ibid., 374.

37
Hope Sands, a witness in the trial—was
still alive
: Ibid., v.

38
“an abundance of light auburn hair” … “small, piercing, black eyes”
: Ibid., 47.

39
“He was tall, and well formed”
: Ibid., 153.

40
“the little mountain maid”
: Ibid., 34.

41
“she had been always a delicate child”
: Ibid., 10.

42
listening to the piano
: Ibid., 68.

43
“The eyes were dark”
: Ibid., 10.

44
“Were you to ask me now to give you the exact location”
: Ibid., 332.

45
“Since the above was written”
: Ibid., 333.

46
“The old well, known as the Manhattan Well”
:
New York Times
, 18 April 1869.

47
129 Spring Street
: Stone,
History of New York City
, 342. The 1869
Times
article misprints the address as 115 Spring Street. Subsequent accounts, for example, an 1872
Harper’s
article and later newspaper articles (including in the
Times
itself), identify the location as either 129 Spring Street or 89½ Greene Street, which is the alleyway behind 129 Spring. Stone might be the first key identification, though, because while he does not give a street address, he identifies the well’s location as “just above the present line of Spring Street between Greene and Wooster Streets.” This description fits for 129 Spring, but not 115 Spring. It was indeed at 129 Spring Street that a well was rediscovered a century later.
   That the well was near Spring Street—something that some later commentators were not even sure of—is clearly indicated by the aforementioned advertisement seeking landfill (
NYDA
, 29 June 1804), which identified “lots, situated on Spring-street, near the Manhattan Well.”

48
a pawnbroker
:
New-York Herald
, 11 May 1856.

49
“O. Spotswood’s Antidote for Tobacco”
:
Farmer’s Cabinet
(Amherst, N.H.), 25 December 1862.

50
a German beer hall
:
Der Zeitgeist
(Egg Harbor City, N.J.), 12 November 1870.

51
a Communist meeting elected Victorian firebrand Victoria Woodhull
: “Crinoline in Communist Councils,”
New-York Herald
, 10 March 1873.

52
“on the anniversary of her murder”
:
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
, 21 July 1889.

53
“a sturdy German carpenter”
:
Pittsburg Dispatch
, 16 June 1889. The alternate spelling of
Pittsburgh
is per the original newspaper.

54
“Winds stir sooty papers in it”
: “About New York,”
New York Times
, 23 October 1957.

55
the owner of the Manhattan Bistro set about excavating
:
Ghost Stories
: “The Ghost of Elma Sands,” Travel Channel, 18 June 2010. There is otherwise very little accurate information in this production.

56
the owners and employees like to trade stories
: Ibid.

57
it was said that Levi’s defense counsel
: Parton,
Life and Times of Aaron Burr
, 148.

58
“He used to say”
: Ibid.

59
When Hamilton’s son recounted it
: John C. Hamilton,
History of the Republic of the United States of America
, 746.