WEBVTT - The People v. Levi Weeks 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:04.800 You are listening to History on Trial, a production of 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:12.040 iHeart Podcasts. Listener Discretion Advised. Welcome to History on Trial. 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:16.720 I'm your host, Mira Hayward. Every episode will go behind 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:20.320 the scenes of a famous trial from American history. We'll 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:22.639 meet the real people who make up the legal system, 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:27.440 from victims and defendants to lawyers and judges. Will follow 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:29.680 their stories as they duke it out in the courtrooms 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:33.440 of the past and learn how their cases irrevocally shaped 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:36.840 the present. Will watch the law as it evolves along 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:39.879 with the country, or as it fails to do so. 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:44.040 Every trial is a battle, and what we choose to 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:47.200 fight over and how we choose to do it can 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:51.960 be revealing. Trial by trial will gain new insight into 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:57.600 the story of America. This week The People v Levi Weeks. 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:07.600 On a cold January morning in Manhattan, a crowd gathered 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:11.199 to watch something strange. The spot where they stood would 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:15.000 one day become Soho, the fashionable New York City neighborhood 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:19.280 filled with clothing stores and expensive lofts. But on this day, 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:24.840 January second, eighteen hundred, the area was a sprawling wildland 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:29.840 called Lispynard's Meadow, nestled between the settled southern tip of 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:33.760 Manhattan and Greenwich Village. The meadow was more often the 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:37.400 site of courting couples or small hunting parties rather than 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:42.800 large crowds. But today was different. Today, at a well 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:46.640 in the southwest corner of the meadow, something was happening. 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:50.480 Half a dozen men were straining to lift a makeshift 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:54.200 net and its heavy cargo from the well. As they 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:58.920 heaved and grunted their burdens, slowly rose into view a 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:03.640 flash of white fab a mass of dark hair, too pale, 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:10.000 bare feet. It was a woman long dead. An onlooker 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:13.600 ran to fetch the police. When the constable arrived, he 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:16.639 found the woman's body laid out on a plank, her 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:19.720 head at an odd angle. The men who had lifted 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:22.639 her out explained how they had found her. The woman, 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:26.840 whose name was Julielma Sands, known to all as Elma, 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:31.600 had been missing for nearly two weeks since December twenty second. 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:35.440 Not a trace of Elma had been seen until her muff, 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:39.160 a tube of fabric worn as a handwarmer, had turned 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:43.480 up in the well. When Elma's landlord, Eli Ring and 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:47.440 neighbor Joseph Watkins heard of the discovery. They raced to 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:51.920 the meadow, sounding the well with poles. They felt the body. 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:56.680 Now with the question of where Alma had gone tragically answered, 0:02:57.280 --> 0:03:01.160 a new question arose. She ended up in the well. 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:05.600 Someone in the crowd thought they knew Levi Weeks is 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:08.840 to blame. He's who she was last with. A man 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:12.600 called out to the constable. Levi Weeks. The crowd quickly 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:15.960 learned was a fellow boarding house resident of Elma's, and 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:20.920 the two were rumored to be romantically involved. Seizing the lead, 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:23.000 the constable and a group of men set out to 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:26.440 locate Levi. They found the young carpenter at his workshop. 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:30.480 When the Constable tapped him on the shoulder, Levi turned startled. 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:34.240 He saw the angry, confused faces of the men and 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:39.000 burst into speech. It is too hard, he started, before pausing. 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:42.680 Then is it the Manhattan well she was found in? 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:47.800 It was? The men shared a look. How could he 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:50.840 have known that Alma was found in a well? How 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.000 could he have known it was Manhattan Well? In particular? 0:03:55.000 --> 0:04:04.160 None of them had mentioned it. Levi was placed under arrest. 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:08.520 It didn't take long for word to spread through New 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:12.080 York City that a beautiful young woman was dead, and 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:15.240 that a handsome young man was under arrest for her murder. 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:18.400 It was said that Levi and Elma had been courting 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:22.599 and planned to marry, but something had gone terribly wrong. 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:26.719 People spoke of the case in the streets, and journalists 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:30.440 wrote of it in the papers. One poet, Philip Freneau, 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:34.839 even wrote a poem about it. If thou injured Elma 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:38.440 had not fallen a prey to fierce revenge that sees 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:42.120 thy life away, not through the glooms of conscious night, 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:45.359 been led to find a funeral for a nuptial bed, 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:49.680 when by the power of midnight fiends you fell plunged 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:54.119 in the abyss of Manhattan. Well, but the media friends 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:58.159 you was only beginning. Soon, Levi Weeks would go to trial, 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:01.479 and thanks to his family ca connections, two of the 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:05.600 city's most prominent lawyers would be defending him. Their names 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:11.760 Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. In fact, if you're familiar 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:15.240 with the musical Hamilton, the name Levi Weeks might ring 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:18.000 a bell. The case gets a mention in the song 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:22.720 non Stop when Alexander Hamilton sings, this is the first 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:27.120 murder trial of our brand new nation. The liberty behind deliberation. 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:30.240 I intend to prove, beyond the shadow of a doubt, 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:35.600 our client, Levi Weeks, is innocent. The song isn't entirely 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:40.040 historically accurate. Levi Weeks's trial wasn't actually the first murder 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:43.640 trial in American history, but it is the first murder 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:48.200 trial that we have a complete transcript from, and that transcript, 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:52.520 published only weeks after the trial, gives us some amazing insights. 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:55.839 It lets us see the American legal system in its 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:59.120 earliest days, as it struggled to figure out just how 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:03.520 trials should work work. And it also reveals incredible parallels 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:07.720 between people two hundred years ago and people today, our 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:12.000 shared desire for justice, our interest in the darker sides 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:15.719 of human nature, our determination to get to the bottom 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:19.800 of things. But most of all, the transcript provides a 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:24.400 riveting portrait of one of the juiciest, most shocking trials 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:28.120 of the early nineteenth century. Because the story of Levi 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:31.120 and Elma may have seemed like a straightforward one of 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:34.840 love gone very wrong, but as everyone would soon learn, 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:44.440 this case was anything but simple. On January third, the 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:48.560 day after the discovery of Elma's body, the physicians Benjamin 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:53.520 Prince and William Macintosh conducted the post mortem examination. Elma 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:57.279 was long dead. The state of decomposition made it clear 0:06:57.320 --> 0:06:59.320 that the body had been in the well for quite 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.680 some time, probably since the night she went missing, so 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:06.359 the doctors didn't expect to find much. The most pressing 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:10.400 question was whether Elma was pregnant or not. Newspapers were 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:14.400 already speculating that an unplanned pregnancy had been Levi's motive 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:18.680 for murder, but Princeton Macintosh found no evidence of pregnancy. 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:22.800 They found barely anything on the body at all, only 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:25.679 some slight bruising and scraping on the face and knees, 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:29.640 but decomposition made it hard to determine when or how 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:34.880 Elma had incurred these small injuries. Despite the lack of evidence, however, 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:39.640 the city coroner announced a verdict of murder. He likely 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:43.520 did so to avoid public outrage. New Yorkers had rioted 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.480 in the past over what they saw as miscarriages of justice, 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:50.320 and a finding of unknown cause of death might have 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:53.880 sent the city over the edge, and the public was 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:58.239 about to get even more invested in the case. After 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:01.800 the inquest, Elma's body was released to Catherine and Eli 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:05.720 ring Catherine and Elma were related, and the Rings had 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:07.880 been happy to give Elma a spot in their boarding 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:10.320 house when she arrived in the city from upstate New 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:14.840 York in seventeen ninety six. Now they opened their doors 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:19.200 for her body. The family was Quaker, and their funeral 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:23.200 practices were normally simple in private, but the Rings decided 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:27.760 that such a horrifying death warranted something different, and so 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:31.920 they set Elma's body in their living room, inviting neighbors 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:36.680 into mourn for her and bare witness to be evil done. 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:39.800 Two days later, on Monday the sixth, the body was 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:43.760 readied for burial, slipped into a simple wooden coffin, and 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:47.480 carried from the home. But as the coffin traveled through 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:52.240 the streets, the Rings, still reeling, were struck by an idea. 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:56.280 It wasn't enough for just their neighbors to see Elma. 0:08:56.480 --> 0:09:00.400 They thought the whole city needed to understand the depths 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:04.600 of the tragedy. The funeral procession came to a halt 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:07.800 and the coffin was set down. The lid cracked open, 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:13.440 Elma's pale face and unseeing eyes peered out. A crowd 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:16.920 began to gather, soon numbering in the thousands, all shocked 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:21.040 by the sight. Death was not unknown in this disease ridden, 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.840 poverty stricken city. But something about the vision of this 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:29.360 dead young woman, taken too soon, laid bare for all 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:34.319 to see, struck a chord with New Yorkers. Levi Weeks, 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:39.520 they said, needed to pay. As the public gawned at 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:44.439 Elma's corpse, Levi Weeks languished in jail. Though conditions were 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:48.400 wretched in Bridewell Jail, Levi was luckier than most of 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:51.920 the inmates. He had a powerful brother who was working 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.880 tirelessly on his defense. Ezra Weeks was one of the 0:09:55.920 --> 0:10:00.440 city's most prominent contractors, with no shortage of fun or 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:06.080 influential connections. One of those connections was Alexander Hamilton, who 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:09.720 just so happened to owe Ezra Weeks thousands of dollars 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:13.880 for construction done on Hamilton's summer home in Harlem Heights. So, 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:16.720 of course Hamilton would be happy to help Ezra's younger 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:20.360 brother with his legal troubles. Ezra had a connection to 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:26.360 Hamilton's longtime frenemy, Aaron Burr, as well. In seventeen ninety nine, 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:30.040 Burr had presided over the creation of the Manhattan Company, 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:33.840 a company with the stated goal of providing fresh water 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:37.600 to New York City. But the Manhattan Company was much 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:41.920 more than a simple utility. Because of clever corporate organization, 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:45.520 the company could also function as a bank of sorts, 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:49.000 which Burr and his Republican colleagues could use to fund 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:53.800 political candidates. To maximize the money the bank brought in, though, 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:58.240 the company needed to actually build water infrastructure, and so 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:02.160 they had hired Ezra Wheat to build and lay wooden 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:05.920 pipes to carry fresh water into the city. This fresh 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:10.280 water came from wells dug in Lisbernard's Meadow, including the 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:14.520 well that Elma Sands's body was found in. Having a 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:16.839 dead body turn up in your company as well is 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:21.480 bad publicity, and Burr wanted to control the narrative. There 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:23.760 was no better way to do this than to serve 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:27.800 as Levi Weeks's attorney. Plus Burr could use the work. 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:33.520 Like Hamilton, he was deeply in debt. Rounding out Levi's 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:38.160 defense team was h. Brockholst Livingstone, a political ally of 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:42.160 Burrs and a member of the Manhattan Company board. He 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:44.720 was one of the top lawyers in the city, known 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:49.000 for his sharp mind and quick temper. Hamilton, Burr and 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:52.800 Livingston quickly got to work getting Levi out on bail 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:56.320 and gathering evidence for his defense. They would have to 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:59.959 work hard. They were up against an ambitious young prosecutor 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:07.440 with something to prove. Cadwalader Colden, the Assistant Attorney General, 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:11.520 had recently suffered a major legal humiliation at the hands 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:16.400 of none other than Brockholst Livingstone. In October seventeen ninety nine, 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:19.600 a man named John Pistano had been convicted of the 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:23.880 brutal murder of his landlord, Mary Castro. The jury had 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:27.839 taken only minutes to sentence Pistano to death, unconvinced by 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:32.960 Livingstone's assertions that Pistano was not responsible because he was insane. 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:37.040 After all, insanity was not at that time a leal defense, 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:42.240 but as Livingstone had predicted, Pistano's insanity won him sympathy 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:46.559 the New York State Legislature and Governor John Jay, having 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:50.679 reviewed the facts of the case, found that quote at 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:53.680 the time of the conmission of the Act aforesaid he 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:57.560 was insane and is therefore a proper object of mercy. 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:02.920 As an aside, the Pistonano's story is wild. Both his 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:06.800 guilt and his mental instability are pretty well established. Take 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:10.280 for example, the story of his capture, which came when 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:13.600 Pistano was spotted at a public water pump holding his hat, 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:18.079 which he had filled with his victim's blood. The police 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:21.920 came quickly, and as they arrested Postano, he protested clumsily 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:25.200 in English, his second language, why you catch me, me 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:28.320 not do it, which would be a lot more convincing 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:31.480 if he wasn't holding a hat full of blood. But 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:35.200 in any case, Pistano was pardoned, his sentence commuted, and 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:38.760 he was deported to his home country of Portugal. Many 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:41.800 believed Pistano should never have been charged at all, given 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:45.800 his insanity. It was a devastating reversal for the Attorney 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:49.679 General's office, and Colden was determined to not let it 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:53.880 happen again. Colden also carried the weight of public opinion 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:57.400 on his back. The story of Elma Sands's murder had 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:01.240 traveled the whole Eastern seaboard. Seemed like no one spoke 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:05.280 of anything else. When the trial began on March thirty first, 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:09.480 eighteen hundred, hundreds of angry citizens flocked to watch the 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:12.920 proceedings at City Hall, packing the hallways and spilling out 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:16.920 into the street, and they were all convinced of one thing, 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:22.560 Levi Weeks's guilt. Colden could not fail his public. As 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:26.040 I mentioned before, New Yorkers loved nothing more than rioting 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:29.400 over legal matters, and Colden needed to maintain the peace 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:34.680 at any cost. So he had prepared tirelessly, tracking down 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:40.200 and interviewing witnesses, establishing timelines, and conducting research. When he 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:43.280 entered the courtroom that morning, he was confident in his 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:47.400 case and in Levi Weeks's guilt. All he had to 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:56.360 do now was convinced the jury. At ten am on 0:14:56.480 --> 0:15:00.840 March thirty, first Court Clerk William Coleman called court to order, 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:05.880 with the Right Honorable John Lansing presiding as judge. A 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:09.520 jury was quickly selected, made up mainly of local merchants 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:13.480 at the time. Jurors had to be tax paying land 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:16.520 owning men between the ages of twenty one and sixty, 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:20.160 with property worth at least two hundred and fifty dollars, 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:23.680 the equivalent of a year's salary for a common man. 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:26.880 As Paul Collins puts it in his wonderful book on 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:30.280 the Trial Duel with the Devil, the jury box was 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:33.480 what women and the poor faced, not what they sat in. 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:37.960 With the jury seated, Cadwalader Colden took to his feet 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:41.520 to deliver his opening argument. He knew that his high 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:45.520 profile opponents were drawing attention, so he addressed them head on. 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:49.120 While the defendant might have clever lawyers, he told the 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:54.160 jury he had something more important, the truth. And what 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:58.040 was that truth? Here? Coldon laid out his theory of 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:01.640 the case, one that had been god in newspapers across 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:05.760 the region for the past few months. Levi Weeks was 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:09.840 a player. He was handsome as everyone in the court 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:14.200 could see, and charming, and he was fickle in his attentions. 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:17.160 He liked to flirt with the women in his boarding house, 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:20.480 and he had eventually fixed his sights on the naive, 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:25.440 innocent Alma Sands. We expect to prove to you that 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:29.320 the prisoner won her affections, Colden declared, and that her 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:33.480 virtue fell a sacrifice to his assiduity. Once he had 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:37.880 gotten what he wanted from Alma Sands, Colden continued, Levi 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:41.320 grew tired of her cleanness and affection and made a 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:46.760 plan to shake her off for good. Quote after a 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:51.160 long period of criminal intercourse between them. He deluded her 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:53.760 from the house of her protector, under the pretense of 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:57.200 marrying her, carried her away to a well in the 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:02.680 suburbs of this city, and there her here cold and 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:06.720 dramatically paused and seemed to lose himself. Then turned to 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:10.960 the jury and said, no wonder, gentlemen, that my mind 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:15.200 shudders at this picture and requires a moment to recollect itself. 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:18.399 He then laid out for the jury the path he 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:21.880 would take to prove Weeks's guilt, a path that would 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:25.320 now begin with the testimony of Levi and Elma's landlords, 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:30.199 Katherine and Eli Ring. Catherine Ring was now called to 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:33.560 the stand, a pale, blue eyed woman in her late 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:37.520 twenties with auburn hair tucked under a lace cap. Catherine 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:41.119 was a respectable Quaker woman, a good person for Coldon 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:45.280 to begin his case with. Unfortunately for the prosecutor, things 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:49.480 got off to a rocky start. Much of Catherine Ring's 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.320 testimony had to do with things that she had been 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:56.360 told by Elma Sands. Because Elma Sans had not made 0:17:56.359 --> 0:17:59.200 these statements under oath, and because she could not now 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:03.960 testify to them in court being dead. Anything Catherine reported 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:08.000 Elma as having said was pure hearsay and thus an 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:13.080 admissible in court. When Hamilton objected on these grounds, Colden 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:15.760 tried to argue that these statements were allowed because they 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:19.439 showed Elma's state of mind. To support this argument, he 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:23.720 cited several legal cases. But here was the strange thing 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:27.399 about being a lawyer in early America. The country was 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:30.760 too young to have legal precedence of its own, so 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:34.720 lawyers had to rely on British cases, one vestige of 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:38.840 colonial rule that they still could not shake. Colden had 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:42.600 a few relevant British examples, but unfortunately he was up 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:47.560 against seasoned lawyers. Burrn Livingstone quickly replied that of the 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:52.080 cases Colden had cited, one argued against hearsay being admitted 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:55.359 in this fashion, and the other came from the Scottish court, 0:18:55.760 --> 0:19:00.560 which had an entirely different legal system. Oops are quickly 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:06.080 ruled against allowing the testimony. Colden recovered, guiding Catherine instead 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:10.800 through her impressions of Elma and Levi's relationship. It had begun, 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:16.800 Catherine said when Levi's previous love interest, another boarder named Margaret, 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:19.280 went off to the country to escape the yellow fever 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:22.960 epidemic in the city. Catherine herself soon did the same. 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:28.280 Upon her return to Manhattan six weeks later, she observed 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:33.000 quote an appearance of mutual attachment between Levi and Elma. 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:37.080 After covering the events of the night of Alma's disappearance 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:41.480 December twenty second, coldon led Catherine through the following days, 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:48.320 during which she said she observed Levi acting strangely. On 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:52.040 Tuesday the twenty fourth, Catherine told the court she decided 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:55.480 to confront Levi with something. Alma had told Catherine on 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:58.920 the day of her disappearance that she and Levi were 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:03.080 to be married that very night. Levi had been shocked 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:07.560 by Catherine's revelation. I had not proceeded much further, Catherine 0:20:07.600 --> 0:20:11.640 testified before he turned pale, trembled to a great degree, 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:16.119 was much agitated, and began to cry. Clasping his hands together, 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:20.200 he cried out, I'm ruined, I'm ruined, I'm undone forever 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:24.800 unless she appears to clear me. Catherine's suspicions only deepened 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:28.560 on Thursday the twenty sixth, when, during a discussion amongst 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:33.320 borders over Elma's fate, Levi declared missus Ring, it's my 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:37.919 firm belief she's now in eternity. How could he know that? 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:43.359 Levi explained that he believed Alma had committed suicide. The 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:46.359 whole house knew that she was frequently in poor health 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:49.240 and had more than once said that she wished to die. 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:53.480 But in Catherine's opinion, these were only the melodramatic statements 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:58.080 of an impressionable young woman. Her suspicions were not assuaged. 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:03.040 Now it was Hamilton's turn to cross examine. He went 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:07.120 easy on Catherine, only asking her general questions about Levi's 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:10.879 character and behavior, all of which she agreed were quote 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:15.639 very good. He also asked a peculiar question about whether 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:19.080 Elma's bedroom shared a wall with the bedroom of their neighbor, 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:24.040 Joseph Watkins. It did, Catherine said, but Hamilton moved on 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:34.000 before explaining why he cared. Catherine was dismissed. Eli Ring. 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:38.240 Catherine's husband picked up the story. He had once heard 0:21:38.320 --> 0:21:41.080 noise in a vacant room, he said, and in the 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:45.320 morning had found the bed rumpled and Alma's clothes from 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:49.520 the previous day scattered through the room. The only people 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:54.399 in the house that night had been himself, Elma, Levi, 0:21:55.080 --> 0:22:00.240 and Levi's young apprentice. Despite the seemingly damning nature of 0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:05.080 Eli's testimony, Hamilton didn't press him much on cross only 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:08.480 asking him whether or not he knew that Levi and 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:11.639 Elma had been in bed together. Eli said he did not, 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:17.520 as in Catherine's cross examination. Hamilton asked Eli about their neighbor, 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:21.439 Joseph Watkins. Was he a clever man and a good neighbor? 0:22:21.480 --> 0:22:26.320 Hamilton asked yes, Eli replied, and what was the wall 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:30.480 between the Rings and Watkins house made of wood and plaster? 0:22:30.840 --> 0:22:36.119 Eli said again. Hamilton did not explain himself. He moved 0:22:36.160 --> 0:22:39.840 on asking Eli if he had ever threatened Lee by weeks. 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:44.359 Eli denied it, saying I never threatened him that I 0:22:44.480 --> 0:22:47.480 know of. I had a conversation with him in which 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:49.960 he asked me if I had not said certain things 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:53.880 about him, respecting Elma being missing, and he said if 0:22:53.960 --> 0:22:56.639 I told such things of him, he would tell of 0:22:56.720 --> 0:23:01.000 me and Croucher. Before Hamilton could act ask what things 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:04.480 Levi could tell about Eli and Croucher, Colden jumped in 0:23:04.520 --> 0:23:09.000 with a question. Unlike trials today, where who can ask 0:23:09.119 --> 0:23:13.159 questions and when is tightly regulated, things were looser in 0:23:13.200 --> 0:23:17.440 the early nineteenth century. The transcript is littered with examples 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:21.480 of opposing attorneys, the judge, and even jurors jumping in 0:23:21.600 --> 0:23:26.480 mid examination to ask the witnesses something. Colden's clever interjection 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:30.320 here changed the subject, and Hamilton did not return to it, 0:23:30.640 --> 0:23:34.840 wrapping up his cross examination shortly after the next three 0:23:34.880 --> 0:23:38.840 witnesses were all fellow borders at the rings. The first 0:23:38.840 --> 0:23:41.919 said she had not seen any relationship between Levi and Elma, 0:23:42.680 --> 0:23:46.600 the second said he had, and the third, Richard Croucher, 0:23:47.119 --> 0:23:49.959 shocked the court by declaring that he had not only 0:23:50.000 --> 0:23:55.760 seen Levi spend two nights in Elma's room, but quote 0:23:56.200 --> 0:23:58.800 once too, at a time when they were less cautious 0:23:58.840 --> 0:24:03.080 than usual. I saw them in a very intimate situation. 0:24:04.320 --> 0:24:08.640 Unlike the previous witnesses, who had only insinuated or guessed 0:24:08.680 --> 0:24:12.760 at a romantic relationship between Levi and Alma, Croucher had 0:24:12.800 --> 0:24:18.880 actually seen it. But Hamilton had some questions about Croucher's credibility. 0:24:19.680 --> 0:24:22.199 On cross he got Croucher to admit that he and 0:24:22.320 --> 0:24:27.160 Levi had once argued and the argument had started over Elma. 0:24:28.200 --> 0:24:31.119 Croucher said that he had once surprised Alma while running 0:24:31.160 --> 0:24:35.199 up the stairs, and Alma had fainted. Levi appeared and 0:24:35.359 --> 0:24:38.480 angrily declared that this was not the first time Croucher 0:24:38.480 --> 0:24:43.680 had insulted Elma. Croucher in turn called Levi an impertinent puppy, 0:24:44.040 --> 0:24:46.679 which is one of the sickest burns in history. So 0:24:46.840 --> 0:24:51.080 Levi apologized to Croucher. Despite this run in, Croucher claimed 0:24:51.119 --> 0:24:55.000 to bear Levi no malice, but added that I despise 0:24:55.080 --> 0:24:58.600 every man who does not behave in character. After questioning 0:24:58.640 --> 0:25:00.879 Croucher about his own where on the night of the 0:25:00.960 --> 0:25:04.840 murder a birthday party, Croucher said Hamilton let him go. 0:25:06.000 --> 0:25:09.000 Now that Colden had established a potential motive for Levi, 0:25:09.760 --> 0:25:12.760 the desire to get rid of an unwonted lover, he 0:25:12.840 --> 0:25:18.120 needed to establish opportunity. Levi had a relatively strong alibi 0:25:18.160 --> 0:25:21.119 for the night of the disappearance. He had been at 0:25:21.119 --> 0:25:24.119 his brother's house in the early evening, then returned to 0:25:24.119 --> 0:25:27.520 the Ring house around eight pm. Thirty minutes later. He 0:25:27.560 --> 0:25:30.680 had returned to his brother's house, according to the testimony 0:25:30.720 --> 0:25:34.680 of Ezra, his wife, and his apprentice. The Rings next 0:25:34.680 --> 0:25:38.400 saw him around ten pm. Assuming that the week's household 0:25:38.440 --> 0:25:41.879 was being truthful, that gave Levi only thirty minutes to 0:25:41.960 --> 0:25:44.480 kill Elma, who had been at the Ring House until 0:25:44.480 --> 0:25:47.240 at least eight, and put her body in the well. 0:25:48.440 --> 0:25:51.399 How could he have pulled it off? Colden had a 0:25:51.440 --> 0:25:55.560 theory about that, and it involved a sleigh he now 0:25:55.600 --> 0:26:02.560 called Susannah Broad to the stand. Missus Brod was an 0:26:02.640 --> 0:26:06.120 elderly woman who lived across the street from Ezra Weeks. 0:26:06.760 --> 0:26:10.280 She testified that on the night of Elma's disappearance, she 0:26:10.359 --> 0:26:13.320 had heard a gate open and a sleigh come out. 0:26:13.840 --> 0:26:19.040 The sleigh, unusually had no bells. Bells were a crucial 0:26:19.080 --> 0:26:22.320 safety device, giving pedestrians warning to get out of the way, 0:26:22.880 --> 0:26:26.880 so a sleigh traveling without them caught her attention. Why 0:26:27.000 --> 0:26:30.880 was the sleigh trying to hide? The relevance of Broad's 0:26:30.920 --> 0:26:36.280 testimony soon became clear with his subsequent witnesses, who all 0:26:36.400 --> 0:26:40.360 testified to seeing a sleigh similar in appearance to Zbres 0:26:40.560 --> 0:26:44.080 near Greenwitch Street, where the Ring Boarding House was, and 0:26:44.160 --> 0:26:47.760 then traveling up Broadway in the direction of the Manhattan Well. 0:26:48.440 --> 0:26:51.600 Colden painted a picture of how Levi could have committed 0:26:51.640 --> 0:26:56.119 the crime. By borrowing his brother's sleigh. Levi could have 0:26:56.240 --> 0:27:00.479 traveled back to Greenwitch Street, picked up Elma, and traveled 0:27:00.480 --> 0:27:04.720 to the well relatively quickly. In fact, Colden had timed 0:27:04.760 --> 0:27:09.159 it in a thoroughly CSI sounding move. He'd hired a 0:27:09.200 --> 0:27:11.520 man to drive a horse from the Ring House to 0:27:11.560 --> 0:27:15.160 the Manhattan Well and then to Ezra's house. The man 0:27:15.200 --> 0:27:17.560 reported back that he had made the trip in only 0:27:17.720 --> 0:27:22.200 fifteen minutes, without going faster than a trot. With both 0:27:22.280 --> 0:27:26.920 motive and opportunity now established, Colden began introducing witnesses who 0:27:26.960 --> 0:27:30.960