Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Alison Flom. Welcome back to Erased. In the
Speaker 1: last episode, Colden disproved the theory that Elma could have
Speaker 1: taken her own life. He proved that there was a
Speaker 1: struggle with someone else leading up to her death. Witnesses
Speaker 1: heard screams of murder and help me from the area
Speaker 1: of the Manhattan Well. Other witnesses placed Levi at the
Speaker 1: murder site, potentially with his brother, who built it on
Speaker 1: commission for Aaron Burr's company. So Coldon's task was just
Speaker 1: to defend his version of events against whatever strategy his
Speaker 1: opponents had in store. At the beginning of day two
Speaker 1: of this trial, there was an eagerness in the courtroom
Speaker 1: to get this done, to see justice prevail. To the public,
Speaker 1: the crowds that showed up in the cold to wait
Speaker 1: outside the courthouse through another trial day, to nearly everyone
Speaker 1: in New York, seeing Levi weeks charged with murder would
Speaker 1: restore a sense of peace. It would help relieve at
Speaker 1: least a little bit of the pain that seeing Alma's
Speaker 1: battered corpse had caused. Alexander Hamilton and Erinberg were busy
Speaker 1: through the night. They came back caffeinated in fresh suits
Speaker 1: with a new plan.
Speaker 2: Order in the chambers. Order good morning, good morning shirt.
Speaker 1: Once everyone settled in the defense lawyers called Joseph Watkins,
Speaker 1: the Rings neighbor on Greenwich Street, back up to the stand.
Speaker 3: Good morning everybody. Oh you look well rested, mister Hamilton.
Speaker 4: I feel good. Mister Watkins. You've got a lot to
Speaker 4: tell us. Yesterday you testified for the prosecution. I should
Speaker 4: Did you said you found Elma's body in the well
Speaker 4: and laid her out on your jacket? Is that right?
Speaker 3: Exactly?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 4: And what was your relationship to the victim at the
Speaker 4: time of her death?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 3: I knew Elma for years, for as long as she
Speaker 3: lived at the Rings.
Speaker 4: And how do you know the Rings?
Speaker 3: I share a whole wall in my house with them,
Speaker 3: So you and.
Speaker 4: The Rings essentially live in the same house right now.
Speaker 3: No, two different houses, different addresses, different entryways. They're too
Speaker 3: A eight. I'm to ten. They were a boarding house
Speaker 3: in Millinery. We're a single family rowhouse, but it's one
Speaker 3: big structure.
Speaker 5: Do you need a floor plan of the Rings in
Speaker 5: Watkinson's houses? I have one if that.
Speaker 6: Might help, that's all right, coldon, No one really cares
Speaker 6: about floor plans. Mister Watkins, who do.
Speaker 4: You live with?
Speaker 3: My wife Liz, my daughter Betsy, and our cat and
Speaker 3: rose Lynn. I call them my three queens.
Speaker 4: That's sweet. Did you and your family ever overhear Elma
Speaker 4: in the back bedroom on the second floor of the
Speaker 4: Rings house? What?
Speaker 1: That's very specific, an alarmingly specific question. Actually, you might
Speaker 1: remember in episode one, the defense lawyers asked Catherine where
Speaker 1: Elma and Levi slept. It was a distinct and unprompted
Speaker 1: question about the back room on the second floor in
Speaker 1: the house, particularly the thin plaster partition that it's shared
Speaker 1: with the neighbor, Joseph Watkins's house, so they knew exactly
Speaker 1: what Watkins was about to say.
Speaker 3: That room happens to be closest to my bedroom, mister Hamilton,
Speaker 3: So we'd hear Elma a lot?
Speaker 4: What types of sounds did Alma make? Objection relevance a
Speaker 4: better question, actually, mister Watkins. In the months before Elma died,
Speaker 4: did you hear anything unusual?
Speaker 3: Well, i'd hear getting dressed, tripping on a stockings, singing
Speaker 3: to herself.
Speaker 5: Singing to herself. That's what happy people do.
Speaker 6: That's also what hysterical women do, mister Watkins.
Speaker 4: Can you tell us about last September.
Speaker 3: Last September, height of the pandemic, tons of people dying
Speaker 3: from the fever, New York was quiet. I'd spent long
Speaker 3: days in the house quarantining.
Speaker 4: And what did you hear coming from Elma's room during
Speaker 4: that time?
Speaker 3: I didn't expect to hear anything because I thought all
Speaker 3: the women in the Rings house had gone up to
Speaker 3: New Cornwall.
Speaker 4: But Elma stayed home with all the men.
Speaker 3: You got that right. And when I heard that, I
Speaker 3: told my wife. You know what I said to her.
Speaker 3: I said, somebody's gonna ruin that girl.
Speaker 4: Yes, continue, mister Watkins.
Speaker 3: One night my wall started shaking, thumping, like Elma's bed
Speaker 3: was moving on the other side. My wife and I
Speaker 3: listened closely.
Speaker 4: What did you hear, mister Watkins?
Speaker 3: You want to know what I heard? I heard Elma.
Speaker 3: I heard Elma wintern and what else?
Speaker 7: Well?
Speaker 3: I heard Elias ring. He was grunting and scolding objection
Speaker 3: corner in the chambers.
Speaker 8: Mister Watkins, did you say you heard Elias ring in
Speaker 8: Elma's bedroom?
Speaker 3: That's right, your honor. I heard Elias ring ruining Elma sad,
Speaker 3: Oh God over again.
Speaker 1: This moment was earth shattering for Coldon's case and for Thren,
Speaker 1: for everyone.
Speaker 9: Mister is flying your honor.
Speaker 1: If what Joseph Watkins claim to under oath was true.
Speaker 1: Elias Ring repeatedly raped his niece, Elma Sands in his
Speaker 1: home in the months before she was murdered. Order stop order,
Speaker 1: And while all the evidence did point away from Alma
Speaker 1: taking her own life on that December night, this testimony
Speaker 1: painted a very different picture of what was happening in
Speaker 1: the boarding house and what Elma's life may have actually
Speaker 1: been like. Obviously, this caused chaos, as the defense lawyers
Speaker 1: intended the jury's attention turned towards Elias Ring, away from
Speaker 1: Levi Weeks, Your honor.
Speaker 10: There's no evidence to suggest Elma and Elias Ring were
Speaker 10: engaging in anything sectional.
Speaker 4: Elias Ring was inflicting non consensual sex on Alma Sands
Speaker 4: right before she died, Elias tortured her and drove her
Speaker 4: to suicide.
Speaker 5: That's it, mister Watkins.
Speaker 10: You probably heard Levi Weeks and Elma room they began
Speaker 10: an intimate relationship during that period of quarantine.
Speaker 3: Uh Ah, it wasn't Levi, Sir. I'd recognize Elias Ring's
Speaker 3: voice anywhere. It was definitely an Elias Ring.
Speaker 5: Would you do this?
Speaker 10: You're you're speculated, Yes, speculation overruled.
Speaker 8: This is constable. Please remove mister Ring from the chambers
Speaker 8: yet again? How does he keep getting in here? Just
Speaker 8: removed him now, silence, mister Ring.
Speaker 6: I will, mister Watkins, how many times did you overhear
Speaker 6: this improper intercourse between mister Ring and Elma?
Speaker 3: Approximately oh nine or ten fourteen times? When Levi Weeks
Speaker 3: was out of the house, mister Ring would.
Speaker 4: Slither right there and you hear the violence.
Speaker 3: Right, I'd hear Alma cry herself to sleep.
Speaker 4: And this continued until Catherine Ring came home to the city.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: Once Catherine came back, I never heard Elias and Elma's
Speaker 3: roam again.
Speaker 6: Because Elias was behaving himself better around his.
Speaker 3: Wife, Your honor, a question from the jury. It's for
Speaker 3: Catherine Ring.
Speaker 5: Is that okay?
Speaker 2: I think so?
Speaker 3: Catherine? Is this the first you're hearing of your husband's deviance?
Speaker 5: She doesn't have to answer that, Actually she does.
Speaker 11: Catherine, Yes, this is the first I'm hearing about it
Speaker 11: because it is not true.
Speaker 5: It's ridiculous.
Speaker 9: Uncle Elias would never Yes, it's ridiculous. My neighbor and
Speaker 9: former friend.
Speaker 11: Joseph Watkins has just testified to something false. And yes
Speaker 11: it's the first I'm hearing it because it's Catherine Foss.
Speaker 4: While Elma was alive? Did you protect her from danger?
Speaker 9: What sort of danger did you.
Speaker 4: Protect Elma from? Your husband?
Speaker 11: My husban is not the one she needed protection from.
Speaker 5: Elias Ring is not on trial.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 6: Elias Ring drove the victim to suicide.
Speaker 5: You made that up, mister Burton.
Speaker 9: I protected Alma perfectly. My husband, Elias protected her as well.
Speaker 11: Alma was safe with us until leeve weeks.
Speaker 4: Mister Watkins, is Catherine Ring trustworthy?
Speaker 3: Ben's what you mean by trustworthy?
Speaker 4: Do you trust her? Do you believe that she was
Speaker 4: actually ignorant of her husband's behavior?
Speaker 3: You know, I never know what to believe when it
Speaker 3: comes to women, Like I always tell my wife, women
Speaker 3: speak their own language, and I don't understand it.
Speaker 5: Can I talk to your wife, mister Watkins?
Speaker 3: Why Caldon my wife is not here, sir?
Speaker 10: And why is that Alma's next door neighbor seems like
Speaker 10: a keyywitness in her murder trial.
Speaker 3: Liz couldn't make it today. She provided a written testimony.
Speaker 5: How does that work.
Speaker 10: She wrote a little note for you to bring to court,
Speaker 10: your honor, This is getting out of hand.
Speaker 8: Mister Colden in advance that Elizabeth Watkins would be unable
Speaker 8: to appear in court, and we prepared accordingly.
Speaker 5: And why can't she appear in court?
Speaker 3: Her breasts have been very sore infested for several weeks. Wait,
Speaker 3: I don't know exactly what's wrong, but she's in pain.
Speaker 5: Well I need to question her.
Speaker 3: I can speak for my wife on any outstanding points.
Speaker 3: We both heard Elma Sands being ruined.
Speaker 8: No need to speak for her, mister Watkins. Mister Coldon
Speaker 8: should find her written testimony comprehensive and sufficient enough.
Speaker 3: All right, without further ado. Testimony of Elizabeth see Watkins.
Speaker 2: Mark you read it, please absolutely.
Speaker 5: Your honor. Testimony of Elizabeth C.
Speaker 12: Watkins, collected by Chief Justice John Lansing, Alexander Hamilton and
Speaker 12: Yours truly, twenty eighth of March eighteen hundred at the
Speaker 12: Watkins residence.
Speaker 5: Wait wait, wait, wait, leave your honor.
Speaker 10: You went with the Defense Council to collect a testimony
Speaker 10: without my knowledge, the result of which could influence my
Speaker 10: entire case.
Speaker 5: That just doesn't seem right.
Speaker 8: This is how the system works, mister Coldon, according to
Speaker 8: whom we had to adjust because.
Speaker 2: Of her breasts.
Speaker 1: So just like that, precedents were being set that would
Speaker 1: remain in the system through this moment today. It was
Speaker 1: decided then that written affidavits were admissible evidence. Thus Colden
Speaker 1: couldn't question a key witness about the Elias allegations because
Speaker 1: Hamilton and Burr found a loophole, and once again he
Speaker 1: was out maneuvered.
Speaker 12: Catherine Ring the hat maker, chats with me about her
Speaker 12: borders from the day Levi Weeks moved in.
Speaker 5: Catherine spoke highly of him. What we're not actually admitting
Speaker 5: this written testimony? Are we?
Speaker 12: Supposedly Levi is the best border to aweight Greenwich ever had,
Speaker 12: Your honor, there are discrepancies and lies all over this testimony.
Speaker 2: Let's just hear the whole thing.
Speaker 8: Coldon Clerk, Wait minute, your honor, relax cold This is
Speaker 8: inadmissible evidence.
Speaker 2: I'll be the judge of that.
Speaker 5: This is ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Please sit down, mister Colton.
Speaker 6: The judge said, keep your pants on, mister Colton.
Speaker 12: Sorry, your honor, this part has a bunch of stuff
Speaker 12: crossed out and written in the margins. Okay, new paragraph
Speaker 12: missus Watkins says, the first time I saw Alma Sands,
Speaker 12: I remember thinking that sweet miserable girl.
Speaker 5: Won't make it to thirty in New York. Objection, What
Speaker 5: could that possibly mean?
Speaker 4: You can't object to her written testimony? Coldon stop interrupted, This.
Speaker 10: Just doesn't seem fair, you're honor clerk. I wasn't there
Speaker 10: when this testimony was collected.
Speaker 8: Because it's a testimony for the defense's case.
Speaker 2: Clerk.
Speaker 5: Missus Watkins continues.
Speaker 12: When I heard the rumor that Elma Sands ended her
Speaker 12: own life, I felt relieved for her.
Speaker 10: We have heard countless testimonies about how cheerful and happy
Speaker 10: and joyous Alma Sands was.
Speaker 6: And now we're hearing about how miserable and suicidal she
Speaker 6: was because she was being repeatedly raped by Elias ring
Speaker 6: the two sides to every Sorry bud.
Speaker 2: You gentlemen, still have a witness on the stand.
Speaker 6: Mister Watkins. How about your daughter Betsy? She was close
Speaker 6: to Alma? Right?
Speaker 5: I don't think they were close.
Speaker 9: Yes, Alma hardly knew Betsy.
Speaker 3: Betsy and Elma would sitting on a stooferoles just chatting away.
Speaker 1: Let's bring her up in hopes of enhancing this dramatic
Speaker 1: testimony and continuing to paint a picture of Elma as miserable.
Speaker 1: The defense called Joseph's daughter Betsy Watkins and described her
Speaker 1: as a friend of the deceased acquaintance.
Speaker 9: Excuse me, daddy, it's my true.
Speaker 1: Oh I like it up here.
Speaker 4: Good morning, miss Watkins.
Speaker 13: It's Betsy to you, mister Hamilton.
Speaker 4: Uh Bessy. Alexander characterized Elma's sands for the jury. Who
Speaker 4: was Alma?
Speaker 13: She was a melancholy, depressed, pale weirdo, not in a
Speaker 13: mean way. She was kind of like a baby goat.
Speaker 13: You know, I knew she wasn't a virgin objection?
Speaker 5: What is she talking about?
Speaker 4: Betsy? On the day Elma disappeared, did you see her?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 13: I saw her almost every day.
Speaker 6: What was she doing that day, December twenty second?
Speaker 13: She was looking in the mirror, tying a handkerchief around
Speaker 13: her neck in different styles?
Speaker 6: How did she appear to you?
Speaker 1: Prettier than usual?
Speaker 3: I guess she had lipstick on.
Speaker 1: Finally, so I.
Speaker 6: Meant, how did she seem disposition wise?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 5: Stirr rest, mister burr.
Speaker 13: Super stressed yet like pale, nervous, kind of.
Speaker 6: Breathy like she might be on her way to commit suicide,
Speaker 6: objection leading the witness.
Speaker 13: I've never seen someone on their way to commit suicide.
Speaker 6: But she didn't look like she was on her way
Speaker 6: to get married, right, A person getting married would look happy, excited.
Speaker 13: Well, to be honest, I've never seen anyone on their
Speaker 13: way to get married either, But if I.
Speaker 6: Had to guess, that'sy miss Watkins.
Speaker 13: Aaron, mister Burr.
Speaker 6: Did Elmo look frightened that day? Or did she look happy?
Speaker 6: Or did she look sad?
Speaker 14: None of those things?
Speaker 6: Then? How did Elmo look? Betsy?
Speaker 13: She looked kind of cry when I saw her, But honestly,
Speaker 13: after Catherine left for the quarantine and then came back,
Speaker 13: Alma always looks sad.
Speaker 14: To me.
Speaker 6: She was sad and her sadness took her life. Not
Speaker 6: LEVI weeks.
Speaker 5: What I spent all of yesterday proving that Elma was happy.
Speaker 1: To override Coldon's witnesses, the defense then called four expert witnesses, doctors,
Speaker 1: real doctors to one up Coldon on the science, not.
Speaker 6: Dentists who once read a book on autopsies to confirm
Speaker 6: that Elma Sans committed suicide.
Speaker 5: I've already proven that Alma wasn't alone when she died.
Speaker 5: She screamed, murder.
Speaker 6: Can you stop interrupting? Coldon, there was no.
Speaker 1: Suicide, so the defense kept bringing up the theory that
Speaker 1: Alma took her own life, even though this was a
Speaker 1: try murder and the coroner's jury had declared this a
Speaker 1: murder months before, and although their job was to determine
Speaker 1: a person's cause of death, the coroner's jury was not
Speaker 1: a jury, and there were no coroners involved, and the
Speaker 1: defense lawyers knew how this process went. The coroner's jury
Speaker 1: was a guy in a room, not a doctor, but
Speaker 1: he called himself a coroner who paid his friends and
Speaker 1: colleagues to come in and decide how the dead person died.
Speaker 1: And whatever they decided when they gathered around and looked
Speaker 1: at the corpse became the findings for the case. And
Speaker 1: in this case, the coroner's jury examined Alma's body twelve
Speaker 1: days after it was found, which was eleven days after
Speaker 1: she went missing, and determined as a group of pals
Speaker 1: and non medical professionals that her cause of death was
Speaker 1: indeed murder. And then they probably went to lunch, and
Speaker 1: the case for Elma Sans relied on the decision that
Speaker 1: they came to. On that January afternoon, Hamilton and Burr
Speaker 1: called doctor Nicholas Romayne.
Speaker 6: What did you see, doctor?
Speaker 15: I saw a girl's body, mister Burr, super dead.
Speaker 1: Who was actually doctor David Hosac's mentor and former teacher. Truly,
Speaker 1: everyone knew each other except coldon.
Speaker 6: Any specific observations about the corpse.
Speaker 5: Oh not much.
Speaker 15: Scratches, bruising on the knee and that's all right, yeah, scars,
Speaker 15: algrove skin standard stuff.
Speaker 5: Hold on, is it standard for a young girl to
Speaker 5: be covered in scars?
Speaker 15: I don't know many young girls, mister Colton, but Elma
Speaker 15: skin was all blistered and weather beaten in addition to
Speaker 15: the injuries.
Speaker 1: And then, for even further reinforcement, they called New York's
Speaker 1: most elite doctors up to the stand, first doctor McIntosh,
Speaker 1: then doctor Prince Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton knew the
Speaker 1: system like the backs of their hands because they helped
Speaker 1: create it. They called New York's most elite and respected
Speaker 1: physicians up to the stand. And these guys were all
Speaker 1: friends and colleagues. They were on the boards of each
Speaker 1: other's foundations, starting medical colleges together the defense lawyers knew
Speaker 1: exactly what these doctors would tell the jury. In fact,
Speaker 1: they probably all planted out together at the pub.
Speaker 5: I noticed four contusions on her breast, like she'd been grabbed.
Speaker 6: But doctor Macintosh, the injuries on the corpse were minimal, right, Yeah,
Speaker 6: she was just scraped up from bouncing around in the
Speaker 6: Manhattan well for eleven days, right, not from violence inflicted
Speaker 6: by another person.
Speaker 5: Objection.
Speaker 10: Doctor The Corner's jury unanimously ruled this a murder when
Speaker 10: they saw Alma's body.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but none of those guys are corners.
Speaker 10: So you genuinely believe Alma Sance died by drowning.
Speaker 5: There was a spoonful of water in her lungs. Water
Speaker 5: in her lungs.
Speaker 6: So what does that mean, Doctor Romaine?
Speaker 7: It means and she was still breathing when she hit
Speaker 7: the water. It means she threw herself in the left objection, Nope.
Speaker 2: Continue.
Speaker 7: As soon as I saw Alma's body, I thought she
Speaker 7: probably took her own life.
Speaker 3: She was pretty, but she was ugly, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean.
Speaker 6: Of course, you're being very clear.
Speaker 7: It's hard to believe she wasn't pregnant. I thought for
Speaker 7: sure we'd find a baby when we opened her up, Doctor.
Speaker 10: Romaine, what about the row of bruises on Elma's neck
Speaker 10: and breast? What did you make of those? I'll rephrase.
Speaker 10: Could the bruises on Elma's neck and breast have been
Speaker 10: caused by someone's fingers?
Speaker 3: Hmm?
Speaker 7: I see skin that's been gangreened all the time at
Speaker 7: the Almshouse. The swollen, dark tissue could have been from anything.
Speaker 10: I wasn't asking about gangreen doctor, I was asking about
Speaker 10: these specific bruises being caused by someone else's hands.
Speaker 7: I've already said, based on what I've observed, I think
Speaker 7: Alma San's committed suicide.
Speaker 3: That's all I can tell you.
Speaker 1: Wonderful And then, in the spirit of thoroughness and scientific proof,
Speaker 1: the defense lawyers recalled their friend David.
Speaker 16: Hi again, everyone, energy isn't here is amazing legend.
Speaker 4: It's because of you. You ready, Doc hit me yesterday
Speaker 4: You've testified that Almo's body might have been injured by
Speaker 4: another person? Is that correct?
Speaker 14: Yes, that's what I said yesterday.
Speaker 6: And would you like to add to that statement?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 16: Well, I'm of two minds here, you guys. I stand
Speaker 16: by my previous testimony. I mean that was a battered corpse,
Speaker 16: injured and mangled and bad. But remember I didn't even
Speaker 16: see the body until the coroner's jury, so a lot
Speaker 16: could have happened before then.
Speaker 6: So what does that mean? Doctor?
Speaker 16: The coroner's jury met several days after Elma was pulled
Speaker 16: out of the water, but before that, missus Ring displayed
Speaker 16: the body in a box on her property. People were
Speaker 16: touching it, handling it, moving it around to examine it.
Speaker 16: So so it's possible that the neck got broken posthumously.
Speaker 6: Because of Catherine Ring's calculated, manipulative decisions. Elma's neck was broken,
Speaker 6: not because of violence or choking. Catherine made this look
Speaker 6: like a murder.
Speaker 15: Mister Colby objection.
Speaker 5: Everyone was so careful, LEVI was fraided. Catherine could not
Speaker 5: have bruised the corpse.
Speaker 14: I disagree, mister Colden Corner.
Speaker 6: Thank you doctor. Nothing further.
Speaker 1: Yes, they literally tried to blame Catherine, and these details
Speaker 1: were completely different from what doctor Hoseak had testified to
Speaker 1: the day before.
Speaker 5: Doctor Hosek, do you often change your mind overnight?
Speaker 1: Maybe the defense lawyers got to speak to their friend
Speaker 1: during the overnight adjournment and convince him to change his testimony.
Speaker 3: Mister Colden, Knowledge is fickle, but facts are.
Speaker 4: Not objection badgering our witness.
Speaker 10: Again, my witness, Doctor Hosek, did you sit on the
Speaker 10: coroner's journey which unanimously voted that Alma Sans was murdered?
Speaker 10: I did, sir, So you said, as a member of
Speaker 10: New York's trusted coroner's jury, that Alma Sans's cause of
Speaker 10: death was murdered by violence? Right, yes, and yesterday you
Speaker 10: stood by that decision.
Speaker 2: I did.
Speaker 10: But today you're suddenly abandoning those facts, suddenly suggesting Alma's
Speaker 10: death could have been a suicide. You changed your mind
Speaker 10: between yesterday and today, right, I just want to make
Speaker 10: sure you're as flaky as you've seen Coldin.
Speaker 6: Can you cease harassing our witness and at least pred
Speaker 6: tend to be professional.
Speaker 16: There's a lot of new information now. I didn't realize
Speaker 16: Alma's life was so traumatic.
Speaker 11: How was my cousin's life traumatic her chaotic sex relations alone?
Speaker 10: How are alma sex relations relevant to the scientific autopsy
Speaker 10: of her body?
Speaker 16: Doctor Hosek, I have new insight now, mister Colden. Science
Speaker 16: is like that, sometimes it builds on itself.
Speaker 10: I have nothing further for this witness step down doctor Hosak.
Speaker 1: And for their next trick, the defense called Timothy Crane
Speaker 1: to the stand another short term border at two o
Speaker 1: eight Grenache Street.
Speaker 4: Mister Crane will get right into it. You're personally acquainted
Speaker 4: with both Levi and as were Weeks.
Speaker 15: Right, yeah, yeah, I work for Ezra Weeks and uh listen,
Speaker 15: Levi and Ezra are both good men.
Speaker 4: How would you characterize Levi Weeks specifically?
Speaker 15: Honest, hardworking, well rounded? Yeah, yeah, all integrity all the time.
Speaker 9: Are you kidding?
Speaker 4: And how about Alma Sands?
Speaker 15: Unstable, insecure, melancholy, hard to talk to, always chasing a high.
Speaker 15: You know, that's why I was never attracted to her
Speaker 15: or anything.
Speaker 4: So Elma was suicidal?
Speaker 5: Perhaps objection? There's overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Speaker 8: Mister Crane provided a jury with specific examples.
Speaker 15: Well, be honest, sir, I didn't get to know Elma
Speaker 15: that well exactly.
Speaker 4: That's okay, Timothy. Just tell us how you know she
Speaker 4: was depressed?
Speaker 5: You're honor a question for Katherine Ring.
Speaker 4: Objection?
Speaker 8: He keeps interrupted, Yes, mister Colton, make it quick, coldon
Speaker 8: missus Ring.
Speaker 10: How many days did this witness Timothy Crane overlap with
Speaker 10: Elma in.
Speaker 9: Your home less than two week, literally want week. He
Speaker 9: doesn't know anything almost so why did they get to
Speaker 9: ask him what? I genuinely believe?
Speaker 11: It was eight days, sir, when he was between accommodations,
Speaker 11: a little bit before Christmas.
Speaker 10: And Alma was murdered on the twenty second of December.
Speaker 10: This witness didn't know Elm at all whatsoever?
Speaker 4: I disagreed. This witness knew Elma for several days before
Speaker 4: she killed herself, and he has valuable insight if you'd
Speaker 4: ever let him get to testify.
Speaker 2: All right, continue, mister crane.
Speaker 15: Okay, So one night we called a doctor to the house.
Speaker 15: What Ford Russell had hemorrhoids and he wanted Perudian bark.
Speaker 15: It was me, Russell and Elma in the parlor.
Speaker 14: No try sleeping on your stomach.
Speaker 2: Okay, Am I dying? Doctor?
Speaker 4: Just tell me so.
Speaker 5: Far from it, sir.
Speaker 14: Just an unflamed irritation of your bumhole. I've seen worse bumholes.
Speaker 14: In fact, I've seen your bumhole look worse.
Speaker 9: Do you want another whiskey, Russell or tea?
Speaker 2: Maybe I'm a whiskey. I'm dying and these are my
Speaker 2: final breaths.
Speaker 3: Don't bother.
Speaker 5: He's knocked out.
Speaker 14: All right, kids, I'm out of here. Keep his feet elevated.
Speaker 9: Oh should I grab more books for under his feet?
Speaker 14: Perfect? Yes, thank you.
Speaker 3: Doctor before you go.
Speaker 5: Yes, I'm do you buy any chance?
Speaker 1: Have any laud in them in your trunk?
Speaker 14: Of course I have? Every doctor has them.
Speaker 1: Could I have just a little?
Speaker 4: Please?
Speaker 14: Are you congested? Coughing? Experiencing physical pain?
Speaker 5: Wait?
Speaker 14: What's a lot?
Speaker 1: I take it sometime?
Speaker 14: Oh you've had it before?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I love it.
Speaker 5: You love laudanum?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I dig a whole vile of it if I could.
Speaker 14: Don't joke like that, Alma, too much laudinum would kill you.
Speaker 4: So the idea of overdosing on drugs was funny to Alma.
Speaker 6: Did the doctor give her the drugs?
Speaker 15: He put a few drops under her tongue right before
Speaker 15: he left, but he wouldn't give her the file.
Speaker 4: And mister Crane, you didn't try the laudinum.
Speaker 3: Right, why would I?
Speaker 15: I wasn't sick.
Speaker 4: Do people your age tend to crave full bottles of
Speaker 4: heavy medication.
Speaker 15: An intense opiate for no reason?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 15: Most people my age are happy.
Speaker 4: So almost drug use suggests she was in a dark
Speaker 4: place mentally just before she died. Was that right?
Speaker 15: If she was experiencing unwanted intercourse by Elias ring and
Speaker 15: she was craving excess quantities of laudanum, Yeah, yeah, I'd
Speaker 15: say Alma was in a bad spot.
Speaker 1: So this kid lived in the same house as Elma
Speaker 1: for just over a week, but he characterized her as opiate, addicted, depressed,
Speaker 1: and suicidal. And then he made Levi sound like an
Speaker 1: absolute angel. But did you hear that key detail that
Speaker 1: Coldon missed? This witness worked for Ezra Weeks. Of course
Speaker 1: he'd say anything for the Week's brothers. He was on
Speaker 1: their payroll. The defense lawyers overwhelmed the jury with as
Speaker 1: many theories and stories as possible. Each of their arguments
Speaker 1: had only one or two witnesses to substantiate it, and
Speaker 1: then they'd move on to a new, distracting allegation. But
Speaker 1: it was working. Midway through day two, the jury's attention
Speaker 1: was far away from Levi Weeks. So can you blame
Speaker 1: Coldon for missing key details? He had to put out
Speaker 1: so many fires that his own argument got lost in
Speaker 1: the sauce. This case was supposed to be simple, and
Speaker 1: justice was supposed to be clear, but Colden couldn't begin
Speaker 1: to disprove everything his opponents were throwing at him, and
Speaker 1: the jury, Hamilton and Burr shifted gears.
Speaker 4: After this, we'll call our next witness, our most important
Speaker 4: witness so.
Speaker 5: Far, all the witnesses are important.
Speaker 1: Ezra week to talk about what a good guy Leave
Speaker 1: I was. So what really happened on December seventeen ninety
Speaker 1: next episode, We're one step closer to finding out. Stay
Speaker 1: with us erased. The Murder of Elma Sans is a
Speaker 1: production of Lunch Plans and Lava for Good Podcasts in
Speaker 1: association with Signal Company Number One. The show is narrated,
Speaker 1: written and produced by me Alison Flamm. It stars Alison
Speaker 1: Williams as Catherine Ring, Tony Goldwyn as Alexander Hamilton, Barry
Speaker 1: Scheck as Aaron Burr, and Jason Flamm as Judge John Dancing.
Speaker 1: Our executive producers are Alison Williams, Jason Flamm, and Kevin Mortis.
Speaker 1: This show is produced by Goldhalk Productions. The show is
Speaker 1: sound designed and mixed by Steve Bond. The music is
Speaker 1: composed and performed by Sasha Putnam. The producer for Goldhalk
Speaker 1: is Andy Goddard, with production management from Emma Hearn, the
Speaker 1: executive producer for goldhalk Is John Scott Dryden. You can
Speaker 1: listen to every episode of Erased the Murder of Alma
Speaker 1: Sands right now ad free by subscribing to Lava for
Speaker 1: Good plus on Apple Podcasts. You can also follow the
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Speaker 1: Good and For more information on this story, plus a
Speaker 1: complete list of our incredible cast, visit Lava Forgod dot com.
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