S5:06:119 Levi Weeks: The Manhattan Well Murder

S5:06:119: Levi Weeks: The Manhattan Well Murder

[00:00:00] A woman was found at the bottom of a well. According to witnesses. The last person to see her alive was Levi weeks. Levi weeks was accused of this murder. Was he acquitted? Did he get convicted? Join us as we examine the first murder trial in American history that has a transcript. On this episode. Of a day with crime. 

 What's going on everybody. Welcome to another episode of a day with crime. We are your hosts. David, 

And [00:01:00] Geneva.

Are listening to season 5. episode 6.total case number. 119

Geneva how you doing today? 

I'm doing great. Dad. It's been raining cats and dogs, but otherwise I'm doing great.

Doing good. Starting to get warm down here. That means it's going to get hot. So otherwise doing very good. All right. So before we begin, want to say welcome to anyone here who is new to the podcast, want to give a special shout out to my girls, Darlene and Carmen. I work with them and I know that they wanted to listen to the podcast.

So welcome. Hope you guys enjoy what you hear today's case. We are going to go way back in time for we're going so far back in time that nobody listening to me, including me and Geneva was even born. Probably our parents weren't born. We weren't even thought about, so [00:02:00] today's case is inspired by the musical Hamilton.

If you guys have not seen Hamilton, either on Disney or live, you don't know what you're missing out. It is about Alexander Hamilton. And it has sent me down a well of digging through history to find out things. So in that musical, in the song nonstop, they make reference to the first ever murder case to be recorded in American history.

And that is the case that we are going to do today. So today we're going to talk about the Manhattan well murder and the trial. Of Levi Weeks. Geneva. You ready to do this case this week? 

As ready as I'll ever be.

Always the answer. All right, guys. So, because this is so far back in history, I'm going to be jumping back and forth. If you hear some things twice, I'm sorry. [00:03:00] I am using two sources for you today. I'm using a article from the New York courts history division. And I'm also going to be using Wikipedia to talk a little bit more about Levi.

I will post both of these down below. So here we go. So we're going to start off talking a little bit about the murder and what happened. The Manhattan well murder, Gulielma Elma sands disappeared on the evening of December 22nd, 1799. Before leaving her boarding house that evening Elma told her cousin Katherine sands that she was to be secretly married that night to the man who had been courting her Levi weeks.

A few days after Elma Sans vanished, a young boy found the muff she had been wearing in the Manhattan well. On January 2nd, 1800 Sand's body was recovered from that well, and while there was speculation at that time that she may have been pregnant, this was [00:04:00] later disproved by medical evidence shortly afterward, a grand jury indicted Levi weeks for the murder of Elma sands.

So let's talk a little bit about Levi weeks. So Levi weeks was born sometime in 1776. He was the accused in the infamous Manhattan, well trial of 1800. She was a young woman whom he had been courting as is stated and Elma disappeared on that evening. So just because she disappeared is because people said that the last time they had saw her was with weeks, he was born in Greenwich, Massachusetts in 1776.

And he moved to New York city in 1798 work for his older brother Ezra. Now we go back and dig a little bit more into the murder. Levi Weeks was Ezra's brother. [00:05:00] He was a prominent citizen, but it was through his brother, Ezra and his wealthy connections that Levi was able to retain three of the new York's most prominent attorneys at that time, that would have been Henry Brockholst Livingston

Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. They represented him at the trial. The court consistent also three judges which was chief justice, John Lansing, Jr. Mayor Richard Harrison and recorder, Richard Varick, and the prosecutor was assistant attorney general and future mayor of New York Cadwallader David Colden. The trial, the First recorded murder trial, United state.

Took place on March 31st and April 1st, 1800. Allright Geneva just in that little piece. I know we big Hamilton fans, you know, this is the time in the song nonstop. They was talking about how, [00:06:00] now the Alexander Hamilton and Burr, and go try these cases. Um, first ever murder case to come across the board. Now, some people argue and say, this was not the first murder case we look at as such because it's the first ever recorded.

Murder case, as you just heard though, looking at today, the trial was very short. It was March 31st and April 1st, 1800 down here. We were lucky to get through a child on a week. So what's your first initial thoughts on Levi weeks in this first murder trial, being the disappearance of Elma Sands?

First of all, we need some modern day trials that are that short. That sucker was only like two days long, man. They were like in and out, like they were like, listen, we ain't got all day to sit here and listen to y'all complaints. Get it together or get out.

I'm not really sure why we has as long trials now. , you know what I mean by it's just ridiculous, [00:07:00] but I do know why, but I'm just saying, I mean, what a way, to be able to hire those attorneys, you know?

Right.

And it was through Ezra's wealth. Now, the wealth that he had was he was a very big builder. He built homes and things of that nature as a matter of fact.. Ezra weeks build Hamilton Grange which was, Alexander Hamilton's mansion and, his brother helped him build that mansion. And so because of those connections, he was able to get Levi the help that he needed to get him.

That was, we was connected like that. 

Right. Yeah. , 

That's why he got what he got as far as lawyers is simply because his brother could afford that. Because it seems that he wouldn't have been able to afford that on his own, at least from what I could find.

That or get the lawyers as prominent as Hamilton and Burr and company was back [00:08:00] then. Now the one thing I was looking at to compare it was I didn't find, but I'm sure it didn't happen that way. It's probably one reason why our trials are longer, which I can find anywhere is nowadays we have to call people in for jury duty and we have to select the jury.

And for those of you who are not familiar with that process, you line up these people, you ask them a bunch of questions and then the prosecutor and the defense attorney gets to do what they're called challenges. So they're go up and say, you know, they don't like the way jury number two looks. So they're going to do a number two, you know, do you have any problems with the police of the case about the police?

If they go, yes. Then they'll say to the judge, I want to strike juror number two. So then they get rid of juror number two, and then another person from the out in the audience has to come up until they get 12 people. Sometimes that can be. A day, two days, even a week, if you don't get the right amount of juries, from what I read and what I seen that didn't happen back in 1700 and 1800, it was like just, you just got a jury.

They sat down and they heard the [00:09:00] case and they came up with a verdict. Did you find.

anything different to that? 

Ah, no, that seemed to be what it is. But I think the reason is because like, I feel like back then were simpler times. 

True. 

You know, you didn't have like these criminals out here, of them really dumb. Um, it, it seems like, it seems like back then.

First of all, it was the first murder trial anyway. So like, it's not like they had a ton of experience, you know, 

Right. 

they were literally flying by the seat of their pants. Not only does it seem like they were fine, why see you their pants. But I also feel like cases then we're more cut and dry. You know what I mean? It was like, here's what we've got now. Choose whether they're innocent or guilty. Oh, okay. That's what you decided. [00:10:00] cool have a great day.

And also you're looking at it as this is now the beginning of the justice system, as we know it. Right. So a lot of laws, so started being. After this now, does it give you guys a little perspective of where everything was in case you live somewhere in the New York or Manhattan area? So the area where the well was created is located today is in Soho and it is near the intersection of green and spring streets.

And that's where her body was recovered from. So just to give you guys a little. Today's knowledge. If you wanted to go down and visit that spot, that's the actual spot where she was found.

So it does go on to say that the case was sensational. And we all know, the, the lawyers that he got, but what happened to the case was this. So the whole case was circumstantial. And the defense produced [00:11:00] witnesses who testify that Levi was in the company of his brother, Ezra and other friends during the evening, in question, chief justice Lansing instructed the jury that there was not sufficient proof against Levi Weeks to warrant a decision against him, but he stopped short of a directed verdict.

The jury deliberating for only five minutes. Acquitted Levi of the crime. And although the state had failed to establish its case, and Judge Lansing's instruction was proper. His charge to the jury was widely criticized. The public strongly disagreed with the verdict and weeks was generally ostracize forcing him to leave New York Levi weeks eventually settled in Natchez, Mississippi.

Where he became a well-respected architect and builder. So our first murder case ends in an acquittal because the [00:12:00] witnesses nowadays, we go through more witnesses. We try to pull things out from what we got, like video cameras or whatever, but because of the meer fact that there was no evidence other than finding her.

 Remember back then, of course there was no such thing as DNA and fingerprints analysis. And you know, if you got strangled this way with the quarter to break a high or bone, none of that stuff had came up yet. So they were going solely by, on actually the word of the witnesses. It says all of them were saying oh yeah, he was with us.

which They probably was lying through their teeth. He got aquitted. He ended up having to move out because of the fact of the people just wasn't having it. They were very upset about it. They disagree with it. They ostracized him. Once he left, he became well-respected somewhere else. He actually did end up getting married to an Anne Greenleaf, and they did have four children.

 He [00:13:00] died in 1819. He was 43 years of age. And it has housed in Natchez that he designed by himself. So he designed his own house. It is the Auburn mansion, and now it is a national historic landmark. So if you go to Natchez, you can see his mansion. So Geneva, the first murder trial recorded in history ends in an acquittal.

How you feel about that? 

I'm going to say what I said to you before we recorded. I feel like this man is America's first. Casey Anthony. Everybody knows that he did it. Okay. There was a witness that said he was out there measuring the well before her body ended up in it. The Sunday before her body ended up in it right. You saw that too, right?

Okay. So, [00:14:00] sir, someone saw you. Measuring the well, like where you making sure that the opening was wide enough that our body wouldn't get stuck. Like I'm confused. So everybody in America is like, you did it, dude. And he still got off.

And then if you look at it, so I think. The way I looked at it was this, this was the very first time. So this even went back way back in history that may be money and influence had his mark on the trial because of who Levi's brother was in Ezra. He's building all these homes, right? For prominent people.

Alexander Hamilton had his home built by him. He's built several other fancy homes , the jury went out for five minutes. It takes me longer to make a cup of coffee. So to me, it's almost like they were sitting there listening. Like we already know , not guilty. And it just went back to deliberate because you know, it's a formality five minutes later, you ain't guilty.

I'll give it to you. If you out there measuring a well, and somebody [00:15:00] came and said, Hey man, look, he imagined the well. Why? And then she ends up in said, well, yeah bro, you guilty. Do you think that Ezra is. Connections may have helped Levi out a little bit. 

Oh, absolutely. You know, Alexander Hamilton, Mr. Aaron Burr, I don't care what nobody says. They was best friends till they weren't, you know what I'm saying? So. I mean, by this point, I'm pretty sure that they were starting to deteriorate some cause you know, our dude Hamilton, he was definitely a know it all and to call them out for it.

But I'm just saying like how much more evidence you need in a witness saying that you saw did they saw him measuring the wheel? 

And she was the last person he was see was seen with. 

right. I just feel like some things never change. 

Well, it also goes to the credibility [00:16:00] of attorneys don't like to lose. And so it went back to 1800 because what did Alex come to him? The first day we got this client and my client's innocent. How's he going to say? He innocent before You even get into a court and find out what's going on.

But then again, they said circumstantial now, today, I don't think it would have been more circumstantial because they had a body. But nowadays, if a case is circumstances, you have no body, they found her body in the well and they still said it was circles. Because they didn't have enough eyewitness to see.

So you guys can see the differences between courts back in hitching 1800 versus going to a court case now, because they will only rule circumstantial. If we don't have a body, if you got a body everybody's trying to pin murder one or whatever else that was going on with that. So what is your final thoughts? On the first ever murder trial, the Manhatten well murder and Mr. levi [00:17:00] weeks. 

I mean he got off. So I, I don't know. It's just interesting to me is interesting to me that our first murder trial in America and it ended acquittal, like y'all, couldn't get a conviction for the first one.

You know, and Alexander Hamilton and Berber real problems though. So they got that acquittal too. I'm just saying, like, I don't think it would have worked out that way for him if his brother. Hadn't had the influence that he did also.

I feel like he did it. I mean, it don't matter. He's long dead now. I'm sure he got his justice desserts. I'm just saying, I feel like he did it because why are you out there measuring a well, before your scene with the victim, your last person seen with the victim, that's suspicious.[00:18:00] 

Who does that anyway, measures a well, we think that it's crazy that people are like discarding other people in ditches and shallow graves. Could you imagine if we cover the case in 2021, where we're like yes, this man or woman, whoever was seen measuring a well, and two days later, their lover's body ended up in it.

. Truthfully I'm a little bit annoyed. Why, our first murder trial, I'll have to end it in an acquittal I feel like it's obvious that he did it. Maybe he didn't want to marry her. Because she told her cousin, Katherine, yeah, we're going to get married runaway together.

 It seems like the only motive that Mr. Levi had [00:19:00] here was to not marry her. I couldn't find another motive for murdering her. I don't know if he bribed the jury or what, that's my final thoughts. What are your final thoughts?

Well, I think Levi did it. We'll never know why for sure, because everybody's long gone, but I'm gonna tell you why. I think. He did it. I think he did it because there was speculation floating around that she may have been pregnant. Also. She was going to secretly marry Levi, according to her and talking to Catherine back in those early 18 hundreds, you only got married secretly like that.

If you were pregnant out of wedlock. It was shameful back then to be so and so they was going to sneak off and get married to her. If she was pregnant, then boom. You know, all we was already married, however, after Levi kills her. Cause I've [00:20:00] been gonna say it, like, I think it's discovered that she truly was not pregnant.

So that also leads me to a whole nother issue of it's happened in our common times. was she trying to snatch Levi? So she lied to him and said, Hey, Levi, I'm pregnant. That also could be a thing. He didn't want to be tied down. Like Geneva said he didn't want to get married. And if he didn't want to get married, he definitely didn't want to have a child.

So the easiest way would be to kill her. Now we put her in a, well, which should be the last place people would want to go looking at least for a long period of time. And so he thought that. Maybe she was going to be secure in the, well, it is very bold and brazen to walk out and measure a well in broad daylight when people can see you and then somebody dies, it ends up in the well, to me, that would just be automatic guilt.

 Nowadays we would go pull fingerprints. They didn't have that back then. So if you using common sense to me common sense would say if you saw Levi [00:21:00] at the well, he measured the, well, she ends up in the well, seemed to fit perfectly in the well to the point where she went down to the bottom and nobody found her for eons.

Then Levi is guilty. So one was gotten away with there. I don't know what kind of life Levi , lived after that because they don't really go into. That I can't find anything about Levi. I'm still doing more digging. There's another guy on his Wikipedia is in the, that I've read as to what type of life he would on to live.

But in my heart of hearts, I just want to believe that at some point in time, karma came back and got old Levi because the fact that he did die very young at the age of 43. So his life may not have been all gravy. After that was over. So even though it's been many, many, many moons ago, rest in peace at Elma Sands and, [00:22:00] yeah.

Levi got away with one, in my opinion. 

All right, guys. So hope that you enjoyed this going back down through history. I just thought it'd be fascinating to do a case about our first murder trial ever. It is a shortened one because, well, there's not a whole ton of information. It's pretty much cut and dry. Like it was back in 1800.

So we thank you for tuning into this hope. You guys learned something that sparks something you guys to want to go and learn a little bit more Geneva. Do you have any shout outs this week? 

 All right. I have two shoutout's this week. . So both of these are podcasts. However, I want to caveat this with one of them. As far as I know, you cannot find it on pocket casts. I still cannot find one of them on pocket casts.

So the first one that I want to shout out is called murder between [00:23:00] friends podcast. Okay. So this is. True crime ESC. All right. So it's hosted by Sherilyn Dale. If you are in the true crime realm on YouTube, you probably know who Sherrilyn Dale is. . I believe her thing is true crime and wine Wednesdays.

. So she's awesome. She does in-depth cases, but her podcast is Sherrilyn and she has a guest on each of her podcasts. It could be creators that, you know, from YouTube, other podcasts, she does focus primarily on true crime, conspiracy theories, and hot topics. Okay, but she hosts it and every week she has someone on it, which actually ties in to my second shout out, which is down a rabbit hole with CC Swarez [00:24:00] so again, CC Swarez does anti multi-level marketing.

Content. So anti MLM, she tells you. Why MLM's are bad. She also does some true crime stuff as well. She's actually teamed up with Sherilyn. There was a case that they did together. That was true crime, but also had an MLM tie into it. No it was not Chris Watts. It was a completely different case.

She is covering a whole host of stuff, but essentially it's a space for her to do true deep dives, similar to what she does on her YouTube channel.

 So those are my shout outs murder between friends, Ms. Cheryl Lindale and down a rabbit hole with CCS Torres. Do you have any shout outs?

I'm going to shout out the inspiration for today. Case Hamilton, if you guys have not [00:25:00] seen Hamilton, if you have a Disney plus it is still there. You can check out Disney. Plus if you get the option of going to see it live, I just went and saw a live with my wife and daughter on March 15th.

And it left LA for good on the 20th. If you go on to know anything about history or you want your kid to learn these kinds of things, Believe me, that show will enlighten you. I've been going down a history rabbit hole for the last past week. Now I've learned more about Alexander Hamilton than I ever thought that I would.

I'm actually adding two books to my reading. If you guys will know Geneva and I were avid readers, we also are in the book club together. We do buddy reads and as well as we do challenges, so I'm adding Alexander Hamilton. by Ron Chernov which was the inspiration for Lin Manuel Miranda to write the play.

And then I'm also gonna do, I think I'm reading two Theodosia Burr books. One is called love Theodosia and one is [00:26:00] her autobiography. If you guys didn't know. So you all know the history? Well, yeah, those are bear and Philip Hamilton. There was two. The second one that didn't get killed, actually they have a little bit of a love affair

there's so much history there that you guys would do yourself. A great injustice. If you did not check it out. So if you enjoyed this case today, go watch Hamilton read some books, find out that Alexander Hamilton is the creator of our financial system. I give you that tidbit right now without him. We wouldn't have the finances that we currently have.

 But yeah, I think everybody should check out Hamilton 

all right, I thank you guys for tuning in to yet another one. As always, we hope you enjoyed this and we know that you do have many different options for true crime podcasts. We are just happy for the last three and a half years. We have been one of your choices. We hope everybody is staying well out there.

Take care of yourself, be [00:27:00] good to yourself and to each other. And as always don't commit any crimes out there. 

So you don't end up on our podcast.