The body of a young woman, Elma Sands,
was found in a well outside of Manhattan on
the second day of 1800.
A carpenter who boarded in her family’s house, some suggested he was her secret
lover, was immediately accused. The case led to one of the first sensationalized,
broadly followed murder
trials in the young United States.
Paul Collins
recounts the events in Duel with the
Devil.
The carpenter, Levi Weeks,
might well have been convicted of the crime had he not had a legal
dream team with the competence to show the weakness of the prosecution case and
suggest an alternate explanation for Sand’s death. That is one of the interesting
things about his trial. His defense team consisted of political rivals Alexander
Hamilton and Aaron Burr
along with their fellow Revolutionary
War veteran Brockhurst
Livingston.
The political
and legal elite
of New
York state, and especially Manhattan, of those days was close knit and
often resulted in odd combinations. Hamilton and Burr were both in debt to
Weeks’ brother Ezra,
a prominent builder, which may explain their participation.
Weeks was found not guilty after what was considered a very long trial
for the time, mainly due to the great number of prosecution witnesses. Sands’
murder was never properly solved.
She was probably killed by another roomer in her house, Richard
Croucher. He had fled England to
escape the insane asylum after his behavior led him trouble and criminal
charges. Shortly after Weeks’ trial, he was convicted of raping his 13-year old
stepdaughter. He was released after three years on the agreement that he would
leave the country. He went to Virginia
instead, where he fleeced the merchants of Richmond. It
appears he eventually made his way back to England, where he continued
criminality led to his execution.
Hamilton and Burr famously faced declines. They dueled and Hamilton
died from the wound he received. Their co-counsel fared better; Livingston went
on to serve as a justice of the U.S.
Supreme Court.
Weeks left Manhattan. We worked his way west and became a successful
builder in Natchez.
Collins’ book reads almost like a novel. It is interesting,
quick-reading history.
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