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#Post#: 6650--------------------------------------------------
***East Side Story: The Book On-Site***
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: March 13, 2026, 3:48 pm
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Beginning tomorrow, I will be adding one chapter each day of
East Side Story: 1891 Murder Case of Carrie Brown
to this thread. I hope to be finished by April 23rd of this
year.
April 23rd
will mark 135 years since the Murder In The East River Hotel
occurred in 1891.
Comments will be most welcome. In fact, there are a few things
that might need correction due to findings made by site
researchers since the book's publication.
#Post#: 6651--------------------------------------------------
Re: ***East Side Story: The Book On-Site***
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: March 13, 2026, 4:47 pm
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CONTENTS
1. Original Crime Scene Report
2. April 1891
3. East River Hotel
4. Glenmore Man
5. Carrie Brown
6. Ameer Ben Ali
7. Inspector Byrnes
8. May 1891
9. June 1891
10. The Inquest & Trial Participants
11. The Women of Water Street
12. Whoa Nellie!
13. The Jurors Speak
14. July To December 1891
15. 1892 To 1901
16. George Damon Pre 1901
17. George Damon 1901
18. The Brass Key
19. The Danish Farmhand
20. Train Man
21. The French Connection
22. Ovide Robillard
23. Scenarios
24. Suspects
25. Tommy Thompson
26. The Affidavits
27. Alexander ‘Clubber’ Williams
28. DA Philbin's Report
29. Governor Odell's Decision
30. 1902
31. Official Files
32. James Dougherty
33. Unresolved Mysteries
34. Remaining Questions
35. Mary Brennan & The Broadway Merchant
36. To Acquit or Convict
36. Cast of Characters
38. Case Progress 2017-2023
39. Media 1891-2023
40. Credits and Sources
#Post#: 6652--------------------------------------------------
Re: ***East Side Story: The Book On-Site***
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: March 13, 2026, 4:54 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Preface
The first I'd ever heard of Carrie Brown and the murder in the
East River Hotel was in 2002. Nina was well aware of the murder
and Carrie Brown's
background before then. She was the one with a degree of
interest, whereas I had been indifferent to the case. My
interest began to develop over time,
not because I was that interested in the killer's identity, but
more in the events following Ali's imprisonment.
As I began to look into the case a little further, the story
that a man from New Jersey came out with in 1901 that eventually
led to Ali being released 11
years after his conviction, became a matter of real interest.
Like a few others, I thought that something wasn't quite right
with it. Unfortunately, the best
anyone could do was question it and little more.
Several discussions over issues in the case that the small
circle of dedicated researchers have conducted on Carrie Brown:
Murder in The East River
Hotel site resulted in ground-breaking discoveries, some of
which dealt with issues that had never been approached before.
None of us had an agenda
or position to maintain and as a result, the repository of
knowledge in 2023 is far greater than just 6 years ago.
Among those who do study the case, some believe Ali was a victim
of anti-immigrant sentiment and that he had been a victim of a
sinister frame-up.
Some feel George Damon had something to do with the murder, if
not directly, then indirectly. Some believe C. Kniclo was the
murderer, while others
feel that Ali was guilty after all and that a guilty man had
been freed in 1902. There isn't an across-the-board, universally
held belief as to the identity
of the murderer among the few who study the case seriously.
The Brown murder wasn't the only vicious murder of a woman in
Manhattan during the latter stages of the Gilded Age, just the
most sensational.
Those other women's names are virtually unknown today: Mary
Martin was strangled and disemboweled in 1895; Alice Walsh was
strangled and
dismembered in 1895. From 1895 to 1922, four women were
murdered and mutilated in the Big Apple. Two of them, Sarah
Martin in 1903 and
Ellen Tracy in 1922, were killed within spitting distance of
the East River Hotel. We know less about them because they
lacked a link to the
Whitechapel Murders, which we find present in Brown's murder in
a few ways.
We've provided as much valuable material as possible to guide
the reader through the ins and outs of the case to encourage
further interest from those
who read our book.
The book won't provide a game-ending solution to the murder,
although it is an iron-clad certainty that the correct solution
is at least included in the
Scenarios chapter. In a way, it would be nice to keep this
crime's 'ending' left as it is in order that people in the near
future put their efforts into
studying the Brown Murder and perhaps discover more information
that will increase our collective knowledge.
The purpose of this chronological history wasn't based on an aim
to eliminate one of the two major suspects. Ali or C. Kniclo,
but to present facts
which removes one of the theoretical 'solutions' to the murder
that has existed for 122 years since the day George Damon showed
up at a Manhattan notary in July 1901.
Howard Brown
Note: Regarding the red emboldened section, the book does not do
that.
#Post#: 6653--------------------------------------------------
Re: ***East Side Story: The Book On-Site***
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: March 13, 2026, 5:06 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION
This volume contains material and files related to the 1891
murder of Carrie Brown which have never been seen before. Most
people became aware of the case
through books or magazine articles which relied almost entirely
on newspaper reports or 'Ripper' websites where, on occasion,
individuals proposed that Carrie
Brown might have been a victim of the Whitechapel Murderer.
What the discovery of these files revealed were the seldom
mentioned and behind the scenes efforts of attaches of the
French Government in America to get
Amer Ben Ali out of jail and that there is enough evidence to
dismiss the theory that a hired hand working in Cranford, New
Jersey was Carrie Brown's murderer.
Note: regarding the red emboldened section, there may be enough
evidence to dismiss the Danish Farmhand theory
Professor George R. Dekle's, 'The East River Ripper- The
Mysterious 1891 Murder of Old Shakespeare', published in 2021,
was the first book ever written
devoted solely to the case in the then-130 years since the
crime occurred. The murder, the trial, and the aftermath of
the case were laid out by Professor Dekle.
He presented three possible scenarios, one of which potentially
might lead us to the case's seminal question: the identity of
her killer.
To the majority of people with a minimal interest in this case,
the solution and the killer's identity had already been
resolved, based almost entirely on a series
of events that took place in 1901 that resulted in the release
of Ameer Ben Ali in 1902. Mainstream print media rarely covered
this case, but when it did, writers
invariably concluded that Ali was innocent. Professor Dekle was
able to distinguish and explain the medical evidence provided in
the trial transcripts, which
was but one reason Ali received a life sentence in prison. Ali
is firmly back into the picture and re-established as a viable
suspect or possibly having been the actual killer all along.
Contemporary newspaper reportage of the murder was often
unreliable and based on the reporters competing for headlines in
a very competitive Manhattan
market. Magazine articles and references to the case found
within books up until 2021 relied entirely on material coming
from those contemporary newspapers.
Articles were often politicized and/or antagonistic toward the
police. An example of this bias is how Ali was often presented
in the newspapers as a poor and
friendless fellow, incapable of speaking in any language well
enough to defend himself or be understood, to create an air of
sympathy for a man with a track
record of misogyny and loafing. On the other hand, the female
witnesses who spent eight weeks in jail were savaged by the
Manhattan press.
Interest in the murder of Carrie Brown has always been on the
back burner in the genre of true crime, never garnering a large
following on the Internet or
anywhere else, despite ten weeks of sensational headlines in
1891 and years of the French government's campaigning to get
Ameer Ben Ali out of prison.
Even Professor Dekle hadn't set out to write a book about the
case but actually had planned on writing about Assistant
District Attorney, Francis Wellman.
The underwhelming interest in the case has worked well for one
and all, as there aren't dozens of absurd
and poorly thought-out cases against suspects, fake diaries, or
silly conspiracy theories.
That the medical evidence used in obtaining a conviction was
accepted by the jurors is good enough, at least for me. I also
feel the prosecution did a
e Trial. The inability of the defense to prevent their client
from testifying at his trial, a monumental disaster which,
according to the jurors, two medical experts,
and non-participating observers, had as much to do with his
conviction as anything the medical evidence could present at
trial. The fact that Ali lied non-stop,
starting the minute, he was detained on April 24, 1891, to the
day he boarded a ship for France on April 24, 1902, provides a
clear picture of the suspect's character.
I compiled the book in chronological order, deciding to stick to
presenting exactly what is known about the people involved
without spicing up their lives.
I must also admit in advance that it was necessary to be
redundant on several occasions in the book but only in order to
make things easier for the reader since
the aftermath of the trial is far more interesting than the
lurid details of the actual crime. Readers should not have to go
back and forth over certain crucial facts which will be brought
up.
We'd like to acknowledge the following individuals for their
insight and input towards making this book. Time and time again,
when yours truly made a goof, one of them was there to put the
train back on track.
Peter Damgaard
Michael Banks
Bernie Wagenblast
Luke Jerod Kummer
Jose Oranto
Mark Franzoi
Professor George R. Dekle
Additional thanks to:
Robert Clack
Professor Richard H. Underwood
Roger J. Palmer
The New York District Attorney Archives
Finally, we wish to thank the New York State Archives for their
informative files. Without the NYSA, this book could not have
been written.
#Post#: 6654--------------------------------------------------
Re: ***East Side Story: The Book On-Site***
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: March 14, 2026, 3:42 am
---------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER 1
THE ORIGINAL ACCOUNT OF THE CRIME AND CRIME SCENE
Instead of blue-penciling the small and not-so small mistakes
found in this report, this New York Evening World reporter's
on-site description
of the room is still worthwhile as a reference in consideration
that it goes into detail as to the condition of the room, the
victim, and other relevant matters.
It is also an important artifact within the case's history and
unless I'm mistaken was the first newspaper report of the murder
that was ever published.
Reproduced as it appeared, misspelled words included.
New York Evening World
April 24, 1891
A RIPPER!
A Woman Barbarously Slaughtered In The East River Hotel.
Strangled First And Then Hacked And Disemboweled.
A Cross Cut On Her Back After She Was Dead.
She Was Taken To The Hotel By A Supposed Greek or Italian.
The Murder Committed Some Time During The Night.
A Description Of The Murder In The Hands Of The Police
[[ An atrocious crime, as horrible in its details as any of the
Whitechapel atrocities of Jack the Ripper,
came to light this morning in the East River Hotel, at 14
Catherine Slip.
The victim is an old woman sixty years of age, well known as a
vagrant and streetwalker in that locality.
Her murderer, who escaped before the crime was discovered, is
supposed to be a young man about thirty-five years of age, who
hired the room with the woman late last night.
His name is unknown, but the one he gave to the bartender of the
hotel when he came in with the woman, is C. Kniclo.
He is about thirty-five years of age and is supposed to be
either a Greek or an Italian.
The body of the old woman was found lying on the bed in the room
about 9 o'clock this morning.
It was shockingly cut and mutilated, apparently with some dull
instrument.
The body was completely naked. A deep gash extended from the
lower part of the abdomen upward to the breast, which
disemboweled it completely.
The entrails had apparently been torn from the body and were
scattered over the bed.
There were also two deep cuts crossing each other on the back in
the form of an exact cross.
The woman's head was bound up with part of the underclothing and
a part of the bed-clothing, which was so tightly knotted
together that it took some time to remove them.
There were marks of discoloration about the neck and throat, and
it is believed that the murderer strangled his victim first and
then proceeded to his horrible butchery.
The body lay upon its side upon the bed. with the back towards
the door, so that the marks of the cross upon the back were
first visible to those who might enter.
The bed clothing was saturated and dripping with blood, and the
spectacle was one of the most fearful that could be imagined.
Sgt. McCarthy was sitting at the desk in the Oak Street station
when James Jennings, the proprietor of the hotel, rushed in at
9:40 a.m. and with a blanched face told him
that a woman had been murdered in his place.
Capt. O'Connor and Ward Detectives Doran and Griffin made all
haste to get around there.
They first got the story of the crime from bartender Fitzgerald,
of the Fourth Ward Hotel, who was the last to see the woman and
her companion.
He said that the old woman, who is known in that locality by the
name of 'Shakespeare', came to the barroom early in the evening,
where she was joined by another woman
named Mamie Healy, also a disreputable character of that
neighborhood.
They sat together drinking beer for some time, and then the
Healy woman went out.
Old 'Shakespeare' sat for awhile and talked with Mary Minotar,
the assistant housekeeper of the hotel and then she too went
out.
About 11 o'clock the old woman came in again. She had a fairly
well-dressed young man apparently about thirty-five years old,
with brown hair and a blond
mustache, and said she wanted a room for the night.
The young man did not say anything, except to tell the clerk,
Fitzgerald, that his name was C. Kniclo.
Fitzgerald entered the name in the register, spelling it
according to his own ideas of the orthography.
The pair was assigned to room 31 on the top floor, and the key
was given to Kniclo after he had paid for the lodging.
Then the old woman turned to her companion and asked him if he
would not like to have a pint of beer sent up to the room/He did
not say anything,
but nodded his head and gave her a new ten-cent piece.
The beer was drawn and given to her in a pail, and she went
upstairs with it, followed by the young man.
That was the last that was seen of them last night,
Fitzgerald says he thinks the young man must be an Italian or a
Greek, for when he gave him his name he seemed to have a foreign
accent.
Fitzgerald says that this morning when the couple did not
appear, he went up to the room about 9 o'clock to rouse them up.
There had been no noise whatever during the night, and
Proprietor Jennings, who occupied the adjoining room, had heard
nothing.
he found the door locked, and after knocking several times and
getting no response he began to shove it in.
The lock, which was an old one, gave way, and the door burst
open, disclosing the horrible spectacle already described.
Fitzgerald at once informed Jennings of his ghastly discovery,
and the police soon after took possession.
They detained Fitzpatrick as a witness, and also arrested Mary
Minotar, the assistant housekeeper, and found Mary Healy, who
has been an old
comrade of the Shakespeare woman.
There was not a sign of a clue to the man, who must have gone
stealthily out of the house during the early hours of the
morning after he had accomplished his butcher's work.
Mary Minotar says that while she sat talking with the old woman
during the evening previous before the latter went out she
learned part of the old woman's history.
The woman told her that her father was a sea captain and that
she was once married to a seafaring man named Charles C. Brown.
She had not lived with him in many years and did not know
whether he was dead or alive.
The old woman was sober at the time, but Mary Healey, who had
left her some time previous, was very drunk when she went away.
The housekeeper said she knew both women only as speaking
acquaintances. They frequented a little grocery store in Water
Street, known as
George's place, with many of the abandoned women.
The Healey woman was still in an inebriated condition when the
police found her this morning.
She was hysterical and seemed to be on the verge of the horrors,
and no information could be obtained from her except that the
old woman's
name was Shakespeare.
She did not know where she came from or where she lived, and
said she knew nothing about the young man with the blond
mustache, whom the
police think may be the real "Jack the Ripper".
Coroner Schultze, who was notified by the police, held a
preliminary investigation at the Oak Street station but did not
get any more out of the
witnesses than has been related.
He gave a permit for the removal of the woman's body to the
Morgue.
The police are thoroughly mystified by the case and have not yet
obtained the slightest trace of the murderer, as far as can be
learned.
At The Scene Of The Crime
When a reporter for the Evening World visited the scene of the
awful crime the police were in charge of the house.
The entrance to the bar on the corner of Water and Catherine
Streets was open, and the bartender was ready to wait upon
customers.
There were few, however, as the terrible crime had apparently
cast an awe over the customers who ordinarily frequent the
place.
The bartender said he knew nothing of the murder, as he was a
new man who had only come on duty today.
He pointed to the rear, however, and said the policeman there
knew all about it.
Two or three men stood about the barroom, but they spoke in
whispers.
At the foot of the stairs back of the barroom stood a policeman,
who graciously made way for the reporter to pass.
The stairs are narrow and bare.
There are five flights, and through the open doors of the rooms
opening out on the halls could be seen marks of disorder, as
though the
rooms had been hurriedly vacated.
The top floor, where the crime was committed, is partitioned off
into even smaller rooms and barer rooms than those seen below.
It was in the corner room, with one window opening on Catherine
Street and the other on Water Street, that the deed was done.
At first glance on entering, there was nothing strange apparent.
The extreme bareness of the room was the chief characteristic.
But after taking a single step inside, turning to the left, and
glancing at the bed pushed up against the wall, a horrifying
sight met the eyes.
There lay a woman with her single garment pulled up around her
neck.
She lay in a pool of blood and her own intestines.
An 'X' was drawn with a knife in her flesh below the back.
The blood had flowed down off the bed and made a little pool on
the floor.
She lay upon her right side, with her right arm bent back under
her.
The left arm was folded over her breast.
One leg was drawn up almost double, and the other was stretched
out full length.
The lids of her eyes were closed as though the woman had shut
them and with all her strength was endeavoring to keep them
shut.
The room was about 8 x 10 feet in dimensions.
The only pieces of furniture were what is known as a single bed,
old fashioned and grimy, and a broken washstand and chair.
A dirty mattress and black pillow without a casing were the
bed's only furnishing.
On the washstand was a small tin pail, with a few drops of beer
in the bottom.
In one corner of the room lay the woman's tattered red flannel
skirt and torn stockings.
Over the back of the chair hung her checked gingham waist and a
cheap shoddy mantle.
One shoe lay under the bed.
The other shoe had been used as a prop to keep one window up.
The shoes were coarse and, as a policeman said, looked like
workhouse shoes.
She was evidently one of the poorest of the poor creatures that
frequent Water Street and entice drunken sailors to buy them a
drink.
There was an old-fashioned candlestick holder on the stand. The
candle had been burned down to the last drop of grease.
From the appearance of the room, the whole horrible tragedy
could be readily seen in one's mind's eye.
The couple upon entering the bare little room had begun their
debauch by drinking beer from the tin pail.
There were no glasses, but they were not fastidious and were
satisfied to tip up the pail and drink to the dregs.
When sufficiently stupefied by drink they retired.
The woman distributed her clothes about the room with the
indifference of her class.
When he got ready for his bloody deed, the man grasped her by
the throat with one hand, and the other struck her with his
knife.
She must have made a struggle, for she had been turned clear
around in the bed.
This was evident from the fact that the foot of the leg
stretched out at length and touched the pillow. That must have
been the recognized
head of the bed, for the fiend had not stopped to arrange
anything after his mad thirst for blood had been satiated.
The marks of his fingers were still on her throat.
These discolorations told why the poor woman had not aroused the
house with her cries.
Strangled as she was, the man of blood was not troubled in
completing the dread work begun.
He ripped her open, and then with maniacal fury tore out her
intestines.
She lay on her back and he laid these ghastly symbols of his
crime on her stomach.
In the first feeble struggle, the unfortunate creature had been
pinioned with the right arm under her.
One leg had been drawn up in her agony.
It was thus she died.
He gazed with fiendish satisfaction at his victim, gloating over
the devilishness of his work.
It was while gazing at the bleeding creature in her death throes
that she made one final effort and rolled over on her side.
He had but one detail of his awful deed to complete before he
made his escape from the terrible scene.
That was to place his mark upon his victim.
This he did by drawing the blade of his bloody knife across the
skin below the small of her back in the shape of the letter X.
The light streamed in through the windows from the electric
lamps on the street corner, and he had no need for the candle
which had burned
out before he began his bloody work.
He was satiated.
Now to leave the ghastly discovery to be made in the morning.
He stuck the knife under the woman's right hip, where it rested
on the mattress, and then without a glance behind left the room.
His escape was easy. It is customary for the guests of this
hotel to leave at all hours of the night without explanation,
and the occupants of room 31
last night were not subjected to any unusual inspection.
Two people had entered room 31, and the one that came out and
left his horribly mutilated companion on that fatal bed was as
free to go as he had been to come.
The Knife Found
The effects found in the murdered woman's clothing were brought
to the Oak Street station house along with the knife with which
Kniclo carved
and disemboweled his victim.
The effects consisted of a Chinese muslin bag about thirteen
inches long and six inches wide.
Two pairs of old-fashioned spectacles, one of which was encased
in an old pasteboard spectacle box.
The knife is an ordinary table knife, about eight inches long,
with a black wooden handle.
The blade is about an inch wide and slants at the end. It
resembles a shoemaker's leather cutter.
The blade near the handle is smeared with blood stains, which
are dry.
At 1:40 p.m., Capt. McLaughlin, of the old slip station, came
into the Oak Street station, accompanied by Detective Sergeant
McCloskey.
They had just viewed the body and went into Capt. O'Connor's
private room where Detective Sgt. Crowley, also of Inspector
Byrnes' staff, was waiting.
The four officials held a consultation with the door closed.
Detective McCloskey, who is on the case, says that the body was
terribly mutilated.
The bowels were ripped open and part of the intestines cut
through. A portion of the viscera is gone. The detective
declined to discuss the case.
Not The First Murder There.
The East River hotel, where the crime was committed, has a most
unsavory repute both in the neighborhood and with the police.
Many suspected
crimes are alleged to have been covered up within its walls.
The interior appearance of the place bears out its reputation.
The rooms are dirty, even filthy, the floors utterly destitute
of any sign of a carpet, and many
of the rooms lack even a chair for the occupants. No person
with a particle of self-respect would consent to remain there
over night.
Some three years ago a man was found dead on a beer keg just
outside the bar room door, with an ugly stab wound in the
abdomen.
The bartender, a man named Thompson, was charged with the crime,
and his weapon was said to have been a huge Chinese sword, with
which it is
claimed he stabbed the man because he would not pay for the
drinks he had ordered.
Thompson was tried and acquitted, his boss, it is said, having
exercised a large 'pull'.
The place has also been the scene of many suspicious deaths, and
within a week, according to a businessman in the neighborhood, a
sailor was
enticed into the place by sirens, made intoxicated, and robbed.
The same merchant characterizes the place as a disorderly resort
of the lowest type for depraved characters of all
nationalities.]]
#Post#: 6655--------------------------------------------------
Re: ***East Side Story: The Book On-Site***
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: March 14, 2026, 5:14 am
---------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER TWO
APRIL 1891
Beginning with this chapter about events from April 1891, some
content comes from contemporary newspapers from Manhattan. Most
people involved in crime research are aware of the pitfalls of
relying on the papers for concise reportage of events. A book
could be written on the often haphazardly written articles that
were the basis of what virtually everyone who read about this
case knew about the case. Only a handful of people alive have
ever seen the official files and articles that brought up
'behind the scenes' incidents, some of which are found in this
volume.
Only individuals who were present at the trial or Inquest
gained first-hand knowledge of what was going on while the vast
majority of American readers were reading what were filtered and
often biased reports. One newspaper reporter may have been
cognizant of the trouble Ali faced due to his pathological
tendency to lie and reported objectively, while those who were
in Ali's camp from the outset took the stance that he was being
'railroaded', a phrase which is still in use over 130 years
later. Collectively, researchers owe a debt to the contemporary
newspapers for what was published, yet reportage could and
should have been better.
It would be too great of an undertaking to present every
possible case-related detail or tidbit for readers to examine.
We've included what we felt were the best content and accounts
for the reader.
The article in which Inspector Byrnes delivered his April 30th
press conference is one of only a handful that we've utilized.
It has been included so readers may understand his reasons for
suspecting and charging Ali, right from the horse's mouth, and
not from anyone else. There were at least 21 daily newspapers
published in English alone during 1891 by which readers received
their information, which also meant that 21 possibly different
interpretations of events were being published during the 10
weeks between April 24th and July 4th, daily. Of course, many
articles were similar, but quite a few weren't.
According to the Wall Street Journal on April 23rd, 1891, the
weather in Manhattan was 'fair and warm' The headlines on that
day read that Horace Greeley's only daughter was married in
Pleasantville, NY and President Benjamin Harrison was in
California, where he was greeted by children bearing bouquets of
flowers and shook hands with a 100-year-old Indian chief.
Looking back, it was a pretty humdrum day in America.
Meanwhile, down in the Lower East Side on Water Street at 10:00
p.m., Carrie Brown and a companion who will be forever known by
the fictitious name, C. Kniclo, enter the East River Hotel.
Within 12 hours, the climate down in the Lower East Side will be
anything but 'fair and warm'.
Carrie Brown was murdered in Room 31 of the East River Hotel, a
room which measured 12 1/2 ft. by 7 1/2 ft, situated at the far
end of the fifth ( top ) floor overlooking Water Street and
Catherine Slip. Civil engineer Frederick Reinart provided the
measurements for the Court before the May 13-14 Coroner's
Inquest.
The following is a recap of the events in April 1891, from ten
days before her murder up to the end of the month. All dates
and events are taken from New York dailies, such as the Evening
World, Sun, Herald, Tribune, Times, World, and Press.
On April 13th, Ameer Ben Ali was released from Queens County
Jail, having been jailed on March 14th for vagrancy.
On April 16th, Carrie Brown is released from Blackwell's Island,
sent there for public drunkenness.
On the night of Monday, April 20th, Ameer Ben Ali and Carrie
Brown likely spent the night at the East River Hotel unless the
man named 'George' that Mary Brennan said was with Brown earlier
on the 20th was another man with the same first name. More on
this in the chapter,' Mary Brennan and The Broadway Merchant'.
On the night of Tuesday, April 21st, Ali spent the night at the
East River Hotel and was there on the morning of the 22nd.
On the night of Wednesday, April 22nd, Ali spent the night at
the Hotel according to the trial testimony of Eddie Fitzgerald,
a 21-year-old hotel employee who, along with performing
custodial work, receives guests and tended bar.
On the afternoon of Thursday, April 23rd, the day of the murder,
Alice Sullivan saw Brown and Ali standing together near the
corner of Oak & Oliver Street. In the afternoon of the same day,
Sullivan treats Brown to lunch at 'George's' located near the
intersection of Roosevelt & Water Streets between 4:30 and 5:00
p.m.
On the night of the 23rd, Carrie Brown entered the hotel with
a man at 11:00 p.m. The man gives 21-year-old hotel habitue,
Mary Miniter, a dollar piece for a room costing fifty-cent. He
also gives Miniter a dime for a pail of ale. Miniter hands them
a candle and the key to room 31 and from there they go up to the
fifth floor.
On the night of April 23rd, Ali arrived at the hotel at
approximately 12:00 a.m. Ali handed Fitzgerald 25 pennies for
room, number 33, situated 41-42 inches from room 31 on the same
floor as Brown and her companion.
Fitzgerald, like Miniter, hands the money to Sam Shine, the
bartender on duty that night. He spent the rest of the night at
the hotel up until 5:00 a.m. or so.
On Friday, April 24th, at approximately 2:00 a.m., a man
entered the Glenmore Hotel in Chatham Square situated 3/10ths of
a mile north from Water Street and a 6-minute walk from the East
River Hotel.
The man requests a room from Mike ( or Tom) Kelly, the desk
clerk at the Glenmore, and tells him he has no money to pay for
lodgings. He is turned away. He has noticeable blood marks on
both the back of his hand and a cheek. He is subsequently turned
away again when he asks to use the washroom on the ground floor.
The man leaves the hotel and is never identified in connection
to the crime afterward.
On Friday, April 24th, Ameer Ben Ali is seen leaving the East
River Hotel at approximately. 5:00 a.m. by Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald describes Ali's departure as if he were 'sneaking
out' of the hotel testifying to that at both the Coroner's
Inquest in mid-May and at the trial, June 24-July 3, 1891.
On the morning of the 24th, at approximately 9:00 a.m., the
aforementioned Fitzgerald went about his duties of knocking on
doors to let tenants know it was time to leave. Initially, he
receives no response from room 31. After a few minutes, he
returns and opens the door with a passkey. He, along with
housekeeper Mary Corcoran, would be the first two to see Brown's
corpse on the bed around 9:30 a.m. No mention from either about
the ladder eventually sketched in the corridor in the New York
Evening World on the 25th. Proprietor James Jennings goes to the
Oak Street police station, arriving at 9:40 a.m., and informs
Sergeant McCarthy that a murder has been committed in his hotel.
There are conflicting newspaper reports which began on April
24th, concerning who wrote the name of the man who entered the
hotel with Carrie Brown in the hotel register. The name was
'C.Kniclo'.
Some reports attribute Eddie Fitzgerald, while others suggest
Mary Miniter. It was neither one.
Shortly after the discovery of the corpse, manager Tommy
Thompson wrote the name in the register, although it was
fictitious. Thompson admitted, at the Coroner's Inquest on May
14th, that he was responsible for the name in the register.
Much of the misinformation that has been handed down over the
past 132 years is a direct result of shoddy newspaper reporting.
To be objective, there were probably several instances where
locals, not wishing to wind up more directly involved with
matters, gave false or factually incomplete statements, which
the reporters simply repeated. Competition between newspapers in
Manhattan was higher than in the average American city. Some
newspapers were notorious for sensationalizing stories to boost
circulation. Two notable examples of this are reflected in what
was known as 'The Circulation War' between Joseph Pulitzer's New
York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal in the
1890s.
One example is the report on the 24th that hotel utility man,
Eddie Fitzgerald claimed to have signed Brown and C. Kniclo in
on the 23rd. This is false. Mary Miniter was the only person at
the hotel who actually saw Brown with her companion on the 23rd.
Fitzgerald testified at the Coroner's Inquest and the trial that
he did not see Brown and her companion.
The police would be provided with a description of C. Kniclo
from Miniter which stood the test of time.
She described him as having a heavy mustache, a fact which
will play a large part in the necessary re-evaluation of the
narrative that's been handed down all these years. He was,
according to Miniter, approx. 5'8 1/2",32-35 years of age,
possibly German, based on his 'foreign' accent, slim build, long
sharp nose, wore a dark, brown cutaway coat, dark trousers, and
a battered Derby hat. His hair color is mentioned as being light
in some reports ( and at the trial and inquest)and brown in
others.
On the night of April 24th, Ameer Ben Ali Ali is picked up by
Officer Adam Lang at 8:10 p.m., three blocks from the hotel at
James Slip & Water Street. Lang was accompanied by Mary Ann
Lopez. Lang would be the officer who testified at the Coroner's
Inquest regarding the particulars of Ali's arrest.
The official police blotter for April 24th lists Officers
Lang and Griffin at his booking. The blotter is reproduced in
D.A. Eugene Philbin's July 10, 1901 letter to Governor Benjamin
Odell.
The time of the booking of Ali occurred at 9:00 p.m. which
sounds accurate factoring in the time it took to walk from Water
Street to the Oak Street Station.
The New York Sun reported that detectives Doran and Griffin
arrested Ali at 10:00 p.m. in their April 26th edition. No
mention of Lopez being with Lang and Griffin. Yet, she was.
#Post#: 6656--------------------------------------------------
Re: ***East Side Story: The Book On-Site***
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: March 14, 2026, 5:16 am
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CHAPTER 2, continued.
At some point in time after Miniter gave the description of C.
Kniclo, the police and press had made their way to the Glenmore
Hotel in Chatham Square, in their all-out search for the man who
had entered the hotel with Carrie Brown. It hasn't been
determined when, precisely, the police and
the press made their way to the Glenmore, but it was after
Miniter had already given her description.
Up in Chatham Square, there had been an arrest of a homeless
man named Adolph Kallenberg early on Saturday, April 25th. In
some respects, he appears to have matched Miniter's description
of C. Kniclo.
Reports differ at the time of his arrest ranging from 1:00
a.m. to 2:00 a.m. The New York Sun stated that he was put before
Mary Miniter for identification purposes but she stated he was
not the right man. As a result, he was released.
At the Glenmore, the man on duty on the morning of the 24th
named Kelly ( first name either Mike or Tom) provided the
police/press a description of the man which was as follows:
5'9" in height, light complexion, light-colored mustache,
long nose, shabby & old Derby hat, German accent, spoke in
"broken English", a shabby cutaway coat. In some reports, the
hair color is referred to as being brown, but as with Miniter,
who was also quoted as saying the man's hair was brown, some
other papers mentioned a lighter shade.
It would be from these two matching descriptions that
Inspector Byrnes formed the all-points bulletin that was
distributed city-wide early on April 25th:
"General Alarm!: Arrest a man 5 feet 9 inches high, about
thirty-one years old, light hair and mustache; speaks broken
English. Wanted for murder." Thomas Byrnes, Acting
Superintendent.
New York Times, April 26, 1891.
On Saturday, April 25th, the police verified that the
victim's name was Carrie Brown, the identification provided by
Catherine McGovern, a fact brought up at the trial. A police
file in the District Attorney cache verifies McGovern as being
the first to identify her, although newspapers were still found
claiming that there was confusion over the victim's identity.
One other local woman was also known as 'Shakespeare',
contributing to the temporary confusion.
On Saturday, April 25th, the New York Evening World included
a tale told by coalheaver William Mannix, at the time staying in
the East River Hotel with a female who he stated was his wife.
Mannix told the press that Ali had forcibly tried to gain entry
into his apartment while his wife was alone inside two days
before Brown's murder while Mannix was at work. Mannix also
tells the press that he saw Ali sprawled on the floor in the
hallway of the fifth floor on Thursday night (the 23rd) when he
came home from work. This would be the first of three known
instances involving Ali either going in or trying to go in rooms
other than the one he had paid for. Nellie English and Tommy
Thompson testified to similar incidents: Thompson at the Inquest
and English at the trial.
In the April 26th edition of the New York Tribune, several
people are mentioned in a paragraph that referred to people
being detained under orders of Coroner Schultze. William Mannix,
incorrectly listed as Manning, was among them, although he may
have been brought to police headquarters simply to go back over
the story he told the Evening World and had not actually been
detained, as were the others mentioned in the paragraph for
certain.
On Saturday, April 25th, seven people: five women and two
men, were being held at the Oak Street Station.
They were: Alice Sullivan, Mary Ann Lopez, Lizzie Carter,
Mary Healey, Mary Miniter, William Beckle, a seaman who had been
with Brown shortly before the murder ( multiple spellings for
his surname appear in several newspapers), and Ameer Ben Ali,
not by his real name, but under the alias of George Frank. Other
local women were brought in but subsequently let go. From the
women mentioned above, Sullivan, Miniter, Healey, and Lopez
weren't so lucky. Neither were Nellie English or Mary
Harrington. Some spent eight weeks in jail, being released just
prior to the trial.
One amusing but incorrect comment in the April 26th, 1891 New
York Sun finds Ali conversing in Greek with an interpreter in
the Oak Street Station. Sun reporters would later say in the
years ahead that Ali couldn't speak English although in this
very same Sun article, it's reported that the detectives learned
he had no difficulty in speaking English. Ali played a game with
authorities from the minute he was arrested until the time he
left the United States. The only people who were fooled by his
charade were those intent on getting him released in the years
ahead, including the reporters from the New York Sun.
By April Sunday evening, April 26th, blondes were definitely
not having more fun in the New York metropolitan area. The New
York World, in its April 27th edition, reported that any man
with a long nose and a yellow mustache, dark clothes, stood
5'9", and had a battered black derby, was liable to arrest. One
report estimated that forty 'long-nosed men', all with blonde or
light-colored hair, had been arrested by the end of the month.
On April 27th, Mary Miniter accompanied the NYPD to Brooklyn
to look at Nels Hansen and Henry Weissmann to determine if
either was C. Kniclo. She would do this on several occasions for
the police department.
On April 28th, plans were made to take Carrie Brown's body to
Potter's Field ( Hart's Island) for burial. She was subsequently
taken to Salem, Mass. by a daughter for interment at Harmony
Grove cemetery.
On April 29th, Arbie La Bruckman was arrested on Sixth Street
in Jersey City, N.J. At 2:30 p.m. on the same day, La Bruckman
is released having provided a solid alibi for the night in
question.
On April 30th, Inspector Byrnes held a press conference and
named Ali as the murderer.
During the two or three days leading up to the April 30th
press conference, there was considerable confusion about the
actions undertaken by the police which was brought up in the
newspapers. On one day, Inspector Byrnes made it seem as if the
effort to locate the man described by Miniter, and indeed it was
a considerable effort, left little doubt as to who the police
felt the killer was. On another day, the impression was that
perhaps Arbie La Bruckman, once considered a suspect, was that
man, but this theory fell apart on the very day he was located
since he had an alibi.
In the article below, Inspector Byrnes refers to Frenchy # 2 as
being cleared. Inspector William McLaughlin testified at the
Coroner's Inquest that an inquiry into the whereabouts of a man
stated as being 'Frenchy No. 2' was undertaken and that it was
determined positively that the individual could not have been
involved in Brown's death. Frenchy #2, a man seen in the
vicinity of the hotel and apparently known by some of the local
women and allegedly a 'cousin' of Ali's, was theorized as being
the man who entered the hotel with Carrie Brown. It had also
been considered that Arbie La Bruckman may have been this
mysterious Frenchy #2, but again, after being questioned by
Byrnes and being able to provide an alibi for the time in
question, La Bruckman was released the day he was picked up.
This unnamed man referred to by McLaughlin worked at a riding
academy in Manhattan and was nowhere near Water Street on the
night in question. There is a good chance that it was the
Boulevard Riding Academy, owned by Franco-American Emile
Rouhaut. Insp. McLaughlin mistakingly referred to the riding
academy he went to as the Bellevue Riding Academy or the
stenographer at the Inquest wrote down the name of a different
business. One report I found in 2022 suggests that Frenchy No. 2
was a man named 'John Smith' who lived in 'Double Alley' located
at 38 Cherry Street, a stones-throw from the East River Hotel.
The identity of the man McLaughlin and the NYPD cleared is still
unknown to date. .
Also in the article, we'll come across caustic remarks made by
Inspector Byrnes towards the only person who saw Brown and her
companion on the night in question, Mary Miniter. Miniter never
wavered in her description of the man with Carrie Brown which
seems to indicate that the remarks were made about something
else other than the description.
One theory is that Byrnes may have felt that Miniter fabricated
the story of C. Kniclo being the man with Brown possibly due to
a newspaper report that claimed Mary Ann Lopez and Alice
Sullivan had told the reporter Ali and Brown were together in
the East River Hotel on the 23rd. Yet, Byrnes is on record
saying that Miniter was a cut above the typical person who lived
in or frequented the hotel and was intelligent. To date, it's
anyone's guess why there was this momentary flare-up between the
two.
In some newspaper reports, it was noted that some who had been
on the fifth floor had not seen blood where the police would
claim it had been located. This two to three-day span, April
27-April 29, was a confusing time for those eagerly following
the investigation and the rapid-fire release of often hastily
reported articles which were at their peak from April 24 until
May 10.
Unlike the London murders, however, reports concerning the
murder of Carrie Brown virtually vanished in the Manhattan
papers after Ali was sent to prison on July 10th. The Ripper
murders are still a full-on industry.
#Post#: 6657--------------------------------------------------
Re: ***East Side Story: The Book On-Site***
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: March 14, 2026, 5:17 am
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CHAPTER 2, continued
The following is one Manhattan newspaper's account of the April
30th, 1891 press conference held by Inspector Byrnes, to round
off the events of April 1891. It's the May 1st edition of the
New York Evening World.
LINKS MISSING
Inspector Byrnes Has Not Yet Traced The Ripper's Knife To
Frenchy.
The Prisoner Still Kept Secluded At Police Headquarters.
Seen By An 'Evening World' Reporter, But Not Allowed To Speak.
Official Statement By Byrnes Of The Proofs Against Him.
No Trace Of the Light-Haired Man Who Was Last Seen With Carrie
Brown.
The one topic of conversation in New York today is whether or
not George Francois or Frank Sherlick or Frenchy No.1, as he is
variously termed, murdered Carrie Brown, who was so horribly
slaughtered in the East River Hotel.
The circumstantial evidence given out by the police leads many
to believe that Sherlick is guilty. But there are also points
which tend to show the possibility of his not being the man.
Until the public hears Sherlick's explanation as to how he got
the tell-tale blood stains, and that explanation is verifiable
one way or another there must be no doubt as to his guilt or
innocence.
The following is what Inspector Byrnes has to say of the
circumstances which has led to Sherlick's arrest:
[[ "It was 8 o'clock Friday night, Frank Sherlick, or Frenchy,
was standing in the saloon under the hotel talking to the
bartender. We had learned that on the Wednesday night previous
Frenchy and this old woman Shakespeare had occupied the room
where the murder was committed, and we learned that he was about
with her and the other low women the following day, the day of
the night of which the murder was committed.
Frenchy was about the saloon down in the Fourth Precinct with
the women the evening of that day. He was at the East River
Hotel alone at about 10 o'clock, and he was there drinking at 11
o'clock when the old woman Shakespeare and her companion came in
and got their drink and went upstairs to room 31.
This man Frenchy was, as I have stated before, a man of wicked
and unnatural habits, and the women we have had under arrest say
that he has frequently occupied rooms on the top floor of that
hotel with them and that he had repeatedly beaten and kicked
them and otherwise maltreated them.
He had taken their money away from them and created disturbances
which had made it necessary on more than one occasion for the
hotel people to throw him out of the place. Frenchy had such a
tough reputation among the women that none of them, except old
Shakespeare, would have anything to do with him. The other
women, to guy him, got to calling him 'old Shakespeare's mash'.
It is against the rules of the hotel for a man not accompanied
by a woman to go to the top floor of the hotel. It is against
the rules to let a room on the top floor to a single man.
This rule was made because the men who accompany the women to
the hotel usually remain only a little while. They go out and
leave the doors of the rooms unlocked. The women stay behind,
and in the early morning hours, the rooms are filled with women.
It would be unsafe to allow men of the character of those who
visit the hotel to be on the same floor.
The night of the murder, Eddie Fitzgerald, the little bartender,
was on duty at the hotel, in charge of the door. He did not know
of this rule. After Shakespeare and her companion of that night
had gone upstairs, Frenchy said to Eddie that he guessed he
would go to bed, and asked for a room on the top floor. He gave
in payment for it twenty-five single cents.
This might have been 12 o'clock and might have been later. Some
time after this, Sam Shine, the night clerk, came in, and
Fitzgerald gave the pennies to him.
Shine asked, "Where did you get these?" and Fitzgerald replied
that he had got them from a man on the top floor.
Shine asked what the man looked like, and Fitzgerald said: "He's
tall and dark." 'Yes,' said Shine, 'it's that black Frenchy'.
The two talked about the advisability of going upstairs and
throwing Frenchy out. Fitzgerald said the man had been upstairs
twenty minutes, Shine said he guessed the fellow was in bed and
they would risk letting him stay there.
When Frenchy was arrested and brought to the station house he
had on no underclothing. He wore a coarse shirt, a pair of
trousers, and a pair of socks. He was examined and the lower
part of his shirt was found to be covered with blood in front.
It was about where the blood would strike had he stood over the
woman by the side of the bed.
There was a blood mark on the back of the neck of the shirt,
just such a mark as would be made by the woman if she had thrown
up her hand and seized him while she was struggling in a death
grasp. there was a splash of blood on the waistband of the
shirt, and it was plain that an attempt had been made to wash it
off.
There were blood stains on one of his socks. On the outside jamb
of the door of room 33, the room that Frenchy had been assigned
to, there were blood marks that looked as though the door had
been pushed open with just the tips of bloody fingers.
On the inside of the door were blood marks that looked as though
the door had been pushed shut with the inside upper half of a
hand of bloody fingers. There were also blood marks on the door
of Room 31, where the murder was committed.
There were spots of blood in the hall, very small and hardly
discernible. There were spots on the floor of room 33. There was
a stain of blood on the chair in room 33, as though a murderer
had sat down on it.
There were clots of blood on the blanket of the bed. It was an
old army blanket. The spots were of human blood. The other
stains on the blanket looked as though bloody hands had been
wiped on it. There was blood on the bedtick. There were no
sheets on the bed.
After all this blood had been found and after the examination of
Frenchy's clothing we sent and got a bone finger nail cleaner
and we cleaned out the dirt from beneath the finger nails of the
prisoner we had. That dirt was analyzed and in it were found
traces of human blood.
Now as to the man who went to the room with Shakespeare, we
arrested Frenchy No. 2, about whom there has been so much talk,
on Sunday morning at 5 o'clock. We found that he had spent the
night of the murder at a place four and a half miles away from
the scene of the murder.
The people he was living with convinced us that it would have
been impossible for him to be away from the house for two hours
that night without their knowledge, and we are satisfied that it
would have taken him much time to go from where he was to the
scene of the murder and return. We simply let Frenchy No. 2 go.
The man who went to the room with Shakespeare followed the
custom of the other men who take women to the hotel and went out
in a short time. There is this to be said of him. If he is an
honest man he will naturally not come forward and acknowledge
the fact that he went to the hotel with a woman. He would be
ashamed to do it.
Now, as to the prisoner's stories. In the first place he has
lied to us in every instance when he has made a statement. He
claimed at first that he did not stop at the hotel the night of
the murder; that he did not have a room in the hotel. He said he
slept in Brooklyn that night.
We found out that he did not sleep at the place he said he did
in Brooklyn, and that he did have a room at the hotel.
Fitzgerald came forward then and made him admit the incident
about the pennies.
Then he claimed to have come to New York the Wednesday morning
previous to the murder from Jamaica, L.I., where he said he had
been employed working about a hotel. I sent men to Jamaica. They
could not find the place he described or any place he was
employed in.
Wishing to give him every chance to clear himself, on Sunday
morning at 6 o'clock I sent him to Jamaica handcuffed to a
detective. He could not find the place he had said he worked at,
nor could he find the man he had said he worked for.
He was brought back and locked up. We found out that he had been
discharged on April 13 from the Queens County Penitentiary after
serving a thirty-day sentence for vagrancy.
When confronted by the women we had arrested, Mary Ann Lopez,
Lizzie Sullivan, and the others, he claimed not to know them.
'Me no know them,' he said.
The women insisted that they did know him and that he knew them,
and finally made him admit that he knew them.
Mary Miniter, the woman who described the old woman
Shakespeare's companion, has admitted that she has told several
falsehoods in the case, but she still insists the man was a
blonde. She is a woman of exceedingly bad character, an opium
and morphine fiend and she consorts with Chinamen.
The night of the murder she occupied a room in the hotel with a
man she met in the barroom. She could not identify Frenchy No.2
when he was arrested.
Frenchy, in the stories he told, explained how the blood got on
him, and in every instance, his stories were run down and found
to be rank lies. He has lied about everything. He had hardly
told a truth since he was arrested.
Now we come to the knife with which the murder was committed. We
cannot trace the knife to Frenchy or any one else. It is a very
common sort of knife and such as might be used on banana ships.
It is so common and cheap that there is really no way of tracing
it.
It is such a knife as might have been used about a kitchen to
peel potatoes with. No man who had premeditated murder would
have taken that knife with him to commit the deed. We are now
working to try and trace the knife to Frenchy. That is why the
inquest was adjourned today to give us time.
I have all the evidence in the case in writing. There are some
things I cannot tell at this time, because they would tend to
interfere with us in our work.
Frenchy may be able to explain the presence of blood on his
shirt. He may be able to explain the presence of the blood on
his shoulder, but how can he explain the blood under his
fingernails? ]]
#Post#: 6658--------------------------------------------------
Re: ***East Side Story: The Book On-Site***
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: March 14, 2026, 5:20 am
---------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER 2, conclusion
FRENCHY SEEN BY A REPORTER
Inspector Byrnes this afternoon allowed an Evening World
reporter to see the prisoner Frenchy.
The Inspector refused, however, to allow the reporter to speak
to him or to allow the prisoner to make a statement, for reasons
he did not see fit to explain.
The reporter was escorted down to the cells by Detective Sgt.
Mulholland and allowed to stand in the officers' room while the
prisoner was brought out.
Frenchy is a tall, ungainly, awkward man, about 5 feet 10 or 11
inches high, and will probably weigh about 160 pounds.
Apparently, he is about thirty-four or thirty-five years old,
and his nationality would seem to be wonderfully indefinite.
His general appearance is that of a Moor or an Arabian, while
there are slight indications of negro and French and Italian
descent. His complexion is that of a Turk.
His eyes are black and rather small, his gaze restive, and he is
wonderfully disinclined to look one directly in the face.
His hair is black, half curly and half straight, and his head
slopes back gradually from the forehead to a high point in the
rear, denoting large self-esteem. Phrenological marks of
ignorance-almost idiocy-and sensuality are predominant.
His mustache is rather slight, black, tending to gray, and today
he had a shirt, stubby three or four days growth of black beard.
Frenchy's features are generally sharp the nose especially, and
the chin much inclined that way. His lips are thin and his
cheekbones are high and prominent.
The suspect is a slim-built man, but his frame is apparently a
powerful one. His legs are long, as are also his arms, hands,
and fingers. He is flat-chested, and a little inclined to be
round-shouldered. His gait is the lazy shuffle of the indolent
negro.
Frenchy's clothes are much too small for him. His coat and vest
belong to a Spring suit of light gray material and the coat is
ragged and torn. The sleeves are fully two inches short for his
long, bony arms.
His shirt is a cheap light-striped tennis affair and his small
13 neck has difficulty in filling up the 16 collar.
His pants are of a dark, blue plaid pattern and fully too short
for his gaunt legs as his coat sleeves are for his arms. His
shoes are Congress gaiters, full of holes at the heel, through
which his large bare feet showed plainly.
Both Frenchy's hands are tattooed on the back in India ink, with
serpents, flowers, and various design, among which the Turkish
star and crescent is predominant.
On his right forearm is tattooed a dancing girl in short skirts,
surmounting the words, 'Fatma Mahomet makdon'. This would
indicate that the work was done by a Turk.
Near the dancing girl is the half-finished head of a second
girl, and next to that, the figure of a dancing man.
#Post#: 6662--------------------------------------------------
Re: ***East Side Story: The Book On-Site***
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: March 15, 2026, 5:45 pm
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CHAPTER 3
THE EAST RIVER HOTEL
A compilation of stories detailing events that took place in the
East River Hotel over the years.
Prior to the building also referred to by locals as the 'House
of All Drinks', and the 'Fourth Ward Hotel', it had served as
the site of the first German-language theater in Manhattan
dating back to 1843 according to the New York Herald (1)
The hotel's sordid history makes the bars and lodging houses of
the far more publicized East End of London look tame by
comparison. Water Street was also well-known for
rough dives such as John Allen's Tavern at 304 Water; Tommy
Hadden's 'Shanghai Hotel' at 374 Water Street: Kit Burns' 'Rat
Pit' at 273 Water, and situated next door at 18 Catherine Slip,
The Glass House.
Civil engineer Frederick Reinert, an employee of the Frank E.
Towle company at 25 Chambers Street, was called upon to provide
the dimensions of room 31 at the Coroner's Inquest and Trial.
Room 31 was measured at 12 ft, 8 inches by 7 ft., 6 inches.
Edward Fitzgerald stated at the Coroner's Inquest that there
were 15 or 16 rooms for guests on the fifth floor. Two
corridors with four rooms on each side of the hallways.
First-hand accounts from two New York social reformers during
their excursions to the hotel can be found in books by Dr.
Samuel Parkhurst (2) and Rev Alexander Irvine(3).
A lengthy article was published in the New York Herald five
weeks before the Brown murder detailing the experiences of
Salvation Army members Ballington and Maud Booth as they made
their ways up and down Water Street, in slum attire, chronicling
the sordid state of affairs. (4)
An affray took place at the hotel in 1871 when a young woman,
upon learning the nature of the hotel, demanded her wages after
two weeks of work. The request unleashed the fury of proprietor
Herman Jaeger ( typical of newspaper accounts, his surname is
spelled in several ways), his wife, and the bartender. All three
beat her severely. She managed to make her escape and
immediately went to the police station. Mrs. Yeager, who was one
tough nut, blackened the policeman's eye sent to arrest her and
her husband. (5)
A chronology of the subsequent events from January 1871 to its
closure :
6- Jaeger shoots his wife Eva point blank in the face. Is found
after running off and hiding next door ( Possibly the saloon
known as The Glass House) but does not appear to have been
punished for the shooting.
7- A domestic, Ann Wilson, after being sharply reprimanded by
Eva Jaeger, stabs Eva and receives 2 years in the state
penitentiary for women.
8- Jaeger serves a 'notice' to Police Superintendent Walling
'warning' him to remove the policemen who were posted in front
of the hotel
9- Tommy Thompson assaults Morris Slattery in the bar downstairs
at the hotel, which leads to Slattery's death the following day.
10-Thompson committed for trial for murder in the first degree.
He is acquitted.
11- In 1887, an ex-convict named Coffee took a woman to the
hotel. She would be found dead in Room 31. Two days later at the
Coroner's Inquest, he was released as it was proven he was not
involved with her death.
12- One rumor or possible fact was that down in the bar room in
the basement, it was possible to throw bodies directly into the
East River after they died or perhaps were murdered.
That section of the Lower East Side had been a land reclamation
project extending all the way up to Pearl and Cherry Streets.
13- A 44-year-old woman, Ann Foley, is found dead in the hotel
in Room 37 on the fifth floor of the hotel. She and a man named
Patrick Cleary had been living there since November 12th.
Cleary was held until he was eventually cleared of any
involvement in her death which was attributed to over-indulging
in drink.
According to his June 10th, 1901 affidavit, James Jennings was
no longer the proprietor of the East River Hotel. Tommy Thompson
would also leave the hotel sometime afterward.
14- The hotel is declared closed
15- Heinrich Stiehler wants a license to sell liquor at the
hotel, now renamed The Cambridge Hotel.
16- Albert T. Wheeler applies and is denied a license by the
Excise Board
17- Property foreclosure sale announced
The hotel is re-opened
18. Owner William Keyes, who had been the latest proprietor for
the past 18 months, is murdered while sitting out front of the
hotel. James Breen, his killer, was executed in Sing Sing in
December 1903.
19- Hotel condemned by the City. All furniture emptied from the
building
20- Inspectors sent to the hotel to make a final report are
roughly treated by residents
21- The rear of the building had settled over 13 inches. Over
100 people were living in the hotel at the time of its final
closure in November 1907.
1- New York Herald June 28, 1891
2- The Doctor And The Devil or Midnight Adventures of Dr.
Parkhurst Chas.W. Gardner 1894
3. From The Bottom Up, Alexander Irvine 1910
4. New York Herald March 15, 1891
5- New York Sun January 9, 1871
6- New York Daily Herald March 28, 1872
7- New York Herald August 9, 1879
8- New York Sun June 26, 1883
9- New York Times April 11, 1886
10- New York Times April 28, 1886
11- New York Sun April 25, 1891
12- Low Life 1991 Luc Sante
All the land, including Water Street, situated below
Cherry St.& Pearl St., was man-made and
as the result of a series of land reclamations
by the City of New York.
Water Street came into being in the 1730s.
13- New York Evening World December 10, 1891
14- New York Times February 19, 1894
15- New York Evening World November 24, 1894
16- New York Tribune November 17, 1895
17- New York Times February 1, 1899
18- Brooklyn Daily Eagle September 16, 1903
19- New York Tribune November 7, 1907
20- New York Tribune November 10, 1907
21- New York Sun November 11, 1907
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