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Carrie Brown : Murder In The East River Hotel
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#Post#: 7268--------------------------------------------------
Mary Reilly: In Room 32?
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: August 28, 2026, 6:03 pm
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Among the least mentioned women who were either in the hotel or
arrested....or in the hotel and arrested...Mary Reilly.
Mary may have been the person listed on the Hotel register in
room 32, which was across the hall from Room 31
and next door to Room 33, Ali's room.
A few newspapers published the names written down on the hotel
register....naturally, no two were alike.
The New York Sun claimed Ali had been listed under the name
'Buckley' in Room 33. This was reported on April 25th.
The New York Tribune did a little better job of reporting here,
placing two men in Room 30, directly from the register
... one was named...surprise... Buckley, the other named Murphy.
Both had left the hotel before the police began rounding
up potential witnesses. This was also reported on April 25th.
My money is on the NY Tribune's version.
Mary was arrested along with a group of others following the
discovery of Carrie's body.
New York Evening World
April 30, 1891
************
THE INQUEST.
Coroner Schultze began the inquest on the murdered woman this
afternoon.
He notified Inspector Byrnes this morning to have Mary Miniter,
Bartender Eddie Fitzgerald,
of the East River Hotel; Proprietor James Jennings, "Dublin
Mary" Briscoe, Mary Harrington,
John "Frenchy," Detectives Doran and Griffin, William Bekkle,
Mary Reilly, Lizzie Carter and
Florence May present at the Coroner's office at 2.30 P. M. to
tell what they know of the
crime and its discovery.
Now....This is from the Coroner's Inquest.
Wellman and House questioning Sam Shine at the Coroner's
Inquest:
By Mr. Wellman:
Q You are allowed to let the rooms to single women but not to
single men?
A. Yes, sir.
By The Coroner:
Q Why was the room let to this man on that night?
A The boy was ignorant of the rules.
By Mr. Wellman:
Q You ordinarily attend to it?
A. Yes, sir.
Q And that night you were playing cards?
A. Yes, sir.
Q Did Fitzgerald break the rules because he didn't know it?
A. Yes, sir.
By Mr. Friend:
Q You know he was not aware that that was the rule?
A Well, I cannot swear; he told me he didn't know.
Q How long has he been there?
A. About two or three months.
Q And had been acting as first broom during all that time?
A. Yes, sir.
By Mr. Wellman:
Q How often does it occur that a man will let a room that way
before?
A. Never in my time.
By Mr. House:
Q If a man came up there and paid a woman for her services, you
did not consider that immoral?
A. Well, all I know about getting the money --
By Mr. Wellman:
Q. You do not want vice up there?
A. No, sir.
By A Juror:
Q. We find here three rooms, 11, 40 and 33, twenty-five cents a
piece?
A. They were all single rooms; he was the only single man that
went up there.
So.....It occurs to me that since the Hotel, as a rule, didn't
allow single men into the top floors of the
hotel....and Shine testified that Ali was the only man who was
in a room by himself....then maybe
Mary Reilly was in room 32. Women were not prevented from taking
single rooms.
I'm just trying to find out why she was arrested....it may have
simply been because she was in the hotel.
Comments welcome.
Edited to correct a mistake regarding the rooms.
#Post#: 7270--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mary Reilly: In Room 32?
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: August 30, 2026, 7:26 am
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The only paper I've come across that mentions Reilly, or in this
case, Riley, as being
the guest in room 32 by gender is this Philadelphia Inquirer
clipping.''
I'm using an AI transcription tool for the article, but
personally I'm not sure that it was
a man in room 32.
Philadelphia Inquirer April 25, 1891
Room 28 was occupied by John Walsh and wife; room 29, by J.
Buckley;
room 30 by D. Connor and wife, and room 32 by a man named Riley.
At noon, the detective arrested an old crony* who knew the dead
woman,
but could not tell what she knew cause she was drunk.
They locked her up till she can sober up.....
*The 'old' crony was almost certainly Mary Healy.
This was the only reference in a New York paper I've been able
to locate placing Reilly
in room 32...but it does not list the gender.
New York Sun, April 25, 1891
These rooms were 29, in which were "D. Connor and wife;
30, "J. Buckley;" 28, "J. Welch and wife;" 32, " Reilly," and
31. The diagram shows how the rooms lie.
"J. Buckley's" room is divided from that into which the
murdered woman led her companion by a thin
partition of pine boards. The slightest scuffling or the
faintest cry for help in 31 might have been heard
in 30, and the occupant of room 32 might also have heard it.
This is the clipping from the Philadelphia paper....it figures
that it would be hard to make out.
HTML https://i.imgur.com/Mz6lVCS.jpg
Shine, as already mentioned, said single men weren't allowed to
rent rooms.
.
Shine at the Inquest:
By The Coroner:
Q What is there unusual about letting a man up alone - letting a
man up there alone?
A. Men and women going up - men usually leave the woman behind,
and a man going
up on the top floor roams around sometimes for stealing and
sometimes for immoral purposes;
the rule of the hotel is not to allow them up alone because
they roam around.
However, he also responded to the question posed to him by the
Inquest juror that rooms
11, 40, and 33 were single rooms.
Room 11 was on the second floor ( or the first floor of
available rooms); Room 40 was on
the fifth floor ( or the fourth floor of available rooms); and
of course, 33 was on the fifth floor.
The price of rooms at the hotel ( in case you ever intend to
spend the night in their lavish suites,
shared as a public service message to Danish tourists visiting
the Lower East Side ::)) were;
Fifty cents for the fourth floor ( Fourth of the floors with
available rooms...or the fifth of the entire building)
Seventy-five cents for the third and second floors ( ....or the
fourth and third floors of the entire building)
One dollar on the first floor....( or the second floor of the
building)-----Eddie Fitzgerald, Coroner's Inquest- May 13, 1891
Number of rooms
Fourth floor of rooms- 15 actually the fifth floor of the
building
Third floor of rooms- 6 actually the fourth floor of the
building
Second floor of rooms 10 actually the third floor of the
building
First floor of rooms 5 actually the second floor of
the building
Ground floor 0 rooms - Bar, washroom, and
the lobby
-------Mary Corcoran, at the Coroner's Inquest- May 13, 1891
36 functioning rooms at the hotel, according to Mary Corcoran
on May 13, 1891, at the Coroner's Inquest.
Eddie Fitzgerald at the Inquest:
Q. You had sleeping apartments on the second floor?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And men and women could go into any room in the house?
A. Providing they put up enough money.
Q. What was your scale of prices?
A. Fifty, seventy-five cents and a dollar.
Q. Where were your fifty cent rooms?
A. Underneath
Q. The best rooms downstairs?
A. Yes, sir.
So, unless I'm mistaken, single men were not allowed access to
rooms on the fifth floor, but could
take a room on the floors below the top floor. It wouldn't make
sense if men were not allowed to
rent one dollar rooms or seventy-five cent rooms on the
corresponding floors.
#Post#: 7271--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mary Reilly: In Room 32?
DIR By: Kattrup
Date: August 30, 2026, 8:42 am
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I guess you'll have to go to a physical library to look up a
copy without the crease, Howard.
I am not sure there would be room to write "a wo", to me it
looks like "a m" would fit.
If you look at the line two lines down which also starts with a
partial "man" but is certainly "woman", the letters are indented
to accomodate the "wo" compared to the other line.
So to me it looks like it says "room 32 by a man named Riley".
This then would be at odds with hotel policy of not allowing
single men to occupy those rooms.
It would certainly fit if Mary Reilly was the occupant. Time to
visit a physical newspaper repository, Howard. I assume the
sites offering access to the historic newspapers all use the
same image (newspapers.com and inquirer.com)? I'm guessing there
would a public library with Inquirer holdings not far from you,
but I think you'll be disappointed, Riley was most likely a man.
#Post#: 7272--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mary Reilly: In Room 32?
DIR By: Kattrup
Date: August 30, 2026, 9:11 am
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This is from The Columbian (Bloomsberg), May 1 1891
[attachimg=1]
#Post#: 7273--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mary Reilly: In Room 32?
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: August 30, 2026, 10:26 am
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Pete:
Well done finding that out-of-town paper.
As to whether 'Riley' was actually a man, I'm not so sure.
The reason is the contradictory listings of who slept where.
This is from the NY Sun on April 25th:
These rooms were 29, in which were "D. Connor and wife;
30, "J. Buckley;"
28, "J. Welch and wife;"
32, " Reilly,"
and 31...........
Now this was in The Columbian ( Bloomsburg, Pa)
An examination of the register showed that
Room 28 was occupied by John Walsh and wife;
Room 29, by J. Buckley;
Room 30 by O'Connor and wife;
and Room 32 by a man named Riley.
The New York Tribune reference to Buckley and a man named Murphy
is included in the following post.
New York Tribune
April 25, 1891
*************
The register at the lodging-house showed that two men slept in
Room No. 30, adjoining the one in which the murder was
committed, on Thursday night. Their names were entered as J.
Buckley and E. Murphy, and one of them went to bed after the
murderer and his victim entered Room No. 31. Only a thin board
partition separates the rooms, and a slight noise in one can be
heard in the other. It would seem incredible that no sound of
the woman's death struggle or of the subsequent butchery was
heard by either Buckley or Murphy. Detectives were hunting for
the two men yesterday.
Keep in mind that the genders of 'Riley' and Buckley aren't
listed in the articles that have Buckley listed without Murphy.
I'll look for more examples.....again, thanks for finding that
article, buddy.
#Post#: 7274--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mary Reilly: In Room 32?
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: August 30, 2026, 11:12 am
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Lizzie Carter and Mary Russell spent the night on the fifth
floor. Russell was in Room 28.
Carter was taken into custody, but Russell wasn't....she left
early, only to be arrested later on.
Meriden (Ct.) Daily Republican
July 13, 1891
***********
HTML https://i.imgur.com/quihXOF.jpg
Evansville Courier
April 26, 1891
*************
HTML https://i.imgur.com/2tfqvac.jpg
J. Buckley and E. Murphy were in room 30, according to the New
York Tribune on April 25th:
The register at the lodging-house showed that two men slept in
Room No. 30, adjoining
the one in which the murder was committed, on Thursday night.
Their names were entered
as J. Buckley and E. Murphy, and one of them went to bed after
the murderer and his
victim entered Room No. 31. Only a thin board partition
separates the rooms, and a slight
noise in one can be heard in the other. It would seem
incredible that no sound of the
woman's death struggle or of the subsequent butchery was heard
by either Buckley or
Murphy. Detectives were hunting for the two men yesterday.
The New York Sun reported that Ali was registered in Room 33
under the name 'Buckley'.
These conflicting reports make me think there's a chance that
Reilly may have been a woman, Pete.
Also, Mary Reilly was arrested along with Carter and the other
girls....Carter had spent the night in the hotel.
#Post#: 7275--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mary Reilly: In Room 32?
DIR By: Kattrup
Date: August 30, 2026, 11:39 am
---------------------------------------------------------
It's possible, Howard. We know the names of the register were
(often) made up, so it could be anybody.
If Mary Russell was correct, she would have gone up with a man,
John Walsh, as his wife.
I think the Bloomberg paper copied the info from the
Philadelphia Inquirer.
#Post#: 7276--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mary Reilly: In Room 32?
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: August 30, 2026, 12:08 pm
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Pete:
The Inquirer article's dateline was 'Special to the
Inquirer'....New York-April 24th.
At present, I can't locate an article that placed a James Wilson
in one of the rooms, but I'm certain
I saw one. It was in an out-of-town newspaper and probably of no
consequence.
We know the names on the register were (often) made up, so it
could be anybody.
Good point, Pete.
#Post#: 7282--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mary Reilly: In Room 32?
DIR By: Kattrup
Date: August 31, 2026, 3:35 pm
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According to Pittsburgh Dispatch, April 25 1891, Mary Healy was
on the fourth floor, room 23, and Lizzie "who it is believed
knew the murdered woman" slept in room 16, fourth floor -
possibly Lizzie Carter, whose relatives stated she'd stayed at
the hotel that night.[attachimg=1]
#Post#: 7283--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mary Reilly: In Room 32?
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: August 31, 2026, 3:47 pm
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Nice work, Pete!
if true, that meant one of the two may still have been Mary
Russell, but not Carter.
Carter was arrested at the same time as Healy was. The following
is found in several
papers published on April 25th:
Buffalo Post
April 25, 1891
************
NEW YORK, April 252 P. M.The prisoners arrested by the police
last night on suspicion,
were committed by the coroner to the house of detention. They
are George Francois,
alias "Frenchy," William Becker, Mary Healy, Lizzie Carter,
Mary Lepez and Alice Sullivan.
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