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#Post#: 1988--------------------------------------------------
The 'Well Known Contractor' Was A Clerk In A Hardware Store In
Cranford - New Discoveries
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: August 10, 2023, 4:06 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Can't tell you how happy I am to provide yet another
bald-faced lie by George Damon and one of his associates, John
A. Lee.
Up to this afternoon, until Nina did some digging, the
presumption has always been that the well-known contractor, John
R. Lee, was the man who provided an affidavit along with 11
other men, I have the names listed on the Adventures In
Affidavits thread. I also set up a thread about the peculiar
signature to John Lee's affidavit as well.
I brought up the fact that the affidavit signed 'John A. Lee',
which I will post now finds him declaring he was a contractor
and also lived in Cranford to Nina..... and she went to work.
HTML https://i.imgur.com/VBWDp35.jpg
and his signature which he wrote correctly after all :
HTML https://i.imgur.com/dmDajMW.jpg
Now, one could argue that John A. Lee forgot his own middle
initial twice on a serious, official document. But, I don't
think that anyone would buy that.
You see, John A. Lee did live in Cranford but we now have
evidence that he filed his affidavit under false pretenses when
he swore to an affidavit claiming he was a contractor.
He was a clerk-salesman in a hardware store in Cranford!. The
real John R. Lee never lived in Cranford and most certainly was
well known whereas John A. Lee, the man who signed the affidavit
sold hammers. He lived on ( different numbers depending on the
year) Forest Avenue in Cranford. The real John R. Lee was a
Paterson, NJ resident, who as we already knew passed away in
1915 and while living in Ohio.
Damon misled the authorities with his 'friend' being a
well-known businessman which the real John R. Lee was. You can
find hundreds of articles on John R. Lee in any newspaper
archive.
It is important to know that Damon was no dummy. He was a sneaky
bastard. He, at no time in the four affidavits, mentions John
R. Lee as being the person who advised him to not come forward
in 1891. However, he had to have mentioned the real John R.
Lee's name and his status in North N.J. for the press to arrive
at the conclusion that Damon was referring to John R. Lee and
not some guy who sold screwdrivers.
John A. Lee was a clerk. Damon couldn't toss names around like
this hardware store clerk's name to garner more credibility for
his story.
From the New York Sun, June 2nd, 1901, the newspaper with the
most 'crime-scene' investigators on the fifth floor of the East
River Hotel on April 24th ( Fitting, innit?)
HTML https://i.imgur.com/cWuTBSX.jpg
The extent to which this entire hoax was taken is really
remarkable.
#Post#: 1989--------------------------------------------------
Re: The 'Well Known Contractor' Was A Clerk In A Hardware Store
In Cranford - New Discoveries
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: August 10, 2023, 4:09 pm
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Does anyone believe a hardware store clerk would engage in
lively debate or even be drinking with members of the New York
Bar in class-conscious 19th-century New York?
It could be believed if it was the real John R. Lee and not,
ahem, a clerk from a hardware store.
Washington Times
May 23, 1901
************
HTML https://i.imgur.com/vhVV8CH.jpg
#Post#: 1990--------------------------------------------------
Re: The 'Well Known Contractor' Was A Clerk In A Hardware Store
In Cranford - New Discoveries
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: August 10, 2023, 4:21 pm
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This is Lee's affidavit....the hardware clerk, that is.
John A. Lee
State of New York, City & County of New York
I, John A. Lee, contractor, residing at Cranford, New Jersey,
depose and says:
I am a resident of Cranford, State of New Jersey, and have been
for twenty years. I am acquainted with Mr. George Damon, of the
firm of Damon and Peets and have known him for the past eighteen
years.
I heard and read about the murder of one 'Shakespeare' which
took place in the City of New York in April 1891. A few days
after the murder in question, I went riding with Mr. George
Damon one afternoon to Scotch Plains. Mr. George Damon then
told me that one of his maidservants had found a shirt with
blood stains on it and a key bearing the same number as the
number of the room where Shakespeare had been murdered. He said
that the said articles had been found in the room upstairs in
the stable which had been occupied by a man he had employed
temporarily.
Mr. Damon also told me that he would take the key to New York
and compare it with the other keys in the hotel where the murder
had been committed.
When we returned home, Mr. Damon showed me the key which was an
ordinary cheap key with a tag on it with corners clipped. The
tag had the same number as the number of the room mentioned in
the papers as being the one in which Shakespeare was murdered,
but I cannot remember the exact denomination.
I advised Mr. Damon to keep the matter quiet, as I did not
believe that Frenchy could be convicted; moreover knowing the
dangerous character of this man in question, I was afraid for
the safety of my friend, Mr. Damon, and the safety of someone of
his family, should the police fail to catch him.
Shortly afterward Mr. Damon told me that he had gone to the
hotel and compared the key and the said key was exactly the same
as the keys on the key board in said hotel.
Sworn to by John A. Lee May 31 (?), 1901
#Post#: 1991--------------------------------------------------
Re: The 'Well Known Contractor' Was A Clerk In A Hardware Store
In Cranford - New Discoveries
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: August 10, 2023, 4:42 pm
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Keep in mind that the affidavits were never published or seen by
the general public and even then, only available after a certain
amount of time.
This would prevent the real John R. Lee from knowing anything
about what Damon and his friend pulled off and possibly calling
into question what was being assumed as his
participation in Damon's charade.
#Post#: 1994--------------------------------------------------
Re: The 'Well Known Contractor' Was A Clerk In A Hardware Store
In Cranford - New Discoveries
DIR By: Michael Banks
Date: August 11, 2023, 12:01 pm
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Another great find from Nina.
As my gran used to say “well that’s a turn up for the books.”
My first question was going to be - how come John R. Lee didn’t
pipe up but you’ve already answered that one How.
So….Lee wasn’t the Lee. Jennings said that the key wasn’t from
the ERH and Damon’s Farmhand wasn’t the same guy seen by Miniter
and Kelly. Add the pathetic excuses that Damon gave for not
coming forward and the feebleness of his wife’s not knowing the
maids name and the strangeness of her keeping the key in the
first place….and I’d say that I’d trust George Damon about as
much as I’d trust Ted Bundy as janitor of a nurses home!
#Post#: 1997--------------------------------------------------
Re: The 'Well Known Contractor' Was A Clerk In A Hardware Store
In Cranford - New Discoveries
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: August 11, 2023, 2:04 pm
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Mike:
I'm currently having to start all over again writing my planned
case guide with material previously unseen...for the third time.
The stuff that has been unearthed in just the past three days is
the reason.
Yeah..memory was at a premium for Damon, Lee, and Brennan when
it came time for submitting their affidavits.
Lee and Brennan forget the number on the key tag, Damon can't
recall his trusted employees' names and couldn't find them again
if he had to, and so on and so on.
#Post#: 2036--------------------------------------------------
Re: The 'Well Known Contractor' Was A Clerk In A Hardware Store
In Cranford - New Discoveries
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: August 14, 2023, 6:41 am
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Some thoughts....
How Damon and Lee pulled off this stunt with the notary public
was remarkable.
John A. Lee swore to the fact that he was a Cranford-based
contractor. He knew better than to take it any further than
that.
Only after the false occupation was submitted and notarized on
Lee's affidavit, did Damon begin telling reporters about his
well-known
'contractor' friend having a conversation with an attorney at a
party, which led to the decision by Damon to come forward.
The anonymous attorney never came forward although it would be
extraordinarily unlikely that he had not read about or heard of
his encounter or, to take it one step further, come forward
himself and verify that this important tete-a-tete with the
hardware clerk actually happened. Of course, he didn't.
John A. Lee is in a conversation with an attorney he didn't know
beforehand and he doesn't bother to find out what the lawyer's
name was. Reporters, as they were being told this story by
Damon, would unhesitatingly ask Damon what that lawyer's name
was in order to develop this into what appeared to be a
sensational, headline-grabbing, and important new chapter in the
Brown Murder story. Once more, no name is published. Did
Damon's memory fail once again?
Damon's fabrication of this encounter was Damon's way of letting
one and all know he had 'tested the waters' by using his clerk
friend in order to see what an attorney would suggest. Had he
forgotten the important 'get out of trouble' missive from his
friend, the Governor of New Jersey, so soon?
In Damon's 1st affidavit, he swore to the following :
"Had I been instrumental in having 'Frank' arrested, I felt
convinced, knowing the man, that my life or the life of some of
my family would have been endangered, but I feel now that it is
my duty to make this affidavit. What I know of this man, I am
convinced that this man 'Frank' I had in my employ was the
murderer of that woman."
Ah, 'my duty'....it's always heart-warming to see a man who went
from stating in his own affidavit that he felt Ali belonged in
prison and was better off in prison take that quantum leap from
judge and jury to a grandfatherly benefactor to the hoi polloi
and salt of the earth.
So, what was the real reason he came forward? Because of a
loose-lipped friend whose remarks led to the attorney at the
party telling Lee to tell his friend to do the right thing and
bring the key to the authorities? Or was it because Damon felt
the pangs of conscience and decided to do the right thing on his
own?
It is absurd to think that the apocryphal tale told by Damon,
not Lee, ever occurred. Try to imagine a hardware clerk
hobnobbing with lawyers over Scotch and soda back in the days of
class-conscious Gilded Age New York.
It never dawned on the purveyors of this sham story that the
attorney that the hardware clerk-slash-phony contractor was
talking to might just go to the authorities himself and have
them investigate what the clerk was doing at the time of the
murder ten years earlier or what his friend, who had a business
a scant mile walk away in the Lower East Side, was doing in
April 1891.
Attorneys, in America, are officers of the court.
It would require the most astounding piece of luck for this
hardware clerk to be in the same room at the same time with one
of the trial's attorneys a decade earlier, wouldn't it?
#Post#: 2037--------------------------------------------------
Re: The 'Well Known Contractor' Was A Clerk In A Hardware Store
In Cranford - New Discoveries
DIR By: Kattrup
Date: August 14, 2023, 7:45 am
---------------------------------------------------------
An extraordinary tale, Howard.
I’m not sure what would have prevented the real Lee to speak up,
after all the papers wrote about him in connection with the
case?
I mean, you say the affidavits were not available but the papers
identified the real Lee?
#Post#: 2038--------------------------------------------------
Re: The 'Well Known Contractor' Was A Clerk In A Hardware Store
In Cranford - New Discoveries
DIR By: Kattrup
Date: August 14, 2023, 7:56 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Howard, I have to say I’m seeing quite a few hits on John A Lee
of Cranford being in charge of bids for aqueduct contracts, in
lawsuits about lots and properties etc.
Just cursory, as I ‘m on my phone, but he doesn’t look like a
clerk that sells hammers…
In 1887 he was awarded contract for construction of a part of
the Croton Aqueduct, being the lowest bidder.
In 1902 there’s a John A Lee as Plumbing inspector in NY,
earning 1500$ a year.
He gets a lot of mentions, probably enough to be considered a
well-known contractor?
to me it looks like the papers mistook John R for John A.
#Post#: 2039--------------------------------------------------
Re: The 'Well Known Contractor' Was A Clerk In A Hardware Store
In Cranford - New Discoveries
DIR By: Kattrup
Date: August 14, 2023, 8:08 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Check out his signature for the 15.000$ dollar contract for
shaft 15 1/2 of the Croton Aqueduct:
HTML https://i.imgur.com/WOpPc8I.jpg
He worked for a company called O’Brien and Clark, they won
contracts for other parts of the aqueduct.
He seems to have been a plumber, was elected vice president of
the NY Plumbers’ association, and later inspector of various
plumbing-like offices, it seems.
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