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Carrie Brown : Murder In The East River Hotel
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DIR Return to: An Illustrated Encyclopedia:The 1891 Murder Of Carr...
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#Post#: 4254--------------------------------------------------
Sample From The Illustrated Encyclopedia: Evansville Courier
September 16, 1906
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: February 27, 2025, 10:04 am
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The September 16, 1906 Evansville ( Indiana) Courier article was
the largest newspaper article written about the case following
Ali's release from prison up to that point in time. It is
unique and somewhat mysterious in that some of the article's
content has, to date, not been found in any other New York
newspaper. It contains information that strongly suggests that
whoever wrote the anonymous piece was present at the hotel on
April 24th and in the capacity of a reporter.
It brings up the theory, originally suggested in 1900, that
Tommy Thompson, the hotel manager, was suspected by locals of
having committed the murder with robbery as the motive. It
contains a reasonable explanation as to why other reporters were
unable to see blood where the police would.
To date, the identity of the author is unknown.
HTML https://i.imgur.com/47zYYdh.jpg
MYSTERY OF ONE OF NEW YORK'S EAST SIDE CRIMES
Evansville Courier: September 16, 1906
New York- September 15.......
As I looked upon the ugly, withered features of the old hag, the
rouge daubed thick above the hollow in the sallow cheeks, the
cheap paper roses fastened in the tumbled gray hair, I felt that
death, even in its most dreadful form, was a blessing. The
earthly sufferings of the poor creature at least were ended, and
the miserable life of sin and shame a thing of the past. She was
60 years old,, if she was a day, and the inhuman butcher who had
terminated her career had anticipated Father Time by but a
narrow margin.
"Old Shakespeare"--her real name was Carrie Brown--was one of
the frequenters of the low sailor dives that a dozen years ago
flourished along the water front in the vicinity of Cherry Hill.
They are not so bad now as they used to be, nor are they run as
openly. The East River Hotel, at Catherine Slip and Water
Street, was in the center of this infested district, and its
principal patrons were the harpies and sailor men and the
thieves who habitually preyed upon both. It was on the morning
of Friday, April 24, 1891, that Shakespeare was found murdered
in a bedroom on the upper floor. Portions of her clothing had
been tied about her throat so tightly as to cause strangulation,
and in her dying moments she had been slashed by a knife in a
manner which suggested the crimes of Jack The Ripper in London's
Whitechapel, the brutality of which had for several weeks been
shocking the civilized world.
The room in which the crime had been committed was about seven
feet wide and by twelve deep. Excepting the bloodstains on the
floor, the floor and walls were bare. The furniture consisted of
a broken wash stand, a rickety wooden chair and a dirty narrow
bed, so old that the paint had been worn off. There was a tin
'growler' on the wash-stand that contained the dregs of stale
beer,
BLOOD STAINED KNIFE THE ONLY CLUE
The dead woman lay across the bed on her right side with her
right arm doubled under her and the left arm across her breast.
The bed clothing was disarranged and it was evident that there
had been a fierce struggle. The only clue left by the murderer
was the weapon with which, presumably, the cutting had been
done--the wooden handled case knife, the blade of which had been
ground down to a point and sharpened to a keen edge. There were
three niches cut on either side of the handle. The knife,
stained a dull red, was found beneath the counterpane near the
foot of the bed. The key to the room, attached to a brass tag
bearing the number 31, corresponding with the number on the
door, was missing, and our conclusion was that the murderer had
carried it away in his pocket.
It was between 9 and 10 o'clock in the afternoon that Eddie
Fitzgerald, who was known as the 'door clerk' in the East River
Hotel. reported the murder at the Oak Street police station,
with news that a Jack The Ripper had broken loose in New York
spread rapidly and aroused great public interest which put the
newspaper men as well as the police on their mettle. Inspector
Byrnes, the head of the Detective Bureau, took personal charge
of the investigation, and among the crack detectives actively
engaged with him was Inspector Alex Williams, since retired;
Inspector McLaughlin, at that time a captain and now in command
of the Detective Bureau, and George McClusky, then a
detective-sergeant, who has since climbed to the rank of
inspector, Captain Dick O'Connor, who formerly served under
Byrnes, was in command of the Oak Street precinct, and gave him
valuable aid.
SHAKESPEARE'S DARK HISTORY
The newspapers assigned their best men to the task of solving
the mystery. Old Shakespeare, we learned, had been cruising
about Cherry Hill for about four or five years. She had been
living in a house conducted by a Mrs. Harrington at No. 49
Oliver Street. She had left there about 9 o'clock on the night
of the murder and later visited the bar of the East River Hotel
with Mamie Haley, another notorious old derelict. They had a
glass of beer each and Shakespeare stopped to talk with Mary
Miniter, the housekeeper, before going into the street. She
spoke with maudlin sentiment of her husband, the master of a
Yankee clipper ship, who years before had died of fever on the
West African coast, and of her two grown daughters who were
decently married and living in a New England town, little
dreaming of the life she led. It was about an hour before
midnight that she returned to the hotel accompanied by a man and
rang the bell of the side door. It was opened by Mary Miniter,
who later became a most important witness in the case.
"The man who came in with the old woman," Mary Miniter said,"
was about 32 or 35 years of age. he was about f feet 8 1/2
inches in height and slim in build. He had a long, straight,
sharp nose and a heavy blonde mustache. He wore a dark brown
cutaway coat, dark trousers, and a battered derby hat. I thought
he was a German. He and the woman both seemed to be sober.
"I asked him what priced room he wanted and he said a 50-cent
one. I said" What name?", and he replied C. Nicolai." I went to
the barroom and gave the clerk the name which he entered in the
register. I brought out a candle and some matches and the key to
room 31 and gave them to the man, telling him the room was on
the top floor at the end of the hall. As he was about to go
upstairs the woman asked if she could have a pint of beer. He
nodded his head without speaking and gave me a new dime out of a
pocketbook. I brought out a pint of mixed ale in a tin can and
handed it to the old woman. The pair started upstairs and that
was the last time I saw of them. It was Eddie Fitzgerald's place
and not mine to answer the doorbell, but Sam Shine, who was
tending bar that night, was playing cards in the back room and
Eddie was tending bar for him, so I went to the door.
Shakespeare and this man with her were the only ones I admitted
that night. Eddie let in all the others. I have no idea what
time Shakespeare's man went away. I don't think he was seen in
the hotel by anyone but myself.
There were eight bedrooms on the floor where Shakespeare was
killed, four on each side, with a narrow hall between. There was
a ladder leading from the hall to a scuttle on the roof, and we
found it was feasible to reach the street by crossing to the
roof of the adjoining tenement, which likewise had an open
scuttle and a public stairway. We made a careful examination of
the ladder and the scuttle for bloodstains and found spots which
at first looked like blood but later turned out to be paint. We
found a bowl containing bloody water in room 32, directly across
the hall from Shakespeare's room, where the murderer had
evidently stopped to wash his hands. the hotel register showed
that four rooms on the floor other than the death chamber had
been occupied the same night, but all had been abandoned before
the discovery of the crime and the chances of tracing the
fly-by-night occupants seemed slight.
It was about twelve hours after the murder had been reported to
the police that detectives arrested on suspicion a man known in
the neighborhood as "Frenchy". he was picked up in Water Street
near James Slip. He was a tall, stoop-shouldered,
repulsive-looking animal with low forehead, matted black hair
and bears, small beady eyes, a thin, hooked nose and hairy,
skinny arms that seemed abnormally long. His hands suggested the
claws of a vulture. The police record gave his age as 45 years.
His clothing was of the cheapest quality, consisting solely of a
well-worn dark coat, waistcoat and trousers, a coarse,
collarless shirt, shoes and stockings. His hat was battered
black derby. In a general way he looked like a Greek or Syrian
push-cart peddler. His language was a patois mixture of French
and the Arabic dialect of Algeria, and it was difficult to find
anyone who could converse intelligently with him.
FRENCHY HAD A BAD NAME
The women of the neighborhood said Frenchy was an associate of
Shakespeare and they gave him a very bad name. They said he had
frequently beaten women he picked up in the street and taken
their money from them; that many of the victims were mortally
afraid of him because of his brutality. Margaret Miniter when
confronted by Frenchy said he was not the man whom she had
admitted to the hotel with Shakespeare; that while Frenchy was
dark, Shakespeare's companion was light and had no beard. Eddie
Fitzgerald, however, recognized Frenchy as the man who had come
to the hotel alone the night of the murder about an hour later
than Shakespeare and her c ompanion. He had been assigned room
No.33, on the same floor with them, after paying 25 cents in
pennies for a night's lodging. Frenchy vigorously denied at
first that he had slept in the hotel, but when Fitzgerald
recalled to him the incident of the pennies, he admitted it. He
made the same admission to the newspaper men later.
It was subsequent to this that the detectives found a meagre
trail of blood spots leading from Shakespeare's room diagonally
across the hall to room 33, which Frenchy had occupied. On the
outer side of the door leading into Frenchy's room the
detectives also found the prints of finger tips as if some one
with a bloody hand had pushed open the door and tried to leave
as small a stain as possible. There was found also the print of
a bloody hand on the interior of the door where it had been
pushed shut again. On the bed covering, which looked very much
like an army blanket, the detective found more stains, as though
some one with bloody hand had wiped them there.
The fact that the newspaper men in their inspection of the
premises had failed to find the blood trails leading to French's
room, and also the blood in the room, was one of the arguments
offered later in support of a claim that this and other proofs
had been manufactured by the detectives; but it should be
remembered that the hallway wa dimly lighted, that the floors
and walls were grimy and dirty, and that when we were making out
inspection we were working on the theory that the murderer was
the man who brought Shakespeare to the hotel, and we did not
deem the condition of the other rooms of much significance. In
the recent Edwards mystery in New Haven a considerable time
elapsed before the blood stains on the stairs were discovered,
and I have known many other cases in which evidence that was
equally plain and important escaped notice for a longer period.
Stains of blood which had been partially washed out were found
on Frenchy's shirt and on one of his socks. The theory of the
police was that he had gone to the hotel knowing Shakespeare and
her companion had preceded him; that he had waited for the
companion to leave; and then had made a demand on the old woman
for what money she hadl that the murder had followed her refusal
to part with her money. It was supposed that Frenchy had crossed
from his own room to Shakespeare's in his stocking feet, thus
accounting for the blood on the bottom of one of his socks.
The untidy condition of Frenchy's finger nails attracted the
attention of Inspector Byrnes, and he sent to the nearest drug
store for a bone nail cleaner. Detective Sergeant William E.
Frink turned manicure and cleaned Frenchy's nails. The scrapings
were subjected to chemical and microscopical analyses, and the
result went far toward the conviction of Frenchy. Dr. Formad, of
the University of Pennsylvania, chief expert for the
prosecution, testified that he had found in the scrapings blood
corpuscles mixed with food substances.
THE KNIFE IDENTIFIED AS FRENCHY'S
Some of the witnesses who helped to weave the net about Frenchy
were necessarily of questionable character and untrustworthy,
but this was due to his peculiar environment and his evil
associations. These witnesses included employees of the East
River Hotel and women of the dives, who testified to this
intimacy with Shakespeare and to his brutality toward other
unfortunates; likewise three men, who had been fellow prisoners
with him in the Queens County Jail, and who swore that the
bloody knife found on Shakespeare's bed was very like one
Frenchy had in his possession while a prisoner. A jury which
heard all the evidence found Frenchy guilty of murder in the
second degree and in passing a life sentence on the convicted
man the late Recorder Smyth voiced this opinion:
" I am satisfied from the facts in this case that the jury
arrived at as proper a conclusion as human integrity and human
intelligence could do."
It was about six years after Frenchy's sentence to life
imprisonment that I next saw him. It came about in this way: The
French Consul-General, M. Bruwaert, received from Algiers a
letter from a French notary asking for information about one
Amer Ben Ali, who had been imprisoned for murder under the alias
of Frenchy.
“Amer Ben Ali," the notary wrote, "has a wife and two children
living in the interior of Algiers. He was a loyal citizen of
France and served as a member of the French Legion in Algiers
for eight years. he was discharged because two wounds received
in a battle with Arabs had incapacitated him from further
service."
It was on the strength of this letter that the consul began an
investigation with the aide of lawyer Ovide Robillard. Frenchy
had been transferred to the Asylum for Insane Criminals at
Matteawan, and it was there we found him. He was wonderfully
improved in his physical appearance and had picked up enough
English to converse fairly well. He was much surprised when told
that the French consul wished to help him.
"Were you ever in the French Army," he was asked.
"It was long ago," he said sadly. "It was in Algiers. I was
Zouave. My father and mother were Mohametans. They hate France,
but I run away. Eight years I served in army--many battles."
"Frenchy," said Robillard, "I want you to tell me upon your
honor as a soldier of France what you know about the murder of
the old woman Shakespeare?"
"Frenchy sprang from his chair, The words "soldier of France"
seemed to have electrified him and stirred within him the spirit
of some long-forgotten pride. With all the French fire and a
dash of Arabian intensity he exclaimed, throwing his head back
and raising his hands toward heaven dramatically:
" On honor of soldier of France I swear me never see this woman
until they show me dead body. On honor, monsieur, as Zouave."
Frenchy stooped and pulled up the left leg of his trousers and
showed an ugly round scar about three inches above his ankle.
"Arab bullet did that," he said. "I wish I died for France
then."
His face had been flushed and excited. It was a wonderfully
dramatic scene. But now the fire died out and the French soldier
became again the convicted criminal.. He told us about his life
in this country and something of his habits which did not agree
very well with the stories told at the trial of his alleged
associates. He said he slept in room 33 in the East River Hotel
the night of the murder, but that the blood was put on his
clothing by the police after he was taken into custody and that
the blood beneath his finger nails was his own blood drawn by
the instrument which had been used in removing the scrapings.
#Post#: 4255--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sample From The Illustrated Encyclopedia: Evansville Courier
September 16, 1906
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: February 27, 2025, 10:05 am
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THE STORY OF THE MISSING DANE
It was early in 1901, after Governor Black and Governor
Roosevelt had in turn refused to pardon Frenchy on the petition
of Robillard, that new evidence was brought to light which
seemed to have an important bearing on the Shakespeare
murder. George Damon, a whole sale dealer in printer's supplies,
at 44 Beekman Street, and a man of undoubted integrity and
disinterested motive, gave to this newspaper a statement which
was afterward put in the form of an affidavit and sent to
Governor Odell. Damon said that about a month before the
Shakespeare murder he hired a number of men at Castle Garden to
do some grading at his country place in Cranford, N.J. After the
work was completed he retained one of these foreigners--he
believes he was a Dane--whom he only knew as Frank, to assist
his hostler, who had broken his arm.
"The morning of the murder of Shakespeare." said Mr. Damon, "I
went out to my stable and found only my regular man, I asked him
where Frank was and he said he had been out all night and had
just gone to bed, and that I better not disturb him as he was
very ugly. Frank left a few days later. A maid servant in
cleaning up the room he had occupied found a key with a brass
tag which bore the number 31, and remarked that it was the same
number as that mentioned in the newspapers as the room of
Shakespeare. She also found a shirt with blood stains in the
room. I took the key and brought it to New York."
"The following day. I took one of my employees with me to the
East River Hotel. We sat at a table and had drinks while I
compared the key I had and the tag with those on the keyboard
back of the bar. It was exactly the same style of key and the
same style of tag with the corners clipped off."
The man Frank I have never seen since he left me in the night. I
judge he had been a sailor, because he did some splicing of rope
while he was with me, His hair was light. He was about five feet
ten inches tall, rather strong but not very fleshy and about 35
years old. He had a vicious temper and was of a sullen
disposition. He was particularly ugly when drinking."
Mr. Damon explained his reasons for not giving his evidence to
the police at the trial of Frenchy. The murder, he said, was
creating world-wide interest and he dreaded the publicity for
himself and his family; also, while he did not believe Frenchy
killed old Shakespeare, he felt certain that he was a dangerous
and disreputable character and better off under restraint.
TOMMY THOMPSON ACCUSED
About the time the application for a pardon was made to Governor
Roosevelt in March 1900, I was told that a man then employed in
one of the large department stores, who had formerly been a
frequenter of the East River Hotel, knew the true story of
Shakespeare's murder. It was with some difficulty that I gained
this man's confidence and induced him to make a statement, and
then only on condition that his name should never be revealed.
At the time the crime was committed, he told me there were six
persons who knew all about it, but dared not open their mouths
for fear of vengeance. All of them were connected in one
capacity or another with the East River Hotel, and some of them
were forced to appear as witnesses against Ben Ali. The man
alleged to have done the murder was Tommy Thompson ,the night
manager of the Hotel, an ex-convict and one of the toughest men
in the old Fourth Ward. He was known as a "knife-fighter" and
had killed his man in the very East River Hotel where
Shakespeare was murdered, afterward setting the body up on a
beer keg in front of the hotel, where it was discovered by a
policeman. His 'pals' swore him out of his trouble, claiming his
act was in self-defense, He was a heavy drinker and a terror
when drunk.
"Tommy and Red Carroll were drinking in the bar room the night
of the murder," said my informant, "and Tommy was so crazy drunk
that Sam Shine had been placed in charge for the night.
Shakespeare entered the hotel late in the evening, accompanied
by a stranger who displayed a considerable sum of money and who
left her in the room on the top floor where her mangled remains
were later found. Tommy Thompson knew old Shakespeare well
enough to believe that she had gotten most of the stranger's
money before he left, and he went up to get it. The old woman
was not an easy giver-up, and Tommy in a drunken fury strangled
her and did the cutting."
"While Tommy was alive no one would have dared to breathe a word
to an outsider. Tommy or one of his gang would have cracked a
squealer. He died of delirium tremens afterward."
It was after Frenchy had served eleven years of his sentence
that Governor Odell pardoned him, in April 1905 ( sic), on
condition that he go back to Algiers. In granting the pardon the
Governor simply said that doubt had been raised as to his guilt,
and that he was going to give him the benefit of it. The last
time I saw Frenchy he was waving a farewell to America from the
deck of the French liner, La Touraine.
If Frenchy was unjustly convicted--which in my opinion is
extremely doubtful--it may be truthfully said that seldom has a
miscarriage of justice worked less injustice.
#Post#: 4256--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sample From The Illustrated Encyclopedia: Evansville Courier
September 16, 1906
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: February 27, 2025, 10:22 am
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Comments welcome... ;)
#Post#: 4257--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sample From The Illustrated Encyclopedia: Evansville Courier
September 16, 1906
DIR By: Kattrup
Date: February 27, 2025, 4:59 pm
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Not sure what to comment on, Howard - are you reproducing the
entire text in the book?
The last line is a bit complicated, but the intended meaning is
essentially the same as Damon's perspective: if Ali was
innocent, the miscarriage of justice (his conviction) did not do
an injustice.
Ali actually deserved to be in jail, even if he wasn't the
murderer!
It's interesting that the reporter claims to not only have been
present at the murder scene in 1891, but also around six years
later, when Bruwaert took up his case, and he claims to have
gone personally with Bruwaert and Robillard to see Ali in
Matteawan. And he was also present when Ali sailed off after his
release.
It seems likely that the reporter was associated with Robillard
in some way, in order to have this later, long-term connection
with the case.
#Post#: 4259--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sample From The Illustrated Encyclopedia: Evansville Courier
September 16, 1906
DIR By: Kattrup
Date: February 27, 2025, 5:30 pm
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I tried looking for the "Murdock" who did the illustration of
Ali, but no luck.
Do you have any idea who he might be?
#Post#: 4261--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sample From The Illustrated Encyclopedia: Evansville Courier
September 16, 1906
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: February 27, 2025, 6:16 pm
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Pete:
The material I posted here is in the book, in its entirety.
Sorry, but I can't find the sketch artist for the article.
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Not sure what to comment on, Howard - are you reproducing the
entire text in the book?
The last line is a bit complicated, but the intended meaning is
essentially the same as Damon's perspective: if Ali was
innocent, the miscarriage of justice (his conviction) did not do
an injustice. Ali actually deserved to be in jail, even if he
wasn't the murderer!
It's interesting that the reporter claims to not only have been
present at the murder scene in 1891, but also around six years
later, when Bruwaert took up his case, and he claims to have
gone personally with Bruwaert and Robillard to see Ali in
Matteawan. And he was also present when Ali sailed off after his
release.
It seems likely that the reporter was associated with Robillard
in some way, in order to have this later, long-term connection
with the case.
1- The author of the piece said:
If Frenchy was unjustly convicted--which in my opinion is
extremely doubtful--it may be truthfully said that seldom has a
miscarriage of justice worked less injustice.
To me, that might also mean that the reporter believed Ali was
guilty and that his conviction at the trial was justified...but
if he were innocent, then him not being around for
ten years was not too much of an injustice. Similar to what you
interpret it, but with a nuance to it.
2- I figured you would pick up on the inferences to Robillard
and a journalist going to see Ali in Matteawan ( 1897) section.
One did....Charles Salinger Salamon. Salomon and Robillard
signed a joint affidavit in 1901.
That section of the article is very suggestive of a link to
Salamon as being the author. While I transcribed it, I thought
it was a certainty that it
was Salamon....and that after all these years, we finally know
who wrote it. Yahoo!
However....and alas....Salamon was born on June 7th, 1874....16
years old at the time of the murder..... and does not seem to
have been our huckleberry.
#Post#: 4262--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sample From The Illustrated Encyclopedia: Evansville Courier
September 16, 1906
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: February 27, 2025, 6:28 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Pete:
I think there's a real good chance that 'Murdock' used the
Nashville Banner photo from April 1902 to create the Courier
article's sketch
HTML https://i.imgur.com/me3MEOu.jpg
#Post#: 4265--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sample From The Illustrated Encyclopedia: Evansville Courier
September 16, 1906
DIR By: Kattrup
Date: February 28, 2025, 2:49 am
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: Howard Brown link ---
>
> Pete:
>
> I think there's a real good chance that 'Murdock' used the
Nashville Banner photo from April 1902 to create the Courier
article's sketch
>
>
--- End Quote ---
Absolutely agree. Good spot. Now we have to wonder how he got or
knew about that photo. I’m immediately thinking it was supplied
by the journalist, whose longstanding interest in the case
implies he’d have such material.
If you have access to Evansville Courier from that period, have
you noticed if Murdock’s a regular contributor?
That might help identify him, if he was a Courier staff member.
#Post#: 4266--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sample From The Illustrated Encyclopedia: Evansville Courier
September 16, 1906
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: February 28, 2025, 6:08 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Pete:
Nina and I spent a few hours after you mentioned Murdock trying
to locate him...came up with nothing.
I'll look into the Courier per your suggestion in about ten
minutes.
#Post#: 4267--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sample From The Illustrated Encyclopedia: Evansville Courier
September 16, 1906
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: February 28, 2025, 7:29 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Pete:
Despite finding these two illustrations in the same issue of the
Courier....I still cannot pinpoint who this guy was.
I will leave it as it is and if we do find out who he the hell
he is, I'll share it. He may have been an Indiana-based
illustrator,
since the baseball player played in the Central League ( all
Mid-West teams). James Freeman of the Evansville River Rats.
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