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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#: 4300--------------------------------------------------
Sample #2 From The Illustrated Encyclopedia: The 1891 Murder Of
Carrie Brown -Borchard, 1932
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: March 7, 2025, 11:59 am
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BORCHARD, Edwin
Edwin Montefiore Borchard (October 17, 1884 – July 22, 1951) was
born in New York City. He was an American international legal
scholar, jurist, and Sterling Professor at the Yale Law School.
Was a leading advocate of innocence reform and compensation for
victims of wrongful conviction as well as the use of declaratory
judgments, his work in international law emphasized
non-intervention and neutrality.
Borchard's 'Convicting the Innocent: Sixty-Five Actual Errors of
Criminal Justice' ( 1932 ) contained a chapter covering the case
from 1891 up to Ali's release from prison in 1902 titled, "The
Key To Room 31". For many people up until the current decade (
2020s), Borchard's chapter was the most well-known literature on
the case. This chapter of Borchard's book was serialized and
found in several newspapers during the 1930s. There are a
number of errors in the text. Considering it was written 41
years after the murder, that's understandable.
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THE KEY TO ROOM 31
"Frenchy" — Ameer Ben All.
On the southeast corner of Catherine Slip and Water
Streets, on the Manhattan water front of the 1890's,
there flourished the East River Hotel, a squalid drinking
place and bawdy resort. At nine o'clock on Friday
morning, April 24, 1891, the night clerk, Eddie
Harrington, made his rounds of the hotel rooms, routing
out all those who had not already left. Most of the
rooms had been vacated. Room 31, however, was still
locked. He rapped lightly — no reply ; louder knocks — no
reply. Eddie applied his master key to the door. Peering
in, he was petrified by the ghastly sight of the
mutilated body of "Old Shakespeare," a dissolute woman of
sixty, a habitue of the neighborhood. She was a former
actress, and received her nickname because she frequently
quoted the Bard's plays when tipsy.
Her name was Carrie Brown.
Eddie, greatly excited, rushed to the first floor to
spread the news and call for the police, who soon
arrived, accompanied by newspaper reporters. The coroner
took charge of the body. An examination of the body
showed that the woman had been strangled, atrociously
slashed by a filed-down cooking knife, which was found on
the floor by the bed — and upon her thigh was cut the
sign of the cross. As a murder this was a challenge to
Chief Police Inspector Thomas Byrnes, who was justly
proud of his record for solving crime mysteries. The
cross on the victim's thigh gave the case a special
significance. It was the mark of "Jack the Ripper," the
notorious London murderer who had baffled Scotland Yard
by his nine brutal killings of women in the streets of
London from December, 1887, to January, 1891. The New
York Police Department had chided the London police about
the "Ripper" and boastfully let it be known that if
the latter appeared in New York with his evil doings,
he would be in the "jug" within thirty-six hours.
On April 25, 1891, the day after the murder, the New
York newspapers headlined the arrival of "Jack the
Ripper." Inspector Byrnes and his force concentrated upon
solving the crime. Investigation showed that "Old
Shakespeare" had arrived at the hotel at about eleven
o'clock with a male companion half her age, who gave a
name which was written down by the clerk as "C. Knick."
They were assigned Room 31, to which they repaired with
a tin pail of beer. Several of the hotel hang-abouts
saw the man and were able to supply descriptions of
him: a medium-sized, stocky, blond, seafaring man. This
man vanished and was never apprehended. The police combed
the water front for him in vain.
Some of "Old Shakespeare's" acquaintances were found,
among them Mary Ann Lopez, who had a frequent visitor
known in the neighborhood as "Frenchy." Although a
decided brunet, Frenchy's general appearance was otherwise
not greatly different from the description given of the
man who spent the night in Room 31 ; so Frenchy was
arrested, among numerous others, for questioning. He
professed not to be able to speak English. Many
languages were tried on him until it appeared that he
spoke Algerian Arabic: he was an Algerian Frenchman, named
Ameer Ben Ali.
On April 25, Frenchy was a suspect. On April 26, the
newspapers carried a police statement that he was
probably implicated as being a cousin of the murderer.
On Wednesday, April 29, the case was still unsettled,
with the police apparently at sea. Detective Kilcauley of
Jersey City reported to the police that a conductor
employed on the New Jersey Central was very sure he had
carried the murderer to Easton on his train. All the
while, Frenchy was kept in the star cell at the police
station.
On April 30, Inspector Byrnes gave several reporters the
news that the case against Frenchy was complete, and
that the police were convinced that he
was the murderer. It was admitted that Frenchy was not
"Old Shakespeare's" companion during the fatal night, but
it was said that Frenchy had spent the night in Room
33, across the hall from the murder chamber, and that
after the other man had left, Frenchy had crept across
the hall, robbed his victim and killed her, and then
crept back into his own room. As sketched by the
Inspector, the evidence against Frenchy consisted of blood
drops on the floor of Room 31 (the murder chamber),
and in the hall between Rooms 31 and 33 ( Frenchy 's
room) ; blood marks on both sides of the door of 33,
as if the door had been pushed open by bloody fingers
and then closed ; blood marks on the floor of Room 33,
on a chair in that room, on the bed blanket, and on
the bedtick (there were no sheets). Blood was said to
have been found on Frenchy's socks, and scrapings from
his finger nails indicated the presence of blood. His
explanations as to how the blood got on him were
investigated and found to be false. Some of Carrie
Brown's professional sisters said that Frenchy consorted
much with "Old Shakespeare" and occupied Room 31 with
her only the previous week.
On this same day (April 30), Frenchy, who by this time
was called Frenchy No. 1, to distinguish him from other
"Frenchies" involved in the case, was arraigned before
Judge Martine and was formally committed to jail for
the murder. Since the prisoner was unable to employ
counsel, Judge Martine appointed Levy, House and Friend
as his counsel. On May 1, Frenchy was removed to the
Tombs.
At about this time it was learned that the prisoner
had served a vagrancy term in March and April in the
Queens County Jail and that two of his fellow prisoners
there, David Galloway and Edward Smith, had reported that
Frenchy had a knife like the one used in the murder.
On Wednesday, June 24, 1891, Frenchy's trial opened
before Recorder Smyth. An interpreter from his own
Algerian village had been found in New York. The state
was represented by Assistant District Attorneys Wellman
and Simms, and the police force by Inspector Byrnes and
four officers. In addition to evidence bearing upon the
facts as related by the Inspector to reporters on April
30, the prosecutors called many witnesses from the lowest
stratum of New York life, to prove that Frenchy had
been living a sordid life, and, particularly, that he
was accustomed to staying at the East River Hotel and
to wandering from room to room at night. On
cross-examination, the credibility of these witnesses was
thoroughly attacked.
The climax of the trial came on Wednesday, July 1,
when District Attorney Nicoll himself took charge of the
trial and called Dr. Formand of Philadelphia as an
expert witness. Dr. Formand testified that he had made
tests of samples of the blood found on the fatal bed
in Room 31, in the hallway, on the door to Room 33,
inside Room 33, and on Frenchy's socks, and found that
they all contained intestinal contents of food elements,
all in the same degree of digestion — all exactly
identical. This led to the direct inference that all of
these bloodstains resulted from blood flowing from the
abdominal wound of the deceased. The Doctor stated that
he would be willing to risk his life upon the accuracy
of his tests. Dr. Austin Flint and Dr. Cyrus Edson
corroborated Dr. Formand's testimony, and concluded the
case of the state against Frenchy.
On July 8, the defense opened. After calling Constable
James R. Hiland of Newtown to prove that when Frenchy
was arrested, in Queens County, he had no knife, the
defense counsel put the defendant on the stand. He was
asked about his life history, his eight years of service
in the French army, and his movements in this country.
Finally he was asked, "Did you kill Carrie Brown?" These
words had hardly been translated into Arabic when
Frenchy jumped to his feet, lifted his hands over his
head, looked skyward, and fairly screamed in Arabic — he
appeared to be having hysterics. No one could quiet him.
Finally he sank back into his chair exhausted, and the
translator gave the gist of Frenchy's plea: "I am
innocent. I am innocent, Allah il Allah [God is God], I
am innocent. Allah Akbar [God is great]. I am innocent.
O Allah, help me. Allah save me. I implore Allah to
help me."
Frenchy made a bad witness, at times appearing to
understand English and again pretending not to understand
questions even when interpreted into his own tongue. He
consistently denied killing "Old Shakespeare," but he
became badly tangled up time and again upon
cross-examination.
The defense called several medical experts to testify
that the substances found in the various blood exhibits
did not necessarily all come from the intestine, but
that they might have come from other parts of the body.
Each of these experts, however, was forced to admit
that Dr. Formand was at the top of his profession and
that they had high regard for his opinion.
The prosecution added an interesting bit of evidence by
showing that Frenchy's tallow candle had been burned for
more than an hour in Room 33 on the night of the
murder, implying that he had been sitting up for some
definite purpose. Testimony was submitted to show that he
left the hotel at five o'clock the following morning,
and that he "slinked" out of the door in a guilty
manner.
The jury soon returned a verdict of guilty of
second-degree murder. The Inspector and the prosecutors
were much disappointed ; but it was apparent that a
compromise had been made by the jury. On July 10, 1891,
Ameer Ben Ali was sentenced to Sing Sing for life. The
newspapers and the public had taken great interest in
the case. The newspapers reported fully the testimony of
each witness and the case was avidly followed by
thousands. There was little disapproval of the verdict.
Newspaper men, among them Jacob A. Riis and Charles
Edward Russell, who had been assigned to the case from
the very beginning, were far from satisfied that this
presented a true solution to the murder, and felt that
it could never be unraveled until the police had found
the man who had gone to Room 31 with "Old Shakespeare."
However, the public authorities rested when Frenchy went
to Sing Sing to spend the remainder of his days — soon
to be transferred to the hospital for the criminal
insane at Matteawan.
PERSISTENT rumors drifted back to New York among
seafaring men that the murderer had quietly gone to sea,
bound for the Far East. These tales could never be
substantiated.
At the turn of the century, however, brighter days came
to the penniless Frenchy. An application for a pardon
on his behalf, based upon new evidence, was submitted to
Governor Odell. It was established that just prior to
the murder a man answering the description of the
murdered woman's companion had been working for several
weeks at Cranford, New Jersey, that this man was absent
from Cranford on the night of the murder, and that
several days thereafter he disappeared entirely. In his
abandoned room was found a brass key bearing a tag 31
and a bloody shirt. From evidence previously adduced, it
was quite certain that the murderer had locked the room
when he left it. There never was any evidence to
connect Frenchy with the key. The principal evidence
against Frenchy had been the reported bloody trail
between the two rooms, which, even as testified to at
the trial, consisted of very small and faint blood
marks. There were submitted to Governor Odell numerous
affidavits of disinterested persons, described by the
Governor as "persons of credit, some of whom had had
experience in the investigation of crime," to the effect
that these persons had visited the hotel room on the
morning following the murder, and prior to the arrival
of the coroner, and that after careful examination they
had found no blood on the door of either room or in
the hallway. It was to be inferred that the bloodstains,
found by the police on the second day following the
murder, had been made at the time of the visit of the
coroner and the crowd of reporters when the body was
examined and removed. It was further pointed out that
even according to the police testimony there was no
blood on or near the lock or knob of the door to the
murder chamber which the murderer presumably unlocked,
opened, closed, and relocked. This new evidence in the
Governor's opinion demolished the case against Frenchy.
The application for executive clemency was based solely
upon the ground that Frenchy was innocent. The Governor
concluded his report on the case, after reviewing the
facts, as follows : "To refuse relief under such
circumstances would be plainly a denial of justice, and
after a very careful consideration of all the facts I
have reached the conclusion that it is clearly my duty
to order the prisoner's release."
Frenchy 's sentence was commuted on April 16, 1902, and
it is understood that the French Government arranged for
his transportation back to his native Algerian village.
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