Manhattan Well Murder | List of Sources

Media 's strategim at the Weeks i.e. Levi Weeks trial. , 1882. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2006687274/.

Articles/Digitized Books Hardie, James. A​ n impartial account of the trial of Mr. Levi Weeks for the supposed murder of Miss Julianna Elmore Sands at a court held in the city of New-York, March 31, 1800 ​/ Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=evans;cc=evans;rgn=main;view=text;idno=N28189.0001.001

Lawson, John Davison; Howard, Robert Lorenzo..​ ​American State Trials: A Collection of the Important and Interesting Criminal Trials which Have Taken Place in the United States, from the Beginning of Our Government to the Present Day with Notes and Annotations. Volume 1​. ed : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. h​ ttps://archive.org/details/americanstatetri08laws

New York (State). Court of Oyer and Terminer (New York County). R​ eport of the trial of Levi Weeks, on an indictment for the murder of Gulielma Sands, on Monday the thirty-first day of March, and Tuesday the first day of April, 1800​ / taken in short hand by the clerk of the court. New-York : Printed by John Furman, and sold at his blank, stamp & stationary [sic] shop, opposite the City-Hall [1800]. Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. h​ ttps://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N28782.0001.001/1:5?rgn=div1;view=fulltext

People v. Levi Weeks, 1800 - Historical Society of the New York Courts. (2020, June 29). https://history.nycourts.gov/case/people-v-weeks

Books: Nonfiction Chernow, Ron. A​ lexander . N​ ew York: Penguin Press. [2004]. (linked to catalog, physical; copies and OverDrive/Libby ebook available).

Collins, Paul. ​Duel with the devil : the true story of how and Aaron Burr teamed up to take on America's first sensational murder mystery​. New York : Crown Publishers, [2013]. (linked to catalog, physical; copies and OverDrive/Libby ebook available).

Kleiger, Estelle Fox. T​ he trial of Levi Weeks, or, The Manhattan well mystery. ​Chicago, IL: Academy Chicago. [1989]. (linked to catalog; physical copy). Manhattan Well Murder | List of Sources

Manhattan Well Murder | List of Sources

5 Fast Facts

1. On December 22, 1799 Elma Sands, 22, leaves her home (a boarding house on Greenwich St., NYC), with the presumption that she would elope with her fianceé Levi Weeks, another border in the home. The boarding house is operated by Catherine and Elias Ring, Elma’s Quaker relatives, 2. Levi returns to the boarding house looking for Elma later that same evening, but Elma isn’t found until January 2, 1800, drowned in a well, located on the property of and owned by the Manhattan Company- a business founded by Aaron Burr. 3. This was particularly noteworthy because Manhattan’s water supply, and Burr’s company (The Manhattan Company), was considered shady, and was despised by Hamilton. Burr’s original bill (NY Legislature) for a private water company originally received support from Hamilton because Yellow Fever, an annual endemic, would be stymied by the private company’s efforts, was changed at the last minute by Burr to include a larger figure, a huge (Republican) board, only 10% stock ownership for NYC, and a “perpetual clause that empowered the Manhattan Company to use any ‘surplus funds” as it saw fit’ (Collins, p 96). It also included no language about being a water company- essentially it became a competing, Republican bank- which had been a Federalist operation up until that point. The bill passed due to it being voted on the floor after many the representatives had left to return to their constituents. (Collins, 2014). 4. The Rings quickly implicated Levi for the murder, and in a macbre display of sensationlism, Elma’s bloated corpse was displayed on the sidewalk of the boarding house in order to allow people to “come to their own conclusions” about wether or not she was pregnent- a possible motive for Weeks to kill her (she wasn’t). 5. Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton and Henry Brockholst Livingston were the original A-Team. Burr had a special interest in defending Weeks and his company, but Hamilton joined the Week’s legal team because Levi’s brother, Ezra Weeks, was his friend who had built the Hamilton Grange. In addition to Burr and Hamilton’s legal brilliance and fame, Livingston had just overturned a death sentence via the Insanity Plea- which wasn’t even a legal defense in New York State at the time, and required the approval of the state legislature and New York Governor John Jay.