members of a legal dream-team hired by Ezra Weeks for his brother, Levi, who had been accused of murdering Guliana Elmore Sands.
Guliana—or “Elma,” as she was called—lived on Greenwich Street in a boardinghouse owned by her aunt and uncle. On the night of December 22, 1799, she was seen departing the boardinghouse in a rented sleigh with Levi Weeks and another unidentified man. Hours later, Levi returned alone. Elma’s cousin Catherine Ring, who also resided at the boardinghouse, asked Levi if he knew Elma’s whereabouts, but he said he had no idea and had not even seen Elma that evening. Catherine was concerned—especially because her cousin had recently confided in her that she planned to marry Levi.
About a week later, two young boys playing near a well of the Manhattan Water Company saw what they thought was a scarf floating in the well. They ran and told police, who returned and conducted a thorough investigation. The object turned out to be a muff Elma had borrowed the evening she went missing. Using special hooks, police recovered Elma’s battered body from the well. On January 2, 1800, Levi was formally charged with Elma’s murder.
At the trial, attorneys Burr, Hamilton, and Livingston danced around the prosecution’s evidence. They brought in several witnesses to confirm Levi’s alibi for the night of the murder. The defense further asserted that Elma was promiscuous and that when Levi rescinded his proposal of marriage, Elma was so devastated she killed herself.
The medical examiner testified that Elma was dead before she was tossed in the well. He described bruises on her neck that resulted from being strangled. Witnesses for the prosecution said they saw Elma in Levi’s rented sleigh, and sleigh tracks found around the well. The prosecution maintained that Levi had plenty of time to murder Elma, dispose of her body in the well, and arrive at his brother’s house to form his alibi.
Additionally, Levi had approached Catherine prior to the trial and had asked her to sign an affidavit stating that he had no more interest in Elma than in any other female residing at the boardinghouse, and that, on the contrary, it was well known that Levi had an established friendship with Elma and nothing more.
The persistent arguments of the defense attorneys dragged the trial on for hours. It should be noted that the laws of the day required court cases to be argued and deliberated with no interruptions until a verdict was reached. At one point, the jury asked the judge for a “sleep break”; the request was denied. The exhausted jury members returned a “not guilty” verdict after only thirty minutes of deliberation. According to Charles J. Adams III, author of New York City Ghost Stories, the verdict outraged Catherine, and she put a curse on Hamilton, Burr, and the judge by saying, “If thee dies a natural death, I shall think there is no justice in heaven!” The curse must have worked, at least in part. Hamilton died in the famous duel with Burr. Although Burr would eventually die of a stroke, the duel destroyed his reputation. The judge simply vanished some time after the trial. Levi was so tormented by people who believed he killed Elma that he moved to Natchez, Mississippi.
Years later, there were several reports on Spring Street and near Greene Street of a ghostly young woman with long brown hair and a torn dress covered in moss. Some reports say the ghost was pointing toward the well where Elma Sands’ body was found.
I visited the Manhattan Bistro, which is at 129 Spring Street near Greene, and spoke with restaurant manager Thomas King. Thomas has worked at the Bistro for eleven years. Recently he participated in the filming of an episode of Ghost Stories for the Travel Channel. Thomas explained to me that the well where Elma Sands was found was unearthed during the excavation of the Manhattan Bistro’s basement. To his knowledge no one has ever seen a mist coming from the well, as has been reported in other books and articles. Thomas said, “The well is in the basement, not open to the public’s view. No one has seen that well since the 1800s except for us. It’s in my office; my desk is right next to it. I’ve never seen any mist.” I asked him if things ever go missing in his office or if he’s experienced any other paranormal manifestations. He said, “One time I came down to my office, and before I turned the light on, I heard a woman’s voice say, ‘I’m sorry,’ very distinctly. It was very freaky.” On another occasion, Thomas went to the basement to retrieve bar supplies, which are kept behind a locked metal gate. He unlocked the gate, left the key in the lock, and went into the storage space. Within seconds, he had that uneasy feeling that says, “Turn around.” When he did, he saw that the gate was locked and the keys were resting on a box about ten feet out of his reach. Thomas had not heard any of the noises he should have, such as the gate dragging on the floor to close or the ring of keys jingling as the gate key was turned and removed from the lock. Nor did he hear the sound of someone performing these actions and then racing up the stairs so as not to be seen. Thomas called for help, but it was an hour or so before one of the staff realized he hadn’t returned from the basement and came to find him locked in the storage space.
Patrons enjoy drinks at the Manhattan Bistro.
In our conversation, Thomas confirmed reports of wine bottles flying off shelves and of ashtrays levitating and smashing against walls back when smoking was permitted. I asked Thomas if perhaps the bottles fell off the shelf from the vibration of a subway train, but he said the subway is not close enough to cause such a vibration. He also told me about the exploding glasses. “I was talking on the phone, by the bar, and had my hand resting on the shelf. Suddenly, a champagne glass flew through the air and exploded. A big piece of glass cut me between my pinky and ring finger. I had to go to the emergency room to get stitches.”
Thomas doesn’t blame Elma’s ghost for his injury; he senses her presence as a gentle spirit. Hiowever, he also senses the spirit of a man who hanged himself on the third floor of the building in the 1920s; that ghost, he says, is angry and malevolent.
According to Thomas, there are certain areas of the restaurant where paranormal phenomena happen more frequently. For instance, often when he is walking down the stairs to his basement office, not only will he feel a tugging at his shirt, he can see the fabric being pulled by an unseen hand. Bottles fly off the bar shelves. By the maitre’d stand, Thomas has had the sensation many times that his left arm is ice-cold and wet. The first time it happened, he thought a cold liquid was dripping down the length of his arm. When he touched the arm with his right hand and realized it was dry, he feared he had some kind of nerve damage. A couple of days later, he noticed one of the waiters at the maitre’d stand patting his left arm with his right hand. Thomas had never said a word to anyone about the sensation he had experienced at that spot, yet when he asked the waiter what he was doing, the waiter said he couldn’t understand why his left arm had this ice-cold, wet feeling that dragged down from his shoulder to his wrist. The sensation has happened to Thomas several more times and as recently as three weeks prior to my interviewing him. He hasn’t noticed a rhythm or pattern to the paranormal activity at the Manhattan Bistro. “It happens sporadically,” he said.
Electrical issues abound at the restaurant even though the wiring is up to code and the establishment always passes routine fire inspections. “Two weeks ago,” Thomas said, “I touched the extension cord that’s plugged into the stereo, and a spark flew from it and I got a shock that went through my entire body. Everyone at the bar saw this happen. It’s very strange because the extension cord is one of those heavy-duty types with a surge protector. I’ve also gotten shocked just turning off a light switch,” Thomas explained. He’s been shocked a total of six times, always in the area of the maitre’d stand or near the credenza by the stairs.
Thomas has sustained one other injury while at the Bistro. While working in the kitchen, he looked down to see his fingers being forced around the handle of a knife. He watched in horror as he involuntarily sliced halfway through the thumb of his other hand. Again, he required stitches, and he was unable to play the piano for almost a year.
With all the paranormal activity at the Manhattan Bistro, I was
