Carrie Brown : Murder In The East River Hotel

We haven't been able to decipher what this person's name was...from 1897

Charles Barrez, French importer and businessman, came to the US in 1882 with his wife and daughter. Business address around 1890 at 454 Broome Street

These are the six attorneys who worked the Ali Prosecution :

De Lancey Nicoll
Francis Wellman
Charles Simms
with assistance from :
Harry W. Unger
John D. Lindsay
Harry Macdona*

Macdona is the correct spelling of the surname

Incidentally, was Unger related to the Captain Unger, who in 1887 was accused of murder and dismemberment? He was, I believe, acquitted, but at least three of the cops from the Carrie Brown-case were also involved in the Unger-case: MacLaughling, Frink and Aloncle:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

This is something I wish I'd done a long time ago. On plenty of the people I've researched, it was mentioned they were masons, but I did not always make a note of it, since I have usually been more interested in birth/death years, addresses, and photos.

But there were a lot of them who were Freemasons. I think it would be interesting to see how many and who.

I'm going to add to this list as I go along. For a lot of them, it involves re-researching their life, to find any mention, so it's probably going to take a while to complete the list.

Police officers
Alexander S. Williams - Polar Star

Court people (lawyers etc)
Hannibal Cutugno - St. Cecile Lodge 568
William N. Penney


Inquest jurors
Alexander F. Slaughter - Republic Lodge 390
Charles Iden, NY Lodge 330


Trial jurors
Benjamin Wasserman - Mount Hebron Lodge 257

From NJ state archives today:

We finally had an opportunity to review the records of Governor Voorhees.  It is a small collection.

There is no outgoing correspondence after 1898.  We quickly reviewed the incoming correspondence for 1901-1902 and could not find any from Governor Odell on this subject or from George Damon.

I can do it, no problem. Just didn’t want to bother them if you’d already tried

What do you think of the story? Canard or factual?

About Eddie having epilepsy and the fact that he was now involved in the case, contributing to his collapse in the street?
I can believe it.  He either had similar spells and told those who took him to the hospital, or the hospital

No, I meant about clerk Rickets. He’s not mentioned anywhere else. Did he go see the body?

Yes, I too remembered Fitzgerald last night.

Also, it was Jennings who ran from the hotel to the police station to tell them of the murder, wasn’t it? At least some reports say so. That means he was there that morning, I think, so perhaps he was there most mornings, so perhaps not so absent from the running of the hotel.

Assessing this conundrum, I still go for the key being brass.

Why? Well, ultimately Occam’s razor.

Which is the simpler explanation: that Damon, for no apparent reason, decided to manufacture a fake key and convince other respectable persons in swearing false affidavits which could easily have been exposed as lies, OR Jennings misremembered, the hotel used keys of both materials and Fitzgerald was either confused, mistaken or room 33 had an iron key while 31 was brass.

To my mind, the likelier explanation is the second one. As you know, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and the claim that Damon faked the key and involved his friends family and political contacts in an elaborate hoax for no reason - is an extraordinary one. Whereas Jennings misremembering etc. is a mundane one.

Is it believable that Jennings, in all the time he was proprietor, never entered a room on the fifth floor, using an iron key or not knowing what type of key
was for those rooms?

Yes, both questions are believable.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this..probably for forever. I don't think there's any possibility at all that Jennings avoided going into a fifth floor room during
the eight years he ran the hotel.

Well, that was not quite what you asked. You asked whether it was believable that he did not enter a room on the fifth floor with an iron key.
I think that is believable, because in my opinion the keys were not iron, or he may have not had to open the doors himself, i.e. if he did do a tour of the hotel rooms, for instance to check on state of repair or similar, he might have had his manager with him who opened all the doors.

So taking at face value, I think it is believable that he never used an iron key to enter a fifth floor room.

He would also know what type of key was used for rooms on the respective floors.

hmm, probably, but he might have forgotten, or there might have been several sets of keys, for instance locks might have been changed over the years, leading him to mistake one set for another.
So I think it's believable that he did not necessarily know for certain at all times which keys were used where.

How did you come to the conclusion that Jennings had 'little to do with the day to day running of the hotel' ? You've said this before. Where is there
any evidence of him not being there frequently?

good question, perhaps I'm just assuming he was an absent boss because there's no evidence he was there frequently. I'll have to look up on what little we know of him. He was on the witness list, but never called, I think? So that implies he had nothing to add.

The main reason I think he had little to do with running the place is that he hired a manager? So the manager was there running the place, this to me implies the proprietor would be there less. Where is the evidence Jennings was there frequently?

P.S.  Thanks for replying, boss.

No problem!
When I studied historical methodology, a main principle was drilled my into then-supple mind: earlier is always better. We see this again and again in memoirs, where people's memories of things ten, twenty or thirty years earlier har completely wrong, when compared to original sources.
So other things being equal, a source stating in 1891 the key was brass will usually trump a source in 1901 stating the key was iron. Ten years is a long time to misremember, adjust memories and narratives etc.
It doesn't mean Jennings must be wrong, but to me, being ten years late to the party lowers his value significantly.