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CHAPTER 6, conclusion

Brooklyn Citizen

January 6, 1891

 

[[George Frank, of No. 183 York Street, swore out a warrant today for the arrest of Aumer  Ben Ali, in Adams Street Court.

He says that while a prisoner in Raymond Street Jail, Ali cleaned his store out of goods valued at $180]]   

(Note: $180 in 1891 is equivalent to 3,374 dollars in 2023.)

When Ali took the witness stand in July, he was cross-examined by Francis Wellman who brought up this charge six months earlier to Ali.

It was during the cross-examination that Ali stated through an interpreter that he had been arrested four times, which may have included the last charge of murdering Brown.

Wellman asked:

[[Q:- You were charged with stealing 7 boxes of lemons, 1 box of pears, 1 box of apples, and one-half dozen of watermelons and 1 box of dated, and 1 box of figs, about 1,000 quarts of nuts, one sliver watch and a quantity of household goods all valued at $182 and you pleaded guilty, did you not?]]

Ali admitted he had been charged, but naturally did not understand why the police had arrested him.

However, while Ali was found guilty in Kings County (Brooklyn) Court, Judge Moore presiding, it wasn't for grand larceny but petty larceny, 

which Wellman was able to elicit from him.  For some unknown reason, the charges appeared to have been dropped. 

Ali would go on to use George Frank's name as one of his aliases. Apparently being content with simply stealing his food and possessions wasn't sufficient.

The bottom line is that these are only those criminal actions involving Ali that we know of while he was in the metro New York area. There may have been more as some strongly suspect.

Was Ameer Ben Ali's conviction the right decision?  Had the wrong man been sent to prison?

Or did the events which would take place  in 1901 actually free a guilty man?

On the one hand, we know he had committed violent acts upon at least one woman within his social circle. Did it extend to murder?

Was his non-stop lying his feeble way of extricating himself from a more serious crime? How had the material found under his nails got there unless he had had contact with Brown's body? Was the near-fatal assault on William Greef an example of his true nature?

What about his decision to remain in the area, eventually being picked up ten hours later, three blocks from the hotel?  While it might be seen as evidence of a guiltless conscience, many killers have returned to the scene or area in which the crime was committed.

 Ali stands at the top of the list along with C. Kniclo, with one being the probable murderer of Carrie Brown. 

In Ali's case, we have quite a bit of information, while in C. Kniclo's, we have little more than a description and a possible connection to the man who was seen at the Glenmore Hotel. As research is ongoing, it is hoped that something will surface enabling us to get a little closer to the most pressing question of the case: Who murdered Carrie Brown?

We've covered Ali from top to bottom with the inclusion of a photo of a 19th-century pair of Congress Gaiters, the type of shoe that Ali wore in April 1891.

 1- New York World     January 17, 1898
 2- Elmira Star Gazette January 17, 1898
 3- New York World       October 4, 1897

 

                       Photographs and Sketches:

1- Ali's tattooed arm – New York World January 21, 1895

2- Jenalli and Bozieb- Ali's friends from Brooklyn- New York Herald May 10, 1891

3- Ship Ali arrived in from Brazil, the Allianca, the first ship to enter the Panama Canal

     https://digitalnz.org/records/37939077

4- Ali's signature - New York Evening World, June 1891

5- Passenger list with Ali listed at the bottom, June 7, 1889. 

     Located by Nina Brown- Ancestry.com

6-Area of Brazil Ali departed from on his journey to America

7- 'Congress Gaiters', the type of shoe Ali wore at the time

     https://www.njsekela.com/product_info.php?products_id=793

8- Ali in Court - The New York Evening World, June 1891

9- Idealized sketch of Ali- The St. Louis Republican, May 1891

10-Ali registration in Sing Sing, found by Nina Brown, 2020

      under the name George Frank

      https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8922/

11-Photo of Ameer Ben Ali found by Peter Damgaard, 2023 

     Allan McClane Hamilton, A System of Legal Medicine. Vol 2, 1900, p.182










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CHAPTER 6 continued


                                               A Jekyll & Hyde Personality

 

Dr. Jekyll.......

 

Found in the New York Herald article from May 10th, 1891, the wife of one of Ali's Brooklyn friends, 'John Allen' the Anglicized version of 'Jenalli', was interviewed by the Herald reporter when it was finally discovered where Ali lived in Brooklyn. The address was Columbia Avenue in the Red Hook section.

According to Mrs. Jenalli, a woman of Irish background, none of the three people interviewed had seen him for three weeks and since none read the newspapers, they had no idea of the trouble he was in.

This would place their last sighting of Ali back to approximately April 18th. He was released from Queens County Jail on the 13th.

When it was explained what he had allegedly done, Bozieb, a Turkish friend, told the reporter that Ali was a 'bon homme' and would never want to fight and didn't kill a woman. Mrs. Jenalli elaborated at length.

She said Ali had lived with them for a long time. He worked very hard, often leaving for work at 6 a.m. and returning at 7 p.m.

He was generous and very kind to children and would give them all his pennies. He was never known to insult a woman. If a man insulted him he would fight, but then who wouldn't?

He had been in the US for two and a half years (* ) but in New York and Brooklyn for less than a year.

They continued to say positive things about Ali and offered to come to court to vouch for him. Jenalli and Bozieb would go to The Tombs to see Ali and even went to Court on at least one occasion to take in the proceedings. They eventually went to The Tombs to see Ali with defense counsel Emmanuel Friend.

Mrs. Jenalli told the reporter that Ali and Bozieb were in the fruit business and Ali worked at unloading vessels. She also said Ali had rented a room in Manhattan from a man named A. Dondero, of 174 Worth Street, Manhattan. The reporter went to see Dondero and came into contact with his son. The son told the reporter that he had never seen Ali intoxicated and had never got behind in his rent.                                              *- Ali arrived in the United States on June 7, 1889, less than two years from that NY Herald article.

 

Mr. Hyde

 

While Ali had what appears as a rather typical working-class life over in Brooklyn according to those who knew him, over in Manhattan and in Queens we find a man whose behavior is the quite the opposite.

Since we cannot dispute the character references offered by Jenalli's wife or those of Bozieb and Jenalli, what would cause a person to change so dramatically simply because they crossed the East River?  One might arrive at the conclusion that there was a dual personality at work here, depending on which side of the river they happened to be on at the time.

Mrs. Jenalli didn't give one the impression that Ali was prone to prevarication. Yet, during the time frame between late April to the end of the trial in July, it would be a rare occurrence to find one instance where he didn't lie or try to throw the police off as they went to some length to try and verify any of the things he claimed. They couldn't.   

Jurors and the two prosecution medical experts stated that he, not the medical evidence, was the primary reason for the verdict on July 3rd.

From the very beginning, when he claimed to have been in Brooklyn on April 23rd, to the day he left for France eleven years later, it was a steady, self-defeating, stream of lies. When first asked if he knew Carrie Brown, he said no. Did he remember assaulting Mary Ann Lopez? No. Had he ever spent the night in the East River Hotel? At first, he said no. He would go on to admit to staying there twice.  A glance at the record provides evidence that he was in the hotel at least three and probably four times just in the last week of Carrie Brown's life. 

 

Of course, being a pathological liar, misogynist, and grifter doesn't make a man a murderer. What it might do is give us a foundation from which to consider that Ali had mental issues.   

Severely biting Mary Ann Lopez and being charged with assault in September 1890; wandering in and out of rooms, eavesdropping and turning door handles to other rooms at the East River Hotel after the first male tenant had finished his business; Robbing a man who was in a Brooklyn jail; Attempting to enter hotel tenant William Mannix's room while Mannix's wife was alone and while he was at work,  threatening her if she didn't open the door ( She didn't); Feigning a broken arm and posing as a beggar in Queens; being given the bum's rush at 49 Oliver Street by Mary Harrington, and at 84 James Street at Mary Finnegan's 'boarding house', in each case these women had to wave a baseball bat at him until he eventually left; all these things point to a far less savory character than the Ali known over in Brooklyn.

 

 

The following account is one more look at this man when around the ladies.

 

New York World   April 27, 1891

 

                                     Threatened To Kill 'Dublin Mary'

 

[['Dublin Mary (Briscoe) and Frenchy used to have rows now and then. One time Frenchy came down her to my basement. He was looking for Mary. He and Mary had some words. Frenchy swore he would kill Dublin Mary.

I saw that the man meant business and ordered him to leave my place. He said he'd do as he pleased about that. I told him to get out. When I saw that he paid no attention to what I had said I picked up a big baseball bat and told him to get out or I'd hit him on the head. Frenchy saw that I was in earnest and left the place. Since then, he has not been around much.

In the same article in which Dr. Allison is quoted saying positive things about Ali, we also read the following about him:

 

                                            More Ape Than Man 

 

[[ He seemed more like a villainous sort of an ape than like a man. He was ungainly, stoop-shouldered, and nervous. His face was drawn and contorted. His eyes are small and restless. He crouched rather than sat in his chair on the witness stand. Filthy in his personal appearance. His long fingernails played an important part in the testimony and looked as the claws of an animal.

A trembling, craven wretch who spoke the dregs of four languages, but could not make himself understood in any one of them, without ordinary intelligence and without a friend.

That was 'Frenchy' who was tried in the Court of General Sessions in 1891 and sent for the remainder of his natural life to State prison. But there is another 'Frenchy', almost as different as Dr. Jeykll was from Mr. Hyde.]]

 

 

 

The article continued with references to a letter sent to Edmund Bruwaert from Algeria by a French notary, asking for "information about one Amer Ben Ali, who had been imprisoned in this country on a charge of murder".

Amer Ben Ali, the letter said, "had a wife and children had been found was a member of an influential family who lived far in the interior of Algiers. (4)

This is the only time a reference to Ali coming from an influential family is found anywhere in print or official files. 

According to interpreter Constant J. Sperco, he and Ali came from the same village, Briska in northeastern Algeria. 

The claim Ali came from people of influence is unsupported by any evidence at all. The French found work for Ali in Algeria as, of all things, a farmhand, just before his release in 1902.

No one appears to have been fazed about the Greef incident in early 1898 and how Ali had nearly killed him.

The French campaigners waited only a year and a half before starting up the second pardon effort in 1899.

 

From official files, two documented incidents involving Ali. The first features a familiar name.

Police Department of the City of New York

10:30 p.m. September 25th, 1890

Frank Sherlick, 40 yrs., White____

Married Read & Write-Yes

The prisoner took the complainant to a room at 387 Water Street and gave her one dollar

after being in the room for two hours, he knocked her down in the hallway and

 forcibly took the dollar from her.

Mary Eigan(?) 123 Roosevelt Street-Complainant

(Arresting) Officer Eugene Meyers

The woman's real name or the one we know her best by was Mary Ann Lopez ( real surname Malone). It wasn't the only time the Albany-born woman would go by a different last name.

The second documented instance of Ali being involved in criminal behavior took place in Brooklyn in early 1891. 

This would be conflated with the assault of Lopez by the New York World back in September 1890.

Despite the minor difference in spelling, Aumer Ali was definitely Amer Ben Ali.
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CHAPTER 6 continued

Up to this point, Ali had been trusted and considered harmless by the Matteawan staff. The Superintendent of Mattewan, Dr. H.E. Allison, was quoted in a Manhattan newspaper just 2 1/2 months earlier. 

[[He is the pet of the Asylum," said Supt. Allison, as he looked after Frenchy's form as it disappeared down the corridor. " He is always docile and obedient. From the start, I have taken great interest in him and gave him one of the easiest positions in the asylum-that of a dishwasher in the scullery. He is a strange man, with marked peculiarities, but at the present time he is not insane. Brooding over his condition in Auburn and Sing Sing brought on a state of melancholy from which he suffered when he was brought here, but he has recovered from it and is one of the happiest and most light-hearted of our patients.]]  (3)

 

 

The near-death of William Greef came within a hair of being a murder charge leveled at Ali. Although Greef would survive the violent assault, it didn't put an end to the pardon efforts. Three more efforts were launched, one in 1899, another in 1900, and the final plea in 1901. It brings up the question of why the French Consul continued to press for the release or pardon of Ali in light of this near-fatal attack, which may not have been an act of self-defense, and in reality, an intent to murder.  We are left to wonder what exactly precipitated the attack as no further information as to the reason for it is ever found published in the papers or in official files.

 

.

In 1900, the third effort led by Robillard failed to move Gov. Theodore Roosevelt to pardon or at least release Ali.

The campaign failed because Roosevelt found nothing of a tangible nature which persuaded him to release the convict.

For further developments following the April 1st press announcement of Roosevelt's rejection, please refer to the chapter, George Damon In 1901.

 

 

 

 

 

The Letter Writing Campaign:

         Dates                            Recipient                 Sent From

June 25th,1893                  Governor Flower        Matteawan

January 10, 1894               Governor Flower        Sing Sing

March 6th, 1894                Governor Flower        Matteawan

May 27, 1894                     Governor Flower        Matteawan

September 30, 1894           Governor Flower        Matteawan

November 27, 1894           Governor Flower        Matteawan

May 4, 1895                       Governor Morton       Matteawan

October 13, 1899               Governor Roosevelt    Matteawan

May 14, 1901                     Governor Odell          Dannemora

October 27, 1901                Governor Odell          Dannemora

 

Ali wrote at least ten letters to four different Governors.

Governor David B. Hill, 1885-1891, Governor at the time of the murder, and Frank Black, did not receive personal letters from Ali.

Here are three sent to Governor Flower and written as they appear in the official files.

 

January 10, 1894

To His Excellency, Governor Flower, Albany, N.Y.

 

Gracious Sir!

I am encouraged by the interest your Excellency took in my case while I was in Auburn Prison, and where I had the opportunity to explain my case in my native language. I therefore take leave to give an account of my present distress.

In January last year, I was transferred to the Matteawan State Hospital, where I was confined for eight months. During this time- no doubt- Mr. H.E. Allison, MD and Superintendent of this Asylum became convinced of my sanity, and as a result therof I was transferred to the State Prison in Sing Sing September last. * While there in the latter place, I had to suffer immensely by cold during my work and at night having nothing but a thin blanket to keep my body warm. Considering that I have to suffer all that on account of a crime I never did commit and being without any friends or family in this country, neither any money to secure a counsel who could take steps in my behalf- I became weary of life and irritated-Accordingly to this circumstance I was sent back to this asylum on the 5th of this month.

My only trouble is caused by the wrongfully deprivation of liberty for which I so much long for. I gladly would return to my native country and never would approach the shores of this country.

I therefore appeal to your Excellency and ask for my liberty, which I have a right to enjoy as well as any good citizen- Expecting your kind decision and in the hope of an early release from the misery,

I am, with high esteem

very obedient servant

George Frank

 

* Note: Ali had been returned to Sing Sing in September 1893- HB

 

 

 

September 1894

Dear Sir:

You will I hope in your kindness read and investigate my case on the 24th of April 1891.  I was charged with the murder of a disreputable woman named Shakespeare and being that I could not speak english and had no friends I was convicted in March 1891.

to imprisonment for life. I am innocent of the crime I am charged with. And many in New York best citizens think i am innocent. So I write to you in order to receive help. Supt. Byrnes of the central Office tryed all in his power to get the reputation of catching the supposed Jack the Ripper For I had no friends and no money and could not speak English. So please try and help me out of this.

Dr. Allison will give me a record and as I behaved since I am here and trying to prove my innocents. Dr. Allison said that if you would do anything for me hed would send me back to prison.  While you were visiting Auburn Prison in 1892 you promise me that you would give me a pardon but I am waiting for an answer. You said that before you would retire in 1895 you would do some thing for me as it is near time you are going out of office so try and help me.  As I am in near 3 years and 6 month this year for something I did not do.

From your friend

George Frank Alias Frenchy

 

*Ali was sentenced to prison in July of 1891

 

Notice that Ali refers disparagingly to Carrie Brown. He would do this again in a letter to Gov. Morton in 1895.

 

 

November 27, 1894

Dear Sir:

 

   I am about to write to you as I am waiting for you to send and let me know what you think about my case.  As you know that when you was to see me in Auburn Prison in 1892 you promised that you would do something for me. You know my case as I have explained it in my last letter. As you are going out of office next month I wish you would let me know if there is any hopes for me. Dr. Allison would send me back to Prison if there is any hopes of getting a pardon. Please be kind enough and have this letter answered as you are keeping me in suspense.

 

Yours Truly

George Frank Alias Frenchy

 

.

 

Another letter to another Governor:

 

Letter To Governor Levi Morton

May 1895

 

Dear Sir:

 Many thousands intelligent New Yorkers believe that Ali Ben Ammer alias Frenchy No. 1 sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of an old trollop named Shakespeare has a better right to freedom than many a man now walking in God's glad sunshine.

 

Many thousand others believe that he was not proven guilty of the offense charged against him.  Gov. Flowers' request for the papers in his case was complied with in April '93 by District Attorney Nichols(sic) who later on 'made an argument against' the extension of Executive clemency to this friendless Arab.  Ben Ali's lawyers say they have heard that his condition excites much interest among 'persons engaged in the work of reforming prisoners'. The poor devil was sent to Auburn prison in November '91. Governor Flower has notified District Attorney Nicoll that an application has been made to him for the pardon of George Frank, "Frenchy" who was convicted of murder in the second degree for the killing of 'Old Shakespeare' on April 24, 1891.
 Dear Sir, I have got a wife and two children in France I can speak no English I am innocent of the crime which was brought against me that sentenced me to life imprisonment.

 


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CHAPTER 6 continued


Ali's Prison Entry Under the Name 'George Frank' At Sing Sing Prison, Ossining, New York 'George Frank's' Prison Registration

 On the border of his entrance form, the date of his sentence, July 10th, is listed as well as the tattoos on his left arm as follows:

'Picture of a shrub- flower, man inside left forearm.

Butterfly between left thumb and finger.'

 

George Frank

Received from New York

Sentenced July 10, 1891, Life, Serv. Murder 2nd-Smyth

Who arrested you? -  (Note: It was Officer Adam Lang at 8:10 p.m., James Slip & Water Street on the 24th-HB)

Born- Algiers Age 48 Occupation-Laborer

Complexion- Very Dark Eyes-Black Hair-Black

Stature- 5' 10 1/2" Weight 164 Can't read or write

Habits- Moderate Tobacco-yes Mohamed Single

Resided when arrested - at no place

No friends -small round head- receding forehead

Large feet Very large ears- well back set on from forehead flat temples----- deep set eyes- High and large cheekbones-fairly good but uneven teeth stained

Small mouth -thin lips- small irregular features-long neck-several small scars on forehead-round scar under right ear- one inside right forearm-A Turk. cross and star and crescent-on back a woman and name of Fatma Mahomet Makdon back of right hand full of ink marks and arrow on each finger.

 

 

 

A few interesting items on this registration:

 

One, his age is listed as 48. Either he learned the intricacies of the Gregorian calendar from the time he was in court claiming Arabs didn't mark time the way it's done in the West, or his age was estimated.  Then again, being a pathological liar, he may have known all along and simply to the folks at Sing Sing his correct age. 

Two, he wasn't such a devout Mohammedan. He cavorted with prostitutes, drank alcohol, ate a ham sandwich while in the Oak Street police station, and of course, all those gaudy tattoos.

Three, playing the pity card, he seems to have forgotten two male friends who came from Brooklyn to see him while in The Tombs and who also went to the trial on at least one occasion.

Four, despite stating on several occasions that all he wanted to do was to go back to his wife and two children, he told the registrar that he was single.  A registrar writes down only what the incoming prisoner tells him. They don't guess.

Five, claiming he couldn't read and write, he evidently meant in English. We have a sketch of his signature in Arabic shown below.

 

 

 

Police or Court References That We Are Aware Of:

 

1-September 1890 Manhattan Assaulted Mary Ann Lopez in The East River Hotel

2-January      1891 Brooklyn   Petty Larceny     Complaint Filed by George Frank

3-March        1891 Queens      Vagrancy           Spent 30 Days in Jail March 14-April 13

4-April          1891 Manhattan Taken to Oak Street Station-April 24th 

                             Charged With the Murder of Carrie Brown - April 30th

 

Prison And Asylum Dates:

 

1. Ali was sent to Sing Sing after sentencing on July 10th, 1891.

2. Ali was then transferred to Auburn Prison on July 27, 1891

3. Ali was sent to Matteawan State Asylum on January 21, 1893

4. Ali is sent back to Sing Sing on September 11, 1893

5. Ali is sent back to Matteawan on January 5th, 1894

4. Ali sent to Dannemora Prison in 1901

5. Released from Dannemora in April 1902

    Left on April 24, 1902, the vessel was taken on the North (Hudson)  River, Pier 32. Handed cash and escorted to the ship by members of the French community and attorney Ovide Robillard. The vessel's name was La Touraine. Destination: Havre, France, and from there on to Algiers, where Ali was to begin working as a farm hand at an unspecified location.

 

                                       Communication Breakdown

 

 

If there was anything at all amusing in this case, it was Ali's ability to fool a good number of people, apparently all of those who were in his corner and the headline hunters writing the Manhattan papers.

While in New York, he had to be able to communicate with a variety of people in English. For example, what language did was in use when he sat drinking and socializing with the numerous prostitutes he had been with while in the various Lower East Side saloons?

In Brooklyn, he could converse with the Irish American wife of his Arab friend, Jenalli.  What was it that they conversed in?

In Court, there were an ample number of fluent French and Arabic speakers, not to forget August Elbogen, a fellow prisoner in

The Tombs at the time, asked by the defense to serve as translator during one of their trips to see Ali. What language had Ali and Elbogen conversed in?

In fact, Elbogen is quoted in one newspaper as having been familiar with Ali's patois. He answered questions from Elbogen without hesitation or confusion. The paper was the New York Evening World, May 2nd, 1891, Page 1.

Ovide Robillard and Charles Salomon, both of whom spoke French, went to see Ali in prison in 1901.  Did the attorney and reporter use sign language?

One sworn affidavit which is almost entirely overlooked because it was not made in support of Ali was the one from Joseph Hargrove, Warden of Queens County Jail, who, surprisingly, wasn't called to the witness stand by the prosecution.

Hargrove had no difficulty communicating in English while Ali was in that facility back in March.  His sworn statement to that effect was filed on June 30th, 1891, and witnessed by Asst. DA Charles Simms.

 

Ali didn't exactly need to speak the King's English to communicate during his stay in New York City or Brooklyn, but he had to have had some rudimentary knowledge of English to converse with the English speakers in his social circle.

It became an article of faith that his troubles with English were debilitating, rendering him incapable to defend himself at trial and express himself in a clear and cogent manner.  The fact is, he didn't have to speak English with all the French and Arabic-speaking men at the trial, one being Emile Sultan, requested by the French Consul d'Abzac.

 Whether intentionally or not, newspapers portrayed Ali as if he too were a victim when in fact his jail record proved otherwise. Words used to describe him such as  'sad', 'poor', and  'friendless', and phrases such as, 'only wanting to go back to Algeria to see his wife and children', were doled out daily and designed to paint a different picture of Ali, the jailbird, the grifter, the misogynist, the thief, and beggar for the readership in New York and across the country.

 He grew up, however, in the multilingual culture of Algeria and the two languages spoken in that multilingual culture were well represented at trial. 

 It's one for the Guinness Book of World Records. A man who couldn't communicate with others in whatever language he spoke or was spoken to by others.

 

                                                       A World Of Greef

 

An organized pardon campaign was underway in 1897. The Governor was Frank Black, whose term began on January 1, 1897, ending on December 31, 1898.

The plea for clemency was drafted by French Consul Edmund Bruwaert and began:

"To His Excellency Frank S. Black

 Governor of The State of New York

Albany, New York

 

[[The undersigned respectfully petition, that in the exercise of the power vested in you by the Constitution of the State of New York, pray you to extend Your Executive clemency to George Frank, alias Frenchy, alias Amer Ben Ali, who was convicted in the Court of General Sessions on the 10th day of July, 1891, of murder in the second degree, of one Caroline Brown, alias Shakespeare, an old and notably dissolute woman, who upon conviction was sentence to State prison for life.]]

 

One constant throughout the entire case history is that everyone, from the press to Judge Smyth, from the references to Brown in two letters Ali would submit to two different Governors, to Governor Odell's commutation paper, and even in this clemency plea, Carrie Brown was referred to disparagingly. The heading to the fifth plea for clemency above follows in that tradition. 

The Clemency plea was accompanied by a substantial petition. However, the plan would soon be fizzled out.

On January 16, 1898, Ali's chances of a pardon or release dropped to zero, when he became embroiled in a near-fatal attack on a fellow Matteawan inmate named William Greef. Ali, for unknown reasons and possibly not as the instigator, smashed Greef on the head with a heavy wooden potato masher. Up until this time, Ali had, according to the Elmira paper, seemed very attached to the 'boy'. Since Ali was the one without a fractured skull, he was considered the perpetrator and may very well have been. 

There had been a degree of confusion as to Greef's age.  Greef, almost always referred to as a young man of 16, was, in reality, a 32-year-old man described in far greater detail in a local newspaper published in the city where Greef had originally been imprisoned. Only one newspaper, New York World, referred to him by the name 'Green'. (1) However, 'Greef' is a surname and is more than likely the correct one.

 Greef, according to an Elmira newspaper account, had been originally institutionalized in Long Island, Queens, on January 12, 1884. On October 4th, 1884, he was sent to Matteawan. As his condition seemed to improve, he was sent to the Elmira Reformatory on September 13, 1895. He remained only one month and was sent back to Matteawan on October 17, 1895. His number at the Elmira Reformatory was #6,580. The charge which sent him to jail in the first place was grand larceny and the original sentence was for five years. At the time of the assault, he had been in institutions for 14 years and 4 days.

Needless to say, the application for this, the first pardon effort, submitted to Governor Black was dismissed, which is assuming it was even looked at.  (2)

 
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CHAPTER 6

AMER BEN ALI

 This chapter contains previously unseen files and letters, including two photographs of Ali. One from 1897-1898 shows a clean-shaven Ali in the asylum (Matteawan) while the other was published in a Manhattan newspaper upon his release from Dannemora in 1902. 

  There are a few instances in this chapter where the spelling of his first name will reflect the slight variations found in documents and newspaper accounts.

Amer Ben Ali arrived in this country on the ship, Allianca, on June 7th, 1889. The port of departure was located in the state of Para, in northern Brazil. The ship manifest lists his age as '40'. He was seated in the forward bow of the vessel. The Allianca was owned by the Panama Steamship Line. 

One of his means of employment was working on incoming banana boats and handling freight. One article contained a reference to Ali having worked at the bottom of Beekman Street at an oyster house, but may have been in reference to another 'Frenchy'

 

One uncertainty, even to him apparently, was his correct age. He was quoted as having said that Arabs didn't tell time the way (Westerners) did and as a result, he claimed he wasn't certain how old he was. When on the witness stand and asked how long it had been since he saw his wife, he responded that he didn't know whether it had been a long time or a short time since their last encounter.

His sign-in sheet at Sing Sing states he was 48, and as shown, the manifest on the Allianca put his age at 40. Varying ages also turn up on other forms and documents.

According to one of the Court interpreters, Ali told Constant Sperco that he was born in Biskra, Algeria, which was also Sperco's birthplace.  At the trial, he claimed to have been a member of a tribe in Ben Aicha, which is west of Biskra.

Ali left a wife and two children in Algeria, who were still alive in late 1897. By the time Ali left the US in 1902, his wife had passed away.

He served in the Turcos Regiment of the French Army during the Franco-Prussian War and was wounded twice.  Count d'Abzac, French Consul, acknowledged Ali had served in the war

Ali went under a few aliases on the following list. Some may have been press creations due to misinterpretation.

 

George Frank

Frank Sherlick

Frenchy # 1

French Pete

Francis Analgerion

Frenchy

George Francis

George Francois

Frank Sherlie

Frank Cherlic

 

 

 

 An Ali Timeline: June 7, 1889-July 27, 1891

 

Ali arrived on June 7, 1889, in New York Harbor on the Allianca

In September 1890, Ali was charged with assaulting Mary Ann Lopez (using the name Eigan or Egan). Ali goes by the name. "Frank Sherlicka". No hearing is held.

Ali appears in the Kings County (Brooklyn) Court presided over by Judge Moore in January 1891. 

A charge of grand larceny was reduced to one of petty larceny, but Ali did not go to jail. It may have been a matter of the charges being dropped by the complainant, George Frank. 

In March 1891, Ali was jailed for vagrancy in Queens and sentenced to thirty days.

On April 13th, Amer Ben Ali was released from Queens County Jail having been jailed on March 14th and having spent the entire thirty-day sentence behind bars.

On the night of April 20th, a Monday, It is quite possible that Amer Ben Ali and Carrie Brown spent the night at the East River Hotel, unless the man named 'George' that Mary Brennan said was with Brown earlier at Barney Wintermeyer's saloon was another man with the same first name.

On the night of April 21st, a Tuesday, Ali spent the night at the East River Hotel, with or without female company, and was in the hotel on the morning of the 22nd.  See April 25th reference below for details of the morning of April 22nd.

On the night of April 22nd, a Wednesday, Ali spent the night at the Hotel according to the trial testimony of Eddie Fitzgerald.

In the afternoon of April 23rd, the day of the murder, Alice Sullivan saw Brown and Ali standing together near the corner of Oak & Oliver Street.

On the night of April 23rd, Ali arrived at the hotel at 12:00 a.m. and spent the rest of the night until the next morning at the hotel.

Ali had handed Fitzgerald 25 pennies for a room. He is given the key to room 33 on the fifth floor, 41 inches, door to door, from room 31. 

On the morning of April 24th, Ali is seen suspiciously exiting the hotel by Eddie Fitzgerald at approximately 5:00 a.m.

Amer Ben Ali Ali is picked up by Officer Adam Lang at 8:10 p.m. on the 24th, three blocks from the hotel at James Slip & Water Street.

On April 25th, the New York Evening World features a tale told by coalheaver William Mannix, at the time staying in the East River Hotel, 

who stated that Ali had tried to enter his rented room while his wife was alone inside on the morning of April 22nd and during the time that Mannix was at work. and while Mannix.  He tells the press that he saw Ali sprawled on the floor in the hallway of the 5th floor on Thursday night, the 23rd.

On April 30th, Inspector Byrnes held a press conference and named Ali the murderer. 

On April 30th, Judge Randolph Martine issued a warrant for his arrest. Ali appears in Court, where Judge Martine assigns Ali's Counsel. May 13th is the first day of the Coroner's Inquest after a prior postponement. Ali appears represented by Levy, House, and Friend. Francis Wellman represents the State of New York.

The inquest is concluded on May 14th with jurists finding Ali responsible for the murder of Brown. Jury out 20 minutes before

tendering their decision. Ali does not take the stand as he would go on to do six weeks later at the trial.

 

Ali was indicted on May 18th at General Sessions Court on 4 counts: Count 1: Assault, Choking, Suffocating, & Strangling. Count 2: Used cloth to strangle. Count 3: Stabbed with right hand. Count 4: Murdered by means unknown

Ali returned to The Tombs along with some female witnesses and Eddie Fitzgerald.

June 26th- The day the prosecution medical experts examined the material taken from Ali's nails 2 months and 2 days earlier.

June 27th- Byrnes states that he's only been in physical proximity to Ali twice during the previous two months, each time in the presence 

of others and that Ali had not confessed to anything, contrary to gossip.

July 3rd- Trial concludes: Verdict was given after two-hour deliberation: Ali was found guilty of second-degree murder.

July 10- Ali was sentenced to life imprisonment by Judge Frederick Smyth. Sent after the judgment, he is sent to Sing Sing at 12:20 p.m.

and arrived at 1:30 p.m.

July 27- Ali is taken by Sing Sing Detective Jackson along with a chain gang of fellow prisoners to Auburn Prison in upstate New York.

Back on April 30th, Ali told Judge Martine that he lived in Brooklyn and was between 25 and 30 years old.

The following was written by someone on Ali's behalf on the day (April 30th, 1891) of the arraignment.

 

"I always slept alone."

"Have nothing in my heart".

"If they think I am guilty they ought to kill me."

"If they think I am not, they ought to let me go."

"At 6 A.M. when I left, the women were there."

"I cannot read or write".

 

In the New York Evening World's May 1st, 1891, edition, a   reporter who had a good look at him said he thought Ali was between 'thirty-four and thirty-five years of age'.'   

The reporter went on to say: 

[['Frenchy is a tall, ungainly, awkward man, about 5 feet 10 or 11 inches high, and will probably weigh about 160 pounds. Apparently, he is about thirty-four or thirty-five years old, and his nationality would seem to be wonderfully indefinite.

His general appearance is that of a Moor or an Arabian, while there are slight indications of negro and French or Italian descent. His complexion is that of a Turk.

His eyes are black and rather small, his gaze restive, and he is wonderfully disinclined to look one directly in the face.

His hair is black, half-curly, and half-straight, and his head slopes back gradually from the forehead to a high point in the rear denoting large self-esteem. Phrenological marks of ignorance- almost idiocy- and sensuality are also predominant.

His mustache is rather slight, black, tending to gray, and today he had a short, stubby three- or four-days growth of black beard.

Frenchy's features are generally sharp, the nose especially, and the chin much inclined that way. His lips are thin and his cheek bones high and prominent.

The suspect is a slim-built man, but his frame is apparently a powerful one. His legs are long, as are also his arms, hands, and fingers. He is flat-chested, and a little inclined to be round-shouldered. His gait is the lazy shuffle of the indolent negro.

Frenchy's clothes are much too small for him. His coat and vest belong to a Spring suit of light fray material, and the coat is ragged and torn. The sleeves are fully two inches short for his long, bony arms.

His shirt is a cheap, light-striped tennis affair, and his small 13 neck had difficulty filling up the 16 collar.

His pants are of a dark, blue plaid pattern and fully too short for his gaunt legs as his coat sleeves are for his arms. 

His shoes are Congress gaiters, full of holes at the heels, through which his large bare feet showed plainly.

Both Frenchy's hands are tattooed on the back in India ink, with serpents, flowers, and various designs, among which the Turkish star and crescent is predominant.

On his right forearm is tattooed a dancing girl in a short skirt, surmounting the words, "Fatma Mahomet Makdon" *. This would indicate that the work was done by a Turk.**

Near the dancing girl is the half-finished head of a second girl and next to that the figure of a dancing man.]]

*Fatma in Arabic means 'shining one'.

**It's unknown who did the tattoo work, as they are not Turkish words or names.
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CHAPTER 5, continued


The Last Will and Testament of Charles E, Brown of Salem

 

I, Charles E. Brown of Salem, do make and publish this my last will and testament in the manner following.

 

1. I appoint my friend Capt. Peter Lassen of Salem, to be the executor of this will.

2. I give and bequeath Magdalena S. Liebsch of Salem the sum of one thousand dollars.

3. I give, devise, and bequeath all the rest and residue of my estate, real, personal, and mixed, to my said executor and his
 successors to this trust, in and upon the following trusts.

      1- To keep the same security invested and to use the income thereof, or so much thereof as may be necessary, for the
 support, maintenance, and education of my youngest daughter, until she shall arrive at the age of twenty-one years, should she live so long.

      2- Upon the arrival of my said youngest daughter at the age of twenty-one years to divide said principal sum including
 such income as may not have been expanded as aforesaid, between my daughters Mary Ellen Brown and Anna W. Brown, equally, share and share alike.

      3- If my said daughter Anna should decease before arriving at the age of twenty-one years, then to terminate this trust
 and pay over said residue to her sister, said Mary Ellen.

       In witness whereof, I, the said Charles E. Brown have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth day of September in the
 year eighteen hundred seventy-two.

      Charles E. Brown

Signed, sealed, published, and declared by the said Charles E. Brown as and for his last will and testament, in our presence,
 who in his presence and that of each other, and at his request, have subscribed our names as witnesses hereto. (the words " or upon her" having been first erased)

 

Stephen B. Ives, C. W. Richardson, K. W. Handy – A true record - Attested – A. C. Goodell

Register. Prob. NS 261-415

 

                                                  Final Resting Place:

Harmony Grove Cemetery, 30 Grove Street, Salem, Massachusetts

Number of Interment: 8589

Proprietor of the plot: Peter Lassen. Lassen died in 1872.

Carrie Brown - AKA Ellen Caroline Brown.

Date of Death: April 24, 1891

Date of Interment: April 30, 1891

Lot 810 Pine Path

Born: England, lived in Salem, Mass. and New York City, Died: New York City

Father: last name Montgomery, first name unknown

Mother: first name Mary, last name Montgomery, maiden name unknown

Married to Charles E. Brown (he died off the coast of Africa in 1878)

Children: Anna W. Brown, Mary Ella Brown (married Frank Allen), Charles E. Brown. (1)

Son Charles died May 25, 1859, Interment number 4048, two rows above his mother's grave. (Note: Brown was 56 years old in 1891,
 which indicates her being born in either 1835 or 1834. She would have been 24 or 25 at the time of her only son's death.)

Carrie Brown is buried in the same plot as Carol Taglieri (died February 5, 1995). Brown's grave is listed as number 16, while
 Taglieri's is number 33, both buried in numerical order according to their deaths.

There's no headstone for Carrie Brown at present. Her resting place is directly behind the headstone with the name Ryan.
 She shares this spot with a woman who passed away in 1995.

-Information courtesy of Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Massachusetts.

Photograph courtesy of Jose Oranto. Family information by Nina Brown.

 

Will located in genealogical sources by Nina Brown

The will written by Carrie Brown's former husband on September 17th, 1872, in Salem list

Mary Ellen and Anna W. Brown as his two daughters.  Mary Ellen was the eldest daughter. 

Anna Brown would go on to marry sheet music publisher Fernando de Anguera in the years ahead. After Fernando died, Anna
 developed a romantic relationship with her former brother-in-law, Edward. This resulted in Mrs. Edward De Anguera filing
divorce papers and stating publicly that Annie Brown had engaged in improper relations with her husband which irreparably
 affected de Anguera's marriage.  Anna was living in Malden, Massachusetts at the time of this turmoil (1906) and is subsequently
 found in the 1930 US Census listed as being married to Edward de Anguera.

 

1- Coroner's Inquest May 13-14, 1891

     Coroner Lewis Schultze: How old a woman would you judge she was from the body?

     Dr. Jenkins:   I judge she was a woman sixty years of age, she was subsequently identified as fifty-six

     In contrast, the Boston Globe stated she was born in 1832, which, if correct, places her age at either 58 or 59 in 1891.

2- His first name was Charles, not James. Her first name was Ellen, not Caroline. Charles Brown's last will and testament
 not only didn't provide her with any money, but it also didn't even mention her. Information from Nina Brown.

3- That other nickname Brown was known by, Jeff Davis, may have been derived from the fact that she somewhat resembles
 Jefferson Davis, the former President of the Confederacy, in their facial features. There was another explanation for the Jeff Davis nickname:

    [[ She speedily became known as Shakespeare and also Jeff Davis. The latter name was given to her as she never lost
 a chance to argue upon the merits of the "Lost Cause", always siding with the Confederacy.]- New York Press, April 26, 1891.

 

4- Bellevue Hospital. Alice Sullivan, who bought Brown her last meal, had been in Bellevue herself shortly before Brown's murder.

5- It was Lassen, not Lawson. 

6- April 16th, from Blackwell's Island, originally sent there for public drunkenness.

7- A mobcap is a bonnet. 

8- Technically, it had only been five days.

9- 'Guns and Roses': The Untold Story of Dion O'Banion' - Rose Keefe, 2003



             
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CHAPTER 5, continued.


A: I judge she was a woman sixty years of age, she was subsequently identified as fifty-six. I found the body on the dissecting table
at the Morgue, and an incised wound of the abdomen extending into the abdominal cavity, the lower portion of the body, and a small
 sac filled with fluid and one of the ovaries which was afterward found to be the left ovary lying on the body; I also found a portion of
the intestines on the table, the lower portion of the smaller intestines, they were with the body on the table and they were a part of
 the body as far as we can tell, and corresponding with the missing portion of the body; the face was livid and there were three small
 bruise spots on the left side of the windpipe on the neck, one above the other; they were about half an inch in diameter, one having
 a crescent shape as if made by a fingernail; the tongue protruded from the mouth partly. On the left side of the abdomen, there was
 a superficial wound beginning one level with the naval here about in this position, extending down to the thigh, beginning about here
 and ending down to the thigh, and it was simply a scratch fifteen inches in length, and superficial, made by the nail or it might be
made by the point of a dull knife; there was a second wound superficial in character resembling this which was twelve inches in length,
 the lower seven inches not well marked or very indistinct; also two parallel and superficial wounds or scratches on the right side of the
 abdomen and extending from about here ( illustrating) and running up here; the upper portion was at the upper end of the incised
 wound of the abdomen and that hid a part of it or gave the appearance of being a portion of the incised wound.  But afterward, I found
 them to be separate; one of the parallel scratches (the outer) was nine inches in length, and the inner eight and a half inches, and less
 than half an inch apart. There was an incision in the abdomen penetrating the abdominal cavity to the right and extending down to the
 right side of the external genitals, making button-hole cuts in the skin. The weapon had cut out two portions of the intestines and
mesentery, a portion of the intestines was attached to mesentery and the edges were ragged and seemed to have been made with a dull
instrument, and it had required two efforts at least- two efforts to cut; on the left buttock a horizontal wound passing across the lower
portion of the back two inches to the right of the median line, it extends from this side some ten and three-fourths of an inch in length
and a cresentic scratch wound across this horizontal scratch is seven and three-fourths in length, making a rude cross; on the back, posterior
 portion of the body is a wound six and three quarters inches in length, commencing in the ****, a portion of the generative organs, and
 extending through the perineum, the portion between the **** and the rectum, passing to the left of the anus, and terminating one inch
 above and to the right on the small bones which terminate the spinal column, between the buttock and the junction of the spinal column.
 Its depth was four and a half inches and passed into the pelvic cavity and back, but had not passed into the lining membrane, which covers
the intestine and cavity. Two superficial cuts, extending from this termination of the spinal column into the ****, showing there had been
 at least three efforts to cut; they formed an X.  There was a cut sixteen inches in length on the mesentery in one place, and a cut nine inches
and a half in length in another place; a portion of the intestines was gone and some still attached; in the mesentery; a small wound in
mesentery which was made by the point of a knife. The uterus and ovary were atrophied. The hyoid bone had been sufficiently compressed
to fracture and rupture small vessels producing slight hemorrhage. The brain and meninges were congested, and there were some small
spots that indicated asphyxiation. The tongue protruding from the mouth itself does not indicate asphyxiation; the cause of death in this
ase was asphyxiation or strangulation. You could not determine definitely whether the incisions were made just before or just after death;
 it would be impossible to determine that positively; if we had seen any evidence of arterial spurting upon examining the rooms, we might
have been able to determine it.

By the Coroner: -

Q: She died of asphyxiation, in other words strangulation?

A: Yes, sir; I would not say the other injuries or wounds did not contribute.

By Mr. Wellman:-

Q: Possibly choked and possibly killed with a knife?

A: Yes, sir.

By A Juror:-

Q; Might not both have occurred together?

A: Yes; it would be very difficult to determine which was the principal cause, but all evidence from autopsy points to strangulation.

By Mr. Wellman:-

Q: The wounds appeared to be made with a dull knife such as the knife shown to you there? 

A: They might have been done with a knife of that character.

Cross-Examination By Mr. House:-

Q: You don't mean to say that the wounds which you discovered were made with that knife but a knife similar?

A: They could have been made with that.

Q: They could have been made with that knife?

A: Yes, sir; there were at least three or four cuts indicating a dull knife.

By A Juror: -

Q: Was there very much congestion of the vessels of the brain?

A: Yes, sir.

Q: And both of the lungs- evidence in both lungs?

A: Yes, sir: but not so marked as in some cases of asphyxiation.

Q: What was the condition of the heart? 

A: Contracted down, containing some fluid blood in the right auricle.

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CHAPTER 5, continued

A relative of Capt. Brown in conversation with the Globe correspondent, this evening, stated that Mrs. Brown became an actress
 after she left her husband, which accounts for her sobriquet Shakespeare. 

Some 15 months ago, she visited this city, and for some months was employed as a domestic in the family of a well-known sea
 captain. Strenuous efforts were made at that time by her old friends to have her lead a better life, but all influences for good
 proved futile. She shamed all that once known her by unsavory behavior, and it was a pleasure that they learned of her sudden exit
from Salem to her old haunts in New York.

For years she led a riotous life and was frequently heard from by her former friends in Salem.

Some five years ago she was seen by a relative in a Bowery theatre in New York, her role at that time being an actress in a
 minor part.

Soon after, the announcement was made that she was dead, but this was not credited, especially by her relatives here, and
 since then they daily expected to hear of her demise in some sad way.

Wretched as she was, no one dreamed that her end would be so horrible as it is supposed to have been. No one, however, who knew her
 is surprised at the atrocious ending of her career, as it is in keeping with her fearful life for the past 25 years.

She leaves several relatives in Salem whom she has made wretched for years.

Her horrible butchery is the principal topic of conversation among all classes, and it is the unanimous wish that the murderer may be
 at once identified and punished.]]

 

 

New York Evening World April 25th, 1891

(from the April 28th edition of the Boston Globe):

 

 [[ Denied The Tomb 'Old Shakespeare' Still In the Morgue. Authorities Keep Body from Potter's Field, So That Salem Relatives May Bury Her.

 

The body of Carrie Brown, alias 'Shakespeare' the victim of the East River Hotel tragedy, was to be sent to Hart's Island for burial
 in the potter's field today.

The box containing the body was placed on the little boat that leaves the morgue for Harts Island every morning, along with a dozen
 others that were being removed from the morgue for pauper burial.

Warden Fallon, however, decided it would be best to keep the body at the morgue for 24 hours longer, in case any of the relatives of
the dead woman should come to town and desire to give it a decent burial. So the box was carried back to the dead room, where it will remain until tomorrow morning.

If none of the Salem relatives are heard from today, the body will be sent to the potter's field.]]

 

From the April 29th edition of the Boston Globe:

 

[[Burial of Unfortunate Carrie Brown Provided for.

Relatives from Salem, Mass., Arrive at the Morgue.

[[At 8:30, the Inspector (Byrnes) sent a message to Capt. White, the keeper of the morgue, directs him not to bury the body of
Carrie Brown, alias “Shakespeare,” the ripper's victim, who has been lying there for the past six days. (8) The action was said to be
 due to the arrival of two relatives of Carrie Brown, who came from Salem, Mass., and who, it is expected, will provide for the proper interment of the body]]

 

The issue of which two people came to take her back to Salem was resolved by the New York Evening World on April 30th:

[[ The body of 'Shakespeare', or Carrie Brown, will be decently interred in Salem, Mass. Mrs. Ellen Allen, the dead woman's
 daughter, accompanied by an undertaker from Salem, yesterday called upon Undertaker Thomas F. Murray, of 154 East Twenty-Ninth Street,
 and engaged him to look after the shipment of the body.

This morning the common box containing the old woman's body was placed in a hermetically sealed casket by Undertaker Murray and
shipped on the 9 o'clock New York, New Haven, and Hartford train.

Mrs. Allen arrived in the city Tuesday night (April 28th) and immediately had an interview with Inspector Byrnes, which resulted in the
 order yesterday to defer sending the body to Hart's Island.]]

 

Several newspapers mentioned a man named John F. Flower, a retail grocer, who was reported in the Fall River (Mass) Globe on April 27
 claiming Carrie Brown had worked for his family some years in the past.

A newspaper published in Kansas reported Flower stating Brown had worked for the family only two years earlier. Both papers made the
 claim Brown told Flower that she was from Canada.  Yet another, shown here, had more details:

 

New York World

April 28, 1891

************

[[John T. Flomer, of No. 849 East One Hundred and Sixty-first Street, who, on Sunday, recognized 'Old Shakespeare' as

a former servant, called again yesterday at the Morgue and expressed some solicitude at the fact that she was likely to be buried in
 Potter's Field. He said he would assist in providing a grave for her in one of the cemeteries. He believed her to have been a woman of
 good impulses. As no other person has expressed a wish similar to that of Flomer. it is not at all likely that 'Shakespeare' will be buried in any other place than Hart's Island]]

 

Fortunately, Carrie Brown wasn't buried in Potter's Field on Hart's Island.  The report also spells the man's last name as Flomer, at first considered a typo.

However, it was Flomer and not Flower.  Nina Brown found the correct name and some background about the 26-year-old

in September 2023. 

He was John Frederick Flomer

Born in Germany, 1865

Came to the United States in 1880

Married June 28th, 1885 - Wife’s name Lena Keller 

Naturalized citizen in October 1886

Lived at 870 Forest and listed as a grocer in 1889

Lived at 849 E. 161st Street in 1891

Lived in The Bronx in the 1900 census - 812 Trinity Ave. -wife Lena - five children- one servant-two boarders.

If Carrie Brown had worked for the Flomer family, it would have been sometime between the years 1880 and 1890 at one of the
 two addresses located in the city archives.  Flomer's Forest Avenue address was in Queens while the 161st Street address is
 located in The Bronx. Trinity Avenue, the address listed in 1900, likewise is in The Bronx.

   

Another address where Carrie Brown once lived was 86 James Street, a once notorious street in the Lower East Side. 

One of the inhabitants who lived at 86 James Street at or around the same time as Brown was a young immigrant boy from Naples
 who grew up to be the mentor to Al Capone. 

His name was Johnny Torrio, who, by the age of four, lived there with his mother and stepfather, Salvatore Caputo. His stepfather
operated a 'blind pig' (illegal drinking place) in the building. Torrio was born in 1882. (9)

Brown had once lived there with an Italian man named 'One-Eyed Tony'

This New York Herald article from April 26th gives a little more information about them while still a couple.

[[ One of the important facts that the police learned yesterday was that Carrie Brown had lived at different times with an Italian. She
passed as his wife and their abode some time ago was at a lodging house at No. 86 James Street, kept by an Italian known as 'One-Eyed Tony' .
 The house is now a negro resort and Tony's present residence is not known to the occupants.

In this connection, the police learned that Carrie Brown had a dispute with an Italian near the East River Hotel on Thursday night, several hours
 before she entered the hotel with the man who killed her.]]

 

 

 

In 2023, I located a photograph and address of a third house in which Carrie Brown once resided, the address being 92-94 Cherry Street, run by

a woman known as 'Mother Olson' a sexagenarian who ran 'boarding houses', a polite euphemism for bordello.

To date, we have only one photograph of Carrie Brown, the same photo that was on the tintype that Inspector Thomas Byrnes held in his
hands while at that briefing with the press back in late April 1891.  Almost all we know about Carrie Brown has come directly from newspaper
accounts, a few factual and most others based on speculation. Sadly, the most important person in this case is the one we do not know quite enough about.

 

   Additional Information Related to Carrie Brown:

  Coroner’s Report

  Coroner's Office, New York County.

 In the Matter of the Inquest into the Death

                 Of   

 CARRIE BROWN, deceased.

 New York, May 13th, 1891,

10.30, A. M. Before

 Hon. Louis W. Schultze, And A Jury

*****************************************

Autopsy Report of Dr. William T. Jenkins

Dr. William T. Jenkins, being called as a witness by the coroner, was duly sworn, and testified as follows:

By Mr. Wellman: - 

Q: You made the autopsy on the body of this woman, Shakespeare?

A: Yes

Q When did you make the autopsy?

A: On Saturday (April 25th)

Q: Where?

A: At the Morgue at the foot of 28th Street.

Q: How old a woman would you judge she was from the body?
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CHAPTER 5

                                                 
CARRIE BROWN

FIFTEEN DAYS IN APRIL 1891 – A Timeline of The Last Days of Carrie Brown

 
On April 16th, Carrie Brown is released from Blackwell's Island (public drunkenness). On the night of April 20th, a Monday, it is very
 likely that Ameer Ben Ali and Carrie Brown spent the night at the East River Hotel.

In the afternoon of April 23rd, the day of the murder, Alice Sullivan sees Brown and Ali standing together near the corner of Oak & Oliver
 Street. During the same afternoon, Sullivan treats Brown to lunch at 'George's' located near the intersection of Roosevelt & Water Streets between 4:30-5:00 p.m.

On the evening of April 23rd, Brown is seen with a man whose description matches that provided on the 24th by Mary Miniter and Mike Kelly. 

Brown first entered (John) Speckman's saloon on the corner of Oak and Oliver Streets, soon to be joined by this man.

This information was given to the police by a barber named Henry Decenwether whose barber shop was close to Spekeman's.

On the night of April 23rd, Carrie Brown entered the hotel with a man who would be forever known as "C. Kniclo" at approx. 11:00 p.m.
 The man gave Mary Miniter a dollar piece for the fifty-cent room. He also gave Miniter a dime for a pail of ale. Miniter gave them a new
 candle and the key to room 31 on the fifth floor at the far end of the hallway.

Carrie Brown was murdered either late on April 23rd or early on the 24th. The exact time is unknown. 

Mary Corcoran and Eddie Fitzgerald discovered Carrie Brown's corpse on the 24th at approximately 10 a.m.

Police learned that the victim's name was Carrie Brown on April 25th, with identification provided by Catherine McGovern and repeated at the trial.   

On April 28th, Mary Brown, her daughter, arrives in Manhattan with a Salem undertaker and makes plans to transport Carrie Brown to her final resting place.

On April 29th, Brown's body is on its way to Salem by train.

On April 30th, Carrie Brown is lowered into the ground at Harmony Grove Cemetery

At the Coroner's Inquest on May 13th, Dr. William Jenkins stated that Brown was 56 years old. (1)

He had been under the impression that she was a few years older, quite likely an estimate on his or someone else's part. However, he
 amended his original estimate having been supplied with the correct age by her daughter or the undertaker who accompanied her when the
 came to New York City to take her body back to Salem on April 29th. She fortunately avoided being buried on Hart's Island (Potter's Field), New York.

The problem that researchers have faced in this case are inaccuracies in 19th-century census reports leaving us with fewer cold hard facts
 than we hoped for. No one knows exactly when Carrie Brown was born although a Boston Globe claimed it was 1832. Likewise, her place of
 birth claimed by the same paper as Liverpool isn't guaranteed since we lack a copy of her birth certificate for verification purposes.

 The best newspaper accounts from 1891 that brought up aspects from her past before the murder are found in the Boston Globe. While some
Manhattan papers gave credible accounts, they lacked certain items that flesh out her story, which these Boston articles contain. 

 

From the April 26th edition of the Boston Globe:

[[ Fifteen years ago, there appeared in the Fourth Ward a middle-aged woman addicted to drink and who soon became known by the
 names of “Shakespeare" and "Jeff Davis". (2) She was well-liked by her companions on account of her liberality when she had money, as well as for her superior intelligence. 

 Her maiden name was Caroline Montgomery, and in early life, she married a sea captain named James Brown. She lived with him in
 Salem, Mass., for a number of years. Brown died and left her quite an amount of money. (3)

Some time afterwards she came to New York and entered upon this fast life. She left behind her two daughters, Ellen and Annie, who reside at present in Salem, Mass.

This woman, when not on the (Blackwell's) island, was in the 4th Ward. Sometimes she became an inmate of some institution where she would recuperate. (4)

Her board bills were paid by a relative named Lawson, also a resident of Salem. (5) It has been learned that she has only recently been discharged from the island. (6)

The statement from the Inspector (Byrnes) was typewritten, and at this point, he requested Captain McLaughlin to stop reading.

No explanation was made by either of the officials for not continuing the reading of the remainder of the document, which was very much longer.

The Inspector said that he had in his possession a tintype of the deceased taken some few years ago. In it she appeared neatly dressed, wearing
a large white apron and a mob cab (sic), apparently the dress of a nurse. (7) ]]

 

From the April 27th edition of the Boston Globe:

[[ Carrie Brown's Career. Ripper's Victim Known In Salem. Once She was a Pretty and Happy Bride and Lived in That Ancient City.
 She Took to Drink and Her Downfall was Speedy and Certain.

 

(Salem, Mass., April 26.- Carrie Brown, alias 'Old Shakespeare', who is supposed to have been murdered by 'Jack the Ripper', or his double,
n the East River Hotel, New York City, Thursday night, is well-known to the older citizens of Salem, and sadly remembered by many.

She was born in Liverpool, Eng., in 1832, her maiden name being Caroline Montgomery. When quite young she came to this country with her
 parents, who were of English blood, and settled in Brooklyn, N.Y.

As a girl, she was very vivacious and prepossessing, and before she was sweet 16 had won the heart and hand of a gay sailor named
 James Brown, about one year her senior.

The acquaintance which ripened into intimacy was made in Brooklyn, and after a few months of wooing the marriage took place in that city, and a short time
after the then-happy couple came to Salem and established a home on Becket Street.

Brown had quite a large number of relatives here, and during his absence at sea, everything was done to make her life happy.

At that time, she was handsome, of superior intelligence and untarnished character, and as a result, scores of friends rallied about her and made
 the life and home of the sailor's wife blissful indeed.

Although noted for vivaciousness, she was religiously inclined and was admitted as a member of the Central Baptist Church. For a time, she was
 an indefatigable worker in the church and was deemed a most estimable member.

As the years rolled on her husband prospered until he became master of a clipper ship and acquired considerable property. He was a man of
 sterling integrity, of generous disposition, and of more than ordinary liberality in providing comforts for his home.

He was in the employ for many years of the late Charles Hoffman, one of Salem's best-known merchants, who was engaged in the African and
East India trade and owned five or six vessels, with headquarters on Derby Wharf.

Capt. Brown was a great favorite of Mr. Hoffman and commanded several vessels owned by the great merchant, including the brig 'Potomac' bark 'Gem', brig 'Elizabeth', and brig 'Tigress'.

At the close of five years of married life Capt. Brown was made a happy father by the birth of a little girl, who has now grown into womanhood
 and is respected by all who know her. Some two years later another girl was born, and subsequently a son, the latter dying in infancy. The second child is now living in Montana.

After some 10 years of matrimony, the wife took to strong drink, and although urged by relatives and friends to abstain from such a habit, she
 heeded no advice and went from bad to worse until she became a notorious drunkard, and a very cruel wife and mother.

In 1863, Capt, Brown moved with his family to New York, but it was not long after the establishment of his home in that city before he was
obliged to take his children away from their mother and bring them back to Salem, where they were cared for and educated by his relatives.
 One of the girls continues to make her home in Salem, while the other is in the West, as previously stated.

Capt. Brown served in the Navy during the Civil War, and upon his discharge re-entered the marine service. Some 12 years ago, while in
command of the brig, Elizabeth, off the coast of Africa, he was stricken with the terrible fever so common on that continent and died.

To his dissolute wife, whom he had left several years before, he bequeathed $1, the balance of his fortune being given to his daughters and
 those who had cared for them while they were young.

A New York dispatch, in referring to the murder, says: The board bills of the murdered woman were paid by a man named Lawson of Salem, Mass.”
10
East Side Story / Re: ***East Side Story: The Book On-Site***
« Last post by Howard Brown on March 15, 2026, 06:49:30 pm »
CHAPTER 4 continued


 New York Times
April 26, 1891

 

[[ "The most important clue that came to the police yesterday was from the Glenmore Hotel, a Chatham Square cheap lodging house. The morning of the murder, about three hours
 after the murderer and his victim went to their room in the East River Hotel, a man went into the Glenmore and asked for a room. Kelly, the night clerk of the house, noticed that the
 man's hands, face, and clothing were smeared with blood. The fellow spoke with a pronounced German accent. Kelly describes the man as about five feet nine inches in height, light
 complexion, a long nose and a light mustache. He says he wore a shabby cutaway coat and a shabby old derby hat. He had no money to pay for a room and therefore was not permitted
 to remain. The Glenmore is not more than five minutes in a straight line from the scene of the murder.

The murderer and his victim at the East River Hotel went to their room at 11 PM. It was more than two and less than three hours afterward that the bloody man went to the Glenmore.
Where he went next is a problem. Without money, it is hard to see how he can escape the law.

 Night clerk Kelly has been closely questioned in regard to this call of the man with blood on his hands and clothing. Kelly says the man was very nervous and agitated. "His hat was
 pulled down over his eyes," Kelly explained, "and he acted queer. He asked me in broken English if I could give him a room for the night. At the time, his right hand rested
 on my desk, and I noticed it was all bloody. I noticed it looked as though he had tried to wipe the blood off, but it was smeared all over. There were also two blotches of blood on his
 right cheek, as though he had put the bloody hand to his face. There was also blood on his right coat sleeve, and it was splattered on his collar. Altogether the fellow looked very bad.
 I asked him what price room he wanted. He answered nervously that he wanted me to give him a room as he did not have a cent. I told him that I could not give him a room as the house
 was full. He turned to go away, but instead of going down the stairs to the street, he started for the washroom. I came out from behind my desk and told him we only allowed the guests
 of the house the use of that room. He turned then without a word and went down into the street. As he did, I turned to Tiernan, our night watchman, who was in the office at the time, and said,
"That man looks as though he had murdered somebody."
Kelly tells his story in a straightforward way and the detectives place great credence in it. His description of the blood-stained man who asked him for a room tallies so closely with
 Mary Miniter's description of the man who took the murdered woman into Room 31 of the East River Hotel that there does not seem to be much doubt that they were one and the same."]]

 The story above contains the once-stated reference to the Glenmore having no available rooms. I've yet to find it anywhere else and it is unlikely that this part, at least, is correct.
Why would Kelly first ask him what price room he wanted instead of flat out telling him there were no rooms available?
Other reports:
The New York World on April 26th, the same day as the Times article, refers to the night watchman by the name of Concilio.
Kelly's tone in the NY World article is a little more aggressive than the more even-tempered discussion in the Times piece.
The NY Herald, from the same date, has the night watchman making the statement about the visitor to the hotel looking as if he had just murdered someone, not Kelly.
The Herald also states that while Kelly was accustomed to men with blood on their person entering the Glenmore for a room, this man's actions, on top of his appearance, was what caught Kelly's attention.
One out-of-town paper, the San Bernardino (Cal.) Courier from May 2nd wrote that the visitor was around 5'2" and quotes Kelly as saying the visitor looked as if he'd just come
 back from butchering hogs. So much for out-of-town papers as being reputable sources. 

 Miniter mentions his build as being slim and that he was between 32 and 35 years of age. She did not mention anything unusual in how he walked, and neither did Kelly.
Both or at least one would have mentioned noticing it while giving their descriptions. This also comes into play later.
It's easy to understand why those who have studied the case usually link C. Kniclo to Glenmore Man.
We also should keep in mind a comment that was published in the New York Herald about Kelly being accustomed to men with blood on their persons going into the Glenmore
 Hotel This hotel was a cut above the East River Hotel but was also a seedy establishment in its own right. Chatham Square was situated near the elevated train close to The Bowery
 and had its share of disturbances, often resulting in violence. It was also theorized in the New York World that 'Glenmore Man' may have simply been a local man who was beaten up
 and went to the hotel in order to clean himself up, which may have been what actually took place.
An example of a man found loitering in the vicinity of the Glenmore Hotel was reported in the New York Evening World on April 25th.  The paper contained a paragraph on the arrest
 of a man of German background named Adolph Kallenberg arrested at 1:00 a.m. on the 25th.
[[Kallenberg Set Free
This arrest was made about 1 o'clock this morning by Officer Mitchell, of the Elizabeth Street police. He found a German, about 35 years old, who said his name
 was Adolph Kallenberg, and that he had no home, loitering in Chatham Square. He was sent down to Oak Street Station at about 2 o'clock this morning. Capt. O'Connor
 says he discharged him because he was evidently not the man whom he wanted.]]

 Glenmore Man remains a possible connection to C. Kniclo and a good one at that.

A Missed Opportunity?
Professor Dekle has suggested that perhaps Kelly would have been a bad witness for the defense. Nothing else is known about Kelly other than his employment at the Glenmore Hotel. 

 His eye-witness account of the man whose description had been considered relevant by the police and which matched Mary Miniter's in numerous ways is persuasive
 enough to seriously consider 'Glenmore Man' as having been C. Kniclo. On the other hand, that 'Glenmore Man' acted somewhat out of the ordinary was probably
 not such a big thing for that area of the Lower East Side.  Disheveled men were dime-a-dozen in the Chatham Square area. After all, Adolph Kallenberg was picked
 up in the general vicinity on the 25th and bore some similarity to C. Kniclo. 

Had a jury heard of the physical similarities between C. Kniclo and Glenmore Man if Kelly had been put on the witness stand, could this have worked in Ali's favor?

So, did the defense team waste an opportunity by not handing a subpoena to Kelly?

Nothing in the available contemporary accounts suggests that any of the three defense attorneys even spoke to him.

I, for one, find it very unlikely that his story would not have been known by the defense team.
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