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Duel with the Devil: The True Story of How Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr Teamed Up to Take on America's First Sensational Murder Myster
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BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE EDGAR FINALIST, MURDER OF THE CENTURY
In the closing days of 1799, the United States was still a young republic. Waging a fierce battle for its uncertain future were two political parties: the well-moneyed Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, and the populist Republicans, led by Aaron Burr. The two finest lawyers in New York, Burr and Hamilton were bitter rivals both in and out of the courtroom, and as the next election approached, their animosity reached a crescendo.
But everything changed when beautiful, young Elma Sands was found dead the Manhattan Well. The horrific crime quickly gripped the nation, and before long accusations settled on one of Elma’s suitors, handsome young carpenter Levi Weeks. As the enraged city demanded a noose be draped around the accused murderer’s neck, the only question seemed to be whether Levi would make it to trial or be lynched first. The young man’s only hope was to hire a legal dream team. And thus it was that New York’s most bitter political rivals and greatest attorneys did the unthinkable—they teamed up.
At once an absorbing legal thriller and an expertly crafted portrait of the United States in the time of the Founding Fathers, Duel with the Devil is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction.
- Sales Rank: #134791 in eBooks
- Published on: 2013-06-04
- Released on: 2013-06-04
- Format: Kindle eBook
Amazon.com Review
A Few Things You Didn't Know About Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and America's Oldest Cold Case
- Manhattan's municipal water system had just debuted when the body of Elma Sands was found in one of its wells in 1800. Now in modern-day SoHo, back then the area was part of "Lispenard's Meadow"—and Greenwich Village really was still a village.
- Aaron Burr created NYC's water service as cover for a banking scheme that would turn the 1800 election against Alexander Hamilton. Their rivalry had high stakes: Manhattan was the swing district of the presidential election's swing state.
- Not only did the plan work, Burr's bank ploy took on a life of its own; his Manhattan Company eventually became Chase Manhattan.
- Hamilton and Burr were also the city's top lawyers, but served together on just one murder case: in defending carpenter Levi Weeks for the murder of Elma Sands. The trial attracted thousands of spectators, and was the nation's first fully recorded murder case.
- Hamilton's first outing as a criminal defense lawyer was less auspicious. He defended a client charged with dueling—and lost.
- Defendants in capital cases were rarely allowed to speak in their own behalf; they were considered hopelessly biased. They had good reason to be: conviction for murder earned a sentence of hanging and dissection.
- The murder trial of Levi Weeks was the longest NYC had ever known; its jury had to be put up for the night in City Hall. Afterwards, both Hamilton and Burr claimed to be the one who figured out the real murderer.
- Now in the basement of the Il Pozzo restaurant at 129 Spring Street, the infamous Manhattan Well is one of the oldest surviving unsolved crime scenes in the city.
From Booklist
Set in New York City in 1800, the murder case that Collins re-creates began with the discovery of a young woman’s body in a well. It was a politically connected well, owned by a company controlled by Aaron Burr. The accused in the killing had his own influential connection––to Alexander Hamilton––through a brother who built houses for the city’s elite. So, strangely, those Revolutionary War heroes, intense political rivals, and future duelists became the defense lawyers for Levi Weeks. Resident of a boardinghouse in which victim Elma Sands also lived, Weeks at trial faced a circumstantial case. With no eyewitnesses to the murder to confront, Burr and Hamilton pounced on weaknesses in the prosecution’s case, and the jury returned an acquittal. Derived from what Collins reports is one of the first trial transcripts in American legal history, this tautly constructed narrative, infused with period atmosphere, holds the reader’s attention on the fate of the participants, including the well, which still exists. Collins (The Murder of the Century, 2011) delivers fine true-crime verisimilitude. --Gilbert Taylor
Review
''Using the court transcript as a primary source, Collins makes the most of the inherent drama of the case and goes one step further to unearth convincing proof of the identity of the real killer.'' --Publishers Weekly (starred review)
''Lively, immediate, and dishy in the style of a top-notch tabloid columnist . . . fizzes with the energy and irreverence of an infant republic . . . Collins provides a saucy breakdown of the twisty and interlocking interests behind Weeks' case. This is New York politics in all its gritty glory.'' --Salon
''Collins not only skillfully squeezes the maximum juice out of the combined history and mystery of his story, but may even have solved the crime.'' --Christian Science Monitor
''A nimble and vividly evocative reconstruction of a long-forgotten New York murder mystery with an unforgettable cast of characters. Duel with the Devil is a fascinating book that unfolds like an early American episode of 'Law & Order', with Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr as the celebrity guest stars.'' --Gary Krist, New York Times bestselling author of City of Scoundrels
''This tautly constructed narrative, infused with period atmosphere, holds the reader s attention . . . Collins delivers fine true-crime verisimilitude.'' --Booklist
''The author's New York is a fascinating place [and] once the trial begins, the narrative truly takes off, as Collins reveals the immense talents of the three attorneys . . . A rousing tale of the longest murder trial to that date in Manhattan . . . The author's conjecture as to the true villain is spot-on.'' --Kirkus Reviews
''Duel with the Devil begins as a wonderfully creepy historical murder mystery and becomes a riveting story of two acclaimed lawyers battling for justice in an unsympathetic courtroom. But, in the talented hands of author Paul Collins, it also becomes something more -- a startlingly insightful look at early American history and the men who helped shape a young country. The book delivers on so many levels that you'll find yourself, as I did, reading it more than once.'' --Deborah Blum, New York Times bestselling author of The Poisoner's Handbook
Most helpful customer reviews
84 of 87 people found the following review helpful.
A wonderful book, on many levels.
By Esther Schindler
I wasn't sure that I'd like this book. I've always been "eh" on books that are classified as "true crime," which always seem intent on creeping me out. This meticulously-researched book about true events reads far more like a historical mystery, though -- with humor and a dozen points where I said, "How about that!"
The "tl;dr" summary of the events: In early 1800, a young woman died from Nefarious Means in a well in what today is lower Manhattan. A young man, who also lived at the same boardinghouse, was accused of the murder. It became one of the first BIG DEAL THE NEWS IS EVERYWHERE trials -- especially with the legal "dream team" that included Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr... one of whom would later shoot the other in a duel, in case you've forgotten your high school American History. (Shame on you!)
That might have been written about in an "eh, so what?" way, but Paul Collins really REALLY makes this story come alive, with an immediacy that I admire. First, he does a superb job of bringing us (or, well, ME) into the era: When yellow fever season was feared, when Greenwich Village was a two-mile trip away (very much a separate village), and when New York was understood to be the "swing state" in the upcoming election. One effect, for this born-and-raised-in-NY gal, was several "Oh DUH!" moments in which I realized that all those downtown street names came from somewhere; the city mayor was Varick, for instance, and I don't know how many times I walked down Varick Street by present day city hall.
Because this WAS the trial of the century, by the then-standards, the entire matter was extremely well documented, though it's obvious from the huge reference section just how many of those newspaper accounts, books, and other records Collins pored through. So he can really _tell the story_, because he had the collection of everyone's testimony and news stories on both this trial and the surrounding events (such as the death of George Washington). And -- what gives this book such a sparkle -- is that the people come through, with warmth if not always humor. For example, Alexander Hamilton was so well known for being a cad that, Collins reports, "Nobody needed to ask why Martha Washington had nicknamed her house's tomcat Hamilton."
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I'm sure to press it on many of my friends, insisting that they read it. You might want to grab your own copy.
36 of 37 people found the following review helpful.
HISTORY AS MYSTERY
By charles falk
In DUEL WITH THE DEVIL, Paul Collins recounts the gripping story of the murder of a young Quaker woman in New York City in 1800 and the subsequent trial of her fiancée as if it were a story dominating the TV news channels of today.He breathlessly reports the gossip of neighbors, statements of public officials, mob demonstrations against the accused, and - best of all - the legal ploys of the defendant's celebrity defense team. That team included New York's two most prominent lawyers who were also two of the young nation's most prominent politicians: Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. For good measure Collins supplies the probable solution to the mystery of Elma Sands' death.
The body of Elma Sands was found on January 2nd 1800 in a well located in an open field known as Lispenard's Meadow which separated New York City from its northern suburb, Greenwich Village. Just two days earlier a huge memorial parade (arranged by Hamilton) honoring George Washington who had died on Dec.14th had marched down Broadway past the meadow. Elma, who was unmarried, had been living for the past three years in a rooming house owned by her cousin Catherine and her husband Elias Ring. Another tenant, an upstanding young carpenter named Levi Weeks, was accused of the murder.
The well in which Elma's body was found belonged to a new municipal enterprise named the Manhattan Company, which had been chartered by the state legislature to provide the city with clean drinking water. Elias Ring, an inventor as well as a rooming house owner, had patented a water wheel which he proposed using to lift water out of the "Collect" a large pond east of Broadway. Ring's plan lost out in the board meetings of the Manhattan Company to a plan for distributing water through hollowed-out log piping from wells it owned in Lispenard's Meadow. Ezra Weeks(Levi's brother), a prominent architect/contractor, was hired to construct the wooden pipeline. Levi was his foreman.
Aaron Burr was the chairman of the Manhattan Company. Small wonder that he decided to defend, pro bono, the brother of his prime contractor accused of murder on property owned by the Manhattan Company. Hamilton was also involved with the Weeks brothers. Ezra was building a mansion for him on his country estate on the heights above the Harlem River.
Both Hamilton and Burr had served with distinction on General Washington's staff during the Revolutionary War, but were now bitter political rivals. Later in the year Burr would help Thomas Jefferson win the Presidency and would, himself, be elected Vice President. Hamilton, who had served as Washington's first Secretary of Treasury, was still a prominent figure in the Federalist Party. Four years after the trial they would meet for the last time on the Weehawken shore.
Collins unfolds the story much as a mystery writer would, gradually disclosing facts that lead the reader to the same conclusion Collins has reached. His meticulously documented sources include stories from the nine contemporary New York newspapers, three competing transcripts of the trial, as well as contemporary diaries and journals.
A thoroughly fascinating book.
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful.
History that reads like Mystery
By B. McEwan
Duel with the Devil is a very good murder mystery, and the best thing about it is that the story is a genuine historical cold case. Author Paul Collins is a historian who did extensive research on one of the first sensational murder trials in American history, which took place in New York City in 1799. His recounting of that trial pulls quotes and details from first-hand sources, such as diaries of people who lived at the time and contemporaneous newspaper articles. The book is expertly written and reads more like a novel than a history.
The investigation into who killed Elma Sands is engrossing in and of itself, but this case has an added twist in that two greats of American history -- Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr -- joined with Brockholst Livingston, son of a famous family of the Revolution, to defend the young man who was accused, Levi Weeks. As many know, Burr and Hamilton were arch rivals, each one vying for a prominent place in American politics and each having a very different view of how the young nation ought to be governed. This adds to the drama of the book and also gives current readers an opportunity to understand that America's current, vituperative political climate is survivable. This is no small matter, as the constant bickering between the political parties of 2013 has given the impression to many that our republic is in danger of disintegration. Duel with the Devil makes clear that similar situations have existed before, and therefore gives hope that those of us alive today can overcome our frustrating political stalemate.
One of the features of this book that I especially enjoyed is that Collins references a wealth of details about the social and economic life of the people of early New York City. Here is one interesting example: Although I knew that early New Yorkers traveled over snow in sleighs and that most sleighs had bells on them, I did not know that the bells were added as a warning to pedestrians. So when witnesses spoke about the night of the murder, they said that they saw, but did not hear, a sleigh. This implied that the murderer deliberately removed the sleigh bells so as to sneak through the night without attracting attention.
Wonkish? Perhaps. But if you enjoy picking up tidbits like this, Duel with the Devil will be especially interesting to you. I highly recommend this excellent social history.
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