October 11, 2005

The celebrated ghosts of Manhattan

On the night before her wedding, 22-year-old Elma Sands was strangled by her fiancee, Levi Weeks, and thrown in a well near the corner of Greene and Spring streets. The year was 1799.

In a trial marked by bribery and jury tampering, Weeks was never convicted, owing to his star-powered attorneys, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.

As the not-guilty verdict was read, the dead woman's cousin screamed in the courtroom and cursed Hamilton, condemning him to an "unnatural death." A mere four years later, Hamilton was killed in the infamous duel with Burr.

The details of the trail are found on the menu at the Manhattan Bistro, which not only houses the well where Elma Sands was dumped, but apparently also her ghost.

"The sightings describe the same image of a floating, young woman, wearing a long, green emerald robe, her hair is gray and her eyes are piercing. Her expression is unsettled as she repeats something over and over again for no one to hear," according to the menu at the diner-like Soho restaurant.

The well is in the basement, out of sight from diners.

But of course Elma Sands isn't the only ghost stuck on the island of Manhattan. On Sunday, Oct. 16, urban historian Gordon Linzer will lead a pre-Halloween downtown walking tour of Haunted New York for 92nd Street Y.

For all the armchair walking tour enthusiasts, see the 92Y blog for more tales of ghosts in New York, including Mark Twain, who is apparently fond of a stairwell at 14 West 10th St. near Fifth Avenue. Map.

The Manhattan Bistro is located at 129 Spring St. Map.

October 11, 2005 12:22 PM in Downtown, History, Sightsology

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