On Jan. 2, 1800, a young lady’s dead body was removed from a well in Lispenard Meadows, on the outskirts of New York City.

According to Estelle Fox Kleiger, who was an authority on this case and who has written a book about it, the young woman fished from the well was Gulielma “Elma” Sands.

She had been missing from the boarding house where she lived and worked since a little after 8 p.m. on December 22. Catherine and Elias Ring, Sands’ employers, owned and resided at the boarding house as well.

Elma was Catherine’s 23-year-old cousin, and she had worked at the boarding house for three years.

On the night of her disappearance, she confided to Catherine that on that very night, she was to marry a young carpenter, also a boarder at the house. Her young man arrived sometime after 8 p.m., the two departed and Sands was never seen alive again.

According to Doris Lane, in her article “The Original ‘Dream Team” for Crime Magazine, her murder sent shock waves throughout New York.

Hundreds came to pay their respect during her funeral. To the public it was obvious that the young carpenter was guilty of the crime, and they expected a quick trial and conviction. The carpenter was arrested and indicted.

However, the carpenter had a wealthy brother who hired Aaron Burr, Brockholst Livingston and Alexander Hamilton — three of the finest lawyers in the state of New York — to defend him. Their fame was such that the rest of the nation took an interest in the trial, and it became the United States’ first famous murder trial.

Hamilton was a member of the Federalist Party, whose membership was usually made up of large landholders, merchants and lawyers. Burr and Livingston were Democratic Republicans, a political party that represented mostly artisans, mechanics, tradesmen and small independent farmers.

However, for this case, Hamilton put aside his political differences with Burr and Livingston and did the same, probably because they knew that their client’s brother was wealthy enough to pay their fees.

The carpenter would in most cases be considered a fit for Burr and Livingston’s party. However, his brother’s connection to the federalists actually caused him to have more sympathizers among that group.

By the time of the trial, public opinion about his guilt and innocence was greatly divided along lines of political party affiliations.

The prosecutor for the state of New York was the state’s assistant attorney general and later a New York mayor, Caldwallader David Colden. He set out to prove that the deceased had been a virtuous young woman who had been seduced by the prisoner, lied to by him about his honorable intentions to gain her affection, and that in the end he had murdered her.

The defense was quick to point out that all the evidence against their client was circumstantial, that he had an alibi.

The defense also sought to show that their client was a young man of good character. They were also able to imply that the young lady was not as modest and virtuous as the public was led to believe.

The defense contended that she was suicidal and had most likely jumped into the well of her own accord. The defense was further aided by the presiding judge John Lansing, who suppressed any evidence that implied that the two were engaged to be married.

Lansing also helped the defense by instructing the jury to acquit the accused, and that is what they did.

Though the young man was acquitted, most of the public in New York felt he was guilty and the public pressure was such that he was forced to leave New York.

By 1809 he was living in the far off Mississippi Territory in the City of Natchez.

In a short time, this young carpenter, whose name was Levi Weeks, became one of the most noted architects in the area. The house Auburn, located in Duncan Park, which he designed and built, still stands as evidence of his skill and talent.

H. Clark Burkett is a historian at Historic Jefferson College.