The Prince Street Murder.

 

Bertha Levy entered the house at 111 Prince Street, Manhattan, just before 10:00 a.m. on January 18, 1880. She was a hairdresser, and she had an appointment with Annie Downey, who lived on the second floor. No one responded to her knocks, and the door was locked. The owner of the house did not have a key to the room. Fearing the worst, they summoned the police; the Eighth Precinct Station House was less than a block away.

Officer Sweeny and Sergeant McNally broke the door open and found Annie Downey’s lifeless body lying prostrate on the blood-soaked bed. A pillowcase was tightly bound around her throat. Her left arm was bent, and her fingers were clutching the pillowcase. Ugly gashes on her forehead and bruises marred her face.

Captain McDonnell of the Eighth Precinct came to view the body and proclaimed that he believed she had committed suicide, first by strangling herself with the pillowcase, then beating her head with a weapon of some kind.

Annie Downey—aka Annie Martin; aka “Curly Tommy” – was said to be of unsound mind and had previously attempted to take her own life. She possessed a violent and hysterical temper, which, when excited, took a suicidal tendency.

The detectives handling the case did not share their captain’s view. Downey’s gold watch and chain were missing, suggesting that she was murdered during a robbery. Her diamond ring and other jewelry were still there, so the watch could have been taken to mislead the police. The detectives favored the theory that she had been murdered by a jealous lover. Over the previous few weeks, Downey had changed her abode several times, as if trying to escape someone.

Though the early accounts of the murder downplayed it, the house at 111 Prince Street was a brothel. The owner, Mrs. Blanche Schmidt, known as Madame Blanche, rented furnished rooms where local prostitutes plied their trade. Annie Downey led a life of shame for the past six years and had been arrested several times for intoxication and disorderly conduct.

Mrs. Schmidt told police that six men had called on Downey on the day of her death. The only one she saw was a man who came in at about 6:00.

“He was speaking so rough that I was afraid of him,” she said, “I looked through the door into the front parlor where he and Annie were standing. He asked her if she had pistols in the house; at that I got frightened and called out ‘Annie, what is the matter?’ He again asked if there was a pistol. I said, ‘My God! Don’t speak so, you frighten me by talking about pistols.’ I don’t remember having seen the man before, he was middling tall, I should judge he was between thirty-four and thirty-seven years of age, but he may have been younger, he was stout—rather of medium build; his hair, eyes and moustache appeared to be dark, he seemed to me to be an Irishman. Annie answered, ‘Oh, Mrs. Blanche, he said that for fun, he didn’t mean it.'”

Annie took him upstairs to her room. Half an hour later, she came down and told Mrs. Schmidt that the man would be back later to spend the night. No one in the house heard the man come back in or leave the house that night.

Captain McDonnell held on to the suicide theory for as long as he could, but the results of the autopsy put an end to it. Her death resulted from asphyxia from strangulation, hastened by four scalp wounds from a weapon, possibly the butt of a pistol. The coroner concluded that they could not have been self-inflicted. He began an inquest but suspended it until the police could find a suspect.

The New York press was comparing the case to the murder of Helen Jewett, a prostitute who had been murdered in her bed 44 years earlier. However, in that case, the prime suspect came to light quickly. There were no suspects in Annie Downey’s murder, and very little evidence to go on.

On January 20, a man answering the description of the man who visited Downey was arrested in Newtown, Long Island. He was a Swede named Johnsen, a tramp, with a scratch on his face and blood on his shirt. Captain McDonnell took several inmates of 111 Prince to Newtown to look at Johnsen. None of them recognized him, and Johnsen was released. 

In further investigation of the murder room, police determined that 111 Prince was not just a brothel; it was a “panel house.” This means that the rooms had hidden panels where a confederate could sneak into the room while the prostitute was in bed with her client and steal his wallet. This provided another possible motive and another means of escape for the killer.

On January 27, the police arrested another suspect. They tried to keep the information secret and requested that the newspaper refrain from naming him. Most complied, but the New York Tribune identified the man as Edward Timm. Captain McDonnell took Timm to 111 Prince, where the inmates recognized him as the man they had seen on the afternoon of the murder. Timm, a married man, denied he had been to the house and denied any knowledge of Annie Downey. However, his mother-in-law, upon hearing of Downey’s death, said it was a good thing because her daughter's husband would no longer run after her.

The inquest restarted, and after a day of testimony, the coroner’s jury returned the following verdict: “We find that the death of Annie Downey was a homicide, and consider the evidence sufficient to hold the prisoner, Edward Timm, for trial.”

It looked as though the case was nearly closed, but in February, Captain McDonnell received some surprises that affected the prosecution of the case.

Edward Timm hired the law firm of Howe and Hummell, the most effective criminal lawyers in New York. William Howe applied to the New York Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus. He believed that there was not enough evidence to hold his client. Justice Lawrence of the Supreme Court agreed and released Timm from custody.

On February 2, Inspector Dilks served papers against Captain McDonnell on the charge of permitting disorderly houses to flourish in his precinct. Twenty houses were specified in the charge, including 111 Prince Street, which was “within a biscuit toss of the station house.” Additionally, Detective John Murphy of the Eighth Precinct stood trial for extorting money from the houses. The Schmidts moved out of 111 Prince Street, and the house was closed.

The Downey murder case languished for the next 19 months. Then, in September 1881, some new clues came to light. The missing watch was found in a pawnshop, and a witness emerged who said Annie Downey had been married. The husband, he said, was “a worthless, good-for-nothing fellow” who lived off his wife’s earnings. He had a key to her room, and he visited that night. While the police were confident that the case was nearly solved, nothing came of these clues either.

There were no other revelations, and by 1890, the Annie Downey case was mentioned in newspaper articles as an example of an unsolved New York murder.

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Sources: 

“Annie Downey's Death,” New York Herald, January 29, 1880.
“Annie Downey's Murder,” New York Herald, February 4, 1880.
“Annie Downie's Death,” New York Herald, January 20, 1880.
“Arrest in the Case of Annie Downey,” Evening Post, January 28, 1880.
“Captain M'Donnell to be Tried,” New York Herald, February 3, 1880.
“Clearing Up the Mystery,” Sun., January 28, 1880.
“Coming To Light At Last,” Truth, September 27, 1881.
“Crimes Against Life,” New-York Tribune, January 28, 1880.
“The Death of Annie Downey,” Evening Post, January 19, 1880.
“The Death of Annie Downey,” Evening Post, January 29, 1880.
“Light on a Murder,” New York Herald, September 23, 1881.
“The Murder of Annie Downey,” New-York Tribune., January 22, 1880.
“Murdered in Bed,” New York Herald, January 18, 1880.
“Mysteries of the Morgue,” CHICAGO DAILY NEWS., December 3, 1890.
“New York City,” New-York Tribune., January 21, 1880.
“Murdered Annie Downey,” Sun., January 21, 1880.
“The Prince Street Tragedy,” New York Herald, January 19, 1880.
“Still Seeking a Clew,” New York Herald, January 25, 1880.
“Tim Held for the Grand Jury,” New York Herald, January 30, 1880.
“Tim Set Free by Judge Lawrence,” New-York Tribune, February 4, 1880.
“Trial of Detective Murphy,” New York Herald, May 11, 1880.