The Manhattan Well Murder

A sealed well underneath the COS clothing store in SoHo was the site of the 1799 murder of Gulielma Elmore Sands, who was strangled and dumped in the well on Spring St.

The accused murderer was Levi Weeks, a fellow boarder in a house on Greenwich Street, whom Sands had been secretly seeing. Weeks was masterfully defended in court by Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. As a result, the jury delivered an acquittal after just five minutes of deliberation.

Weeks, nevertheless, had to leave the city, as he was widely considered guilty.

The inside of the well is not open to the public, but it is sometimes accessible upon special request provided its status as one of the Travel Channel’s “10 Most Haunted Places in America.”