The Cellar Murders

8/14/2024

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
In July 1927, police finally had their man. His name was Ludwig Halverson Lee, janitor of the Prospect Place House, where the hacked bodies of two women were found in the cellar of a brownstone in Brooklyn.

Ludwig Halverson Lee was a suspect from the beginning

June, 1927
Brooklyn, New York

Ludwig Halverson Lee was a sailor turned handyman and carpenter, who had immigrated from Norway four years before. When police questioned him about the grisly murder of the two victims he steadfastly denied knowing anything about it. Lee (Lie) was described as a "big, bull-necked powerful man" who had not bent under an interrogation that lasted for 20 hours.

Lee's roommate Christian Jensen 28, and Otto Nilson, 29 were held as material witnesses.

The remains were found in three separate bundles discarded around the city. Some were in ash cans in the cellar, and other were fished out of the sewer in the street.

The first set found July 9, was discovered in Battery Park, Manhattan by Patrolman William H. Krudener, who came across the package about 30 feet from a subway ventilator. It contained lower legs.

The following morning others were found on the lawn of St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church at 6th Avenue and Sterling Place, by Edward Meyer, 16, while he played on the lawn of the church. He saw a rose and white checkered blanket tied into a bundle, lying behind a green hedge next to a trimmed lawn. He was curious because he had crossed the area a few minutes before and it was not there. Meyer told Marie Donovan a churchgoer, who in turn notified a patrolmen, thinking it might have been an abandoned baby.

Under the blanket was a package wrapped in brown manila paper and tied with twine. This was similar to the packaging used for the parts bound at the Battery. Inside were part of the back and hip of a woman. The bundle was encased by a piece of grocery paper with a column of figures penciled on it. This would later prove to be a link to Ludwig Lee.

Another package was found under the iron stairway of a fire exit opening in to the alley at the rear of the Carlton Theatre at 135 Park Place. It contained the left shoulder and the arm of a woman. The ring finger had been severed at the third joint. Gripped in the hand were several strands of black hair. This package was wrapped in a white striped blanket.

The remains were taken to the medical examiners at the King's County Hospital Morgue. The doctors handled 25 separate parts for the two bodies. One of the corpses was so badly mangled that it was hard to identify her.

The victims were later identified as Sarah A. Brownell, 65, who owned the house 28 Park Place, Brooklyn and Selma Larssen Bennett, 45, mother of 4 children and former owner of the property, who had sold it to Brownell 2 months before.

St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church, Brooklyn

The M.E. had put together Brownell's body except for her feet, and her brother Leroy Brownell of Gloversville verified it was her body, but not her head. This is when they realized it belong to Mrs. Bennett.

Sewer lines were run through in order to find any remains, and also they suspected that an obstacle at an angle which had caused the flooding in the cellar was one of the women's heads. The stoppage was so severe the neighbor's yard was also inundated. So far they had found four fingers of a right hand and parts of a woman's clothing along with star-shaped buttons.

A stained ax, hatchet and saw which belonged to Lee were found in the cellar, sunk in several inches of water.

Sarah Brownell not had been seen since July 4, and ironically it was the flooded property which had caused Selma Bennett to visit the property, since she received a call from the next door neighbor, and even though she didn't own the property anymore, she held a mortgage on it.

Alfred Bennett, who lived at 16 Lincoln Place, refused to speak to reporters about the crime, which involved the murder of his wife. The Bennett residence was directly behind the house at Prospect Place. He had reported his wife missing on July 12 at the Bergen Street police station. Their son Carl Bennett, 25, had remained living on the top floor of the brownstone after the family moved to Lincoln Place.

By then other parts had been found and were at the Bellevue morgue.

Sarah Brownell (1859-1927)

On that fateful day when Selma Bennett came in answer to the flooding of the property, she found no one was at home and waited at the neighbor's house until she saw Lee coming down the street. She was last seen entering the house in order to ask him about the leak.

Later Lee told police Mrs. Bennett had demanded to go to the cellar, and that he had left there at the foot of the water.

When the detectives followed up and visited the brownstone they went down to the cellar. The dreadful smell that met them as they descended the stairs alerted them that something was frightfully wrong. They found the ashcans with the human remains inside. In Lee's room they found a savings passbook and some clothes belonging to Sarah Brownell.

The police drained the 18 inches of water that flooded the cellar and found other parts of the bodies. In one ashcan were two thighs, the chest of a woman between the neck and abdomen, a torso, two legs severed below the knees, a right arm, a left and right leg between the hip and knee, a finger, a forearm and a right hand.

From the sewer line that came from the toilet they found a right hand and thumb, the instep of a left foot, part of a right hip, internal organs and an upper set of false teeth.

As the police kept searching the cellar they feared there was a third victim when they found a pair of black oxfords, a corset, black silk stockings and underwear all that were too small for either Brownell or Bennett. Also they were in too good of a condition to have been discarded.

Police interviewed all the neighbors and a man who lived across the street, who had seen Lee leave twice with a bundle around 5 in the morning. Detectives also found that Lee had cashed a $100 check from Miss Brownell's account, and had attempted to cash a check for a $1,000, but had failed. He said he wanted to return to Oslo.

Lee said he met Miss Brownell three years before when she ran another boarding house in Sterling Place. Police found Lee had been arrested two years before charged with "felonious assault" after striking a man over the head with a bottle, however the charge was dismissed.

A few months later he appeared as a witness in a trial that sent John Costello to Sing Sing for 20 years on a manslaughter charge. The crime involved the shooting of Ivan Forsberg, who was a friend of Lee.

Neighbors said that Miss Brownell had fired him about 18 months before due to his erratic behavior. A roomer at the Prospect Place House said that Lee quarreled repeatedly with his employer. Later Lee said the quarrel came about because he refused to marry Miss Brownell.

Police were told that about two weeks before she disappeared they learned that Lee had placed a chain on the front and back doors, and for a brief time he held Sarah Brownell a virtual prisoner in her home.

Selma Bennett (1871-1927)

Officer Payntar testified at the initial hearing that he was called to the Prospect Place address on June 27. When he arrived at the brownstone the basement door was barricaded with a trunk belonging to Sarah Brownell, and he found Lee trying to break down the doors of Brownell's apartment.

Brownell told the officer she had told Lee to get out, saying she had lent him $1800 to start a restaurant business on 5th Avenue as a joint venture, but it had failed and she was trying to collect $900 of her $1800.

Lee said he would not leave the house until Brownell paid him $300 for his moving expenses, and other expenses until he obtained another job. He also told the officer the couple had an understanding they would be married, and that following the marriage they were going to Norway.

Later Lee changed his story and said Miss Brownell was like a mother to him, saying he felt like her son.

He told reporters he worked on a farm in Norway since he was 7 years old, and had done so since then. He had won prizes in skating and ski-jumping while living in Norway.

During the trial the jury was taken to the site of the murder c.1927

Detectives found that Lee had bought large amounts of lye in a neighborhood store. He told the shopkeeper he was trying to clean out the drains. They believed he was trying to get rid of the bodies.

On July 13, Lee pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder. It turned to be the same day police found traces of lye in the hair of Sarah Brownell.

He went to trial on October 17, 1927.

The defense said one of the Bennett children had committed the murder, but that didn't go anywhere. After stating he would put Lee on the stand, his attorney never did. Lee insisted he was innocent and that the cops had "framed" him.

Lee was convicted with an execution date set for January 2, 1928, however he appealed the verdict in December and the date was postponed indefinitely. However he had only been brought to trial for the murder of Selma Bennett.

After the conviction, the Norwegian consul general in New York appealed to the New York governor for clemency. He said there had been insanity in Lee's family.

Then Konrad Furubotn the interpreter at Lee's trial, tried a last minute move to halt the execution a month before it was to take place. He was joined by a publisher from a Norwegian newspaper, Norway's Consul General and Edward Reilly the defense counsel in a conference with the governor.

He claimed the murder was a bootlegger's "frame-up" to release John Costello a speakeasy operator that was serving 20 years in Sing Sing, in which Lee was the star witness. Ragnhil Cornellussen who testified at Lee's trial, in which she had seen him carrying a package figured in Costello's case, which dated back to 1926. He said this gang in retribution had pinned the murder on Lee.

He said a package found in Battery Park a day after Lee's arrest on July 12 with body parts, which police believed belonged to Sarah Brownell were estimated by the medical examiner to be the limbs of a woman of 25 or 30, whereas Brownell was older. The governor didn't buy the story.

Map of body parts found throughout Brooklyn c.1927

Lee's execution was almost delayed for another reason. In June, 1928, Robert G. Elliott the executioner for the state had his house bombed while the family slept. Elliott was an electrical contractor who for 2 years had thrown the switch at Sing Sing. He had kept the secret of his side job until 1926. Ironically he had replaced John Hulbert who resigned after he received threats against his life as well. He decided to keep working for the state.

Ludwig Halvorsen Lee went to the electric chair on August 2, 1928 at 11:03 p.m. He ate a meal of sirloin steak, mashed potatoes, salad and coffee in his cell at Sing Sing prison.

In the aftermath of Lee's execution the governor was petitioned to grant a pardon to John Costello, 27, who was serving a 20 year sentence based on Lee's testimony at his trial. Costello's attorney posited that Lee's testimony should be discounted.

Costello was managing a restaurant at 4410 Fifth Avenue when Lee came in with his pal Ivan Forsberg. Costello ordered Forsberg to leave since he had been annoying Costello's wife who also worked there. The men left, but when they reached the sidewalk shots rang out and Forsberg was fatally wounded. The only eyewitness to the event was Lee.

It's not known if Costello received clemency, but chances are he didn't since the newspapers never printed anything else about the request.

In October, 1928, the indictment against Lee for the murder of Sarah Brownell was still pending, and considering he had been executed three months before it was formally dismissed.

Deputy Sheriff James Shortell known as "Big Jim" was the man who transported criminals "up the river" to start serving their sentence. Throughout his career it was estimated he had taken about 1,000 prisoners to Sing Sing. He recalled that when transporting Lee, the prisoner said to him, "You know, Sheriff, this will be a lesson to me."

He said Lee insisted on taking his violin to Sing Sing, but when he entered the prison the head keeper said "You've scratched your last tune on it."

Willett Street c.1901

Coincidently upon finding the women's body parts police came across a man cut into eight pieces at 70 Willett Street, Manhattan. The remains were tied in two bundles and left in the basement. George Swtike a plumber who lived at 156 Broome Street found the bundles and notified police.

Elizabeth Schargorodsky (Schurgerosky) 64, who lived in the second story apartment at the address had been previously arrested on bootlegging charges, and was questioned by police. They searched her apartment and found a 38-caliber pistol and a blackjack.

A torso was found in a burlap bag resting on a top of a rubbish heap. In another bag 20 feet away, besides an old stove were found the head, arms and the legs from the knees down. The thighs were missing.

Dr. Thomas A. Gonzales assistant medical examiner said the victim had been dead several months, possibly a year.

It was learned that Nicholas Nikelovitch, a tenant had been discharged from Bellevue Hospital two days before and had not returned home.

Detectives also planned to question Marvin Urbanoff another tenant who was at Bellevue.

The entrance to the tenement was though a passageway under the Rzeszoer Koresyner synagogue which was built in 1889. Members of the synagogue said an odor had come from cellar three week before, which was weird considering the ME had said the remains were several months old.

The identity of the man, or who dismembered him and why, was never learned.

70 Willett Street though seemed to an unlucky place to live. In January, 1927, six months before the murders at Prospect Place, Daniel Zeigman, 46, who lived there died at Gouverneur Hospital, suffering from burns sustained while attempting to put out a fire of uncertain origin that started in his bedroom.

Tenements were no doubt a hotbed of skulduggery. In January, 1928 the cries of a cat coming from an old deserted coal bin in the cellar of 4-story tenement house at 536 Dean Street led Joseph Lewis a janitor to open the bin and release the cat. He first thought it was a snake, but it turned out to be a woman's left arm. It appeared the arm had been in the bin for a long time, and had been severed from the body at the shoulder socket. The cellar and coal bin were searched, but nothing came to light about who the arm belonged to.

Lewis told police the bin had not been used in years.

The house was only a few blocks from where Ludwig Lee murdered his two victims.

The detectives concluded the address was not far from the Holy Family Hospital, and it was possible a medical student left it there. The arm was taken to King's County Hospital, and if it was evidence of a foul murder it was written off as an anatomy specimen.

Source - Daily News, The Standard Union, Buffalo Courier Express