The Strange Death of Lillian Low

​By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
In July 23, 1895, Lillian "Lilly" Low was found dead in the wood at Washington Heights. She had seated herself with her back against the stump of a tree and had shot a revolver bullet through her right temple. She was 19 years old. 

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Those involved in the Lillian Low case: E.T. Champney, Miss Amelia Hanson, Dr. Thomas J. Bigge, James Low Jr. c.1895

What started out as a scandal involving the suicide of the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy New York man, would evolve into scandalous stories involving infidelity and murder from all those involved in her death. 

​Lillian Low's body was taken to undertaker Maloney's Shop at 400 East 26th St. Her father James Low Jr. purchased two plots in Woodlawn Cemetery, one for his daughter and the other for himself. His brother Joseph T. Low had refused to allow Lilly to be laid to rest in the family plot since she was a suicide. There was no religious ceremony at the grave.

The police were still trying to solve the mystery of Lily's death, and to verify the motive which led her to take her life. In the bosom of her dress a letter addressed to "Dear Baby Cuckoo" and signed "Big Brother Tommie" was found. It was determined that Henry T. Champney and Dr. Thomas Jacob Biggs III had composed it, and "Tommie" was believed to be Dr. Biggs.

At the time of Lillian's suicide, Henry Champney was 70 years old, and Biggs was 31.

Right after Lillian's body was found, Dr. Biggs disappeared from his office on E. 30th Street. He'd been a prominent physician in Cincinnati connected with the medical college. Four years before, he divorced his wife Lula citing fraud. She had left him after 60 days, and did not oppose the divorce. This was fodder for the tabloids, and did not reflect well on his character. The nature of the fraud that led to the divorce, or more importantly why she left the marriage after only 2 months, was never explained.

Biggs was the son of a wholesale grocer from Cincinnati, who was also an elder at the Glendale Presbyterian Church. He was on the staff of Bellevue Hospital for a year then returned to Glendale, and then left as an army surgeon in the Northwest. After a brief stay, he returned to Glendale and associated himself with Dr. C.H. Chetwood as an assistant at De Milt Dispensary at 23rd Street and 2nd Avenue. 

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Henry Champney who figured in LIliian Low's strange death.

The morning of Lily's burial, a detective was sent to New Rochelle to look for Robert W. Inman, and his friend Henry Champney, who were frequently seen in Lily's company during the last few months of her life. But it was learned that Inman's yacht had relocated further up the Sound. Robert W. Inman was a junior member of the Inman, Swann & Co., and he was the nephew of John W. Inman, the Southern railroad magnate and cotton merchant.

Not surprisingly, he denied any involvement with Lillian Low. However this is not what spared him scrutiny in the case but for the fact he died only a month later in August, 1895.

His yacht Adelaide collided with the steamer Perseus off Bay Ridge. Everyone else on board with him were accounted for, but it was feared he was drowned, but there were other who suspected that since he was an eccentric man, he had gotten ashore and concealed the fact he was alive. This idea was dispelled when his body was found floating in Staten Island waters a week later. The officers of the Perseus were indicted on manslaughter charges.

During those days when Robert Inman sneaked off on his yacht, coroner's warrants were issued seeking Dr. Thomas J. Biggs, Henry P. Champney, vice-present of the Bovinine Company and a Miss Amelia K. Hanson, who had the same address as Champney since she ran a boarding house for men, where one of the two men resided. They were charged with having knowledge of the death of Lillian Low.

​Lillian's father described that his daughter left their home in March of the same year, complaining that he was cruel to her. He said he always provided for her in all things.

​But Lily's misfortune started with the circumstances of her birth. Twenty five years before, James Low went to France and fell in love with a Frenchwoman named Josephine Ramoi, who he met in Nice. They never married, but lived together a number of years. During their time together she bore him 6 children, five of whom he said, she killed. One by one soon after birth she would destroy them. One she threw into a tub of freezing water, another she suffocated with cologne. Lily survived because she was the only daughter.

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Without proof of foul play, no one was held responsible for Lillian Low's strange death c.1896

Eventually James Low found out she had a husband somewhere. But it was only after she left him for another man, that he took Lily with him. They traveled around the world, and had come to New York four years before. He said that Miss Hanson lured Lily to go and live with her. Mr. Low tried repeatedly to have Lily return and live with him, but she declined all his offers. One day he went to see her, and Miss Hanson denied she was in the house and ordered him to leave. He pleaded to see his daughter, and Miss Hanson called Dr. Biggs who ejected him from the premises.

​The reason he gave for their interest in Lily was that as his only heir, she would inherit his wealth. He said that during the winter, when they learned of Lily's illegitimate birth they tried to blackmail his brother Joseph, who was a wealthy millionaire merchant. Joseph Low did not receive them, and the scheme went nowhere.

Dr. O'Hanlon autopsied Lily and found "marks of violence" on her body which indicated she might have been raped. Perhaps Lily had committed suicide due to the attack. It was learned that Lily had a dispute with Miss Hanson, and two days later killed herself.

Lily's father told a reporter, "I do not know. But really, her end was not a surprise to me. I had a strange presentment that she would come to a bad end. I did my best to get her back, but I could not. I could not get near her."

According to the three persons accused of some type of involvement in Lily's death, the girl had threatened suicide twice. Once she took poison, but was saved.

Mrs. Tryson who rented the apartment where Mr. Low and his daughter lived, told reporters, "The stories that he beat her and ill-treated her are absolutely false. I never saw father and daughter who showed so much affection for each other as they did. Mr. Low's eyes were troubling him, and he never went out much. Even when he was sick last March she said to me one day, with her pretty French accent: 'My father is the only friend I have in the world, and if he should die I would kill myself.'"

The Low family was well connected. James Low Jr. was the son of James Low, President of the United States Trust Company and a millionaire. His sister Laura went on to marry Oliver Harriman the wall street banker. She was one of the leaders of New York's fashionable society. The family belonged to the top "400" of New York families. However James Low was the black sheep of the family, and neither he or his daughter were welcomed at the Harriman house. 

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Mott Street, NY c.1905

Two days after Lily's funeral Oscar Lipsaker, a Mott Street baker, said he had seen Lily and Dr. Biggs go into the little grove on Washington Heights where the body was found. He said from their conversation and mannerisms towards each other they appeared to be lovers.

On July 30, the coroner's jury returned the verdict of suicide. The three persons in custody were released. Why Lily's body bore signs of violence and rape were never explained. Later on it turned out that while Henry Champney was spending time at Amelia Hanson's boarding house he was a married man. His wife Lydia died in February 1896, and he married Amelia two months later. She was a 44-year-old spinster, and 27 years younger than him. What was not known during the months after Lillian Low's death, and Champney's divorce is that Amelia was pregnant with his child; a daughter who was born on December 26, 1895. 

Edith Trowbridge Champney, when she was 17 eloped with Robert Kayser, had one child, and died in in 1925 at the age of 29.

There was a strange story that appeared briefly in 1871. Proceedings were started against Louis Worth, where a writ of habeas corpus was issued, directing him to produce Amelia Hanson, age 17. Amelia's mother charged that 3 years before when the girl was 14, she was enticed away by Worth, with whom she had lived in "improper relations ever since and by whom she is now with child." The outcome of the proceedings remain unknown. Was the Louis Worth mentioned, a sergeant of the Ninth Sub-Precinct who was active in those years? Was the young Amelia, the same Amelia Hanson who would figure in the death of Lillian Low, years later?

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Esmeralda Low leaving divorce court c.1931

James Low, perhaps to forget the tragedy of his daughter's death, remarried in 1900 to Esmeralda Campbell. He was 60, she was 30, and a year later they had a son who died the same day of his birth. They remained married until his death in 1926.

Two years later, Esmeralda Low married a much younger man named Evan Hyer Brouwer. He was 30 years younger than her. According to Esmeralda it was supposed to be a platonic relationship, but her young husband wouldn't work, and drank often. He wanted to live off the fortune she had inherited from her dead husband, which was estimated to be about $1 million.

Esmeralda sued for divorce alleging cruelty, and finally secured her release in 1931. She told the courts that "her husband repeatedly assaulted and attempted to assault her, used vile and abusive language, causing her great anguish in mind and body, that he is a habitual drunkard, threatened to throw acid in her face and on one occasion threatened to run their automobile over an embankment to kill them both."

In 1919, Brouwer was involved in another messy divorce proceeding. Dr. Fred J. Farrington was charged in misconduct in a petition for divorce filed by his wife Meta E. Farrington. She named six or seven co-respondents. Brouwer acted as a witness, and testified that he had seen Madeleine Taylor in the company of Dr. Farrington. He also testified he had seen Mrs. Dodge in Lakewood with Farrington at two different weekends. He underwent an hour-long cross examination. He testified to having been under treatment for a time for some nervous disorder. What brought the testimony to an end, was when the defense attorney tried to impeach his credibility based on his father's identity.

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The murder of Carrie Brouwer overshadowed her husband's life even though he was acquitted of the crime c.1905

Brouwer was the son of Dr. Frank Brouwer of Toms River who was tried in September, 1905 of having murdered his wife Carrie Brouwer who was only 34 years old when she died.

​​In December, 1905, the body of Carrie Brouwer was exhumed based on allegations from her brother. She married Dr. Frank R. Brouwer in 1896, and had two sons. Three years before her death, there was talk of divorce but proceedings were dropped. She died after 11 days of illness, and her husband was the one who attended her medically. Statements made by two nurses, Miss Lippincott and Miss Dudley, attending Carrie Brouwer caused her brother to demand an investigation.

She had called Dr. Henry Cate for medical attention, however he had borrowed $600 from her a year before, and used his household and office goods as collateral. He was not present when she died but he signed her death certificate giving acute Bright's disease as the cause of death.

In the three months between his wife's death and the investigation, Brouwer had brought a Miss McClenahan one of his patients to live at his house. It was alleged she was the cause of a break between Dr. Brouwer and his wife before her death. Once the investigation started she left the house.

The autopsy found she had not died of Bright's disease.

Coincidentally on December 9, Dr. Henry Hamilton Cate disappeared from Lakewood where he was in charge of a sanitarium. On December 27 he wandered into the police station at Springfield, Massachusetts saying he had lost his memory. He said he couldn't remember his name or where he lived, only that he was a Mason since he had a watch charm with their emblem. Eventually he was identified since he was being sought by the authorities in Toms River.

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Esther Singleton had a brief engagement with Dr. Frank Brouwer which was mysteriously cancelled.

Cate said he had diagnosed the case based on Brouwer's assertion that his wife had suffered from Bright's disease.

Dr. Form who was called in to consult with Dr. Brouwer was positive that Mrs. Brouwer was not suffering from Bright's and refused to sign the death certificate.

The autopsy showed that death was not due to spinal meningitis, appendicitis or aneurism that would have coincided with Carrie Brouwer's symptoms. It was found she had an inflamed stomach and bowels and fatty changes in the liver, pancreas, lungs and kidneys.

A chemist examined the organ tissue and found arsenic in her body.

Dr. Brouwer was accused of poisoning his wife with arsenic, strychnine and ground glass, and went to trial in October, 1906. He was found innocent on a defense of Ptomaine poisoning.

Within seven months of the acquittal, Frank Brouwer became engaged to Esther B. Singleton. During his trial she had taken flowers and delicacies to him in his cell. The newspapers announced that a June wedding was planned, then all mention of the romance dropped from the newspapers. The wedding never occurred and in 1909 it was reported she was marrying William Liming. What did she find out about Dr. Brouwer that derailed the relationship? Her father had been one his staunchest supporters and helped him get acquitted.

In 1910, Frank Brouwer married Mrs. Lydia Kirk. This was her third marriage. She was first married to Edwin Kirk in 1896. They had one son named for his father. Two years later the couple had divorced and she married his brother William Kirk. They had one son that died in infancy. At some point she divorced him.

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Dr. Frank Brouwer (1870-1936)

In 1915, Frank Brouwer was involved in another messy scenario and dragged his wife into it. He was accused of influencing a separation between Harold Moller and his wife Emily. He knew the couple since he was the family physician. Five months after the separation, the Brouwers along with Mrs. Moller went to her husband's house, who was out hunting ducks. The three started to pack up things and were leaving, when Margaret Kennedy a nurse at the house threatened them with a pistol. She was arrested after Mrs. Moller filed a complaint against her, however Mr. Moller bailed her out within hours.  Then Dr. Brouwer and his wife were arrested, after being charged with unlawfully entering the Moller home. His wife was charged as well.

The charges were dropped when Mr. Moller dropped dead from apoplexy in November, 1915 at the age of 42.

Then the situation became more embroiled when it was found that Harold Moller had made a new will disinheriting his wife. She challenged the second will, and ultimately their home was put up for auction. In 1917, Emily Moller charged that Margaret Kennedy who had threatened her with a gun had taken 17 railroad bonds, $600 in cash, 3 diamond studs, a black pearl pin, a diamond ring and other jewelry which were in Harold Moller's possession when he died.

When Harold Moller had died in 1915 he was on an automobile trip with Miss. Kennedy, who described herself as a "nurse and personal attendant" to Mr. Moller. The outcome of the case was never revealed.

When Frank Brouwer died in 1936 at age of 65 he named his wife Lydia, his stepson Edwin, and his son Allen as beneficiaries. He excluded his son Evan Brouwer, who by then had been involved in the messy divorce from Esmeralda Low.

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Lower East Side, NY c.1880-1890s

As to the three individuals that were suspected of causing Lillian Low's death in some form, they went on to have their own strange experiences.

Dr. Thomas Biggs married Louise Pitt in 1902. She was 18 years his junior. Then he went on to practice medicine in Stanford, Connecticut, and in 1910 was the City Health Officer. In 1913, he died at the age of 48 of complications from Bright's Disease.

Henry Champney was released based on the findings of the coroner's jury in 1895, in regards to Lillian Low's death. However in May 1898, he was once more embroiled in a scandal of a strange death. This one involved a neighbor.

Amelia Krauss reported at the coroner's office that her sister Miss Catherine C. Raubitschek died April 25, 1898, under mysterious circumstances. One of the persons figuring in the affair was Amelia Champney, wife of Henry T. Champney, President of the Bovinine Prepared Food Company. 

Mrs. Krauss asked for an investigation at the request of her sister Lady Nora Gordon, who lived in Monte Carlo, who on learning of their sister's death cabled her. They employed private investigators, and based on their findings the family wanted the matter presented to the Austrian Consul since the family had immigrated from this country.

Their sister Catherine died at her home at 174 W 82nd St. at the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Her body was taken by a family living opposite her apartment. The said neighbors were Henry Champney and his wife. She claimed that the Champneys knew where she lived, and also knew the address of their brothers who also lived in New York City. Mrs. Krauss claimed they found out about their sister's death five days after the event, and only through their sibling that lived in Monte Carlo.

They went to the Champneys who had taken charge of the body, and the couple refused to give the family any information. They could not even learn where body was sent, until a detective found it at an undertakers on 23rd St. They not only concealed her death, but they had taken all her belongings to their house They had also dismissed her own doctor, and had engaged another one to care for her during her last illness. When Catherine Raubitschek died, the Champney took it upon themselves to dismiss her two servants, and their whereabouts were unknown, so they could not be questioned by police.

Mrs. Krauss said the family did not even know their sister was unusually ill. When she sent her daughters to check on Catherine two or three times per week prior to her death, the servants said she would not see them, which seemed very strange to the family since they were on friendly terms.

After hearing the story from Amelia Krauss, a reporter went to see Mr. Champney at his home at 157 W. 82 St. Surprisingly Mr. Champney was in a conversation with a young man, who turned out be working for the undertakers who had charge of the body. Both men left the room, and then the undertaker returned to the room and told the reporter that "Mr. Champney has decided not to be seen on the matter."

Later Mr. Champney said, "We notified only the sister in Europe of the death, because she was the one to who the deceased's property went. We took charge of Miss Raubitschek only as a matter of benevolence. She was a friend of ours, and that is all there is to it."

Dr. Russell T. Ruff who attended Catherine Raubitschek, 45, determined she died from heart and lung trouble. She left a will in which she named Mrs. Champney as executrix. The coroners decided to hold the body until an autopsy could be made by their physician, however they had little hope of discovering anything since the body had been embalmed.

Deputy Coroner Albert T. Weston met with Amelia Krauss of 10 W. 82nd Street along with her brothers Max and Isaac Raubitschek, and told them that without proof of foul play in the death of their sister Catherine, an autopsy would not be completed.

The newspaper noted that Henry T. Champney figured in the suicide case of Lillian Low in 1895.

According to Mrs. Krauss, the Amelia Hanson arrested in the case of Lillian Low was now Mrs. Champney. When asked by the reporter if this was true, Amelia Hanson became indignant and refused to reply.

Amelia Krauss failed to sign an affidavit in a timely manner, and her sister was buried, and no further investigation was made into whether Catherine's death was natural or not.

Henry Champney died in 1913, and his wife Amelia in 1938. 

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The murder of Anna Pulitzer at the hands of William Hooper Young was a scandal, since he was the grandson of Brigham Young. c.1902-03

It wasn't only the people involved in the death of Lillian Low, but the place as well that remained notorious even years afterward. In 1902, the house where Lily lived with Amelia Hanson located at 103 W. 58 Street known as the Clarence Apartments, was cited by the newspapers as a house tied to tragedy. It turned out the apartment occupied by William Hooper Young, grandson of Brigham Young , was where he murdered Mrs. Anna Pulitzer.

On September 19, 1902, Anna Pulitzer was found in the Morris Canal outside Jersey City, New Jersey. She'd been stabbed several times and her head was bruised. Her nude body was pinned down with a hitching weight that was tied around her waist by a leather strap. The strap and the weight were later identified by the livery keeper who had rented the rig to Young. 

Anna Pulitzer was married to Joseph Pulitzer, a tailor who lived at 160 W. 46th St. Manhattan. There were rumors she engaged in prostitution, or at the very least infidelity. A day before the discovery of the body, Joseph Pulitzer had gone to the police to report on the disappearance of his wife. He described her as being 22 years old of "slender build, five feet two inches, with straw-colored hair and gray eyes." Once her body was discovered he went to Spiers morgue and identified her reamains, where he promptly collapsed.

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The San Francisco Examiner published a story about the murder titled "The Wandering Wife" c.1950

A cabman told police that a few days before her death, he took Mrs. Pulitzer and a man to an apartment in New York City that turned out to belong to John Willard Young. Inside the police found beer bottles, and a bottle with chloral hydrate crystals and a carving knife with blood on it. They found blood on bedsheets in a closet, under the kitchen sink, the floors and the walls. The words, "blood atonement" were scrawled in a notebook, and there were several references to verses from the Bible.

At about the same time Chicago police discovered a trunk filled with the dead woman's clothes, which had been sent there by Young.

It was determined Anna Pulitzer died from a knife thrust to her abdomen, and not a drug overdose. Some of the injuries to her body occurred post-mortem. It was also determined she was pregnant.

During the investigation it was found that John Willard Young was in France, but his son Hooper would use the place when he was gone.

The law caught up with Hooper Young in Connecticut. He was drunk, and tried to disguise himself by dressing like a hobo. He blamed Pulitzer's death on a third man, Charles Eiling who had been in the apartment with them. He left to purchase whiskey, and when he returned she was dead. He helped Eiling dispose of the body, because he didn't want his father involved in the notoriety of a prostitute being killed in his apartment. He said he tried dismembering Pulitzer's body, but after he cut into her abdomen he lost his nerve.

The police searched for Charles Eiling, but no one by the name could be found.

Prior to the murder while living in Salt Lake City, William Hooper Young was a reporter for The Herald and became notorious for challenging another reporter from a rival paper to a duel, because of an article that had been written about him.

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Last known mugshot of William Hooper Young, Brigham Young's grandson c.1938

When the crime hit the newspapers, it was thought he committed the murder in accordance with the Mormon principle of "blood atonement". Others thought the couple had an affair going back years when he was a Mormon missionary in New Jersey. The motive for the murder was never determined.

He was tried in 1903. After initially pleading not guilty, he changed and pled guilty to second-degree murder. Ottilie Erdeman (Erdmann) who was a witness for the prosecution claimed she had been threatened by Mormons if she testified against Young.

Ultimately Young was sentenced to hard labor in the state prison for the rest of his life to be served at Sing Sing Prison. The judge decided not to impose the death penalty, because some doctors determined the accused was probably medically, if not legally insane. He was also addicted to liquor, cocaine and morphine.

He was paroled in 1924, and went to live with his father in New York City, who died shortly thereafter. It's unknown which of John Willard Young's five wives was William's mother.

In 1928, he went to California trying to locate one of his half sisters. In 1937, a social security number was issued for him. A year later, Folsom Prison listed a William Hooper Young who was sent there from Los Angeles. The paperwork referenced he'd been incarcerated in Sing Sing. He was charged with Sec 288(a) which in California involved oral copulation, and which also included lewd acts with a minor. The date and place of his death remain unknown

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