The Damon Key

[R. J. Palmer]

So - isn’t it possible that a dump like the ERH might have had keys that weren’t particularly uniform?

Hi Mike.

If that is the explanation, George Damon has some explaining to do.

"We sat down at a table and compared the key I had and the tag with the keys on the board. It was exactly the same style of key and the same style of brass tag with the corners clipped."

"[I] laid the key which I had beside the other key and they were exactly alike, the figures were the same size and shape, and the shape of the tag and key were the same."


It was Damon himself that was claiming that the hotel's keys were all identical and this is what allowed him to identify it as the missing key. Otherwise, it could have been a key from any of the dozens and dozens of hotels and flop houses in New York, Brooklyn, Jersey City, or anywhere else.

On another note, is the proximity of Damon's business on Beekman Street to the East River Hotel a mark in his favor, or a mark against him?

To paraphrase the great Humphrey Bogart, of all the gin joints in all the towns in all of New York and New Jersey, the Dane decides to travel 20-25 miles and go boozing at a hotel that was only a short distance from his employer's business?

Again, it could happen, but it is a little strange, isn't it?

[Howard Brown]

It's about 1.3 miles from the hotel, Raj. 44 Beekman to 14-16 Catherine Slip

[Howard Brown]

Raj:

Mike will probably concur that Damon took an enormous chance when he went to the ERH even with his employee, Charles Brennan.

A missionary named Alex Irvine and a detective named Charles Gardner mention the dregs and whores who inhabited the joint.....I've attached two PDFs.

Damon would have stuck out like a sore thumb in this place. I sort of wish a couple of skanks tried picking those two guys up.

Sort of a stretch that we find Damon sitting at a table in the bar smoking and drinking and being conveniently supplied with the opportunity to compare the key to the departing fellow's.
All, alas, all in vain as Mr. Solid Citizen decides ( I believe he had already decided prior to his journey to the ERH) to hang on to the key. Sort of a 19th century version of murderabilia.....a Jack the Ripper T-shirt.....a tattoo of Ed Gein.....something to show off to his suburban pals. North Jersey Kitsch.

[R. J. Palmer]

It's about 1.3 miles from the hotel, Raj. 44 Beekman to 14-16 Catherine Slip

Thanks, Howard.

I wonder why our numbers are so different. I thought it was less than half that distance.

I was using Google Earth with No. 41 Beekman (No. 44 is gone) as one reference point and the current site of the Martin. F. Tanahey Playground as the other, being near Catherine Slip and Cherry.

Of course, these Google numbers aren't always accurate and I don't know if the street has been renumbered.


Modern Map.jpg


I suppose the argument would be that the Dane was originally picked up at Castle Garden in the Battery so he would be familiar with Lower Manhattan and might return there to go boozing, but that's still a fair distance from Catherine's Slip---twice the distance as he would have been from Damon's place of business on Beekham.

[R. J. Palmer]

Raj:

Mike will probably concur that Damon took an enormous chance when he went to the ERH even with his employee, Charles Brennan.

That shows how far ahead of me you are, Howard. I forgot that Charles Brennon did give a corroborating statement. I'll have to edit my previous post.

[Howard Brown]

Just to clarify something......if Damon's story was true....and all the things that happened prior to his discovery that the key was from the ERH and he turned it in then, I'd think he was a mensch.

But as he didn't turn it in and provided 5 excuses ( I found the fifth one searching two months ago), and despite arguments to the contrary would have never turned the key in if Ali had a date with the hot seat. He didn't turn it in at the time of the Coroner Inquest where Ali was formally charged.....he didn't while Ali sat in the Tombs from May to late June.....and he didn't at the the time of the 8 day trial ....or afterwards....only after he was outed by John Lee. One researcher who claims it is 'unproven' that Damon wouldn't have come forward in the instance Ali got the hot seat is living in denial. A life sentence without parole is in some ways even worse than a date with Old Sparky. The key was a souvenir to Damon...IMHO.
His excuses :
* Fear of The Farmhand
* Fear for his reputation
* Upon advice from John Lee ( Why does a man with years of business dealings going back to his days in Cleveland and during the Civil War need advice ? )
* Felt Ali deserved to be in jail ( I do too, but not for the crime he was convicted for without a trial ) He needed a good stretch in stir after the felony rip-off of George Frank to get his mind and ass right.
* The one I recently located....that he felt Ali would be better taken care of in a prison or facility than living on the street. Not only was Damon the 13th Jurist and a quasi-Judge ( his affidavit spiel) but he was a Gilded Age counterpart of Jane Addams.

I forgot to mention this yesterday but is it possible that Damon went to the Hotel to check whether it was legit because when he saw the sketches in the papers, he saw the same dissimilarities we do ?

Here's John R. Lee...

https://www.jtrforums.com/forum/the-...oto#post587712

[Howard Brown]

Raj:

I spend over 65-70 hours a week on this Case. There's a reason why I have as much info on the Case....and that's it. You're making an impact already.
Bob Dekle spent two solid years on it and despite criticisms to the contrary has revolutionized the case by re-introducing Ali as a very viable suspect.
It's a team effort. I have the great fortune of being able to discuss ( read : browbeat) the case with one of the best genealogists I've ever seen, my wife, whatsername

[Michael Banks]

Hi Mike.

If that is the explanation, George Damon has some explaining to do.

"We sat down at a table and compared the key I had and the tag with the keys on the board. It was exactly the same style of key and the same style of brass tag with the corners clipped."

"[I] laid the key which I had beside the other key and they were exactly alike, the figures were the same size and shape, and the shape of the tag and key were the same."


It was Damon himself that was claiming that the hotel's keys were all identical and this is what allowed him to identify it as the missing key. Otherwise, it could have been a key from any of the dozens and dozens of hotels and flop houses in New York, Brooklyn, Jersey City, or anywhere else.

On another note, is the proximity of Damon's business on Beekman Street to the East River Hotel a mark in his favor, or a mark against him?

To paraphrase the great Humphrey Bogart, of all the gin joints in all the towns in all of New York and New Jersey, the Dane decides to travel 20-25 miles and go boozing at a hotel that was only a short distance from his employer's business?

Again, it could happen, but it is a little strange, isn't it?

Hi Roger,

Couldn’t the keys on the board all have looked the same from where Damon stood? When he judged that ‘his’ key was the same style as the keys on the board wouldn’t he have based this more on the loop (for want of a more accurate word) and the tag? Might the ‘rings’ have varied from key to key though? Then when he compared it to an individual key it was against one that matched?

It’s about the best I can come up with Roger without involving doppelgängers, aliens and the Illuminati.

[Howard Brown]

Mike:

I know you asked Raj the question but it may have been down to Damon comparing the tags rather than the actual keys. Just a thought.

[Markus Aurelius Franzoi]

To paraphrase the great Humphrey Bogart, of all the gin joints in all the towns in all of New York and New Jersey, the Dane decides to travel 20-25 miles and go boozing at a hotel that was only a short distance from his employer's business?

That's a good one, RJ! I doubt it was a favorite immigrant hangout, even if it was only (?!) 2 miles from Castle Garden and the Barge Office!

[Michael Banks]

Mike:

I know you asked Raj the question but it may have been down to Damon comparing the tags rather than the actual keys. Just a thought.

Yeah, good point How. If the keys varied slightly (say by the rings) how closely do we think Damon might have checked and from what distance. They might have just looked the same from his viewpoint. And the individual one that he saw was of the same design. The reporters might have been shown one that was slightly different though and they drew that one.

[Howard Brown]

Mike

For one thing, I find it a little difficult to believe Damon went in the hotel...probably didn't speak to anyone other than Brennan....schleps up to the spot he claimed some guy just happens to leave the key....handles it ( He'd have to, I think)...and then leaves. No one is suspicious and no one says a word. Those who operated Raines Law hotels which the ERH was by reputation were probably a little more cautious when people who didn't fit the bill of regular visitor came in their joints.
Shame one of his competitors in the printing business didn't see him coming out of the hotel....with a man ( Brennan).

[R. J. Palmer]

Answers on a postcard to - Howard Brown, USA.

Is it at all worrisome that Damon's account, which he reveals in 1901, is a variation on the famous 'Lodger' story?

There are several versions of the tale, including the very first one--the Batty Street lodger--as well as those told by Albert Bachert, Walter Sickert's landlady, etc.

They are all similar. The Lodger (or, in this case, the hired hand) comes home in the wee hours of the morning and retires to his room. Usually someone hears him shuffling around, etc. The next day, it is realized that a dreadful murder has been committed elsewhere in the city.

A short time later, the lodger (Frank, in this instance) suddenly decamps, but carelessly leaves behind damning evidence---the inevitable blood-stained shirt and the bloody knife--or, in this version, a blood-stained shirt and the incriminating key to Room 31.

George Damon's tale is just the ol' lodger story---American style.

The only difference is that he provides what purports to be physical evidence—the missing key—along with the sworn statement of his trusty employee, Charles Brennan.

[Michael Banks]

Is it at all worrisome that Damon's account, which he reveals in 1901, is a variation on the famous 'Lodger' story?

There are several versions of the tale, including the very first one--the Batty Street lodger--as well as those told by Albert Bachert, Walter Sickert's landlady, etc.

They are all similar. The Lodger (or, in this case, the hired hand) comes home in the wee hours of the morning and retires to his room. Usually someone hears him shuffling around, etc. The next day, it is realized that a dreadful murder has been committed elsewhere in the city.

A short time later, the lodger (Frank, in this instance) suddenly decamps, but carelessly leaves behind damning evidence---the inevitable blood-stained shirt and the bloody knife--or, in this version, a blood-stained shirt and the incriminating key to Room 31.

George Damon's tale is just the ol' lodger story---American style.

The only difference is that he provides what purports to be physical evidence—the missing key—along with the sworn statement of his trusty employee, Charles Brennan.

It had never occurred to me Roger but it’s a good point. It’s worth adding when we’re considering the believability of Damon’s story of how he came by that key. Criminals can be stupid of course but I’m always slightly wary of assuming stupidity as an explanation. Off the top of my head I can’t recall how long after the farmhand fled that the maid found the shirt and the key? (Was it 10?) I think that How believes that it was fewer days than Damon claimed though? Either way it’s difficult to see why a murderer would flee after leaving behind such ‘slam dunk’ evidence? If Damon had identified him and the police had caught up with him then, with a bloodied shirt and the key to the murder room, it would have been game over. I can’t come up with anything but there’s at least doubt in my mind about how Damon came into possession of the key. Not to mention his visit to that hellhole to verify a key that he probably had no intention of handing over to the authorities.

[Michael Banks]

Mike

For one thing, I find it a little difficult to believe Damon went in the hotel...probably didn't speak to anyone other than Brennan....schleps up to the spot he claimed some guy just happens to leave the key....handles it ( He'd have to, I think)...and then leaves. No one is suspicious and no one says a word. Those who operated Raines Law hotels which the ERH was by reputation were probably a little more cautious when people who didn't fit the bill of regular visitor came in their joints.
Shame one of his competitors in the printing business didn't see him coming out of the hotel....with a man ( Brennan).

Not exactly the kind of establishment that would welcome some well dressed stranger sniffing around just after a murder, and I suspect that Damon would have known that better than we do How. I’m assuming that Brennan was a 6’6” former heavyweight boxer who was carrying a gun?