Murder of Carrie Brown

The badly mutilated body of Brown, a longtime Bowery prostitute, was found in a room in a squalid lodging house known as the East River Hotel on April 24, 1891.

On July 3, 1891, Ben Ali was convicted of second degree murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment, despite his claims of innocence.

[1] A group of reformers pointed out instances of police misconduct in the investigation and evidence to support Ben Ali's innocence.

The group was able to prove the NYPD had made no attempt to find the missing key to the locked room or the unidentified man who witnesses claimed she had last been seen with the night before.

[4] A book by Howard and Nina Brown, East Side Story: 1891 Murder Case of Carrie Brown, presents evidence that the 'Danish Farmhand' story presented by New Jersey businessman George Damon in 1901 was false based on the latter's own words within a previously unseen affidavit submitted on July 2, 1901, in Manhattan.