No. 31 Bond street was in
1827 and 1828 the home of
Timothy Woodruff, a builder, who
in 1826 lived at 20 First avenue
and in 1829 at 29 First street.
Who occupied it from 1829 to
1830 has not been ascertained,
but in the directory of the
latter year, and down to 1841,
it is given as the residence of
Mary Sutherland, widow of Dr.
Talmadge Sutherland, a
physician, who in 1837 resided
at 10 Park place.
In 1840 it
was the residence of William
Waring, who remained there until
the late '40's. In 1851 it was
occupied by Dr. John Lovejoy, a
dentist. A few years later the
house suddenly became famous as
the scene of one of the most
celebrated crimes of the
nineteenth century, the murder
of Dr. Harvey Burdell, a crime
that in point of sensational
character and extent of interest
excited in the community and
throughout the country is not
often paralleled.
Dr.
Burdell is described as "a fine
looking man of forty-six, well
proportioned, and of singularly
youthful appearance." He
possessed a high temper and
seems to have quarreled, at one
time or another, with about
every one with whom he came in
close contact. His exceptional
skill was recognized in the
profession to which he belonged,
and he was a member of the
leading medical societies of the
city. He was also the author of
several authoritative works on
subjects pertaining to
dentistry. He graduated from the
Pennsylvania Medical College, at
Philadelphia, and not long
afterward went into partnership
with his older brother, Dr. John
Burdell, who was also a dentist.
Their office was in a building
that formerly stood on the
corner of Chambers street and
Broadway, south of old
Washington Hall. After a few
years they separated as a result
of a rather acrimonious dispute,
apparently over money matters,
for the younger brother was
grasping as well as hot
tempered. Dr. Harvey Burdell
then moved to 310 Broadway, near
Duane street. This is believed
to have been the northernmost of
the row of three-story houses
shown in the view of Masonic
Hall (which was Nos. 314 and
2316 Broadway) in Valentine's
Manual for 1855, page 296.
Dr. Burdell was there for
only a short time, moving about
1841 to 362 Broadway, on the
southeast corner of Franklin
street. This house had been the
residence of John S. Crary, and
in appearance was much the same
as the home of his brother and
partner, Peter Crary, at 361
Broadway across the street, the
second house below Franklin
street. Dr. Burdell remained at
362 Broadway till 1852, when he
bought No. 31 Bond street. A
year or two later he employed a
Mrs. Emma Augusta Cunningham as
his housekeeper, his wife having
divorced him some time before.
Mrs. Cunningham was the widow of
a once wealthy distiller, of
Brooklyn. He was found dead in
his chair one day, and she
collected his life insurance
amounting to $10,000. She had
two adult daughters, Margaret
Augusta and Helen, and a son
named George W. who at the time
of the murder of Dr. Burdell
seems to have been about eleven
or twelve yeas old. Mrs.
Cunningham and Dr. Burdell soon
quarreled and she was displaced,
but in 1855 she came back.
In May, 1856, Dr. Burdell leased
his house to her. For several
years it had been a boarding
house, and she continued it as
such. Dr. Burdell occupied all
of the floor above the parlors
except the hall-bedroom, his
office being the rear room and
his bedroom the front room, but
he took his meals at the
Metropolitan Hotel, on the east
side of Broadway, between Prince
and Houston streets. It was said
that "however prepossessing Mrs.
Cunningham may have been when
younger she is not at this time
an extra-ordinarily attractive
woman." Among her lodgers was a
man named Eckel, whose character
may be judged from the fact that
he ended his days in prison. At
the time of his death Dr.
Burdell was the owner of No. 2
as well as No. 31 Bond street.
He also owned real estate in
Shrewsbury, New Jersey, and in
Herkimer County, New York, and
was a stockholder and a director
of one of the banks in this
city. In all his fortune
amounted to about $100,000.
On the morning of Saturday,
January 31, 1857, at about eight
o'clock, John J. Burchell, a
youth employed by Dr. Burdell to
take care of his office, came to
perform his customary duties,
and found Dr. Burdell dead on
the floor. "Around him was a sea
of blood." Blood was found on
the floor and walls of the hall
outside, and a later search
discovered a bloodstained sheet
and nightshirt in a storeroom in
the garret. The victim's face
was black, and his tongue
protruded from his mouth. The
boy gave the alarm and Dr.
Francis, who lived, as we have
seen at No. 1 Bond street, was
called. Upon examining the body
he announced that Dr. Burdell
had been strangled by a cord or
other ligature, and that there
were fifteen "deeply incised
wounds" in his body. The heart
was pierced in two places, both
lungs were penetrated, and the
carotid artery and the jugular
vein were both severed.
At the inquest, which followed
immediately and continued for
two weeks amidst tremendous
excitement, Mrs. Cunningham
stated on the witness stand that
she had been married to Dr.
Burdell on October 25, 1856, and
produced a marriage certificate
to that effect, signed by Rev.
Uriah Marvin, one of the
ministers of the Dutch Reformed
Church in Bleecker street,
corner of Amos (now West Tenth)
street. The Rev. Mr. Marvin was
called as a witness, and at once
recollected the marriage but was
unable to identify either Dr.
Burdell, whose corpse he viewed,
or Mrs. Cunningham, who was
brought before him. He did
however, identify her daughter
Augusta as one of the witnesses,
the other being a servant girl
in his own household. He further
stated that as the party left
the house the supposed Mrs.
Burdell requested that no
publication be made of the
marriage. From other witnesses
(of whom a large number were
called) it was developed that
Dr. Burdell had been in fear of
assassination, and that Mrs.
Cunningham had been heard to
remark that "she had a halter
around his (Dr. Burdell's) neck
and he had to do what she wanted
him to." The testimony of some
of the witnesses, including
servants and former lodgers, was
sensational in the extreme, and
exposed, to a considerable
degree at least, the relations
that had existed in the house
for some time before the
tragedy.
The Coroner's jury
brought in a verdict to the
effect that Mrs. Cunningham and
the boarder Eckel knew more
about the matter than they had
disclosed. They were promptly
indicted and tried for the
crime, but although an adequate
motive seems to have been
abundantly proven there was no
other evidence, direct or
circumstantial, in any way
justifying a conviction. In fact
Mrs. Cunningham had an alibi,
her daughters testifying that
they both slept with her on the
night of the murder! The verdict
in each case was "not guilty."
Of the subsequent developments
of the affair Haswell gives the
following succinct and
comprehensive account:
"If Mrs. Cunningham could prove
marriage with the doctor she
would be entitled to a wife's
share of his estate, and if she
bore a child to him she would
obtain the entire control and
enjoyment of its revenue. To
attain this desirable end, it
was indispensable that a child
should be procured, and the
woman forthwith commenced to
exhibit the appearance consonant
with her purpose, and at the
assigned time a new-born infant
was received from Bellevue
Hospital, which she had obtained
through the aid of an attendant
physician. But he, while
consenting to aid her in her
scheme, disclosed the plan to
the District Attorney, A. Oakey
Hall, who, when her claim in
behalf of the child was
presented, exposed the fraud,
and she and her daughters left
the city.
" I was present at the
examination of one of the
daughters before the coroner,
and I conceived a very decided
opinion of the case, which, so
far as the Coroner was
concerned, was universally held
to have been so very ill
conducted that a presentation
was made to the Governor, asking
for the removal of such an
incompetent official."
Mrs. Cunningham subsequently
returned to New York under the
name of Mrs. Emma Williams, and
died here in 1887.