The Murder of Abraham Levine and Trial of Eleanor Johnson (Maine)

On a quiet Saturday night in 1931, a 19-year-old cattle dealer sat at his desk to write a check that he never got the chance to finish signing. 

Investigators were left with more questions than answers – a missing revolver, a name on a check no one could trace, and a household already tangled in rumor and tension. What followed was a shifting investigation, a contested admission, and a trial that forced a small New England city to confront issues of race, reputation, and reasonable doubt.

September 26, 1931

It was just after 11 p.m. on Saturday night, September 26th, 1931 when 38-year-old Eleanor Johnson pulled up to the Levine family cattle farm on the Sidney Road in Waterville, Maine with her neighbor, Herbert Hart.

According to reporting by the Portland Press Herald, Eleanor worked as housekeeper and household manager for the Levine family, who operated a successful cattle dealing business from the property. Herbert himself was a tailor, so before he dropped Eleanor off and headed two houses down to his own home, Eleanor asked him to come inside for a minute. She had a dress and coat that needed repairing and wanted to hand them off before the night was over.

As she walked down the hallway toward the bedrooms, she was stopped in her tracks. She screamed and called for Herbert to come quickly. There was a person laying lifeless on the floor.

At first, neither of them were sure who the person was. Eleanor asked if it was Abie – short for Abraham, one of the Levine brothers – but he couldn’t be sure. Eleanor asked what she should do. Herbert told her to call the police.

At 11:20 p.m. Eleanor phoned police headquarters. She told them there was an accident about two miles down the Sidney Road and then she hung up.

That report of an accident created confusion for responding officers. The Waterville Police Chief, the Captain, and another officer drove several miles down the Sidney Road that night searching for a crash scene. When they found nothing, they turned back toward headquarters.

With no police in sight and panic mounting, Eleanor and Herbert got back into Herbert’s car and drove into the city themselves to find 22-year-old Merton Levine, another of the Levine brothers. They notified police again, this time with clearer details about what they had found at the farmhouse.

Merton, Eleanor and Herbert arrived at the house before police did. Merton turned the body over to discover the lifeless person was in fact his younger brother, 19-year old Abraham Levine.

Abraham had been face-down near his roll-top desk, a pen still clutched in his hand. He was the victim of multiple gunshot wounds.

Medical Examiner Dr. John G. Towne removed four bullets from Abraham’s body during the autopsy. He suffered two shots to the head, one behind the left ear, and two to the body, one of them mere inches from his heart. All four shots were fired at extremely close range. There were powder burns on his skin and singed hair at the entry sites on his head.

Authorities believed the murder weapon to be a .32 caliber revolver, but whoever shot Abraham took the firearm with them. It wasn’t anywhere at the scene.

There were no clear signs of a struggle in the room around Abraham. On the desk, police found a check made out for ten dollars to a “Leland Gray.” Abraham’s signature was unfinished, trailing off after “A-B-R-A-H-A,” with the pen line dragging sharply across the page before he could sign the letter M. In the memo line, someone had written: “For Mrs. Johnson’s cash.” The corresponding stub for that check was nowhere to be found.

Robbery was quickly dismissed as a motive. A lot of cash and some other checks were still on Abraham’s person.

A young man, seated at his desk, mid-signature, shot four times at close range with no struggle, no weapon, and a name on a check that no one could immediately identify…Investigators had a tall task in front of them. But before the Levine home became a crime scene, it was the center of a working farm, a family business, and a household with complicated dynamics long before a single shot was fired.

The Levine Family & Eleanor

The Levine family was well-known in the Waterville area for its cattle dealing business. 

According to reporting by the Sun-Journal, at the time Abraham was shot, their mother was a patient at the Augusta State Hospital and the Levine patriarch, Lewis Levine, was out of state. He had reportedly traveled to Nevada seeking a divorce – a type of divorce not permitted under Maine law at the time. He’d been gone for at least six weeks, leaving Abraham in charge of the farm and the business.

Abraham handled the bookkeeping, the accounts, and the day-to-day management of livestock transactions, but he wasn’t the only person left in charge while his father was away. Managing much of the other essential logistics of the Levine family life was Eleanor Johnson.

Eleanor had worked at the Levine home and farm for about two years before the murder. Her life in Maine, however, began long before that job.

She was born in Maryland, later moved to Philadelphia, and attended school for four years before financial necessity forced her to leave and begin working to support her family. Eleanor told the Morning Sentinel that in 1913, she came to Maine to work as a housekeeper for a family in Waterville, where she remained until 1916. After that, she took another farm position in town, then moved to Oakland, Maine, where she worked for thirteen years until the patriarch of that household passed away.

From there, she moved between positions and even left the state for a time with a Maine family, returning a few months later. It was after that return that she met Lewis Levine, who offered her the position at his farm.

Eleanor initially declined the job. After touring the property and seeing the size of the house and barns, she believed the workload would be overwhelming for one person, but Lewis assured her he would make it manageable. They negotiated a wage of $12 per week, and she began work there in July of 1929.

Despite Lewis’s promises, the job quickly became far more than housekeeping. She was responsible for hiring farmhands, overseeing renovations and repairs to buildings, handling shopping and cooking, and directing household operations in the absence of the men who were often away for long periods of time.

Eleanor recalled that Lewis Levine told her he wanted her to feel like part of the family. If the boys went to the movies – a picture show, as it would have been called – they took her with them. If they went for ice cream, she went, too. Eleanor said that Lewis told her he didn’t want her to feel beneath them because she was a Black woman.

But that dynamic didn’t last. She later said that people in town began whispering about her relationships with members of the Levine family. Some people made comments directly, expressing judgment about a Black woman working so closely with a Jewish family and spending time with a young Jewish man, appearing with them in public. Over time, members of the Levine family became less willing to be seen with her out and about in town.

Eleanor’s Story

The morning after Abraham was found dead, Eleanor was brought in by police and questioned for several hours. Her account of that Saturday night was detailed and, at least on paper, fairly clean.

She said she had dinner at the farm that evening with Abraham, his brother 16-year-old Samuel Levine, and a farmhand. She told police that around 7:45 p.m. Abraham left the house after being picked up by someone. She claimed that was the last time she saw him alive.)

Eleanor explained that she called a cab around 8 p.m. and went into town to see a movie at the Haines Theater. Now, the cab driver remembered the call being closer to 9 p.m., but the movie ticket stub placed her at or near the theater around 8:15 p.m. so it’s possible the cab driver was mistaken. And plus, Eleanor could describe scenes from the film and theater attendants remembered seeing her. 

After the movie, she said she went to find Merton Levine at the local dance hall to ask for a ride home but he wasn’t ready to leave. He told her to ask their neighbor, Herbert Hart, instead. Eleanor said she found Herbert at a shop down the street and the two left together about thirty minutes later. They arrived at the farm together and that’s when they found Abraham.

At that stage, police considered it a solid alibi and so she was released. Still, Eleanor retained an attorney.

This story continues on Dark Downeast. Press play to hear the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.