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.

I'm Kylie Lowe and this is the murder of Abraham Levine and the trial of Eleanor Johnson on Dark

Down East.

It was just after 11 p.m. on Saturday night, September 26, 1931, when 38-year-old Eleanor Johnson pulled up to the Levine family cattle farm on the Sydney Road

in Waterville, Maine, with her neighbor, Herbert Hart.

According to reporting by the Portland Press Herald, Eleanor worked as a housekeeper and household

manager for the Levine family, who operated a successful cattle-dealing business from the property.

The neighbor, Herbert, 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 a coat that needed repairing

and wanted to hand them off before the night was over.

As she walked down the hallway towards the bedrooms,

she was stopped in her tracks.

She screamed and called for Herbert to come quickly.

There was a person lying lifeless on the floor.

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