MA - Lizzie Borden: Axe murders, Fall River, 4 Aug 1892

[CastlesBurning]

Finally got around to taking my long-planned little road trip to the Lizzie Borden house last week...

Seeing it in person, I was able to determine that A) if someone were up on the third floor/attic, they would probably NOT be able to hear something going on on the first floor (unless it was really, really loud, or they were expecting to hear it) bc it's really just too far/remote, and B) the distance between the barn and the house was super close...as in, practically an extension of the house, kinda close. I don't think I ever realized that before.

On a side note, I had been idly curious before arriving, wondering if I would "feel" any sort of "presence" in the home, any sort of indication that such gruesome crimes occured there and that it IS considered one of the most haunted spots in the country. But...nothing. If I hadn't know what happened there, I definitely wouldn't have known, if you follow.

 

[athy]

here is a whole forum devoted to the study of lizzy borden and the crime

http://www.lizzieandrewborden.com/LBForum/index.php

 

[scandi]

Oh my, Thanks Gaia for the thread. It has captivated my interest. I think everyone here has excellent thoughts and am off to study and read!! xox

 

[gaia227]

Finally got around to taking my long-planned little road trip to the Lizzie Borden house last week...

Seeing it in person, I was able to determine that A) if someone were up on the third floor/attic, they would probably NOT be able to hear something going on on the first floor (unless it was really, really loud, or they were expecting to hear it) bc it's really just too far/remote, and B) the distance between the barn and the house was super close...as in, practically an extension of the house, kinda close. I don't think I ever realized that before.

On a side note, I had been idly curious before arriving, wondering if I would "feel" any sort of "presence" in the home, any sort of indication that such gruesome crimes occured there and that it IS considered one of the most haunted spots in the country. But...nothing. If I hadn't know what happened there, I definitely wouldn't have known, if you follow.

Incidentally - I was watching GhostHunters last night and they did an investigation at the Lizzie Borden house and as I recall they did not get anything on audio, video or have any personal experience.

Thank you for sharing your insight on the layout of the house. I didn't know the barn was so close either and it is an important insight that one cannot hear much from the 3rd floor.

 

[sneezy]

Lizzie's bedroom was on the 2nd floor, not the 3rd, Bridget the maid's room was on the 3rd.

I've read a ton on this case, Lizzie and I share a birthday so I've always had a fascination with the case.

Lizzie's mother died when she was 2. Emma her older sister helped to care for her until her father Andrew remarried Abby Durfee Gray. Abby cared for the girls and reports are that they got along well enough until Lizzie was older.

Andrew Borden was a self made man. While the Borden Family in general was well to do, Andrew did not come from that side of the family. He worked hard and created a stable household. This being said, he was notoriously cheap. The house had had gaslight but he had it cut off because oil lamps were cheaper. While Lizzie and Emma wanted to move to the fashionable "society hill" section of town with the big houses, Andrew preferred to stay down town, closer to the businesses he owned. So close in fact, that he sold off their horse and carriage and insisted they walk.

At some point, Andrew had given Lizzie and Emma a house as an income property. Roughly 2 years before the murders, Andrew took back the gift and gave it to Abby's sister to live in. This upset Lizzie and Emma. Somewhere around this time, Lizzie stops referring to Abby as "mother" and begins calling her either Mrs. Borden or Abby. Showing an obvious rift.

Between this event and the murders, the house was "broken into" and robbed. However, the only items taken were a trolly ticket book and a few dollars....minor things. It is worth mentioning that no doors/windows were broken, it happened in daylight and it is widely thought that Lizzie took the items. After that, Andrew and Abby kept their bedroom door locked, however the key was kept out in the open on the mantle of the fire place in the living room.

It is also worth mentioning, that the house was not a "conventional" house. It had been an appartment house that was "converted" into a single family house. The upstairs was divided into 2 halves, not connected by a main hallway. There was a door that went between Andrew's room and Emma's room, which later became Lizzie's room....more on that later. This door was kept locked and later, after Lizzie took possession of the room, a desk or dresser was placed against the door, effectively blocking the floor into to totally separate halves.

To access Andrew's room and the third floor, one needed to use the back stairs off of the kitchen area. To access the guest room, Lizzie's bedroom and Emma's bedroom one would use the stairs just inside the front door.

This will be key at the time of the murder.....

(continued in next post)

 

[sneezy]

The day before the murder, John Morse, Andrew's brother in law from his first wife (Lizzie and Emma's mother) dropped by unannounced for a visit. He was an occasional houseguest and infact, HAD HIS OWN ROOM on the THIRD FLOOR! This is not the room now known as "the Morse bedroom" where Abby was killed.

On this visit, instead of staying in his own room, Morse stayed on the 2nd floor, in the room next to Lizzie and Emma.

Emma is on vacation with friends in Fairhaven, several miles away. Lizzie is out the evening before with her friend Alice Russell. She tells Alice that her "father has enemies" and "is afraid" that someone will hurt them.

She claims to come home late enough not to see her uncle who is staying in the room next to hers.

The next morning, the day of the murder, Abby, Andrew and John have an early breakfast. John heads across town to visit other family and Andrew heads downtown to visit his businesses.

Lizzie comes down later and either eats/doesn't eat depending on the story. They had all been sick with "food poisoning" the day before and in her testimony, Bridget Sullivan, the maid testified that she had gone out into the backyard to vomit sometime after breakfast. The Bordens did not have an icebox and it is entirely possible given the heat and the fact they had eaten "leftovers" the morning before they had gotten sick, it could have been food poisoning...

Lizzie claims to have been heating the irons to iron some hand kerchiefs and/or reading a book/magazine. (her story changed several times but more on that later) Bridget goes out and begins to wash windows and Abby goes up the FRONT stairs to make the bed in the guest room that John Morse had used the night before, the room that was NOT his regular room...she was never seen alive again.

At this time Lizzie was either, ironing then outside, eating pears, looking for iron to make sinkers, in the basement, anywhere BUT where she could have seen/heard anything.

The Bordens kept all the doors locked (especially after the aforementioned robbery) and the screen door was even kept latched on the front door.

It was sometime between 9-10 that Abby was murdered.

Bridget the maid comes in from outside and lets Andrew in as he is returning from his business in town. Bridget fumbled with the locks on the door and "swears" saying "Pshaw" and claims to have heard Lizzie laugh at her from upstairs...(which would have been right next to the room where Abby's dead body would have been laying)

After she let Andrew in and feeling weak from both being ill and her stomach ailment Bridget goes upstairs to her bedroom on the third floor in the back of the house to lay down before she has to make lunch.

Lizzie claims to have talked to her father then returns outside to either eat pears, find sinkers or whatnot....

Andrew is murdered.

Minutes later, Bridget is awakened by Lizzie screaming, "come quick, someone has come in and murdered father!"

Bridget runs to the neighbor's house where the doctor lives. Hearing the commotion other neighbors come and find Lizzie next to her father's body....it's obvious that he's dead as his skull is split open, his eye is lying on his cheek and is also partialy split. It is also important to note that the blood is still err...moving, dripping and has not begun to coagulate...meaning he had JUST passed away.

Someone calls for the police and they are dispatched. Soon a large crowd appears...jamming the yard and street. It is worth mentioning that many neighbors and bystanders had been IN THE HOUSE before and while the police were there in the beginning...the scene was contaminated from the start.

Someone asks where Abby is...Lizzie replied that Abby had left, she had gotten a note saying someone was sick and asking her to come help...she did not know who...but then mentioned that Abby may have come home.

The neighbor lady is requested to check upstairs to see if Abby has returned, she goes up the front stairs and does not reach the landing before looking across the floor and seeing Abby lying in a pool of blood on the far side of the guest room. She runs downstairs screaming, "we've got another one!"

to be continued...

 

[sneezy]

It is somewhere about this time that John Morse returns to the house for lunch. Seeing the commotion in the yard, street and surrounding the house does he rush in to see what happened? Not right away! He stands in the yard eating a few pears before going in...Why? Did he already know what happened? Why was he so seemingly unconcerned?

One policeman gets the idea of taking pictures to "preserve" the crime scene....some of the very first crime scene photos....

When questioned about his whereabouts at the time of the murders, John Morse gives his statement about visiting relatives on the other side of town and proceeds to give the badge number of the trolly car conductor/driver a MULTIDIGIT number....how many people would notice and REMEMBER SUCH A LONG NUMBER if they didn't have reason to? He then leaves to send a telegram to Emma to get her to come home...

The neighbor/doctor somewhere in here, gives Lizzie drugs, I believe it may have been laudnum to calm her nerves. All of her statements given to police that day were after she was medicated....which may be a legitimate reason for the different versions of her statements as to her whereabouts at the times of the murders.

The bodies of Abby and Andrew were autopsied ON THE DINING ROOM TABLE! Their stomachs were removed and tied off with string and sent off to a professor at either Harvard or Yale to see if their times of death could be determined by the digestion of the stomach contents. The bodies are then removed.

A hatchet is found in an ash bin in the basement with a broken handle. It seems to have been recently broken and cleaned. There is a small amount of blood and hair on the hatchet. It is taken into evidence.

Emma arrives home, John Morse leaves, and Lizzie's friend Alice Russell comes to stay with them IN THE HOUSE!

At the funeral, the medical examiner arrives to REMOVE the HEADS of both Abby and Andrew for further examination. The bodies are then buried without their heads.

 

[sneezy]

It is worth mentioning that the day after the murder Alice Russell caught Lizzie burning a dress with a "brown" stain on it. She tells Lizzie, "I wouldn't let anyone see you do that". Lizzie tells her that the dress was stained by paint and unwearable and that what else is there to do with it but burn it?

Soon after the murder a local druggist comes forward with a story that Lizzie, only the week before the murders, tried to buy a dime's worth of prussic acid to "clean a sealskin cape" to rid it of moths. Since she did not have a prescription, nor was prussic acid a good way to clean a cape (and who wears a sealskin cape in August?) He refused to sell it to her.

Lizzie is soon arrested and charged with THREE murders. The murder of her father, the murder of her "mother, AND the murder of her mother and father!

Did she do it?

Personally....I say yes...and no....let me explain....in another post

 

[Mira]

wow sneezy! i have lurked at this sire http://www.lizzieandrewborden.com/LBForum/index.php for a couple years and havent seen things laid out so clearly.

i wonder, if lizzie was supposedly "unnaturally calm" why would she need to be drugged?

given the times and the lack of forensic knowledge, i have always had my doubts that she did this. i do think her sister thought she did, and most of the town, but i believe lizzie brought that on herself by her cold demeanor. gotta admit, she looks cold and uncaring in most photos.

it is an enduring and fascinating mystery.

 

[sneezy]

I think several things have to be taken into account that may not be considered by "modern" thinkers.

It was inappropriate for men to search a woman. It was also inappropriate that a man be able to search a woman's closet/dresser at that time because he might see her underwear! So after the murder, Lizzie was never searched, her closets were never searched. There was no massive amounts of blood observed on her person and if the timelines given by Bridget and others were accurate, it would have been difficult for Lizzie to murder her father, change clothes and call to Bridget in the time allotted. The theory that she hid behind the door from the dining room into the parlor is false because that door opens into the dining room and does not allow for the movement/reach that would be needed. Additionally, the strokes were a downward from left to right movement, whereas, if the perpetrator were behind the door it would have to have been an UPWARD motion.

As far as the blood spatter...the WHITE bedspread on the Morse bed is available for viewing at the Fall River Historical Society. It has NOT been laundered and has VERY LITTLE splatter on it, despite the fact that it was directly beside where Abby was murdered.

One account does have ONE drop of blood on the edge of the hem on Lizzie's dress....is this the "condeming" evidence?

Not necessarily.

Andrew was bleeding profusely and it is noted the blood dripped off of the couch onto the floor...it could have been from contact when Lizzie checked on her father.

Also worth noting, to put it delicately, it was Lizzie's "time of the month"...

This is important for not only explaining away ONE drop at the hem of the skirt...but also, Lizzie was known to have a type of seizure related to her cycle...

Why is this important? some speculate that she had a seizure and "blacked out" committing the murders but being unable to remember her actions due to the siezure activity...

but my opinion??? to be continued....

 

[sneezy]

In all truth, my gut feeling is, that Lizzie did do it...but not for greed...as most report...

It has been documented that Lizzie had a very "peculiar" relationship with her father as well as her father having a "peculiar" relationship with Emma as well.

Lizzie, despite being younger, was a much stronger character than Emma. Emma was quiet and not the type to argue or stand up for herself. Lizzie was.

Origionally, Lizzie had the small room off of Emma's bedroom for her room. Emma's bedroom (now known as Lizzie's bedroom) had a door that opened from their parents' room into her bedroom. There came a point where Emma moved into the much smaller bedroom eventhough she was older. Why didn't one/both of them move to the other bedroom? Who knows?

But soon after the switch, the bedroom door between Lizzie's room and her father's room was locked, then she placed a desk infront of it so that it was no longer usable...why? Privacy? Or was there a more sinister reason to keep her father out?

Andrew had given Lizzie a ring, a diamond ring...it was reported that they had a love/hate relationship that can be an indicator of an incestuous relationship...Could the ring be some "sign" of inappropriate conduct? At some point, about the time of the theft, Lizzie gave the ring back to her father...who wore it on his pinky. He then gave it back to Lizzie...

At that time, incest was a strictly taboo topic...could it be that the reason the neighbors helped Lizzie was that they knew something strange had happened? Is this why until she was found not guilty they supported her then turned their backs on her?

Could they have "blamed themselves" or knew Andrew "got what he deserved" for molesting his daughters?

Could it be that Abby was murders so much more viciously because she never did anything to prevent the abuse that happened right under her nose? That she did nothing to save Lizzie and Emma?

Could it be that the murder was Lizzie defending herself and her sister against the abuse that could never be mentioned?

I don't know.

As a Medium...I know what I felt when I toured the house...nothing related to the murder...nothing. All I felt was oppression. Andrew oppressing everyone. HE was the man in charge. It was HIS way or else...

Is that proof? no. I fully admit it means nothing to anyone but myself.

My thought is that Lizzie loved her father, deeply, but hated what he did to them. She hated her stepmother because she knew what happened and did not thing to stop it. I believe she did it because the abuse had to stop and this was the only thing she could think of...she had no money. She couldn't get a job. She was too old to get married/unlikely to get married. She and her sister were trapped. There was no one to go to for help, no one to save them. She did what she thought she needed to do.

My thought is that the neighbors might have had an idea that something "wrong" was going on but were powerless to do anything to help. They helped and supported the girls until Lizzie was found not guilty, but then wanted nothing to do with them because a) after all justified or not Lizzie was a murder b) they were "tainted".

That's my "opinion" only.


Just an interesting few facts:

From the time of the murder to a few months after Lizzie was aquitted, Emma lived in the house where the murder occurred, alone. After Lizzie returned, they bought Maplecroft in the upscale section of town.

The couch where Mr Borden was murdered? THEY KEPT IT! Lizzie had it reupholstered in white and kept it for quite a while after they moved uptown.

Mr Borden's skull, was lost and never found.

 

[sneezy]

wow sneezy! i have lurked at this sire http://www.lizzieandrewborden.com/LBForum/index.php for a couple years and havent seen things laid out so clearly.

i wonder, if lizzie was supposedly "unnaturally calm" why would she need to be drugged?

given the times and the lack of forensic knowledge, i have always had my doubts that she did this. i do think her sister thought she did, and most of the town, but i believe lizzie brought that on herself by her cold demeanor. gotta admit, she looks cold and uncaring in most photos.

it is an enduring and fascinating mystery.

thanks, Mira...as you can see this case is a passion of mine. I did an article and investigation of the case on my website...

the article
http://gailsparanormalport.tripod.com/lizziebordenarticle.html

My hypothesis
http://gailsparanormalport.tripod.com/id28.html

and my investigation/visit to the house/town
http://gailsparanormalport.tripod.com/id29.html

moderators: if the links are not ok, please feel free to remove them....


I do have the crime scene photos on my site, but they are under a separate link so that you don't just get bombarded with them....

I took many of the pictures by myself and some are from the time period.

I welcome you to sign my guest book if you visit and feel free to leave any comments.

I think that depending on when the reports were made, she may have seemed unnaturally calm because of the drugs as well as the shock. I really think she loved her father but hated what he did to her/her sister, I really believe that switching rooms with Emma was nothing more that Lizzie putting herself between her sister and her father, trying to protect Emma from her father's abuse...I think the murder was just a "this has to stop" kind of thing but once she acted out on her primal desire for her safety and the safety of her sister, she immediately regretted killing her father. I think her resentment of her stepmother for not saving them was stronger than her hatred of her father. That's just my feelings an opinions, so take it with a box of salt....

 

[rpipergirl]

interesting finding Mr Borden: Lower part of large bowel filled with solid formed feces. Feces also in lower part of small bowel.
Mrs.Borden: . Lower bowel empty. Upper portion of small bowel containing undigested food. suggesting a BIG difference in TOD. Also it was said her pool of blood was "no longer liquid" in testimony by the Dr. according to news accounts. On the other hand he was still dripping blood. The things that make you go hmmm. http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/LizzieBorden/bordenautopsies.html

Inquest testimony of Lizzie: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/LizzieBorden/bordeninquest.html

 

[watermelonlady]

carrie, I believe this may be the book you were referring to: Lizzie Borden: The Legend, the Truth, the Final Chapter by Arnold R. Brown.

I used to work in a library and read this years ago. It was a good book and very intriguing. The author points the finger directly at Lizzie's brother, William.

 

[kbl8201]

being from mass and not far from fall river, i know a lot about this case.

i remember there was a guy who remembered exactly what cab number (they called horses and carriages cabs back then) he was riding in so he'd have an alibi (the guy if i recall would have a motive for money)

i think lizzy was a scapegoat, and since there was no forensic evidence (obviously) in the 1890's its not like she could be either convicted or exonerated.

 

[kbl8201]

oh and i'd be remiss if i didnt do this.


'lizzie borden took an axe, and gave her father 40 whacks.

and when she saw what she had done,

she gave her mother 41'

 

[sneezy]

being from mass and not far from fall river, i know a lot about this case.

i remember there was a guy who remembered exactly what cab number (they called horses and carriages cabs back then) he was riding in so he'd have an alibi (the guy if i recall would have a motive for money)

i think lizzy was a scapegoat, and since there was no forensic evidence (obviously) in the 1890's its not like she could be either convicted or exonerated.

That was Lizzie's uncle, John Vinnicum Morse. He had arrived unannounced and without luggage the day before the murders. He was supposedly across town visiting other relatives at the time of the murder....HOWEVER this is what bugs me about him even more than him remembering the multi digit conductor number from the trolly....

When he returned for lunch...the house was surrounded by a crowd and police...he reportedly stood in the back yard eating those blasted pears for quite a while before entering the house....

If it were MY family and I returned to find a crowd and police surrounding it...I'd be fighting to get in ASAP! While he may not have done it...I suspect he may have known something.

 

[KarlK]

*respectfully snipped*

Hi KarlK,

I'm curious what you meant by a "spinster without legitimate cause."
Not following you there. My ignorance undoubtedly, but, could you explain what that means?

Hi Carrie. I simply meant that by the standards of the day Lizzie was the kind of woman that would be expected to marry: Nice looking, in good health, and a respectable upbringing.

For such a woman there were very few "legitimate" causes (ie socially acceptable excuses) for not having married. Apart from being a nun, being unattractive, suffering from poor physical/mental health or having heavy family responsibilities such as caring for seriously ill parents or siblings there were few reasons a woman could invoke for choosing to remain single without raising suspicion. Simply not wanting to marry was not a valid reason and the Victorian scandal press would have had a field day with this unusual situation, and it did.

Nowadays Borden would certainly not get depicted as the outcast she was more than a century ago and this may have affected public opinion towards her, although the judge appeared to have been independent-minded enough to set such considerations aside and instruct the jury to focus on facts rather than on Borden's then uncommon lifestyle choice.

 

[Stella]

The Lizzie as lesbian angle is worth exploring as a reason she was not married at the time of the murder. But since Mr. Borden had a well known reputation in town as being an very unpleasant man, it is possible that no man in town wanted him as a father-in-law.

 

[Chanler]

From what I have read, Lizzie Borden got away with murder. She had reason to be seriously disgruntled: Her father was clearly favoring her stepmother's (Whitehead) family in a recent property grant. The savagery of the attack and the narrow timeline makes it highly unlikely that an outsider killed Mrs. Borden, waited for Mr. Borden to return from market, and then fled the scene.

Lizzie's sexual preferences might have increased her alienation and frustration, but I honestly think that her rage at her stepmother and father's decision are what fueled this crime. (Late in life, Lizzie did become close with a woman often identified as a lesbian.)