Lizzie Didn't Do It!. William Psy.D. Masterton
policemen who talked with her. It was not what she said but how she said it that bothered them. When Assistant Marshal Fleet asked her if she knew who killed her father and mother, Lizzie replied sharply, "Mrs. Borden was not my mother; she was my stepmother. My mother died when I was a little girl." This might seem like a simple statement of fact, but Fleet interpreted it to mean that Lizzie disliked, perhaps even hated, Abby Borden.
Lizzie had even more trouble with Officer Philip Harrington. After interrogating her, he said, "[Lizzie] talked in the most calm and collected manner . . . There was not the slightest indication of agitation, no sign of sorrow or grief, no lamentation of the heart, no comment on the horrors of the crime and no expression of a wish that the criminal be caught." Later, Harrington told Marshal Hilliard, "I do not like that girl. She does not act in a manner to suit me; it is strange to say the least."
Besides interrogating Lizzie, the police spent considerable time Thursday morning and afternoon (August 4) searching the Borden house, barn and yard. They were looking, first and foremost, for the murderer. Needless to say, they didn't find him. They were also looking for bloody clothes; here again they drew a blank. Finally, the police searched for the murder weapon. Bridget Sullivan showed them two axes and two hatchets in the cellar. The axes and one of the hatchets, which had a peculiar claw hammer design, had suspicious looking stains on them. They were delivered to Dr. Edward Wood, professor of chemistry at Harvard Medical School, to be tested for the presence of blood.
Oh, yes, I almost forgot! Assistant Marshal Fleet came across a hatchet blade in a box on a high shelf in the cellar. Since one can't commit murder with a hatchet minus a handle, Fleet put the blade back in the box and forgot about it.
There were about as many doctors at the Borden house on Thursday, August 4, as there were policemen. A partial list includes:
John Abbott William Dolan William Learned
Seabury Bowen Emanuel Dutra John Leary
John Coughlin Thomas Gunning Anson Peckham
Albert Dedrick ? Hardy J. Q. A. Tourtelott
Dr. Bowen, the Bordens' personal physician, was the first to examine their bodies. Dr. Coughlin was the mayor of Fall River, Dr. Dolan the medical examiner for the Fall River area of Bristol County. It is not at all obvious what the other gentlemen were doing. Perhaps they came for a lesson in human anatomy; it's not every day that you see head injuries of the type suffered by Andrew and Abby Borden. Reportedly Dr. Bowen, after viewing Andrew's body, suggested to Mrs. Churchill that she might like to look at what was left of her nextdoor neighbor. The good lady politely but firmly declined.
Dr. Dolan found out about the murders by accident; he happened to be passing 92 Second Street at about 11:45 A.M. His examination of the bodies was much more thorough than that of Dr. Bowen; it was Dolan who established that Andrew Borden had been struck 10 times, Abby 19. Later, at about 3:30 P.M., Dr. Dolan carried out what he called a "partial" autopsy. He removed the stomachs of the victims and sent them for analysis to the expert, Dr. Wood. This time you might say that Dr. Wood had his work cut out for him.
Legend has it that the calendar on the grandfather clock in the Borden house stopped on the day of the murders. A week later it still pointed to August 4, although the hours and minutes passed in the usual way. For the inhabitants of the house, August 4, 1892, must have seemed endless. It wasn't of course. The sun set at 7:00 P.M., exactly as predicted by the Old Farmer's Almanac. An hour or two later, Lizzie and Emma retired to their bedrooms on the second floor. John Morse, who must have been a remarkably unimaginative person, slept, as he had the night before, in the guest room where Abby Borden was murdered. Bridget Sullivan, with a much more active imagination, spent the night with a friend across the street. Alice Russell, a true friend in time of trouble, volunteered to stay with the Borden girls. On Thursday night, she used the room occupied by the elder Bordens the night before. Their bodies now lay on the dining room table, awaiting the arrival of the undertaker.
Officer Hyde, who was on guard at the Borden house, reported that sometime around 9 P.M., Alice Russell and Lizzie Borden made a trip to the cellar. Alice carried a kerosene lamp, Lizzie a chamber pot. Lizzie emptied the pot in either a sink (according to Hyde) or the water closet (according to Miss Russell). After that the two women went upstairs; fifteen minutes later Lizzie returned to the cellar alone. Hyde couldn't make out what she was doing this time. Perhaps she was using the water closet. Then again she might have been adding to a collection of menstrual pads soaking in a pail in the cellar; it was that time of the month for Lizzie. There is still another possibility; Lizzie could have added more sinister bloodstained objects such as a dress or undergarment to the pail. Apparently no one ever checked.
After Shocks
For many days after August 4, the Borden crime was the lead story on the front page of every newspaper in Fall River and vicinity. Early accounts of the crime were loaded with factual errors. The article shown below contains at least seven misstatements. The most interesting of these is the assertion that, "the murder suicide theory finds many supporters." So far as I know, no one has ever committed suicide with a hatchet.
FIGURE 1.2 Newspaper Article on Crime
On the other hand, newspaper accounts are the first place to look for insights into the Borden case. They are full of intriguing suggestions that were never followed up, mostly because they contradicted the legend that gradually became frozen in place. For anyone hoping to solve the Borden mystery a hundred years later, the primary source has to be the local newspapers. In 1892 there were three dailies in Fall River. The Evening News was the most reliable and authoritative; it was also the dullest. At the other extreme was the provocative and often controversial Globe; the Herald was somewhere in between.
Two items of particular interest in the Fall River papers of Friday, August 5, are shown below. The reproduction at the left cites the reward offer made by Emma and Lizzie Borden, promising $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer. Although it appeared daily for over a year, no one ever claimed the reward. Sorry; it's too late now!
FIGURE 1.3 Two newspaper articles
The newspaper headline shown at the right refers to an article which first appeared in the Fall River Globe, a newspaper generally hostile to the Bordens. It relates to a statement made by a clerk named Eli Bence who worked at Smith's drugstore in Fall River. He said that on the day before the murders a young woman came to his store and attempted unsuccessfully to buy ten cents worth of prussic acid, a deadly poison. Bence identified this woman as Lizzie Borden.
On the morning of August 6 (Saturday), the double funeral of Andrew and Abby Borden was held in the sitting room where Andrew was murdered. The bodies were arranged so as to conceal the marks of violence; everyone agreed that undertaker Winwood had done a marvelous job. There were about 75 mourners present in the house; a crowd variously estimated at 1000-4000 people jostled around outside.
The services, in which the customary eulogy was omitted, were conducted jointly by Reverend Buck, Minister for Missions of the Central Congregational Church, and Reverend Adams of the First Congregational Church. Until quite recently, the entire Borden family had been members of Central Congregational. Andrew left in a cold fury when the deacons refused to meet his selling price for a piece of property. He bought a pew in First Congregational which he never used.
According to legend, Lizzie shocked Fall River society by refusing to appear in black for the funeral. The legend was wrong; two independent newspaper accounts said she wore a black lace dress. She and Emma were, of course, the principal mourners; they led the funeral procession to the Oak Grove cemetery where the Borden lot was located. At the cemetery there was a surprise that disappointed the curious onlookers. By order of Medical Examiner Dolan, there was no interment; the bodies were held in a receiving vault pending further examination.
On Saturday afternoon a second search was made