Just saw a Discovery Channel special on the Borden killings. The usual Discovery Channel mixture of good, commonsense detective work and absolute humbug (they used a melon to re-create blood splatter, but I doubt Mr. Borden’s head split in three parts and bounced around quite so much) and idiotic “forensic psychology” (incest, of course).
So, who do you think killed the Bordens? Lizzie? Cousin John Morse? Maid Bridget Sullivan? Sister Emma? O.J. Simpson’s great-grandfather? Sarah Bernhardt on a Farewell American Tour?
I read one theory that Lizzie dunnit, but paid off Bridget to help her hide evidence. Bridget was rumored (emphasis on “rumor”) to have done well for hereslf financially for an immigrant maid after the killings.
Id like to know where all teh blood was, the pictures of the crime scenes didnt seem to show much in the way of blood=\
FWIW, I think it actually was Lizzy, probably in a fugue state so she might not have even realized she did it, and which would explain her gimpy attempts at alibing herself.
"But she was always so quiet! No, she was 15 miles away.
A Black person? In Fall River? At least he wasn’t Portuguese.
This would’ve been Farewell Tour 3, right? Cripes, the woman was the Rolling Stones of the 19th century.
But I’ve long like the Bastard Son, William. I know, “There you go, blaming the smelly, retarded one!” but he was seen, and smelt, in the Borden’s yard right after the murders.
Comments:
The degree to which Andrew was defaced (heh, heh, heh!) suggests that, even if he were not the first victim he was the PRIMARY victim. Abby was merely the main beneficiary of his will and, therefore, needed to be eliminated by one of the other heirs. Andrew was attacked by somebody very angry with him, and someone very close to him. This points to Emma and/or Lizzie, maybe with William as their hatchet man (boy, they just write themselves in this case!).
(sigh) Nobody poisons anybody with prussic acid anymore.
You’d think that Fall River native (and Portugueser) Emeril Lagasse would be more circumspect before yelling, “BAM!” while holding a meat cleaver. The town has a bad enough reputation already.
I think Lizzie did it. She had the motive (money, anger, frustration), she had the means (she’d shoplifted the acid, an ax, etc.), she was most definitely home that day (the only person other than Bridget definitely at the murder scene) and it would have been difficult for an intruder to murder Abby, hide, murder Andrew and never be heard killing two people with an ax, plus the element of overkill with Andrew (which almost always implies a personal grudge). Nothing was stolen from the house and there was no clear motive from anybody else. Lizzie’s sister later stopped speaking to her completely (though some attribute this to Lizzie’s lesbian affairs rather than to a revelation of the murder). The most damning evidence, however, is that Elizabeth Montgomery seems to have thought she did it (while nekkid, no-less).
For those who don’t know and would love a macabre getaway, the home is now a Bed & Breakfast. My understanding is that the murder rooms are usually booked, however. (Does anybody know if Maplecroft is still standing?)
Because The Disc. Channel, for some bizarre reason, “re-enacted” the crime-scene photos. The real ones show plenty of blood, especially under Abby (a lot of Andrew’s blood soaked into the sofa).
I always wondered about Bridget’s alibi of “I was taking a nap, fully dressed, upstairs, with the doors and windows closed, on a blazing hot day, and didn’t hear a thing.” I still think Lizzie did it, but I think Bridget was paid off to keep her trap shut.
Oh, and by the way, the reason the “forensic psychologist” decided Andrew was diddling Lizzie? “He kept things in the house locked up, which is very indicitive of the child abuser.”
Ummm, Lizzie was a kleptomaniac, who’d been arrested several times. Jackass “experts.”
The best treatment of the case I’ve ever seen was called “Case Closed.” By the end I remember thinking it was the illegitimate son, perhaps helped by Lizzie. It’s a fascinating case, up there with Zodiac and Jon Benet Ramsey. Of all my childhood fears, the idea of Lizzie Borden behind the door with an ax was by far the most unnerving. I imagine the crazed look that must have been in her eyes as/if she was the killer.
BTW, did the episode you saw show the autopsy photos of the back of the mother’s head? CREEPY.
It was also creepy when they brought exact plaster replicas of the skulls into the courtroom and fitted the axe blade into them. Lizzie wasn’t the only person who fainted (but the prosecution did prove with the stunt that Ma and Pa Borden did not die of chicken pox).
This may be apocryphal, but I have read that when Lizzie first heard the rhyme “Lizzie Borden took an ax/gave her mother forty whacks” she became furious and shouted at the children “SHE WAS MY &@#*$#ING STEPMOTHER!” Calling her a vicious murderess was one thing, but implying she emerged from Abby’s loins was just too much.
CrimeLibrary (one of the truly “best of the web” sites) has this interesting review of William Masterson’s recent book in which he questions the times of the murders due to abnormalities in coagulation of Andrew’s blood. Interesting (but I still think Lizzie done it).
I have no idea who did it, but I sure would not have voted “guilty” if I’d been on Lizzie Borden’s jury. The case against her was a courtroom disaster.
I’ve always wondered about the time of death determination and forensic evidence.
Doctors in 19th Century America were not required to be University trained. Or trained at all. You could call your self “Doctor”, and BOOM! You were a doctor.
So just what the the medical evidence worth? :dubious:
If the Case Closed for Zodiac ever runs, be sure to catch it. If there a poster case against the death penalty because of the potential to put an innocent man behind bars, this is it. They offer a total of three suspects, each of whom I would have thought had enough evidence against them to convict.
Eve, I trust you have read Victoria Lincoln’s A Private Disgrace?
Of course Lizzie did it, and of course Bridget was paid at least to lie about which dress Lizzie had been wearing. The testimony of attempted purchase of prussic acid was suppressed in court, but I think the real reason she was acquitted was simply that upper-class Victorian ladies simply do not commit murder by hatchet in broad daylight. The jury would have easily convicted her of poisoning.
I read the Victoria Lincoln account and found it nowhere near as compelling as the Edward Radin. Rather than supporting her propositions to any major extent, she puts her arm around your shoulder and winks and says “Just between you and me, since I’m in the know, being from a family that knows these things and all, Lizzie did it.”
The Bed & Breakfast sampiro mentioned (the original scene of the crimes) is for sale.
Maplecroft is still standing, and was the subject of a controversy last year.
I’ve been to both houses, as well as the family graves, having once been morbidly and deeply interested in the case. I still don’t know who did it though, but either Lizzie or Bridget remain likely suspects, perhaps in after-the-fact cahoots. Bridget, of course, was widely rumored to have suggested revelation was about to come as she lay on her deathbed in Montana years later. However, she died before making any statement.
I do know that If I’d been asked to wash the windows on that ultra-hot August day, I might have snapped – but that’s just me.
