I was watching a made for TV documentary about the famous Lizzie Borden double murder case, which took place in Fall River, MA.
After the funerals of Andrew Borden and his wife, the state coroner had the heads of the bodies removed, and the heads were boiled to remove the flesh! At Lizzie’s trial, the prosecution exhibited the skulls, with the enormous fractures (they were killed by savage blows of a hatchet). Andrew Borden’s skull was almost split in halves.
My question: Lizzie Borden was found not guilty; hence the murder case is still (technically) open (there is no statute of limitation for murder in MA).
So are Andrew’s and his wife’s skulls still being kept in some evidence vault in the Fall River courthouse?
Or do they eventually dispose of such ghoulish evidence?
That’s something the current owners of the murder house (now a B&B) might be interested in!:eek:
On the specific question: Lizzie’s hatchet and Andrew’s skull were discovered by the daughter of Lizzie’s lawyer, more than 70 years after the trial, in an old wash basin in the attic. It appears that after the trial, Lizzie gave the hatchet and skull to her lawyer, Andrew Jennings, as a gift. Cite, scroll down to number 3.
This isn’t specific to Mass., but: unless there’s some reason to retain the evidence, such as pending appeals, usually property is returned to whoever owns it. In Lizzie’s case, since she wasn’t convicted and the hatchet belonged to her, it appears that it was simply returned to her. It’s the same with most other such items; I believe Jack Ruby’s pistol was returned to his family after he was convicted, though I can’t find a cite right now. Oswald’s rifle, however, was considered “abandoned”, so his wife didn’t get it back. So long as the item isn’t illegal, I don’t see why it wouldn’t simply be returned.