16 Saturday Apr 2011
Posted in "Lizbits", "Lizzie Folks", Borden Family, Borden House Interiors, Borden Spaces and Places, Case Personalities, Crime Scene, Fall River, Just Plain Lizzie, Legend of Lizzie Borden, Museums & Exhibits, Parallel Lives, Second Street Happenings, Second Street Irregulars, Spooky Lizzie's - Paranormal Second Street, Stop the Press, Video Lizzie
Guests and employees at the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast enjoyed watching the TODAY show feature this morning in the parlor. Already the online clip has had nearly 500 comments and the phones are briskly ringing on Second Street. The interest in the Borden case?- Keen as ever.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42612544/ns/today-books/from/toolbar
07 Thursday Apr 2011
The Best Actor Award was a tie this year- for the first time. Will Clawson and Ray Mitchell, both employees of the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast Museum are also Pear Essential Players and last August 4th, on the anniversary of the murders, took up the roles of Officer Harrington and City Marshal Rufus B. Hilliard. The Second Street Irregulars (the “Muttoneaters”), award the golden statuette yearly for best performance in a Borden case-related role.
Will Clawson as the popular and well-beloved Phil Harrington (the man who described Lizzie’s wrapper in such detail and died tragically on his honeymoon the year Lizzie was acquitted)
Ray Mitchell as City Marshal Rufus Hilliard
The best actress award this year went to Kristin Pepe for her sympathetic portrayal of long-time Borden friend, and former neighbor, Alice Russell. Kristin played the role of Bridget Sullivan in 2009 and 2010 was her first time in the role of the lady who saw Lizzie burn the dress in the woodstove and who was the recipient of the exciting news divulged by Lizzie on the night before the murders that “something is going to happen, Father has an enemy. . .” Kristin was also a Lens of Sherlock recipient several years ago when she tracked down Emma Borden’s alma mater, Wheaton Female Seminary. Congratulations, all!
Kristin (center) with Barbara Morrissey (Emma, on the left) and Lorraine Gregoire (Lizzie on the right) on August 4, 2011.
03 Thursday Mar 2011
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photos courtesy of JoAnne Giovino
Andrew Borden’s final morning, leading up to the time of his murder was witnessed by many people as he made his usual rounds around the city. A creature of habit, his daily pattern of barber, post office, banks, and check-in at properties he owned on South Main Street were predictable. He was noted by Abram G.Hart at the bank, encountered by store renter Jonathan Clegg on the street across from old City Hall, engaged in conversation by Mathers and Shortsleeves while checking on a window near the corner of Spring St. and South Main, and observed around 10:45 a.m. by neighbor Caroline Kelly coming around the corner of his house and going up his front steps, attempting to gain entry. Mrs. Kelly would be the last non-family member to see him alive.
Pierre LeDuc is listed as a “hairdresser” along with his partner Joseph LeDoux in the 1891-2 city directory, with their establishment on the second level over Wood and Hall’s shop, which was a furniture store that also had a side line in undertaking, a common practice at the time, supplying things for a funeral and offering wooden coffins for sale in their showroom.
Born of an English father (according to one source) and a French Canadian mother in May of 1864, the family came to America in 1870. The stone marker in Notre Dame Cemetery does not list Pierre’s date of birth, only his death date. The 1900 census has his birthday as May 1864, but the marker has him aged 68 in 1928 which would have made his birth year 1860, the same as Lizzie Borden’s. On April 14, 1890 he married Marie at Saint Anne’s.
Below: City directory entries:
| Pierre Leduc 1889-1891 City Directory | |
| Location 1: | 8 Pleasant |
|---|---|
| Location 2: | boards 2 Sixth-and-a-half |
| Occupation: | hairdresser |
| Year: |
1889 |
| City: | Fall River |
| State: | MA |
| Pierre Leduc | |
| Location 1: | 5 Main |
|---|---|
| Location 2: | boards 2 Sixth-and-a-half |
| Business Name: | Leduc & Ledoux |
| Occupation: | hairdresser |
| Year: |
1890 |
| City: | Fall River |
| State: | MA |
| Pierre Leduc | |
| Location 1: | 5 Main |
|---|---|
| Location 2: | boards 2 Sixth-and-a-half |
| Business Name: | Leduc & Ledoux |
| Occupation: | hairdresser |
| Year: |
1891 |
| City: | Fall River |
| State: | MA |
(click on image above to enlarge to full size) The 1910 census shows Pierre and Marie now living at 160 Robeson Street and they have adopted a daughter, Catherine. With no children appearing since their wedding at St. Anne’s in 1890, twenty years later adoption completed the family. Catherine was born in Massachusetts. Pierre is listed as a barber. Interesting to note that while Pierre’s speaking language is English, Marie’s is listed as French. In other census listings, Pierre and Marie Americanize their names to Peter and Mary LeDuc. And what happened to Pierre’s partner, Joseph LeDoux? In 1930 he is still barbering as an old man and living on Spring Street. If you are fortunate enough to have a copy of Judith A. Boss’ book, Fall River. A Pictoral History (1982 and available on Amazon), you will see a young Pierre LeDuc posing in a jaunty boater hat and crisp white barbering smock in front of Whitehead’s grocery store. He is young and slender. There is only the Fall River Globe’s account that Pierre gave Andrew Borden his last shave and trim the day of the murders. LeDuc probably never thought this is what he would be remembered for in the future.
01 Tuesday Mar 2011
Posted in Borden Family, Case Personalities, Famous Victorians, Potpourri
21 Monday Feb 2011
Denise Noe has compiled a fascinating array of facts in this recently released online article for Men’s News Daily about the Fall River Police force, focusing on the men in charge during the 1892 Borden case. City Marshal Rufus Hilliard and Fleet are prominently featured. The article first appear in a 2009 issue of The Hatchet.
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2011/02/20/the-story-of-the-fall-river-police-department/#
19 Saturday Feb 2011
Posted in "Lizbits", "Lizzie Folks", After the Trial, Aftermath, Case Personalities, Fall River, Maplecroft
Cropped images courtesy of Ancestry.com, click on image to enlarge.
Nellie Miller and Hannah Nelson remembered in the names of Lizzie’s Boston Bull Terriers
04 Friday Feb 2011
Posted in "Lizzie Folks", Case Personalities, Ephemera
Bridget Sullivan gives testimony about her first employment when she arrived in America, long before going to work for the Bordens on Second Street. Today the old opera house is the Jane Pickens theatre on the green near the courthouse. The Perry House Hotel, the original building destroyed many years ago, is at the intersection of Thames and Broadway. Bridget lived awhile with a man named Sullivan during her year in Newport, a fact which seemed to cause a little sensation as to if he were a married man or a single man.
Testimony:
Q. You came to New York first, and went from New York to Newport?
A. Yes Sir.
Q. That then is five or six years ago, is it not?
A. Six years ago the 24th of last May.
Q. How old are you?
A. Twenty-five.
Q. When was your last birthday?
A. I do not know.
Q. You do not know?
A. No Sir.
Q. Then how do you know you are twenty-five; because you have been informed so?
A. Yes Sir.
Q. Did you ever live anywhere else than in Pennsylvania and Fall River?
A. In Newport I worked twelve months.
Q. In whose family there?
A. A hotel.
Q. What hotel?
A. The Perry house.
Q. That was when you first came to this country?
A. Yes Sir.
Q. How long did you stay there?
A. Twelve months.
Q. Did you work anywhere else in Newport than in the Perry House?
A. No Sir.
Q. And you were at work all the time while you were in Newport. While you lived there, in the Perry House?
A. I was a little while with my friends before I went to work. I was twelve months in Newport before I left it.
Q. Friends where?
A. In Newport.
Q. Who were they?
A. Sullivans.
Q. What Sullivan is it, what is the first name?
A. Dennis.
Q. Mr. Dennis Sullivan; does he live there now?
A. I do not know.
Q. Was he a relative of yours?
A. A friend.
Q. A married man?
29 Saturday Jan 2011
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In case you missed it- an old theory back for another round. Review at http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8028572-lizzie-borden-didnt-do-ittrue-crime-solved Hard copy by Branden Books, or available now for Kindle.
04 Tuesday Jan 2011
The Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum will be hosting its first Murder Mystery Weekend over the Valentine’s Day weekend. Characters from the past will be coming together to hear the revelation of city marshal Rufus Hilliard, who has received startling new information which leads to unveiling the identity of the REAL Borden murderer.
The action will commence with a tea on Friday afternoon, followed by a themed dinner, a murder mystery play, followed by a lively round of sleuthing, games, and off-site activities. Saturday night will feature the grand revelation of Whodunnit at the Quequechan Club banquet. Guests will try to portray their historic characters throughout the weekend, with costumes and props encouraged. The event is sold out, but hopefully will be repeated again soon! To follow the storyline of the weekend, you can read Rufus Hilliard, City Marshal’s journal at http://marshalhilliard.wordpress.com/ More details and photos of the event will be posted to W&W.
13 Monday Dec 2010
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One of the most-viewed features of Warps and Wefts this year has been the newspaper clippings from all over the country detailing the most minute bits of information about the Borden case and personalities involved. Of course newspapers do make mistakes, and when information is lacking, some unscrupulous reporters were not above inventing details to fill in the gaps. With a little careful sifting, there are some golden nuggets to be found. Thanks to Ancestry.com and Newspaper Archives.com, all of this is available to the public. Here is a very interesting paragraph which was buried in the Davenport (Iowa) Tribune, August 25, 1892.
It’s unfortunate the Borden family threw notes and letters away so readily. The famous note sent to Abby Borden asking her to come visit a sick friend went missing, even though a reward of $500 dollars was offered for information about the sick friend’s name, who wrote the note, and who delivered it. It was suggested by Lizzie that it may have been burned up (in the kitchen woodstove as that was the only fire in August).
Emma Borden was visiting the Brownells on Green Street in Fairhaven during the week of the murder, which must be where the letter mentioned in the article above was sent. On the morning of the murders, Lizzie gave her father a letter to mail to Emma in Fairhaven. The letter mentioned above must have been written before the letter written and given to Andrew Borden to mail on August 4th. How unfortunate Emma did not keep the letter which mentions Lizzie’s “suspicious man”, which would have added credence to her tale to the police about such a character later. Or, did Lizzie make up the “suspicious” man loitering around the property as a convenient suspect to draw attention away from herself later? To whom did Emma show that letter- most likely Mrs. Brownell and her daughter Helen. Lizzie mentioned the suspicious man idea to her friend Alice Russell the night before the murders. Was Lizzie telling the truth- or cleverly covering all of her bases? Did Emma’s friends who saw the letter ever get to relay that information to the police?
13 Monday Dec 2010
Middletown Daily News August 18, 1892 (Middletown, N.Y.)
Did Lizzie know that her father was seriously thinking about making a will? She seemed to know a great deal about her father’s real estate holdings. Here is her inquest statement about knowledge of a will:
Q. Do you know something about his real estate?
A About what?
Q. His real estate.
A I know what real estate he owned; part of it. I don’t know whether or not I know it all or not.
Q. Tell me what you know of.
A He owns two farms in Swansea, the place on Second Street and the A. J. Borden Building and corner and the land on South Main Street where McMannus is and then a short time ago, he bought some real estate up further south that formerly, he said, belonged to a Mr. Birch. .
Q. Did you know of your father making a will?
A. No sir, except I heard somebody say once that there was one several years ago. That is all I ever heard.
Q. Who did you hear say so?
A. I think it was Mr. Morse.
Q. What Morse?
A. Uncle John V. Morse.
Q. How long ago?
A. How long ago I heard him say it? I have not any idea.
Q. What did he say about it?
A. Nothing except just that.
Was Lizzie lying in her testimony? Had she overhead Andrew and her Uncle the night before the murders discussing such details about a will? Andrew was nearly 70 years old, perhaps he had decided to put something in writing and was making an inventory of his assets. A good many people seemed to think a will favoring a hefty settlement on his spouse provided a good motive for murder.
09 Thursday Dec 2010
Posted in "Lizbits", After the Trial, August 4th, Borden Family, Borden Spaces and Places, Case Personalities, Fall River, Famous Massachusetts Cases, Hatchets and Axes, Just Plain Lizzie, Legend of Lizzie Borden, Murder Most Foul, Newspaper Coverage, Potpourri, Theories, True Crime, Victorian True Crime, Victoriana, Violent Victorians
Axe or hatchet? – Most likely a hatchet or a short-handled axe.
1. Lizzie was found guilty by jury of the murders of her mother and father.
Actually Lizzie was acquitted on all three counts, the murder of her father, her stepmother and both at the trial in New Bedford, June 1893.
2. Lizzie Borden was a redhead.
According to her passport she had light brown hair.
3. Lizzie’s father cut off the heads of Lizzie’s pet pigeons with a hatchet.
Andrew Borden did kill the pigeons, but by wringing their necks, according to Lizzie’s inquest statement.
4. Lizzie decapitated Abby Borden’s tabby kitten.
We have only the interview of Abby Borden’s niece, Abbie Whitehead Potter stating that Lizzie killed a kitten. The Whitehead family, with reason, had very little sympathy towards Lizzie, and this tale cannot be validated.
5. Lizzie Borden was a big, mannish woman.
Lizzie was 5 ft. 3 inches tall according to her passport, average for the times. She had put on weight during the ten months she was incarcerated in Taunton jail. Her face did have a heavy lower jaw and was described by one newspaper as a face with attributes very common to the region.
6. Lizzie and her sister sold the house where the murders took place on Second Street after Lizzie was acquitted in 1893.
The sisters held on to the property until 1918.
7. Lizzie was a kleptomaniac.
Legend has it that she shoplifted at local Main St. stores and that the bill for what she had pilfered would be sent to her father to pay. Shoplifting was surprisingly not uncommon among ladies of the period. There is no documentation at present in existence that Lizzie was a kleptomaniac and that Andrew paid the bills. The only corroborating bit of evidence is of a documented thievery of a porcelain wall ornament which went “missing” from the Tilden and Thurber jewelry store in Providence. When the item was taken back to the store for a repair, the owner was questioned about its provenance only to be told Lizzie Borden had been the gift giver. This matter was eventually settled privately. It is possible that Lizzie was a shoplifter in younger years, but not proven so.
8. Andrew Borden was a mortician.
Andrew Borden was trained as a carpenter and then went into business as a furniture and household goods retailer. He invested wisely in real estate, including two small farms, all of which would bring him a good financial return, and as a sideline, he was an undertaker. Undertaker in 1890 parlance meant a person who would supply items needed for a funeral. He was neither a funeral director, embalmer, nor mortician. An invoice has been found for his services and for a casket, signed by Borden. It was not uncommon for furniture retailers to supply wooden coffins and caskets and have a showroom or warehouse facility containing these items.
9. Lizzie committed the two murders in the nude.
Thanks to the 1975 film starring Elizabeth Montgomery as Lizzie, the nude murderess scenario has its supporters. In 1890, the thought was put forth that the killer must be saturated with blood, and it should have been impossible to hide or escape without the telltale blood evidence being detected. In fact, the killer need not have been covered from head to toe with blood, or could have worn, then later destroyed a protective covering garment. It would be unusual for a lady in the era of corsets and petticoats to have stripped bare twice on a sunny morning and walked around the house in broad daylight , then to clean up in between in a large tin basin in the cellar. Not impossible- just unlikely.
10. Lizzie Borden killed her stepmother and father.
So often assumed as fact , - in fact, nobody will ever have the final answer to this one. Based on the evidence given to the jury then, and in re-examinations of the trial evidence now, Lizzie is acquitted. Her inquest testimony, prussic acid evidence, and dress-burning evidence were not allowed at the trial. The fact that a side door remained open for almost an hour, and that an intruder could have entered the house and concealed himself, allows for reasonable doubt. And therein lies the fascination with this case.
Got a favorite oft-quoted but unsubstantiated Borden case statement to share? Please leave a comment!
08 Wednesday Dec 2010
Posted in "Lizzie Folks", Case Personalities, Fall River, Fall River families
(click on image for full-sized)
Sarah Bertha “Bertie” Gray Whitehead, half sister to the victim, Abby Borden, apparently got out of Fall River from time to time. In January of 1931 she crossed the border at Bridgeberg, Ontario. Going to visit her son-in-law, Charles Potter and her daughter Abbie Borden Whitehead Potter, Bertie had visited them before in November of 1929. The destination given is 512 Riverside Drive in Toronto. She lists her son George Whitehead and his wife as nearest relative living in Haverhill at 6 Flora Street and we learn the Whiteheads are Baptists. Always interesting to have these small details about the family of Abby Borden, and to know Bertie’s later life as a poor widow, contained some pleasurable experiences. Bertie’s daughter, Abbie Borden Potter would have nothing good to say about Lizzie Borden in years after.
Bertie died not long after this trip in Winnipeg, Manitoba in her 68th year, only about a year older than Lizzie lived to be herself. Bertie is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Fall River, with her daughter Abbie and husband George Whitehead, and near the graves of her mother, Jane Eldredge Gray and her father, Oliver Gray (also Abby Durfee Gray’s father).
28 Sunday Nov 2010
As time grows ever closer to the release of the long-anticipated book about Lizzie, Parallel Lives, the buzz is growing in Fall River, among Borden case afficianados and in the Press. Today’s Boston Globe has this article
http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2010/11/28/the_real_lizzie_borden/
The countdown begins!
23 Tuesday Nov 2010
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Lizzie’s furs, her sealskin “sacques”. reputed to have required Prussic acid with which to remove moths in that testimony by pharmacist Eli Bence were a luxury garment. The furs were rumored to have been a 30th birthday gift for Lizzie prior to her trip to Europe on the Grand Tour with lady friends. Furs as a rule are put in cold storage in the Spring and removed later for winter wear. Apparently Emma Borden knew how to take care of her fur coats as this Portsmouth Herald newspaper reported on August 5, 1943, long after Emma’s death. Nice to know Emma had a few luxuries.
The text of the article:
” Miss Emma’s identity was kept secret by Miss Anne Connors with whom she lived in Newmarket and townspeople had no idea of the connection with the reknown Borden family until her death when she was buried beside her sister, mother, and her murdered father and stepmother. A quiet, elderly woman who was always dressed in rich mourning, she never visited neighbors and made two trips to Boston, one to put her fur coat in storage at the beginning of summer, and the other to take it out in the fall.
Miss Lizzie, on the other hand, lived in her new and modern home, attempted to resume her ardent church activities and made frequent trips to Boston where harrassed hotel managers tried to keep her presence a secret from other patrons and newspapermen.”
16 Tuesday Nov 2010
Posted in Aftermath, Borden Family, Case Personalities
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It’s good to know that at least on one occasion Emma Borden spent a little of her inheritance on herself. Emma’s name is eighth from the bottom of this document (Ancestry.com). She took the White Star line steamer R.M.S. Cymric (shown above) from Boston to Liverpool with a stopover in Queenstown, Ireland (also called Cobh). She went First Class and apparently without a chaperone. Scotland was her intended vacation destination, but she would surely have seen plenty of England on the way and at least a good glimpse of the Irish coast in Queenstown on the way to Liverpool.
She arrived in June and does not return home via the Cymric until October so it was a visit to rival Lizzie’s 1890 Grand Tour. Maybe those “goings on” at Maplecroft which forced Emma to leave had something to do with this long vacation abroad. Passenger list above. Click on image for larger view.
13 Saturday Nov 2010
Yet another version of the “pansy brooch” photo with a reference to Lizzie’s BROWN hair and heavier figure. An interesting thought- did Andrew discourage gold digger suitors prospecting for his hard-earned dollars?
24 Sunday Oct 2010
http://www.heraldnews.com/news/x1946663918/Seasons-final-restaurant-stroll-warms-up-downtown
The last downtown “stroll” for 2010 took place Friday with Lizzie and Emma Borden’s beleagered stepmother appearing to speak up for the lot of stepmothers everywhere. Elizabeth Teixeira joins a long line of ladies who have portrayed the unfortunate Abby Borden over the years. The Stroll benefits the city and local businesses.
Fall River Herald News file photo
