It was a balmy, very breezy full-moon Halloween night in Fall River with lots of Lizzie afoot. The Eagle hosted a performance of Lizzie Borden Live and the old house on Second Street was hopping with trick or treaters and 12 guests on tour and having the annual Halloween seance at 10:30. Here’s some of the Halloween fun!
With Halloween fast approaching, a few fearless souls are looking for a frightful weekend getaway at a spooky location. The Travel Channel had placed the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast in the top 10 spookiest destinations 8 years ago at #1, even above the Winchester Mystery House. Lizzie’s place is still on the top ten list, at #1 along with #2. The Bell Witch Cave in Tennesee, #3 The Villisca Axe Murder House in Iowa, #4 The Stanley Hotel in Colorado, #5 Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Kentucky, #6 Sorrel Weed House, Savannah, Georgia, #7 Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, #8 Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, Pa., #9 The Myrtles, Louisiana, #10 Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery, Chicago. http://www.toptenz.net/10-creepy-places-in-america.php This Saturday 12 intrepid people will attempt to stay the night at Lizzie’s house. Rooms have been booked for months. October is second only to the murder anniversary month, August. Will the annual Halloween seance turn up any new clues?
Got Ghost in the parlor?
There were some interesting online comments today as a result of an article posted in the Fall River Herald News- article and comments at this link http://www.heraldnews.com/news/x536357278/Medium-Lizzie-did-it
The popular Lizzie series at BCC featured a Canadian psychic last night, Kim Dennis, who claims to have channeled Lizzie in her livingroom. Nothing is hotter than the paranormal at the moment-both at the Borden Bed and Breakfast and as a popular culture phenomenon. TV is full of it, magazines and best-sellers are doing a brisk trade, and mediums, ghostbusters and psychics are riding the wave.
Ms. Dennis reveals nothing which others have not thought of before. Nearly every possible scenario has been well-imagined over the years since the famous murders: motive, method, weapon, accomplices, etc. There is an abundance of information online and in print about every detail of the crime scene and the principal players as well as a goodly number of who-dunnit theory books. Messages from the Great Beyond have been leaking through the ether since 1893 when a Ouija board was employed to seek out the answers to the Borden mystery.
What is interesting to read are the comments following the article. Is the public saturated with Lizzie Borden- or is it just Fall Riverites? It has surely been a Lizzie summer and autumn, with no end in sight. Whether a believer in the paranormal, or an avid scholar of the case, there’s no getting away from the fact that Lizzie will not be going away anytime soon-a haunting of sorts.
Christopher Moon and Haunted University will be returning to the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast Museum for this weekend, giving classes in how to set up paranormal-detecting equipment, and monitoring the house for “activity”. With a full moon on the rise for Saturday night- this should be a good tune-up for Halloween!
The weather was perfect for trick or treaters and this year there was quite a crowd. One little boy, about 18 months old decided he wanted to stay at #92 and had to be picked up by Dad to continue the trick or treating around the neighborhood. The diningroom was alive with rodents and wormy apples, vultures and other creepy things, including a coffin on the table. Only one plastic hatchet was stolen from the jack o’ lantern pumpkinhead on the doorsteps( whose name is always Charles after original house owner Charles Trafton). Guests enjoyed a seance well into the wee hours. Neither Houdini nor Andrew Borden showed up! The group photo was the only photo of the night which came out rather eerily on the camera. Already the house is booking for NEXT Halloween!
Ghosts have pretty much been a year round phenomenon at #92 but never more so than the month of October when the Borden house is packed to the rafters every weekend with people toting EVP capturing machines, magnetic field detectors, thermographs, night vision cameras, and other high priced gizmos for capturing the perfect orb, groan, sigh, shadow- anything out of the ordinary. There is a seance on Saturday night in the sittingroom in front of the black sofa, with hopeful participants waiting for a message or the levitating of a small round table used in the proceedings. The guestbook is filled with comments of things both heard and seen by guests which run the gamut from ghostly encounters of the Third Kind to bumps and screams in the night. All good fun- and nobody has ever been the worse for the experiences, real or imagined!
Recently an August 4th guest has published the experiences of her visit with her boyfriend. The couple had won an Ebay auction for the Morse guestroom, the most requested room where Mrs. Borden had been murdered. An account of Ms. Zorn’s visit has appeared on many blogs and sites including this one today http://greglefever.blogspot.com/2008/10/more-halloween-haunted-lizzie-borden.html.
The couple had enjoyed a quiet evening, including the usual tour of the house and had retired to their room afterward. The rest of the guests were sitting in the parlor chatting and having coffee when two piercing screams were heard. After a time, the two screamers came downstairs declaring the light had been switched off overhead, a smaller lamp switched on, there was something “funny” about the mirror – and they both had decided to leave, suitcase in hand. It was nearly midnight. Another guest freely admitted to having turned off the overhead light and turning on the small lamp to conserve energy. An offer was made to cover the mirror. All to no avail. The couple was convinced they had to go. They did, however return in broad daylight the following day for breakfast. If you are determined to scare yourself to death at #92, you will probably succeed!
The month of October has always been an especially busy one at the Borden House, with Halloween night selling out nearly a year in advance. The following blog has has some great photos of an overnight stay in 2007 by a newly-wed couple, Hans and Rebecca, who managed to “meet” most of the Borden family and capture some orbs and other curious things before their check out the following day.
Senior editor of Haunted Times magazine, Chris Moon, and a paranormal investigation team will be returning to the Borden house this weekend for a two day session of learning to use special equipment to capture ghosts on film, EVPs and other paranormal tools-all accompanied by great food and conversation and real ghost-hunting onsite. Haunted University has made several weekend visits to the Borden House over the past 2 years. For more on Haunted Times Magazine and Haunted University future projects visit http://www.hauntedtimes.com/ghosthunteruniversity.html
There was great excitement last weekend when a guest at the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast continued to get a pale reflection in a mirror while using a digital camera in Emma Borden’s room on the second floor. The little room had once been Lizzie’s from age 12-30 before Emma changed rooms with her younger sister. It certainly seemed as if something supernatural was trying to “come through the veil”.
After trying several digital cameras and obtaining the same eerie effect, someone suggested taking the shot without the flash. No ghostly image appeared! The flash was apparently bouncing off the framed oval portrait of Emma over the bed and reflecting it into the mirror. But it was fun for a few moments!
Today's Lizzie Inquest Quote:
"Q. My question is when he (Uncle John Morse)came there.
A. I don't know. I was not home when he came. I was out.
Q. When did you first see him there?
A. I did not see him at all.
Q. How did you know he was there?
A. I heard his voice.
Q. You did not see him Wednesday evening?
A. I did not. I was out Wednesday evening.
Q. You did not see him Thursday morning?
A. I did not. He was out when I came downstairs.
Q. When was the first time you saw him?
A. Thursday noon.
Q. You had never seen him before that?
A. No sir.
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