Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts

With Halloween soon upon us, haunted houses, haunted hayrides and other ghoulish attractions are busily preparing costumes and features.  In recent years Lizzie Borden has become a fixture at many of these horror attractions.  She is usually portrayed in black and red clothing with a large bloody axe swinging wildly, and covered in gore.  Poor Lizzie. You can imagine what she would think of this portrayal. The Taunton Gazette, the publication from the city of her 10 month incarceration has published an article on Lakeville’s entry for Halloween 2010. http://www.tauntongazette.com/lifestyle/lifestyle_calendar/x861574152/Lakeville-Haunted-House-preparations-underway

Here are a few options available this year, this one titled a Lizzie Borden Wedding Dress from Amazon.com-and with a KNIFE.

Here’s a better -looking version available at http://www.retroscopefashions.com/lolita1.html

And here are a couple of Halloween Lizzies from 2009 (sorry the credits are unavailable)

To see this live-action Halloween prop, visit Dave and Tracy’s photobucket video of this tombstone’s “special feature”. http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v630/DaveNTracy/Lizzie%20Borden%20Tombstone/?action=view&current=012-1.flv

There will be more.

“There’s no bizness like Lizbizness”

The weather was ideal for the Travel channel shoot in Fall River.  Bursts of rain and bright sun were the order of the day and produced some wonderful silhouettes and shadows inside the house- a novel approach to the re-creations for a film crew.

Andrew Borden was played by the Rev. Robert Richardson, a Congregationalist minister.  This was his first time out as Mr. Borden and Kathleen Troost-Cramer who usually plays Irish maid Bridget Sullivan took on her first turn as Lizzie.  Both were superb in their roles. The filming is for an upcoming program on haunted hotels and bed and breakfasts, so the focus was on the paranormal.  Thirty Odd Minutes’ Andrew Lake and Matt Moniz (also of Spooky South Coast radio show) were also on hand all day to serve as science techs for the shoot.  http://www.30oddminutes.com/about.shtml  http://www.spookysouthcoast.com/AboutUs/

Psychic and medium Liz Nowicki also made a call in the evening.  What did they find? Stay tuned!

Youtube has a release of the 2008 episode of History Channel’s Monsterquest which was filmed at the house in January. The usual favorite topics are included, the “children in the well” tale of the disturbed Mrs. Ladowick Borden who lived next door and threw 3 children in the cistern (only 2 are mentioned here), the roving rocker in Bridget’s bedroom, and the ghost of “Michael” in the chimney room on the third floor.  This episode also marked the last appearance of Ed Thibault as Andrew Borden.  Ed, one of the very early Borden Case scholars, worked at the Borden house for many years and gave lectures far and wide to schools and civic groups. He is now retired from the “LizBiz” although his wife Eleanor is often seen in her capacity as Saturday night tour guide for the house.  House co-owner Lee Ann Wilber plays Lizzie in the Monsterquest production, with Shelley Dziedzic as Abby Borden.

(still photography from Monsterquest filming session, January 2008)

All four episode segments are available on Youtube.

Last weekend’s Ghosthunter’s University with Chris Moon seems to have produced  a few new twists.  The group, which meets several times a year to introduce students of the paranormal to ghosthunting equipment and techniques obtained some interesting messages and phenomena. Those who go in for this sort of thing will enjoy Phil Devitt’s article for the Fall River Spirit which was published in the Wednesday edition. Another ghost hunting group is planning to visit #92 in April. http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100325/PUB03/3250442/-1/pub03

Ghosthunters University returns to #92 this weekend with Chris Moon.

http://www.hauntedtimes.com/events.html#

Happy Haunting!

Recently the crew from the paranormal TV web site http://www.30oddminutes.com/ (which films uncut and unedited) came to check out the Borden house.  The young host is particularly charming and the thirty-odd minute session is a good representation of what most paranormal crews attempt during their investigations in the house.  Have a look at http://www.blip.tv/file/3291682  Episode 27 Live at Lizzie Borden’s.

Here is the site teaser for the episode:

“In Episode 27 we come to you “Live” from the haunted Lizzie Borden house in Fall River, Massachusetts. Okay, not totally “live” because we filmed the episode about a week before it aired. Nobody does a documentary like the 30 Odd Minutes crew! And Lizzie Borden is no different. Just like our studio show we do the whole thing live, straight-through, in one take. You get a tour of the house, learn about some of the history, hear from the manager, Lee Ann, and learn from our special guests: EVP specialist, Mike Markowicz, and the host of Spooky Southcoast Radio, Tim Weisberg. You just don’t know what will happen during this show. Do we uncover evidence of the paranormal or just a prank? Tune in to find out! If the truth is out there… 30 Odd Minutes will find it… but only by sheer accident.”

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!