Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks,   etc.  

The jurors at the trial had a difficult time believing a lady could be capable of murdering her elderly father and stepmother.  The pages of true crime are filled with such ladylike criminals who committed heinous acts upon the sick, helpless, young, and infirm, while at the same time projecting the very image of genteel propriety to the public. England’s most famous baby-killer, Amelia Dyer, must surely go down in history as one of the most evil women who ever lived. As for Lizzie, a song was soon made up about the devious woman some thought might be “Jill the Ripper”.

The old baby farmer, the wretched Miss Dyer
At the Old Bailey her wages is paid.
In times long ago, we’d ‘a’ made a big fy-er
And roasted so nicely that wicked old jade

Dyer, although raised in a comfortable middle-class home, was taxed with the care of an invalid mother who was the victim of severe mental illness. This and other factors set Amelia on a turbulent life path of destruction and violence and murder of young innocents and hapless women who found themselves pregnant and unwed. Dyer spawned a veritable cottage industry in “baby-farming.”  Most infants never lived to see their first birthday. There is no tally of the number of murders which could be laid at the door of Amelia Dyer, but her last, in 1896 resulted in being apprehended after a turn of bad luck, tried, and convicted in less than 5 minutes. Amelia was hanged on June 10, 1896, at 9 a.m. after filling notebooks with her confession. “I have nothing to say,” said Dyer, as the noose was tightened.  The scope of her crimes still boggles the mind.  It is entirely likely that Lizzie Borden knew about The Ogress of Reading as her killing spree was fodder for the press on both sides of the ocean.

For more on Amelia Dyer, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=11443817

Ray Mitchell as city marshal Rufus Hilliard.  Story by Deborah Allard.

Here’s an interview and follow-up to the Chloe Sevigny story posted here earlier this month. Hopes are running high for an historically accurate script which will include John Morse this time around. The HBO mini-series, slated to run two nights, may be released at the end of 2011.

http://www.heraldnews.com/highlight/x742403032/Chloe-Sevigny-will-play-Lizzie-Borden-in-upcoming-HBO-miniseries

From the blogger of Murder by Gaslight, and in the style of the old Police Gazette, have a look at the new sister blog, The National Night Stick . Best of luck with the new enterprise! 

 http://www.snakeoilgraphics.com/NightStick/

The Killer Book of Infamous Murders, by Tom Philpin and Michael Philpin will be published in February and available on Amazon March 1st.The book examines crimes recent and past, going as far back as the 1800s. The book includes the Lizzie Borden case, the horrifying murders that inspired Truman Capote’s novel, “In Cold Blood,” and the Dr. Sam Shepperd case, which inspired “The Fugitive” movie and TV series.

This is a follow-up to The Killer Book of Serial Killers which was published January 2009 by the same authors.

With winter showing no signs of letting up in New England, seems a good time to stay inside by the fire with a few good blogs and web sites to read.  Here are some you may enjoy which include Victoriana, fictional and true crime. It’s hard to narrow it down to just ten, but here’s ten good ones you might have missed.  Hours of reading- pack a lunch!

  1. Murder by Gaslight  http://murderbygasslight.blogspot.com/

2. Clews- historic true crime  http://laurajames.typepad.com/

3. Anne Perry - Detective Pitt in Victorian England, and other great series  http://www.anneperry.net/

4. 1893 Columbian Expo in Chicago  http://columbus.gl.iit.edu/

5. Victorian Station- all things Victorian  http://www.victorianstation.com/home2.html

6. Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes (ASH)  http://www.ash-nyc.com/AboutASH.htm

7. Victoriana- free online magazine, great articles and links http://www.victoriana.com/site_map.htm

8.  Historic New England Homes and events http://www.historicnewengland.org/

9.  Victorian Society in America - lectures, events, tours, classes http://www.victoriansociety.org/

10.  Jack the Ripper http://www.casebook.org/

Thanks to CLEWS crime blog for bringing this to our attention a few years ago. If you missed it then, here it is again.

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.

Axe or hatchet?  –  Most likely a hatchet or a short-handled axe.

Top Ten List of Most Often-Quoted  Borden Case Errors

 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!

Tonight the popular Travel Channel program, Mysteries at the Museum, which features unusual artifacts from around the country, presented a segment on the handle-less hatchet found in the Borden cellar.  The segment filmed at the Fall River Historical Society and the house on Second Street and showed excellent close-up footage of the hatchet head and break on the handle stub.  The seven-minute portion was well-done and worth a look.  It airs again tomorrow, December 1st at 3 p.m.