Nosey Neighbors, The Policeman’s Best Friend

Monday, August 29th was another busy day at the Preliminary with 10 witnesses being called. First on the dock in the morning was Addie Churchill. We all love Mrs. Churchill, the quintessential nosey neighbor, looking out her window like Gladys Kravitz. Addie got a grilling by Mr. Knowlton Monday, to be sure. Strange, every time you read the preliminary transcript, something new seems to stick in your mind. Addie mentions she goes over to Main St. to Hudner’s meat market some time around eleven. She stops to gab with her brother for awhile, a brother who worked at Hudner’s. On the way back up Second St. she saw Bridget racing across the street looking “frightened”, goes back into her house, and shortly after is looking out her window and spies Lizzie leaning on the side door and calls over to her. “Do come over, Mrs. Churchill – someone has killed father”. Addie stops to tell her mother what is going on and then goes out her front door and down the Borden driveway and into the side door to find Lizzie sitting on the second step of the back stairs. Addie reaches out to touch her arm as Lizzie explains she was out in the barn when it happened and that her father has an enemy, Abby is out due to a note she received and she must get a doctor. Wow! That’s a lot to spit out! Addie had a busy morning making 8 beds and running to the market, peeking out the window to see Bridget washing the parlor windows, and racing to get a doctor. She never wanted to see either Mr. Borden or Mrs. Borden, except for when she discovered her under the bed while going up the front staircase, and then she went home and stayed there on the 4th. Her Preliminary testimony is lengthy, detailed and very much worth reading in its entirety. There is of course, the story that Addie had seen something on the day of the murders but would not tell it if ” they tore my tongue out”. This she supposedly divulged later on to an acquaintance. Addie also gives a description of Lizzie’s cotton calico dress. Addie had it together on the day!