A 19th century story illustration of a lady sit in a chair with her head and hand draped over the back. Taken from a story in the English illustrated Magazine of 1892

There are so many questions and things to ponder when considering the Borden case in its entirety, but let’s just think about August 4th until just a few days prior to the Inquest.  Inquiring minds want to know:

1. Lizzie was alone in the house at the time of Abby’s murder and saw no other person coming in or going out of the house although she was in the kitchen by the side door most of the time. Bridget was outside washing windows. There are witnesses who saw her washing them.
2. Bridget came in to fetch supplies and says the screen door was open and did not say she saw Lizzie in the kitchen. Where was Lizzie?
3. Bridget will say that Lizzie laughed softly from the top of the stairs when she let Mr. Borden in the front door. Bridget will forget all about that 10 months later.
4. Lizzie sees her father when he comes home around 10:45, and tells him Abby had a note and was gone out which stops him from looking for her. No note is ever found or the writer of the note. Lizzie suggests Bridget might want to go up to North Main St. to a dress goods sale. Bridget declines and goes up to the third floor to lie down. Lizzie is again alone downstairs with Andrew.
5. Lizzie has admitted to the girls in Marion that she has a sharp hatchet she will bring with her Monday on her fishing trip. Her job will be chopping kindling for the stove.
6. Lizzie claims to be in the hayloft at the time Andrew is murdered. She has to be out of the house. There is a dead body on the second floor, the dead body of Andrew on the first floor and Bridget is on the third floor napping with both other rooms locked up there. Lizzie gives different reasons for being in the loft and the length of time she says she is up there does not fit the timeline.
7. Lizzie is in control of the alarm-sounding. Bridget is sent out of the house to fetch help, Lizzie never makes a move to get out of the house where a killer could be lurking. She has time to hide a weapon and tidy up before Mrs. Churchill makes a brief appearance and hurries off to get help.
8. Lizzie goes upstairs after the body of Abby is found and changes into a pink and white striped wrapper and spends the day upstairs, frequently left alone. She will make two trips to the cellar that night. One is with Alice Russell, a friend staying in the house to help, who tags along, the other right after Alice goes to her room and she can return to the cellar alone.
9. On August 6^th she is told by the mayor that she is a suspect, late in the day after the funerals. On the morning of August 7^th, alone in the kitchen for the moment, she tears up and burns a dress in the stove but is discovered by Alice Russell who walks in and Emma who steps out of the sink room to see what is happening. Where had that dress been the day of the search?
10. Officer Medley, Edson, Desmond and others go back to the Borden house at 10 a.m. Monday, August 8th to resume looking in the cellar. Medley finds a handless hatchet with a short stub of freshly broken handle . It appears to have been recently washed and is coated with dust. Nobody saw this on the main search of the house Saturday.

Lizzie and Emma had left Fall River on a hot summer’s vacation to visit friends in New Bedford and Fairhaven on July 21st. The sisters split up in New Bedford as Emma went across the bridge to Fairhaven to stay for an extended visit with Helen Brownell and her widowed mother on Green Street.  Lizzie stayed in New Bedford and called upon Mrs. Poole and her invalid daughter, Carrie Poole. Lizzie had been close chums with Carrie’s sister, Augusta- now Mrs. Cyrus Tripp.  The Pooles lived in a rooming house at 20 Madison Street in the city, not too far from the commercial section.

On July 23rd, Lizzie went on a short shopping expedition alone to the shops not far from the boarding house on Madison Street. There she purchased some cheap day dress fabric and pattern to be made up by her seamstress back in Fall River. She did not shop very long, then returned to the Pooles.

In her inquest statement, Lizzie is asked about the last time she was away from home. Interestingly, she overestimates how long ago her trip to the Pooles was:

Q. When was the last time when you have been away for more than a night or two before this affair?

A. I don’t think I have been away to stay more than a night or two since I came from abroad, except about three or four weeks ago I was in New Bedford for three or four days.

Q. Where at New Bedford?

A. At 20 Madison Street

Lizzie was asked about the dress goods and pattern she bought on the 23rd.

“Q. Did you buy a dress pattern in New Bedford?
A. A dress pattern?
Q. Yes.
A. I think I did.
Q. Where is it?
A. It is at home.
Q. Where?
A. Where at home?
Q. Please.
A. It is in a trunk.
Q. In your room?
A. No, sir; in the attic.
Q. Not made up?
A. O, no, sir.
Q. Where did you buy it?
A. I don’t know the name of the store.
Q. On the principal street there?
A. I think it was on the street that Hutchinson’s book store is on. I am not positive.
Q. What kind of a one was it, please?
A. It was a pink stripe and a white stripe, and a blue stripe corded gingham.”

The police made a bad show of things when they revealed  on the stand that there was confusion about who searched the attic trunk, when, etc. and not recalling finding a dress pattern and cloth goods. In other words, it was a very unprofessional evidence-gathering  effort which cast an unflattering light on the men in blue. It was thought Officer Medley led the first attic search, then Assistant Marshal Fleet. Marshal Hilliard and Officer Desmond were also up in the attic as part of the search which was woefully uncoordinated.  The missing articles were finally produced very late in the process. Knowlton was satisfied with his examination of the materials but a lingering doubt continued as to whether or not a substitution could have been made.  It was not the first time the police had botched something concerning the search of the Borden house. 

Much was made about this dress yard goods and pattern. Did Lizzie somehow have the  dress made up, worn it during the double homicides, burn it and then her defense arrange to have duplicate fabric “found” later?  A local newspaper speculated on this scenario.

From the Evening Standard,  Fall River, Sept. 3, 1892 – Was It Possible For Defense to Have Duplicated the Goods? “The day after the Borden murder City Marshal Hilliard put two New Bedford officers at work in that city with orders to trace Lizzie Borden’s actions during the two weeks previous. They found that she had purchased a dress pattern of cheap material in a dry goods store in that city, and it was to this pattern that reference was made at the trial. Some importance was attached to the matter at the time of the discovery of the purchase. The police failed to find the dress pattern or any dress of it in their search at the Borden house. They made demand on the members of the family to produce the piece of goods or the made-up dress. If they could not do this the police wanted to know what had become of it. The family refused to move in the matter and the police at New Bedford searched the store to get a sample of the goods bought by Lizzie.

The last day of the trial the defense surrendered the piece of dress goods which Lizzie had purchased and it was still intact. The question has arisen in the minds of some people who believe as the prosecution does whether or not it was possible for the friends of the prisoner to have duplicated the dress pattern and surrendered the last purchased instead of the first, and that the first one might have been made-up and used by Lizzie Borden at the time of the murder and afterwards destroyed or put out of the way.”

It is, at the least, a very curious business. Lizzie, on the day of the murders, rested in her room dressed in a pink and white striped wrapper. Coincidence- or something else?

Still in the news, still the talk of Fall River. Would she ever have dreamed she would still be remembered in 2019?

Coming in May! Warps and Wefts is excited to announce the publication of “Dressing Miss Lizzie”, a collection of paper dolls featuring clothing Lizzie wore as described in newspapers of the day. The collection includes the famous Bedford cord dress, the pink wrapper, the funeral ensemble and other garments described during the trial and acquittal and some surprises.

The Savoy bookstore in Westerly, R.I. was cram-packed with Borden case enthusiasts this evening as author Cara Robertson held forth on her new book, The Trial of Lizzie Borden. The author is currently on a book tour in New England and will be at the Fall River Historical Society tomorrow, Wednesday, at 5 pm. There were eager questions and much lively discussion tonight which is sure to be the case at every stop along the tour.
If you are anywhere near Fall River tomorrow evening- do not miss the book signing and a chance to hear Cara Robertson. Lizzie B. has not lost her luster!

The third printing is now available at  https://www.ebay.com/itm/323423665855  and includes some updates on the gate restoration which was completed earlier this year. The publication features three separate walking tours of graves of Borden-related personalities as well as information on the history of the 1855 cemetery.  Autumn is coming- the perfect time to visit Oak Grove Cemetery.