Just Plain Lizzie
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A Reading at The Fall River Historical Society
This coming Saturday, June 5, from noon to 2:30 p.m., come and meet the author of Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective, Richard Behrens. The reading selection will take place from 1- 1:30. Come and enjoy an afternoon of fiction and light refreshments! “It’s Nancy Drew meets Victorian Fall River!” Copies available at the historical society giftshop.
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June 1, 1927 – 83 years ago today
Rest in Peace, Lizzie Borden
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.Since then ’tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses’ heads
Were toward eternity.Emily Dickinson
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Lizzie News Round-up
On May 27th papers in the United Kingdom posted news that Stephen Griffiths of Bradford, North Yorkshire would be charged with the homicides of three women. ” ‘I have decided that there is sufficient evidence to charge Stephen Griffiths with their murders, and that it is in the public interest to do so,” ‘ said Peter Mann, head of the Crown Prosecution Service complex casework unit in the West Yorkshire. ” Body parts recently found in a local river are being examined to try and establish if they are from the bodies of the three women. For the last six years Griffiths had been studying at Bradford University for a doctorate in criminology. His thesis was to have been about 19th-century murders. On his Amazon.com wishlist was Goodbye Lizzie Borden: the Story of the Trial of America’s Most Famous Murderess. For more on the story http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/may/27/bradford-murders-man-charged
For those who remember the film, could That House made so famous be a candidate for a B&B? Read all about what the Lizzie Borden B&B has to say about it. http://www.flashnews.com/news/wfn03100527fn19014.html
The new court house across the street is preparing to open in June, #92 should get its new Rhino Shield paint color applied this week, and rumor has it that the house on Second Street may receive a call from a very special guest soon.
New England Bites bloggers Laura and Diane ( a Mom and Daughter team) paid a visit to Second Street and had a great write-up with photos on their visit. The Fall River natives also give great tips on where to eat in the Fall River area. http://www.newenglandbites.com/2010/05/may-2010-vacation-goin-out-with-bang.html
For a to-die-for photo of Nance O’Neil and some interesting back story on The Legend of Lizzie Borden with Elizabeth Montgomery check this out http://www.filmsinreview.com/2010/05/18/camp-david-may-2010-gettin-lizzie-with-it/
And of course the month started with a bang with the publicizing of that Lizzie note found in a Massachusetts museum in Brighton –http://www.heraldnews.com/news/x2084248292/Local-historian-deciphers-letter-penned-by-Lizzie-Borden And it isn’t even AUGUST yet!!
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A key to Lizzie B?
Graphology, the “pseudo-science” of deciphering personality attributes by analyzing handwriting samples provokes mixed opinions as to the validity of these observations. The formation of letters, the slant of the writing, the way a “t” is crossed- and many other points come under the lens in formulating possible characteristics of the writer.
Janice Warren, master certified handwriting analyst, will present “You Are What You Write,” on Friday, June 18, at 6:30 p.m. at Christ Church, 57 Main St. in Swansea. The owner of “Different Strokes” in Fall River, Ms. Warren gives workshops for teachers and lectures for civic groups and cruise ships.
The program will feature discussion on various traits revealed in handwriting, samples of the rich, famous and infamous, including Lizzie Borden, and will include audience participation by helping to analyze their personal handwriting samples. This is far from the first time that Lizzie’s handwriting has been examined. It will be interesting to see if Ms. Warren agrees with other graphologists.
Refreshments will be served after the program, and tickets may be purchased at the door or by calling Marsha at 508-678-6486. The fundraiser will benefit Christ Church outreach projects. -
Lizzie Borden- W.A.S.P.
Florence Virginia King (b. January 5, 1936, Washington, D.C.) an American novelist, essayist and columnist penned the following about the Borden case and Lizzie for the National Review in 1992. It may be read at this link http://old.nationalreview.com/king/king200408061231.asp
True Bordenphiles will spot all of the errors- but still good reading all the same.
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Travel Channel visits the Lizzie Borden House May 4th
“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!
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A Gentler Side of Lizzie Borden
It’s seldom one hears about life with Lizzie at Maplecroft. From time to time nuggets of her day-to-day life are revealed by guests who stay at #92 Second Street – guests whose grandparents had seen or had spoken to Lizzie in the years before her death in 1927, or those who had worked for her in various capacities. One guest spoke of how Lizzie kept small foil-wrapped peppermint patties in a dish inside the front doors of Maplecroft in case a child might wander into her yard. This was confirmed by another guest whose father was welcomed into the foyer at Maplecroft when he was a tyke, and given candy and kind words by Miss Lizzie. We hear of her concern for animals, and many anonymous gifts of cash to worthy causes and to people in need. Her chauffeur’s son was assisted financially by Miss Borden in his quest for a medical school education, another child was helped with camp fees, veterinarian’s fees were paid when a dog was struck by a car and the owner was too poor to pay.All of this paints another picture of what we have all come to think of Lizzie Borden. She was a multi-dimensional personality. Now the story of the little girl who was not afraid to bring Lizzie milk and eggs has been written , with more insights on one of Fall River’s old families, and the kindness of Lizzie Borden. To read this article by Jack Faria, please click on Another Side of Lizzie Borden at the top of the page, or click on this link :
http://lizziebordenwarpsandwefts.com/another-side-of-lizzie-borden/
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Second Street Irregulars Visit the FRPD
http://www.frpd.org/history.html
The annual Mutton Eaters weekend in Fall River 2010 is now just a good memory. The armchair sleuth group had a jam-packed weekend visiting Lizzie Borden-related sites for three days, beginning with a stop early Friday morning at the Fall River Police Department on Pleasant Street. Deputy Chief Moniz greeted the group in the entry foyer and took them to the second floor to meet the new Chief of Police, Chief Racine who recently took over the position from Chief Souza. Chief Racine knew his Bordenia, and solemnly (with a twinkle) swore in 18 new recruits as “official deputies” on the Borden case. The group enjoyed a great ten minutes chatting with the busy Chief, who mentioned there was a $200 reward on the “tip hot line” for any clue which would assist in solving a case. After reflecting on the FRPD and their involvement in the Borden case, the “Mutton Eaters” were treated, as a special surprise, to a complete tour of the entire facility from the booking room to the dispatch and receivng room to the holding cells. The Wall of Chiefs, which included Medley, Hilliard and Fleet was a big hit as well as the arrest book showing Lizzie Borden’s name. They learned that chief and deputy chief badges are turned in when the officer retires, and that the three numbers which appear over the badge are numbers of fallen policemen, killed in the line of duty. Currently three numbers appear although the force has actually lost more. The badge has not changed style since the era of Lizzie Borden as witnessed by the badge of Chief Medley, Fall River’s first titled Chief of Police. It was learned that the crime scene camera in the archive was not the one used by Mr. Walsh to photograph the Borden house, but was dated slightly after 1892.
Original blue lantern from the old FRPD building at Bedford and High Streets.
The facilty was impressive, with the 24 hour dispatch and call -in room a state-of-the art- facility. The night before the visit, Fall River sustained a large fire in a private residence, with the loss of one four year old child. The dispatcher took the group through the procedure of how the calls were received, and how the response teams were sent out. Also on the tour were the booking desk and a tour of the lock-up where sliding doors have replaced bars. Male and female detainees are separated from each other in different sections of the building.
During the visit a review of a recent incident involving the discharging of an officer’s gun during a chase was being conducted, which is general procedure. The briefing room was included and looked exactly like those seen on so many popular television programs. The white board showed ongoing activity around the city, using the historic terminology for the sections of the city like Corky Row, Flint, Globe, etc.
The visit was a highlight of the weekend for the group, and the viewing of the arrest book a special memory along with the great kindness and hospitality of the officers and employees.
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Lizzie Borden’s Grave
Over the years, especially the past 20 years, visitors to the Borden plot feel the need to leave something for Lizzie. Flowers would seem to be the usual thing, and these do appear, both silk and real, from time to time. Coins are a regular feature-the significance is not entirely clear, but it is a token of the times. Some bizarre, inappropriate and frankly too- disgusting -to- mention things have been left. What does this say about us as a culture?Today one can find a rhinestone brooch (seen above), a pine tree air freshener, coins, a packet of ketchup, a Christmas ornament with a snowman and teddy bear on it , three dead roses, and some paper trash. The debris changes more frequently as the warmer weather arrives and more visitors come to “pay their respects”. Not only the name marker but also the large family plot marker comes in for its share of festooning. Voodoo crowns, vials of blood and urine, notes to Lizzie, amulets, plastic skulls, dolls, and anything else which can be found loose in the car will find its way to the grave. Two years ago there was a birthday party for Lizzie with cake and ice cream- some of which was left on the grave, with a candle for Lizzie.
For many years the graves were nicely tended with ageratums, white alyssum and red geraniums planted for Memorial Day and kept up through Labor Day. It was always said this tribute was from the Animal Rescue in remembrance of Lizzie’s generosity to that organization in her will, and her support of it also in life.
With cemeteries so short-staffed, it looks like trash tributes will not be going away soon. Graves of Abby and Andrew Borden are rarely adorned-which may be a good thing.
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To be a fly on the wall!
If we could only go back to August 4, 1892 in a time machine, there are plenty of places in #92 Second Street one would wish to be on that fateful day. Borden neighbor, Addie Churchill, was first on the scene after being attracted to the spectacle of Bridget Sullivan racing up and down the Borden driveway. Lizzie’s cool quip,“Oh do come over Mrs. Churchill, someone has killed father”-
or words to that effect have resounded down the century as being somewhat strange under the circumstances. Addie enters the house and gets the story from Lizzie, who is sitting in the turn of the lower steps of the back stairs.
(Prelim.) Addie Churchill
Q. What did you do or say?
A. I opened one of the windows and said “Lizzie, what is the matter?”
Q. Go right on now,
A. She said “O, Mrs. Churchill, do come over; somebody has killed father.”
Q. Go right on, if you please.
A. I closed the window, and went directly through my house out the front door, and went over to her house, and opened the screen door, and went in. Then she sat on the second stair at the right of the screen door, the back stairs.
Q. The stairs, as I remember the plan, came down, the foot of the stairs is very near the back door?
A. Just as the right of the door as you go in.
Q. She was sitting then opposite where she had been standing?
A. Yes Sir.
Q. What happened then?
A. I put my hand on her arm, and said “O, Lizzie”, I said “Where is your father”? She said “in the sitting room”. I said “where were you when it happened”? She said she went to the barn to get a piece of iron, and came back, heard a distressed noise, and came in, and found the screen door open.
Can you picture her there?
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April Mutton Eater’s Article Online Now
Lizzie Borden’s School Days & The Morgan Street School
(photo courtesy of Hollie B. Dziedzic)
Lizzie’s grammar school still stands on Morgan Street. Re-named the Nathaniel B. Borden School many years ago, the venerable edifice, built in 1868 closed its doors as a school forever in 2007. This month’s article features a slideshow and article about the school and comments about Lizzie’s school days there. Click on the tab at the top of the page header for April Mutton Eaters Online to read this month’s feature. -
Living History-Laura Loew
Photograph courtesy of JENNIFER KARPUS/SUN NEWS
Laura Loew lives what she loves. The Medina, Ohio woman offers classes and lectures in various Victorian-era topics including Lizzie Borden, one of the most popular presentations. Ms. Loew presents programs on many aspects of Victorian fashion from hats to needlework to mourning customs including hairwork jewelry. Her company, Lost in the Past, has a web site at http://lostinthepast.com/ where she may be contacted to book a lecture, date a photograph, advise on period costume, plan Victorian teas and myriad other fascinating services related to the Victorian era. Her next class will take place in her restored Italianate Victorian home and will be a craft session in making a fan, a presentation on the language of the fan, and a tour of her home filled with period antiques on April 10th. -
Lizziewear for tots
Nothing Says Love Like Lizzie !
This little fellow in the Youtube segment below loves Lizzie, but apparently not his day care teachers. Even worn as an undershirt, Lizzie’s face raised a few eyebrows. Need one for your baby from Baby Wit? What next- hatchet rattles? To order: http://www.babywit.com/TRR105I.html -
Lizzie Borden goes on a spree!
Several ladies in New Bedford and Fall River, anticipating Lizzie’s acquittal in June of 1893, decided to raise a “purse” to send the long-suffering Miss Borden on a treat to Chicago to see the Columbian Exposition, an event celebrating 400 years since Christopher Columbus made his famous landing. The White City was the place to see when it opened in 1893.
Instead of a cash purse, vacation coupons were assiduously clipped and mailed in to the newspaper with Lizzie Borden’s name on them for a contest where the first prize was the coveted trip to Chicago. According to the Fall River Weekly News, she received 94,097 coupons and came in second. She declined to accept the generous second prize of a trip to Narragansett Pier on the advice of Mr. Andrew Jennings, her attorney, and funded her own trip, which she could now easily afford.
Leaving sister Emma to unpack at Maplecroft, Lizzie set off in early October with Miss Alice Buck, Rev. Buck’s daughter, and Miss Caroline Borden for a Girls -On- A- Spree- Adventure! Fun to imagine Lizzie up in a hot air balloon or riding the new-fangled Ferris Wheel.
While Lizzie was visiting, America’s first serial killer, H.H. Holmes was plying a grisly trade at his Murder Castle in Chicago near the fairgrounds, specializing in renting rooms to unmarried ladies without family who were traveling to Chicago to see the fair. Just suppose Lizzie and the ladies had opted to stay there!
For more about H.H. Holmes, visit http://www.hhholmesthefilm.com/
A must -read is Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.
(reference source, Lizzie Borden, Past and Present, Leonard Rebello, Alzach Press, 1999, p.187.)
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Travel Channel Returns to Lizzie’s
Thursday will be a busy day at #92. The Travel Channel will be returning for a taping session. The programme filmed many years ago at the house still runs on the Travel Channel frequently and the phone at #92 rings off the hook any time it airs.House co-owner Lee Ann Wilber will play Lizzie with newcomer Dan LeLievre in the role of Andrew Borden and Shelley Dziedzic as Abby. Stay tuned for air date.
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New for March
Some have speculated that had Lizzie not experienced a taste of the Good Life on her 19 week Grand Tour adventure, she may not have become so disenchanted with life at #92 in Fall River. Sadly, we do not know much about all of the places Lizzie visited, but it is possible, based on travel diaries and journals of the period, to piece together what it may have been like to make the transatlantic crossing in 1890 with a band of girlfriends for the first time, and imagine what fun Lizzie must have had. Maybe one fine day a diary or journal will come forth with more details, penned by one of the ladies who accompanied Lizzie. Until then, the Mutton Eaters Online article for March can be found at the top of the page- Making the Grand Tour! -
Views through the windows
On the morning of August 4th, if you were contemplating murder from inside #92, the first floor was a good place to be, for on the first floor a killer inside could be able to easily watch all four sides around the house without having to unlock doors and run up and down stairs. Lizzie has no confirmable alibi for either murder- but she claims she spent the morning in the kitchen by the stove reading during the interval when Abby Borden was murdered upstairs. With Bridget starting the window-washing on the south end, and Lizzie sitting at the table between the kitchen windows overlooking the south end- she could easily have seen all Bridget was doing. The windows are set so high from the ground, Bridget would not have been able to look inside the house or see anyone standing in a room, from the outside unless that person were standing in the window.
Bridget spent a leisurely time chatting with Mary Doolan, the Kelly maid from next door over by the south side fence (now a wall) which is clearly visible from either south-facing kitchen window. The southeastern kitchen window also has a good view into the Kelly backyard and the east window in the kitchen has an excellent view of the back yard (see 1893 photo below). Bridget got water from the barn. She admits to coming into the sink room via the north side entry once to get a dipper, and says she did not notice Lizzie in the kitchen. This confirmed that the north side screen door was unlocked- which proved a saving grace for Lizzie as an intruder could have gained entry through this door over the space of time it was unlocked, approximately an hour.
A few steps further from the kitchen into the sittingroom would reveal just how Bridget was getting along with the window-washing.
Sittingroom window views on south side, both window aspects.The dining room windows would have given a view of the driveway, side entry stairs and Mrs. Churchill’s house situated to the north end of the
Borden house. Today, with the removal of the Churchill house, the view is open and reveals much of Second Street and the lawn of the housing complex next door. The view from the north side parlor window also overlooks the driveway and what would have been the Churchill house.
Dining room window, north side
Parlor window, north side view of Second St.
West end of parlor, 1892 view of Dr. Bowen’s House, Boston Express Depot and Second St., one of two west end windows in the parlor. View currently occupied by the new court house.The kitchen was also the place to be to monitor all the doorways as well, with the cellar door and north screen door (photo below views of both) in plain sight, and the front door on the west end of the house could be heard if opened with a key, from the kitchen.
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Lizzie Borden’s NY Times Obit
