Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Life and Trial of Lizzie Borden (Part I)



Lizzie Andrew Borden (July 19, 1860 – June 1, 1927) was an American woman who was the main suspect in the August 4, 1892, axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. Borden was tried and acquitted of the murders.
The case was a cause célèbre and received widespread newspaper coverage throughout the United States. Following her release from jail, where she was held during the trial, Borden chose to remain a resident of Fall River despite facing ostracism from the other residents. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts elected not to charge anyone else with the murder of Andrew and Abby Borden. Even though the crimes occurred 127 years ago, speculation about the crimes still continues. She spent the remainder of her life in Fall River before dying of pneumonia, aged 66, just days before the death of her sister, Emma.
Borden and her association with the murders has remained a topic in American popular culture mythology into the 21st century, and she has been depicted in various films, theatrical productions, literary works, and folk rhymes.

Early life
Lizzie Andrew Borden was born July 19, 1860, in Fall River, Massachusetts to Sarah Anthony née Morse (1823–1863) and Andrew Jackson Borden (1822–1892).  Through her father, she was of English and Welsh descent.  Lizzie's father Andrew grew up in very modest surroundings and struggled financially as a young man, despite being the descendant of wealthy and influential local residents. He eventually prospered in the manufacture and sale of furniture and caskets, and went on to become a successful property developer. He directed several textile mills, including the Globe Yarn Mill Company, Troy Cotton, and Woolen Manufacturing Company.  He also owned a considerable amount of commercial property and was both president of the Union Savings Bank and a director of the Durfee Safe Deposit and Trust Co.  At the time of his death, his estate was valued at $300,000 (equivalent to $8,370,000 in 2018).
Despite his wealth, Andrew was known for his frugality. For instance, the Borden home lacked indoor plumbing and electricity although that was a common accommodation for wealthy people at the time.  The residence at 92 Second Street (number 230 after 1896) was in an affluent area, but the wealthiest residents of Fall River, including Andrew's cousins, generally lived in the more fashionable neighborhood, "The Hill". The Hill was farther away from the industrial areas of the city and much more homogeneous racially, ethnically and socioeconomically.
Borden and her older sister, Emma Lenora Borden (1851–1927) had a relatively religious upbringing and attended Central Congregational Church.  As a young woman, she was very involved in church activities, including teaching Sunday school to children of recent immigrants to the United States. She was involved in Christian organizations such as the Christian Endeavor Society, for which she served as secretary-treasurer, and contemporary social movements such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).  She was also a member of the Ladies' Fruit and Flower Mission.
Three years after the death of Lizzie Borden's mother Sarah, Andrew married Abby Durfee Gray (1828–1892). Lizzie stated that she called her stepmother "Mrs. Borden" and demurred on whether they had a cordial relationship; she believed that Abby had married her father for his wealth.  Bridget Sullivan, (whom they called Maggie) the Bordens' 25-year-old live-in maid who had emigrated to the U.S. from Ireland, testified that Lizzie and Emma rarely ate meals with their parents.  In May 1892, Andrew killed multiple pigeons in his barn with a hatchet, believing they were attracting local children to hunt them.  Lizzie had recently built a roost for the pigeons, and it has been commonly recounted that she was upset over his killing of them, though the veracity of this has been disputed.  A family argument in July 1892 prompted both sisters to take extended "vacations" in New Bedford.  After returning to Fall River, a week before the murders, Lizzie chose to stay in a local rooming house for four days before returning to the family residence.
Tension had been growing within the family in the months before the murders, especially over Andrew's gifts of real estate to various branches of Abby's family. After their stepmother's sister received a house, the sisters had demanded and received a rental property (the home they had lived in until their mother died) which they purchased from their father for $1; a few weeks before the murders, they sold the property back to their father for $5,000 (equivalent to $139,000 in 2018).  The night before the murders, John Vinnicum Morse, the brother of Lizzie's and Emma's deceased mother, visited and was invited to stay for a few days to discuss business matters with Andrew.  There is speculation that their conversation, particularly about property transfer, may have aggravated an already tense situation.
For several days before the murders, the entire household had been violently ill. A family friend later speculated that mutton left on the stove for use in meals over several days was the cause, but Abby had feared poisoning, as Andrew had not been a popular man.

Murders
John Morse arrived in the evening of August 3 and slept in the guest room that night. After breakfast the next morning, at which Andrew, Abby, Lizzie, Morse and the Bordens' maid Bridget "Maggie" Sullivan were present, Andrew and Morse went to the sitting room, where they chatted for nearly an hour. Morse left around 8:48 am to buy a pair of oxen and visit his niece in Fall River, planning to return to the Borden home for lunch at noon.  Andrew left for his morning walk sometime after 9 am.
Although cleaning of the guest room was one of Lizzie's and Emma's regular chores, Abby went upstairs to it sometime between 9:00 am and 10:30 am to make the bed.   According to the forensic investigation, Abby was facing her killer at the time of the attack.  She was first struck on the side of the head with a hatchet which cut her just above the ear, causing her to turn and fall face down on the floor, creating contusions on her nose and forehead. Her killer then struck her multiple times, delivering 17 more direct hits to the back of her head, killing her.

When Andrew returned at around 10:30 am, his key failed to open the door, so he knocked for attention. Sullivan went to unlock the door; finding it jammed, she uttered an expletive.  She would later testify that she heard Lizzie laughing immediately after this; she did not see Lizzie, but stated that the laughter was coming from the top of the stairs.  This was considered significant as Abby was already dead by this time, and her body would have been visible to anyone on the home's second floor. Lizzie later denied being upstairs and testified that her father had asked her where Abby was, and she had replied that a messenger had delivered Abby a summons to visit a sick friend.  Lizzie stated that she had then removed Andrew's boots and helped him into his slippers before he lay down on the sofa for a nap (an anomaly contradicted by the crime scene photos, which show Andrew wearing boots).  She then informed Sullivan of a department store sale and permitted her to go, but Sullivan felt unwell and went to take a nap in her bedroom instead.
Sullivan testified that she was in her third-floor room, resting from cleaning windows, when just before 11:10 am she heard Lizzie call from downstairs, "Maggie, come quick! Father's dead. Somebody came in and killed him."  Andrew was slumped on a couch in the downstairs sitting room, struck 10 or 11 times with a hatchet-like weapon.   One of his eyeballs had been split cleanly in two, suggesting that he had been asleep when attacked.  His still-bleeding wounds suggested a very recent attack.  Detectives estimated his death had occurred at approximately 11:00 am.

Investigation
Lizzie Borden's initial answers to the police officers' questions were at times strange and contradictory.  Initially she reported hearing a groan, or a scraping noise, or a distress call, before entering the house,  but two hours later she told police she had heard nothing and entered the house not realizing that anything was wrong. When asked where her stepmother was, she recounted Abby receiving a note asking her to visit a sick friend. She also stated that she thought Abby had returned and asked if someone could go upstairs and look for her. Sullivan and a neighbor, Mrs. Churchill, were halfway up the stairs, their eyes level with the floor, when they looked into the guest room and saw Abby lying face down on the floor. Most of the officers who interviewed Borden reported that they disliked her attitude; some said she was too calm and poised. Despite her "attitude" and changing alibis, nobody bothered to check her for bloodstains. Police did search her room, but it was a cursory inspection; at the trial they admitted to not doing a proper search because Borden was not feeling well. They were subsequently criticized for their lack of diligence.
In the basement, police found two hatchets, two axes, and a hatchet-head with a broken handle. The hatchet-head was suspected of being the murder weapon as the break in the handle appeared fresh and the ash and dust on the head, unlike that on the other bladed tools, appeared to have been deliberately applied to make it look as if it had been in the basement for some time.  However, none of these tools were removed from the house.  Because of the mysterious illness that had stricken the household before the murders, the family's milk and Andrew's and Abby's stomachs (removed during autopsies performed in the Borden dining room) were tested for poison; none was found.

Lizzie and Emma's friend, Alice Russell, decided to stay with them the night following the murders while Morse spent the night in the attic guest room (contrary to later accounts that he slept in the murder-site guest room). Police were stationed around the house on the night of August 4, during which an officer claimed to have seen Borden enter the cellar with Russell, carrying a kerosene lamp and a slop pail. He stated he saw both women exit the cellar, after which Borden returned alone; though he was unable to see what she was doing, he stated it appeared she was bent over the sink.
On August 5, Morse left the house and was mobbed by hundreds of people; police had to escort him back to the house. On August 6, police conducted a more thorough search of the house, inspecting the sisters' clothing and confiscating the broken-handled hatchet-head. That evening a police officer and the mayor visited the Bordens and Lizzie was informed that she was a suspect in the murders. The next morning, Russell entered the kitchen to find Borden tearing up a dress. She explained that she was planning to put it on the fire because it was covered in paint. It was never determined whether it was the dress she had been wearing on the day of the murders.
Inquest
Borden appeared at the inquest hearing on August 8. Her request to have her family attorney present was refused under a state statute providing that an inquest might be held in private. She had been prescribed regular doses of morphine to calm her nerves, and it is possible that her testimony was affected by this. Her behavior was erratic, and she often refused to answer a question even if the answer would be beneficial to her. She often contradicted herself and provided alternating accounts of the morning in question, such as claiming to have been in the kitchen reading a magazine when her father arrived home, then claiming to have been in the dining room doing some ironing, and then claiming to have been coming down the stairs.  She had also claimed to have removed her father's boots and put slippers on him despite police photographs clearly showing Andrew wearing his boots.
The district attorney was very aggressive and confrontational. On August 11, Borden was served with a warrant of arrest and jailed. The inquest testimony, the basis for the modern debate regarding her guilt or innocence, was later ruled inadmissible at her trial in June 1893.  Contemporaneous newspaper articles noted that Borden possessed a "stolid demeanor" and "bit her lips, flushed, and bent toward Attorney Adams"; it was also reported that the testimony provided in the inquest had "caused a change of opinion among her friends who have heretofore strongly maintained her innocence."  The inquest received significant press attention nationwide, including an extensive three-page write-up in The Boston Globe.  A grand jury began hearing evidence on November 7, and Borden was indicted on December 2.

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