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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