Lizzie Borden - Wikipedia

Lizzie Andrew Borden (July 19, 1860 – June 1, 1927) was an American woman who garnered notoriety as 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 126 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[a] was born July 19, 1860,[2] in Fall River, Massachusetts to Sarah Anthony (née Morse; September 19, 1823 – March 26, 1863)[3] and Andrew Jackson Borden (September 22, 1822 – August 4, 1892).[4] Through her father, she was of English and Welsh descent.[5] 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.[6][7] 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.[8] At the time of his death, his estate was valued at $300,000 (equivalent to $8,370,000 in 2018).[9][10]

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.[11] The residence at 92 Second Street (number 230 after 1896)[12] was located 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.[9][13]

Borden and her older sister, Emma Lenora Borden (March 1, 1851 – June 10, 1927)[14] had a relatively religious upbringing and attended Central Congregational Church.[15] 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,[16] and contemporary social movements such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).[17] She was also a member of the Ladies' Fruit and Flower Mission.[16]

Three years after the death of Lizzie Borden's mother Sarah, Andrew married Abby Durfee Gray (1828 – August 4, 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.[18] Bridget Sullivan, the Bordens' 25-year-old live-in maid who had immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland,[19] testified that Lizzie and Emma rarely ate meals with their parents.[20] In May 1892, Andrew killed multiple pigeons in his barn with a hatchet, believing they were attracting local children to hunt them.[21] 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 validity of this has been disputed.[b] 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.[22]

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).[1][10] 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. Some writers[according to whom?] have speculated 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.[23]

Murders
August 4, 1892
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.[24] 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 some time between 9:00 am and 10:30 am to make the bed.[25] According to the forensic investigation, Abby was facing her killer at the time of the attack.[26] 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.[27] Her killer then struck her multiple times, delivering 17 more direct hits to the back of her head, killing her.[26]

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.[28] 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.[28] 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.[28] 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.[29] 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).[30] She then informed Bridget of a department store sale and permitted her to go, but Bridget 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."[13][31] Andrew was slumped on a couch in the downstairs sitting room, struck 10 or 11 times with a hatchet-like weapon.[17] One of his eyeballs had been split cleanly in two, suggesting that he had been asleep when attacked.[32][33] His still-bleeding wounds suggested a very recent attack.[34] Detectives estimated his death to have occurred at approximately 11:00 am.[35]

Investigation
Lizzie Borden's initial answers to the police officers' questions were at times strange and contradictory.[36] Initially she reported hearing a groan, or a scraping noise, or a distress call, before entering the house,[37] 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.[38]

In the basement, police found two hatchets, two axes, and a hatchet-head with a broken handle.[39] 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.[40][41] However, none of these tools were removed from the house.[38] 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;[42] none was found.[43]

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.[44] 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.[44]

On August 5, Morse left the house and was swarmed 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.[38]

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.[45] 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.[46]

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.[38][47] Contemporaneous newspaper articles noted that Borden possessed a "stolid demeanor"[48] 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."[49] The inquest received significant press attention nationwide, including an extensive three-page write-up in The Boston Globe.[50] A grand jury began hearing evidence on November 7, and Borden was indicted on December 2.[48][51]

Trial and acquittal
Borden's trial took place in New Bedford starting on June 5, 1893.[52] Prosecuting attorneys were Hosea M. Knowlton and future Supreme Court Justice William H. Moody; defending were Andrew V. Jennings,[53] Melvin O. Adams, and former Massachusetts governor George D. Robinson.[54] Five days before the trial's commencement, on June 1, another axe murder occurred in Fall River—this time the victim was Bertha Manchester, who was found hacked to death in her kitchen.[55] The similarities between the Manchester and Bordens' murders were striking and noted by jurors.[55] However, Jose Correa deMello, a Portuguese immigrant, was later convicted of Manchester's murder in 1894, and was determined to not have been in the vicinity of Fall River at the time of the Borden murders.[56]

A prominent point of discussion in the trial (or press coverage of it) was the hatchet-head found in the basement, which was not convincingly demonstrated by the prosecution to be the murder weapon. Prosecutors argued that the killer had removed the handle because it would have been covered in blood.[57] One officer testified that a hatchet handle was found near the hatchet-head, but another officer contradicted this.[58] Though no bloody clothing was found at the scene, Russell testified that on August 8, 1892, she had witnessed Borden burn a dress in the kitchen stove, claiming it had been ruined when she brushed against wet paint.[59] During the course of the trial, defense never attempted to challenge this claim.[60]

Lizzie Borden's presence at the home was also a point of dispute during the trial; according to testimony, Sullivan entered the second floor of the home at around 10:58 am and left Lizzie and her father downstairs.[61] Lizzie told several people that at this time, she went into the barn and was not in the house for "20 minutes or possibly a half an hour."[62][63] Hyman Lubinsky testified for the defense that he saw Lizzie Borden leaving the barn at 11:03 am and Charles Gardner confirmed the time.[64] At 11:10 am, Lizzie called Sullivan downstairs, told her Andrew had been murdered, and ordered her not to enter the room; instead, Borden sent her to get a doctor.[65]

Both victims' heads had been removed during autopsy[66][67] and the skulls were admitted as evidence during the trial and presented on June 5, 1893.[68] Upon seeing them in the courtroom, Borden fainted.[69] Evidence was excluded that Borden had sought to purchase prussic acid, purportedly for cleaning a sealskin cloak, from a local druggist on the day before the murders. The judge ruled that the incident was too remote in time to have any connection.[70]

The presiding Associate Justice, Justin Dewey (who had been appointed by Robinson when he was governor), delivered a lengthy summary that supported the defense as his charge to the jury before it was sent to deliberate on June 20, 1893.[71] After an hour and a half of deliberation, the jury acquitted Borden of the murders.[72] Upon exiting the courthouse, she told reporters she was "the happiest woman in the world."[73]

The trial has been compared to the later trials of Bruno Hauptmann, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, and O.J. Simpson as a landmark in publicity and public interest in the history of American legal proceedings.[74][75][76][77][78][79]

Theories
Although acquitted at trial, Borden remains the prime suspect in her father and stepmother's murders. Writer Victoria Lincoln proposed in 1967 that Borden may have committed the murders while in a fugue state.[80] Another prominent theory suggests that she was physically and sexually abused by her father, which drove her to commit parricide.[81][82] There is little evidence to support this, but incest is not a topic that would have been discussed at the time, and the type of methods for collecting physical evidence would have been quite different in 1892.[82] This theory was intimated in local papers at the time of the murders, and was revisited by scholar Marcia Carlisle in a 1992 essay.[82]

Mystery author Ed McBain, in his 1984 novel Lizzie, suggested that Borden committed the murders after being caught in a lesbian tryst with Sullivan.[83] McBain elaborated on his theory in a 1999 interview,[84] speculating that Abby had caught Lizzie and Sullivan together and had reacted with horror and disgust, and that Lizzie had killed Abby with a candlestick. When Andrew returned she had confessed to him, but killed him in a rage with a hatchet when he reacted exactly as Abby had. McBain further speculates that Sullivan disposed of the hatchet somewhere afterwards. In her later years, Borden was rumored to be a lesbian, but there was no such speculation about Sullivan, who found other employment after the murders and later married a man she met while working as a maid in Butte, Montana. She died in Butte in 1948,[85] where she allegedly gave a deathbed confession to her sister, stating that she had changed her testimony on the stand in order to protect Borden.[86]

Others noted as potential suspects in the crimes include Sullivan, possibly in retaliation for being ordered to clean the windows on a hot day; the day of the murders was unusually hot—and at the time she was still recovering from the mystery illness that had struck the household.[87] A "William Borden", suspected to be Andrew's illegitimate son, was noted as a possible suspect by writer Arnold Brown, who surmised in his book Lizzie Borden: The Legend, the Truth, the Final Chapter that William may have tried and failed to extort money from his father.[88] However, author Leonard Rebello did extensive research on the William Borden in Brown's book and he was able to prove he was not Andrew Borden's son.[89] Emma had an alibi at Fairhaven, (about 15 miles (24 km) from Fall River), crime writer Frank Spiering proposed in his 1984 book Lizzie that she may have secretly visited the residence to kill her parents before returning to Fairhaven to receive the telegram informing her of the murders.[90]

Another prominent suspect is John Morse, Lizzie's maternal uncle, who rarely met with the family after his sister died, but had slept in the house the night before the murders; according to law enforcement, Morse had provided an "absurdly perfect and overdetailed alibi for the death of Abby Borden".[91] He was considered a suspect by police for a period.[92]

Later life
After the trial, the Borden sisters moved into a large, modern house in The Hill neighborhood in Fall River. Around this time, Lizzie began using the name Lizbeth A. Borden.[52][93] At their new house, which Lizbeth dubbed "Maplecroft", they had a staff that included live-in maids, a housekeeper, and a coachman. Because Abby was ruled to have died before Andrew, her estate went first to Andrew and then, at his death, passed to his daughters as part of his estate; a considerable settlement, however, was paid to settle claims by Abby's family.[52][93]

Despite the acquittal, Borden was ostracized by Fall River society.[86] Her name was again brought into the public eye when she was accused of shoplifting in 1897 in Providence, Rhode Island.[94] In 1905, shortly after an argument over a party that Lizbeth had given for actress Nance O'Neil,[95] Emma moved out of the house. She never saw her sister again.[82]

Death
Borden was ill in her last year following the removal of her gallbladder; she died of pneumonia on June 1, 1927, in Fall River. Funeral details were not published and few attended.[96] Nine days later, Emma died from chronic nephritis at the age of 76 in a nursing home in Newmarket, New Hampshire[94][97] having moved to this location in 1923 both for health reasons and to avoid renewed publicity following the publication of another book about the murders. The sisters, neither of whom had ever married, were buried side by side in the family plot in Oak Grove Cemetery.[94]

At the time of her death, Borden was worth over $250,000 (equivalent to $4,839,000 in 2018).[98] She owned a house on the corner of French Street and Belmont Street, several office buildings, shares in several utilities, two cars and a large amount of jewelry.[98] She left $30,000 (equivalent to $581,000 in 2018) to the Fall River Animal Rescue League[99][98] and $500 ($10,000 in 2018) in trust for perpetual care of her father's grave. Her closest friend and a cousin each received $6,000 ($116,000 today) — substantial sums at the time of the estate's distribution in 1927[10][100] — and numerous friends and family members each received between $1,000 ($19,000 in 2018) and $5,000 ($97,000 in 2018).[98]

In culture
Scholar Ann Schofield notes that "Borden's story has tended to take one or the other of two fictional forms: the tragic romance and the feminist quest ... As the story of Lizzie Borden has been created and re-created through rhyme and fiction it has taken on the qualities of a popular American myth or legend that effectively links the present to the past."[101]

Folk rhyme
The case was memorialized in a popular skipping-rope rhyme sung to the tune of the then-popular song Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay.[102][103]

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.

Folklore says that the rhyme was made up by an anonymous writer as a tune to sell newspapers. Others attribute it to the ubiquitous, but anonymous, "Mother Goose".[104]

In reality, Borden's stepmother suffered eighteen[105] or nineteen[86] blows; her father suffered eleven blows.

Depictions
Borden has been depicted in literature, music, film, theater, and television, often in association with the murders of which she was acquitted. Among the earlier portrayals was in New Faces of 1952, a 1952 Broadway musical with a number titled "Lizzie Borden" that depicts the crimes,[106] as well as 1948's ballet Fall River Legend and 1965's opera Lizzie Borden, both works being based on Borden and the murders of her father and stepmother.[107] Other plays based on Borden include Blood Relations, a 1980 Canadian production centered around the events leading up to the murders, and Lizzie Borden, another musical adaptation starring Tony nominee Alison Fraser.[108] The Chad Mitchell Trio released their single "Lizzie Borden" in 1961.[109][better source needed]

In 1975, ABC released The Legend of Lizzie Borden, a television film starring Elizabeth Montgomery as Lizzie Borden, Katherine Helmond as Emma Borden, and Fionnula Flanagan as Bridget Sullivan; it was later discovered after Montgomery's death that she and Borden were in fact sixth cousins once removed, both descending from 17th-century Massachusetts resident John Luther. Rhonda McClure, the genealogist who documented the Montgomery-Borden connection, said: "I wonder how Elizabeth would have felt if she knew she was playing her own cousin."[110]

In 2014, Lifetime produced Lizzie Borden Took an Ax, a speculative television film with Christina Ricci portraying Borden, which was followed by The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, a limited series and sequel to the television film which presents a fictional account of Borden's life after the trial.[111][112] A 2018 feature film, Lizzie, depicts a lesbian tryst between Borden and Bridget Sullivan which leads to a murder plot, and stars Chloë Sevigny as Borden.[113]

In literature, Borden has been depicted in several works, such as "The Fall River Axe Murders," a short story by Angela Carter, published in her 1985 collection Black Venus.[114] Another Borden-inspired story by Carter was "Lizzie's Tiger", in which Borden, imagined as a four-year-old, has an extraordinary encounter at the circus. The story was published in 1993 (posthumously) in the collection American Ghosts and Old World Wonders. Miss Lizzie, a 1989 novel by Walter Satterthwait, takes place thirty years after the murders and recounts an unlikely friendship between Borden and a child, and the suspicions that arise from a murder.