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The Bordens’ side door, marked V,
was unhooked from 9:30–10:30am.
Could an outsider have crept in, axed
Abby, hidden for more than 90 minutes,
then emerged to kill Andrew?a passing peddler had spotted a
woman walking from the yard to
the side door of the house, seeming
to support Lizzie’s alibi. Secondly,
a doctor from Harvard Medical
School attested that the blood and
hair on the axe belonged to a cow.
Suddenly, though, there was a
reversal in Lizzie’s fortunes. A
prison matron claimed to have
overheard her saying “Emma, you
have given me away, haven’t you?”
to her older sister during a visit.
Moreover, Lizzie’s best friend told
the inquest she had seen Lizzie
burning a blue dress in the kitchen
stove days after the slayings. This
was sufficient to bring a murder
charge against her.
Lizzie Borden’s trial began in- On 20 June, after just 90
minutes’ deliberation, the jury
returned a verdict of not guilty.
Lizzie used her inheritance to buy
a house on the affluent side of Fall
River. She died there in 1927.
The Bordens’ unsolved murder
remains a source of fascination.
Many theories – some potentially
possible, most just laughable – have
been proffered as to who killed
them, how, and why. Those who
believe Lizzie was the culprit point
to the evidence raised by
the prosecution: her window of
opportunity, the hot, dusty
barn, at least 30 inconsistent
statements, and the burning of the
blue dress. However, two crucial
pieces of evidence stand out:
Lizzie was the only person to have
stood on the landing while her
stepmother lay dead in the guest
room, a scene that Bridget and
Mrs Churchill had come acrossMURDER CASES
immediately after ascending the
stairs. And although Lizzie insisted
she had removed her father’s shoes
as he dozed on the sofa, in the
crime scene photo he is still
wearing them. ■Lizzie Borden Lizzie Andrew Borden was a
32-year-old unmarried woman
living with her wealthy but
miserly father and his second
wife, prominent residents of Fall
River. Accounts of her character
range from “kind Sunday School
teacher active in local charities”
to an “ill-tempered kleptomaniac
who decapitated Abby’s cat
because it was annoying her.”
Rumours have surfaced that
Lizzie engaged in incest, whether
consensual or not, with her uncle
John Morse and her father – the
locked door leading from her
bedroom to Andrew’s with abureau pushed against it is
viewed as evidence of the latter.
She was certainly a habitual
thief. While he was alive, her
father managed to protect her
from prosecution, but later, she
was accused of shoplifting
a painting. The matter was
settled out of court.
The jury acquitted Lizzie on
the grounds that the evidence
against her was mainly
circumstantial, but most likely
also because the Victorian
mindset could not comprehend
that an upper-class spinster
could commit such a brutal act.208-211_Lizzie_Borden.indd 211 02/12/2016 15:03