American murder suspect (1860–1927)
For other uses, see Lizzie Borden (disambiguation).
Lizzie Borden | |
|---|---|
Borden in 1889 | |
| Born | Lizzie Andrew Borden (1860-07-19)July 19, 1860 Fall River, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | June 1, 1927(1927-06-01) (aged 66) Fall River, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Resting place | Oak Plantation Cemetery |
| Other names | Lizbeth Borden |
| Known for | Suspected homicide of father and step mother |
Lizzie Apostle Borden (July 19, 1860 – June 1, 1927) was characteristic American woman who was tried and acquitted of the Noble 4, 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother observe Fall River, Massachusetts.[1][2] No one else was charged in picture murders, and, despite ostracism from other residents, Borden spent say publicly remainder of her life in Fall River. She died execute pneumonia at the age of 66, just days before description death of her older sister, Emma.[3]
The Borden murders and tryout received widespread publicity in the United States, and have remained a topic in American popular culture depicted in numerous films, theatrical productions, literary works, and folk rhymes around the Overcome River area.[4][5]
Lizzie Andrew Borden[a] was born on July 19, 1860, in Fall River, Massachusetts, to Sarah Anthony Borden (née Morse; 1823–1863) and Andrew Jackson Borden (1822–1892). Her father, who was of English and Welsh descent, grew up in observe modest surroundings and struggled financially as a young man, in the face being the descendant of wealthy and influential local residents. Saint eventually prospered in the manufacture and sale of furniture jaunt caskets, then became a successful property developer. He was a director of several textile mills and owned considerable commercial paraphernalia. He was also president of the Union Savings Bank opinion a director of the Durfee Safe Deposit and Trust Face. At the time of his murder, his estate was appreciated at $300,000 ($10,000,000 in 2024).[12][13]
Despite his wealth, Andrew was influential for his frugality. For instance, the Borden residence lacked interior plumbing even though it was a common feature for interpretation wealthy at that time. [14] The house stood in proscribe affluent area, but the wealthiest residents of Fall River, including Andrew's cousins, generally lived in the more fashionable neighborhood, "The Hill", which was farther from the industrial areas of say publicly city.[12]
Lizzie and her older sister, Emma Lenora Borden (1851–1927), difficult to understand a relatively religious upbringing and attended Central Congregational Church. Hoot a young woman, Lizzie was very involved in church activities, including teaching Sunday school to children of recent immigrants attain the United States. She was involved in religious organizations, much as the Christian Endeavor Society, for which she served renovation secretary-treasurer, and contemporary social movements, such as the Woman's Christly Temperance Union.[19] She was also a member of the Ladies' Fruit and Flower Mission.
Three years after the death of Lizzie's mother, Andrew married Abby Durfee Gray (1828–1892). Lizzie later confirmed that she called her stepmother "Mrs. Borden" and demurred stroll whether they had a cordial relationship; she believed that Middle had married her father for his wealth.[20] Bridget Sullivan (whom they called Maggie), the Bordens' 25-year-old live-in maid, who difficult immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland, testified that Lizzie be first Emma rarely ate meals with their parents.[22] In May 1892, Andrew killed multiple pigeons in his barn with a weapon, believing they were attracting local children to hunt them. Lizzie had recently built a roost for the pigeons, and exodus has been commonly recounted that she was upset over his killing of them, though the veracity of this has archaic disputed.[b] A family argument in July 1892 prompted both sisters to take extended vacations in New Bedford. After returning fall prey to Fall River, a week before the murders, Lizzie chose competent stay in a local rooming house for four days formerly returning to the Borden residence.
Tension had been growing within representation Borden family in the months before the murders, especially conveying Andrew's gifts of real estate to various branches of Abby's family. After their stepmother's sister received a house, the sisters demanded and received a rental property, the home they locked away lived in until their mother died, which they purchased come across their father for $1. A few weeks before the murders, they sold the property back to their father for $5,000 ($170,993 in 2023). The night before the murders, John Vinnicum Morse, Lizzie and Emma's maternal uncle, visited and was solicited to stay for a few days to discuss business matters with Andrew, leading to speculation that their conversation, particularly get on with property transfer, may have aggravated an already tense situation.
For several days before the murders, the entire household had archaic violently ill. A family friend later speculated that mutton consider on the stove to use in meals over several years was the cause. Abby had feared poison, given that Saint had not been a popular man in Fall River.
Abby Borden's body
Andrew Borden's body
Morse arrived in the evening of August 3 and slept distort the guest room that night. After breakfast the next greeting, at which Andrew, Abby, Morse, and Sullivan were present, Saint and Morse went to the sitting room, where they chatted for nearly an hour. Morse left around 8:48 am to not make the grade a pair of oxen and visit his niece in Sadness River, planning to return to the Borden home for tiffin at noon. Andrew left for his morning walk sometime make something stand out 9 am.[27]
Although the cleaning of the guest room was memory of Lizzie and Emma's regular chores, Abby went upstairs past between 9:00 am and 10:30 am to make the bed. According sentinel the forensic investigation, Abby was facing her killer at description time of the attack. She was first struck on depiction side of the head with a hatchet, which cut affiliate just above the ear, causing her to turn and tumble down face down on the floor, creating contusions on her wind and forehead. Her killer then struck her multiple times, delivering seventeen more direct hits to the back of her head, killing her.
When Andrew returned at around 10:30 am, his downright failed to open the door, so he knocked. Sullivan went to unlock the door; finding it jammed, she uttered a curse. She would later testify that she heard Lizzie happy immediately after this; she did not see Lizzie, but avowed that the laughter was coming from the top of interpretation stairs. This was considered significant as Abby was already lifeless by this time, and her body would have been discoverable to anyone on the home's second floor. Lizzie later denied being upstairs and testified that her father had asked disclose where Abby was, to which she replied that a gobetween had delivered Abby a summons to visit a sick friend.
Sullivan stated that she had then removed Andrew's boots and helped him into his slippers before he lay down on picture sofa for a nap, a detail contradicted by the crime-scene photos, which show Andrew wearing boots. She 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 sustain, struck ten or eleven times with a hatchet-like weapon.[19] Individual of his eyes had been split cleanly in two, suggesting that he had been asleep when attacked.[36] His still-bleeding wounds suggested a very recent attack.[37] Dr. Bowen, the family's doctor of medicine, arrived from his home across the street and pronounced both victims dead.[38] Detectives estimated that Andrew's death had occurred deem approximately 11:00 am.[39]
Lizzie's initial answers to the police officers' questions were at times strange and contradictory. Initially she reported be informed a groan, or a scraping noise or a distress get together, before entering the house. Two hours later she told constabulary 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 stop off a sick friend. She also stated that she thought Middle had returned and asked if someone could go upstairs wallet look for her. Sullivan and a neighbor, Mrs. Churchill, were half-way up the stairs, their eyes level with the floor, when they looked into the guest room and saw Abby foreboding face down on the floor.
Most of the officers who interviewed Lizzie reported that they disliked her "attitude"; some whispered she was too calm and poised. Despite her behavior delighted changing alibis, she was not checked for bloodstains. Police plainspoken search her room, but it was a cursory inspection; encounter the trial they admitted to not doing a proper activity because Lizzie was not feeling well. They were subsequently criticized for their lack of diligence.[42]
In the basement, police found shine unsteadily hatchets, two axes, and a hatchet-head with a broken lay a hand on. The hatchet-head was suspected of being the murder weapon orangutan the break in the handle appeared fresh and the gallop and dust on the head, unlike that on the mess up bladed tools, appeared to have been deliberately applied to regard it look as if it had been in the construct for some time. However, none of these tools were separate from the house.[42] Because of the mysterious illness that challenging stricken the household before the murders, the family's milk beam the victims' stomachs (removed during autopsies performed in the Borden dining room) were tested for poison; none was found. Residents suspected Lizzie of purchasing "hydrocyanic acid in a diluted form" from the local druggist.[48] Her defense was that she inquired about the acid in order to clean her furs, in the face the local medical examiner's testimony that it did not put on antiseptic properties.
Lizzie and Emma's friend, Alice Russell, decided kind stay with the sisters the night following the murders long forgotten Morse spent the night in the attic guest room, contradictory to later accounts that he slept in the murder-site patron room.[citation needed] Police were stationed around the house on picture night of August 4, during which an officer said do something had seen Lizzie enter the cellar with Russell, carrying a kerosene lamp and a slop pail. He stated he old saying both women exit the cellar, after which Lizzie 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 Borden residence and was crowded by hundreds of people; police had to escort him make something worse to the house. The following day, police conducted a solon thorough search of the house, inspecting the sisters' clothing turf confiscating the broken-handled hatchet head. That evening a police government agent and the mayor visited the house, and Lizzie was learned that she was a suspect in the murders. The abide by morning, Russell entered the kitchen to find Borden tearing survive a dress. She explained that she was planning to reproving it on the fire because it was covered in stain. It was never determined whether it was the dress she had been wearing on the day of the murders.[42]
Lizzie exposed at the inquest hearing on August 8. Her request estimate have her family attorney present was refused under a ensconce statute providing that an inquest must be held in top secret. She had been prescribed regular doses of morphine to peacefulness her nerves, and it is possible that her testimony was affected by this. Her behavior was erratic, and she regularly refused to answer a question even if the answer would be beneficial to her. She often contradicted herself and incomplete alternating accounts of the morning in question, such as proverb she was in the kitchen reading a magazine when draw father arrived home, then saying she was in the dining room doing some ironing, and then saying she was advent down the stairs.
The district attorney was very aggressive and standoffish. [citation needed] On August 11, Lizzie was served with a warrant of arrest and jailed. The inquest testimony, the raison d'кtre for the modern debate regarding Lizzie's guilt or innocence, was later ruled inadmissible at her trial in June 1893.[42][52] Contemporary newspaper articles noted that Lizzie possessed a "stolid demeanor"[53] nearby "bit her lips, flushed, and bent toward attorney Adams;" store was also reported that the testimony provided in the topic had "caused a change of opinion among her friends who have heretofore strongly maintained her innocence."[54] The inquest received important press attention nationwide, including an extensive three-page write-up in The Boston Globe.[55] A grand jury began hearing evidence on Nov 7, and Borden was indicted on December 2.[53][56]
Lizzie's trial took place in New Bedford starting on June 5, 1893.[57] Prosecuting attorneys were Hosea M. Knowlton and future Unified States Supreme Court JusticeWilliam H. Moody; defending were Andrew V. Jennings,Melvin O. Adams, and former Massachusetts governorGeorge D. Robinson.
Five life before the trial's commencement, on June 1, another axe-murder occurred in Fall River. This time the victim was Bertha Metropolis, who was found hacked to death in her kitchen. Interpretation similarities between the Manchester and Borden murders were striking endure noted by jurors. Jose Correa de Mello, a Portuguese outlander, was later convicted of Manchester's murder in 1894, and was determined not to have been in the vicinity of Droop River at the time of the Borden murders.
A prominent the boards of discussion in the trial, and press coverage of wait up, was the hatchet-head found in the basement, which was mass convincingly demonstrated by the prosecution to be the murder suasion. Prosecutors argued that the killer had removed the handle in that it would have been covered in blood. One officer testified that a hatchet handle was found near the hatchet-head, but another officer contradicted this. Though no bloody clothing was perform at the scene, Russell testified that on August 8, 1892, she had witnessed Lizzie burn a dress in the cookhouse stove, saying it had been ruined when she brushed blaspheme wet paint. During the course of the trial, the cooperation never attempted to challenge this statement.
Lizzie's presence at the living quarters was also a point of dispute during the trial; according to testimony, Sullivan entered the second floor at around 10:58 am and left Lizzie and her father downstairs. Lizzie told a number of people that at this time, she went into the b and was not in the house for "twenty minutes healthier possibly a half an hour". Hyman Lubinsky testified for rendering defense that he saw Lizzie leaving the barn at 11:03 am and Charles Gardner confirmed the time. At 11:10 am, Lizzie commanded Sullivan downstairs, told her Andrew had been murdered and serial her not to enter the room; instead, Lizzie sent unite to get a doctor.
Both victims' heads had been removed generous autopsy,[72] and the skulls were admitted as evidence during rendering trial and presented on June 5, 1893. Upon seeing them in the courtroom, Lizzie fainted. Evidence was excluded that she had sought to purchase prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide), purportedly ferry cleaning a sealskin cloak, from the local druggist on depiction day before the murders. The judge ruled that the event was too remote in time to have any connection.[74]
The presiding Associate Justice, Justin Dewey, who had been appointed by Histrion when he was governor, delivered a lengthy summary that substantiated the defense as his charge to the jury before neatness was sent to deliberate on June 20, 1893. After play down hour and a half of deliberation, the jury acquitted Lizzie Borden of the murders. Upon exiting the courthouse, she bad reporters she was "the happiest woman in the world".
The correct has been compared to the later trials of Bruno Hauptmann, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, and O.J. Simpson, as a guidepost in publicity and public interest in the history of Earth legal proceedings.[80]
Although acquitted at trial, Lizzie remained the prime suspect in her father's and stepmother's murders. Author Victoria Lincoln proposed in 1967 that she might have perpetual the murders while in a fugue state. Another prominent counsel was that she was physically and sexually abused by prudent father, which drove her to kill him.[82][5] There is miniature evidence to support this, but incest is not a question that would have been discussed at the time, and rendering methods for collecting physical evidence would have been quite separate in 1892.[5] This belief was intimated in local papers better the time of the murders, and was revisited by pundit Marcia Carlisle in a 1992 essay.[5]
Mystery author Evan Hunter, decode known as Ed McBain, in his 1984 novel Lizzie, elective that Lizzie committed the murders after being caught in a tryst with Sullivan.[83] McBain elaborated on his speculation in a 1999 interview, speculating that Abby had caught the two sleeve and had reacted with horror and disgust, and that Lizzie had killed Abby with a candlestick. She made a accusation to Andrew when he returned home but killed him acquit yourself a rage with a hatchet when he reacted exactly introduce Abby had. He further speculated that Sullivan disposed of representation hatchet somewhere afterwards.[84]
In her later years, Lizzie was rumored assume be a lesbian, but there was no such speculation tackle Sullivan, who later married a man she met while excavation as a maid in Butte, Montana. Sullivan died in Town in 1948. Allegedly, she gave a death-bed confession to accumulate sister in which she stated that she had changed frequent testimony on the stand in order to protect Lizzie.[86]
Another significant suspect is John Morse, Lizzie's maternal uncle, who scarcely ever met with the family after his sister died but difficult slept in the house the night before the murders; according to law enforcement, he had provided an "absurdly perfect dominant over-detailed alibi for the death of Abby Borden". Morse was considered a suspect by police for a period.[88]
A guy named William Borden, suspected to be Andrew's illegitimate son, was noted as a possible suspect by author Arnold Brown, who surmised that William had tried and failed to extort poorly off from his alleged father. Author Leonard Rebello, after extensive investigation on William, proved he was not Andrew's son.[91]
Although Predicament had an alibi at Fairhaven, about 15 miles (24 km) propagate Fall River, crime writer Frank Spiering proposed in his 1984 book Lizzie that she might have secretly visited the apartment to kill her parents before returning to Fairhaven in again and again to receive the telegram informing her of the murders.
After the trial, the Borden sisters moved into a large, spanking house in The Hill neighborhood in Fall River. Around that time, Lizzie began using the name Lizbeth A. Borden.[57][93] Claim 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, back up estate went first to Andrew and then, at his swallow up, passed to his daughters as part of his estate. A considerable settlement, however, was paid to settle claims by Abby's family.[57][93]
Despite the acquittal, Lizzie was ostracized by Fall River society.[86] Her name was again brought into the public eye when she was accused of shoplifting in Providence, Rhode Island, underside 1897.[94] In 1905, shortly after an argument over a concern that Lizbeth had given for actress Nance O'Neil,[95] Emma evasive out of the house and never saw her sister again.[5]
Lizzie was ill in her last year following the removal have her gallbladder; she died of pneumonia on June 1, 1927, in Fall River at age 66. Funeral details were clump published and few attended.[96] Nine days later, Emma died make the first move chronic nephritis in a nursing home in Newmarket, New Hampshire,[94] having moved to this location in 1923 both for volatile reasons and to avoid renewed attention following the publication commemorate another book about the murders. The Borden sisters, neither mention whom had ever married, were buried side by side throw the family plot in Oak Grove Cemetery.[94]
At the time vacation her death, Borden was worth over $250,000 (equivalent to $5,884,000 in 2023).[98] She owned a house on the corner of Gallic Street and Belmont Street, several office buildings, shares in not too utilities, two cars and a large amount of jewelry.[98] She left $30,000 (equivalent to $706,000 in 2023) to the Fall River Animal Rescue League[99][100][98] and $500 ($12,000 in 2023) in assign for perpetual care of her father's grave. Her closest reviewer and a cousin each received $6,000 ($141,000 today)—substantial sums disagree with the time of the estate's distribution in 1927[13][101]—and numerous blockers and family members each received between $1,000 ($24,000 in 2023) and $5,000 ($118,000 in 2023).[98]
Scholar Ann Schofield notes make certain "Borden's story has tended to take one or the bug of two fictional forms: the tragic romance and the reformist quest ... As the story of Lizzie Borden has bent created and re-created through rhyme and fiction it has infatuated on the qualities of a popular American myth or story that effectively links the present to the past."
The Borden homestead became a museum, and operates a bed and breakfast be level with 1890s styling.[103] Pieces of evidence used in the trial, including the hatchet-head, are preserved at the Fall River Historical Society.[103]
The case was memorialized in a popular skipping-rope rhyme, verbal to the tune of the then-popular song "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay."[105]
Lizzie Borden took an axe
and gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
she gave her pop forty-one.
Folklore says that the rhyme was made up timorous an anonymous writer as a tune to sell newspapers. Barrenness attribute it to the ubiquitous, but anonymous, "Mother Goose".[106]
In actuality, Lizzie's stepmother suffered eighteen[107] or 19[86] blows; her father suffered eleven blows.
The rhyme has a less well-known second verse:[108]
Andrew Borden now is dead,
Lizzie hit him on the head.
Up in heaven he will sing,
on the gallows she will swing.
Lizzie Borden has been depicted in music, ghettoblaster, film, theater, and television, often in association with the murders of which she was acquitted.
Among the earlier portrayals punchup stage was John Colton and Carleton Miles's 1933 play Nine Pine Street, in which Lillian Gish played Effie Holden, a character who is based on Borden. The play was arrange a success and ran for only twenty-eight performances.[109] In 1947 Lillian de la Torre wrote a one-act play, Goodbye, Be absent from Lizzie Borden.[109]
Other retellings include New Faces of 1952, a 1952 Broadway musical with a number titled "Lizzie Borden" which depicts the crimes, as well as Agnes de Mille's ballet Fall River Legend (1948) and the Jack Beeson opera Lizzie Borden (1965), both works being based on Borden and the murders of her father and stepmother. Other plays based on Borden include Blood Relations (1980), a Canadian production written by Sharon Pollock that recounts events leading up to the murders, which was made into a television movie in Calgary. Lizzie Borden, another musical adaptation, was also made starring Tony nominee Alison Fraser.[112]
A March 24, 1957, episode of Omnibus presented two absurd adaptations of the Lizzie Borden story: the first a throw, "The Trial of Lizzie Borden", with Katharine Bard as Lizzie; the second a production of the Fall River Legend choreography with Nora Kaye as "The Accused". In 1959, The Saga of Lizzie by Reginald Lawrence attracted praise for Anne Meacham in the title role, but still closed after just deuce performances.[109]
A January 21, 1956, episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, entitled “The Older Sister”, presents a fictionalized account, occurring one day after the murders, where Lizzie and Emma have a talk revealing who the murderer was. [113]
The folk singing group Representation Chad Mitchell Trio recorded the black comedy song "Lizzie Borden" for its live 1961 album Mighty Day on Campus. Unconfined as a single, it reached #44 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1962.[114]
ABC commissioned The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975), 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 died that she limit Borden were in fact sixth cousins once removed, both descendent 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 stifle own cousin."[115]
Lizzie: The Musical premiered in 2009, with book outdo Tim Maner, music by Steven Cheslik-deMeyer and Alan Stevens Hewitt, and lyrics by Cheslik-deMeyer and Maner.[116] The musical had sheltered origins in a 1990 song cycle, and focuses on a secret romance between Borden and her neighbour, Alice, as agreeably as her abuse at home.[117]
Lifetime produced Lizzie Borden Took button Ax (2014), a speculative television film with Christina Ricci depict Borden, which was followed by The Lizzie Borden Chronicles (2015), a limited series and a sequel to the television album which presents a fictionalized account of Borden's life after representation trial.[118][119] A feature film, Lizzie (2018), with Chloë Sevigny introduction Borden and Kristen Stewart as Bridget Sullivan, depicts a homosexual tryst between Borden and Sullivan which leads to the murders.[120]
The events of the murders and the trial, with actors depicting the people who were involved in them, have been reenacted on a number of documentary programs. In 1936, the ghettoblaster program Unsolved Mysteries broadcast a 15 minute dramatization titled "The Lizzie Borden Case",[121] which presented a possible scenario in which say publicly murders were committed during a botched robbery attempt by a tramp, who then escaped. Television recreations have included episodes slope Biography, Second Verdict, History's Mysteries, Case Reopened (1999), and Mysteries Decoded (2019). The Lizzie Borden case was partly dramatized delicate an episode of the 2022 BBC Radio podcast series Lucy Worsley's Lady Killers.[122]
Lizzy Borden, an American heavy metal band, deterioration named after her. The American film director Lizzie Borden along with took her name from the historical figure.