1. "Wednesday, August 3rd - The Events of the Day"
Posted by Kat on Aug-3rd-03 at 7:36 AM

The Borden's are just getting up to breakfast after having been sick all night.  (Were they on Daylight Savings Time?  Or do we pretend?)
It sounds as if Lizzie made it down to breakfast!  Hmmm....

Preliminary
Bridget
Page 53

A   Yes Sir.

Q.  They were vomiting?
A.  Yes Sir, that is what they said.

Q.  Mrs. Borden said she was sick, or had been taken sick that night, and was sick nearly all night?
A.  Yes Sir.

Q.  Did they all come down to breakfast?
A.  Yes Sir.

Q.  What did you have for breakfast?
A.  Pork steak, and johnny cakes and coffee.

Q.  This was Wednesday morning, after the sickness?
A.  Yes Sir.
..........
55
Q.  That Wednesday morning they came down and had all been sick during the night?
A.  Yes Sir.

Q.  They had breakfast, and they looked pretty badly, or rather Mr. and Mrs. Borden did?
A.  Yes Sir.

Q.  And Lizzie complained?
A.  Yes Sir.

Q.  They ate a little breakfast, and Lizzie went back up stairs to her room?
A.  I suppose so. She went out of my sight, I do not know where she went.




(Message last edited Aug-3rd-03  7:37 AM.)

I guess we will never know, but, does Bridget mean that Lizzie sat and ate with the elder Bordens or did she just come down and eat after them as per her usual? 

No daylight savings time until The First World War.

I was wondering about that, thanks.  It had been discussed before but I couldn't remember what the final answer was.  We'll have to pretend the timing.

Well, all day I hoped people might pop in with Oh it's 1:30 Morse just arrived.
Well now it's 11 and Lizzie has already returned from Alice's and Bridget has returned from her evening out and all the lights are probably out at the Borden's now, and someone is not dreaming of sugarplums.
This is the big night!
T'was the Night Before....

Someone may be sleeping with a hatchet at the ready.
Someone may be getting no sleep at all!

It is 11:20 PM and everyone in the house is asleep. Or pretending to be asleep. Or meeting in Morse's room for a quick going over of the next day's plans.

Snores break the silence of the night.  The usual annoying ones vibrating thru the door behind her bed, and another set, nearer her feet.  Guttural, hoarse, rasping noise!  Sleep will not come, but that's all right.  Plenty of time to think things through thoroughly.

Alice had listened to her tales.

Tomorrow, no eggs would be delivered from the farm.  Morse would be off on his errands.  The police would be at Rocky Point.  Abby and Father would wake feeling a bit better, more so than they had in days.  Father would feel well enough to go out and face his morning routine.  And Maggie...Thursday was window washing day. 

In the cellar, a sharpened hatchet awaits.

Soon the snores will be gone for good.

Time to think about blood, and how to get rid of it...

It's 2 hours until dawn.  But 6 hours until the start...need some sleep, will sleep.
Oh but where is Emma NOW?  Oh Emma, you are needed!  Relax...

6:55 a.m.
Morse has been up an hour.  Has opened windows in the sitting room.
See's Andrew going in & out of the sitting room into the kitchen.
Mrs. Borden appeared.
Breakfast soon



(Message last edited Aug-4th-03  7:08 AM.)

5:45 AM-What is that ringing noise?  Oh, pshaw!  Damn alarm clock, time to get up and make themselves and Mr. Morse breakfast.  Ah, and I feel a sort of sick headache coming on.  La!  Such is the life for the likes of me.  I get up and get dressed, put up my hair and wash my face, clean my teeth, its time to go downstairs.

6:15 AM-Coming down the back stairs, its gonna' be another warm day, I can feel it already.  Got to get the fire going so I can cook, come through the back hall and go down cellar to the wood room and collect some wood to start the fire with.  Wood fires going, now its time to get some coal.  I grab the coal hod and go back down cellar to the coal bins and scoop some up, go back upstairs and start adding some to my fire.

6:30 AM-Time to unlock the back door and get my milk.  Now I have to set out a pan and a pitcher of water for the ice man.

6:40 AM-Ah, and here is the lady of the house herself.  She gives me her breakfast order and I go about making the breakfast.  Coffee, johnny cakes, sliced mutton, and mutton broth.

We've all hear about the bloody napkins/towels. But where did the vomit go? (I hope this doesn't sound gross.) THAT is also a sign of something.

Remember, the only police at the picnic were those not on duty. I don't know if they excused as many as possible on a slow day.

Time for source, please.

Thank you for your comments. The source was either Kent, Brown, Spiering, or Sullivan. Maybe something from newspaper quotes?
I'm glad you can't produce a quote that contradicts this.

Does anyone think that on-duty policement went out of state?

You may be playing with semantics, with your "off-duty" quote, but yes that is fair to say those officers who went to the picnic were off-duty.
But it tends to leave a false impression.  There was a news article in the Fall River Daily Globe on Aug. 5, 1893, (a year later) which quoted a figure of 4/5 of the "police force" absent from town at the Rocky Point picnic the previous year.
Rebello, pg. 89, cites Fleet's trial testimony which states there were 125 total number in his police force.  If 1/2 were gone you can do the math.  If 4/5 were gone, you can also figure out how many were left in town.

Porter is also cited:
"Almost all of the night patrolmen and many of the day men were absent from the city on the day of the killing, on the annual excursion of the Fall River Police Association to Rocky Point, a shore resort near Providence, Rhode Island..."  and that those remaining in town were doing "double-duty".

(Message last edited Aug-5th-03  11:48 PM.)

Well sure!!! Its the yearly picnic so as many as possible would take their day off or whatever. Doesn't crime follow patterns, like up on weekends? Or the night of pay-day?

Evening Standard:

"THE POLICE ACTIVE.

Young Ladies Even More Gracious Than
on Saturday.

[By Associated Press.]
Fall River, Aug. 8. --- The police are very active in their movements to-day.
Shortly after 10 o'clock Capt. Desmond, accompanied by Sergeant Edson and officers Connors and Medley went to the house and instituted one more search.
Charles H. Bryant broke places in the old-fashioned chimney and looked in vain for any instrument that would lead to a detection of the criminal.
The officers pulled over everything in the cellar, but without obtaining anything.
The guard is still kept on the house, but the officers are under instructions not to molest the inmates nor interfere with their freedom in going about their duty.
If any attempts are made to leave the city, however, arrests will follow.
The servant girl spent yesterday and last evening with some relatives on Division street, returning to the Borden house this morning.
Mr. Morse walked over to Dr. Bowen's when the search was going on, and returned, saying that a hack was to call for him.
While the search was going on the young ladies were even more gracious to the officers than they were Saturday after the funeral. "
______________________________________________________________________________________
Tommorrow, Aug. 9, 1892, starts the Inquest.  First up:
10:00 a.m., Bridget.

Calculate: if there are 3 shifts evenly divided, then two-thirds are off duty during one shift. If half of a shift takes off, there's your 4/5ths. I read that one local police force has most police working during the two day tours; less than 10% at night. But this town does NOT have a night life (except week-ends?).

So what does your town or county do? "Your results may vary."

Of course they're gracious! If that dress was evidence, it went up in smoke (noticable to the police?). The cover-up is holding up, and they have nothing to fear about disclosure of an insane relative.

How many of you have had a relative in jail (felony) or in a "state hospital" (euphemism)? Would YOU ever talk about it to outsiders?

I once lived near a family whose relative "fell on his head as a child". This explained his problems as an adult. But I wondered if there was more to this? His male siblings died in their 30s-40s.
You can consider this "made up" if you so desire.

(Message last edited Aug-8th-03  3:03 PM.)

As Kat said, 111 years ago today, the 9th, the Inquest began and would lead to Lizzie's arrest and stay at the Taunton jail.

If we could only have sat in on the questioning of Bridget and Lizzie to see their demeanor and facial expressions!  Oh, so important.

Oh, and the intonations when asked certain questions!  If only we could have been there. 

> “Judge Blaisdell dines at 12 o’clock with great punctuality, but he waited
> considerably later to get as far as possible with the Sullivan woman’s
> testimony.”--[(Evening Standard, Wed., Aug. 10, . 3, Porter 55]
>
> 1:40 p.m.
> “The city Marshal and Officer Harrington drove to the house in a hack”...where City Marshal Hilliard served a subpoena...”a regular summons to appear as a witness at an inquest” to Miss Borden.  Mrs. Brigham was there with the ladies and hurried across the street to Dr. Bowen’s, returning a moment later and the summons was served.
>
> 2 p.m.
> Miss Borden, Mrs. Brigham, the city marshal and Officer Harrington arrive at the police station.  (E.S. 3, Porter 55 & W.S. 13)
> Doors are locked after they enter.
>
> Sometime after 2 p.m.
> Pillsbury arrived at Mellen House “before he was expected, and the district
> attorney, city marshal and others who were conducting the examination left the courthouse immediately and engaged in consultation with him.”  (E.S.2)
>
> 3:40 p.m.
> “The attorney general left the city at 3:40 and the inquest was resumed.”
> “After Mr. Pillsbury’s departure the examination in the court-house was
> conducted until 6 o’clock.”   (E.S.2)
> Lizzie “was not pressed hard.”  (E.S. 1)
>
> 5 p.m.
> Bridget leaves  (E.S. 2, Porter 56)
>
> 6 p.m.
> Lizzie leaves  (E.S. 3, Porter 57)
> “She was then driven back to her home in a carriage, Mrs. Brigham and the city  marshal with her,”
> “Miss Lizzie Borden has been partially examined, *and the police had completed their work on the case, so far as the collection of evidence is concerned.” 
> (E.S. 2)
>
> “Inquest adjourned to Wednesday at 10:00 a.m.”  [Aug. 10th]

--I generated this timeline and put into Word doc and somehow it came out like an e-mail "forward".
--*Tuesday, this date Aug. 9th also the bloody clothes were ordered dug up.
--Apparently according to the Witness Statements, on the 10th they took the marble, molding, wood, basket & box from the barn, bedspread, pillowshams, and Lizzie's shoes and stockings. 
--On Thursday, Aug. 11th I believe, they took the victim's heads, after excavating the clothing again..
(They had removed the sofa Thursday, the 4th..)

On the 16th, Kieran came and measured
--I guess it's safe to say the officials were Not done gathering evidence!
(Speaking of "SAFE"...  was that the 11th?)


(Message last edited Aug-9th-03  5:02 PM.)

This Evening Standard quote from Harry --

"Fall River, Aug. 12. --- The expert safe operator that the police brought here to open the combination on the safe at the Borden house succeeded in accomplishing his task at 11 o'clock this morning. The work was done in the presence of police officers, and upon its conclusion word was sent to the Central police station. City Marshal Hilliard, District Attorney Knowlton and Mr. Jennings, the counsel for the family, at once went to the house and took possession of the contents of the safe. There was quite a sum of money and many valuable papers found.  All were taken to the B. M. C. Durfee Safe Deposit
Company and locked up in a private compartment."

** found here --

http://www.arborwood.com/awforums/show-topic-1.php?start=11&fid=27&taid=1&topid=1422

*** I remembered this because he found the answer when I couldn't

[ "E.S." = Evening Standard, Aug. 10]:

10:20
> Lizzie summoned, examined.  (E.S. 6, W.S. 13, & Porter 59)
>
> 11:15
> Intermission.
> “A few minutes later Marshal Hilliard drove to the Borden homestead and
> returned with John V. Morse.
> Miss Lizzie Borden was taken into the Matron’s room.
> Mr. Morse was taken into the court room...”
> “Miss Borden was asked some nerve shaking questions, and [so] when she came from the matron’s room she was tear-stained and very much upset.”   (E.S. 6)

--What upset Lizzie so much the second day?
--I ran out to do errands and wrote 2 checks.  Each time I wrote the date I thought about this grueling day of testimony at Lizzie's Inquest.
--Tommorrow it will have been a week since the *old folks* were killed.

From reading through the Inquest the only thing I could see that upset Lizzie when was she was questioned about seeing Andrew's face.  Did she see his eyeball cut in two, etc. and its stated Lizzie covered her face with her hands for a minute or two.  That may have been it?