Forum Title: LIZZIE BORDEN SOCIETY Topic Area: Lizzie Andrew Borden Topic Name: ”Re: In response to message # 2”  

1. "”Re: In response to message # 2”"
Posted by fritz on Mar-28th-04 at 8:27 AM

Raymond. She may have been tempted but I don´t think Bridget would ever have dared address Miss Lizzie in that way. But the point is this: Bridget did the washing on Monday Aug 1. However, that day was too windy to hang out the washed clothes to dry so she did that on Tuesday. In the afternoon she would have taken the dried clothes in, probably through the cellar door and that was the last time, so far as we know, that the cellar door was used until August 4, the murder day. When (if) in the course of the morning on the murder day she discovered that the cellar door was not fastened she probably assumed that she might have forgotten to fasten it when she brought the dried wash in on Tuesday. And she hastened to fasten it. She probably considered herself lucky that her employer had not noticed it. When, after the murders, the police started to inquire about how the killer had accessed the house, she had a shock. ”My God, she thought, did he use the cellar door? Am I responsible? Has my negligence enabled the killer to get in and do the murders? What if the police will say that I helped the murderer to get in!” After some moments of panic she calmed down. If questioned, she would insist that she had locked the cellar door and they could not prove otherwise. And that accounts for her firm ”Yes, Marm” when Lizzie asked her in the presence of Officer Edson.  But gradually she came to realize that her firm stance would make Lizzie´s situation worse so at the pretrial (pages 16 and 30 – 31) she repeatedly declared that she had not noticed if the cellar door was fastened or not. (Refer also to what she said to Nellie McHenry about the cellar door - Knowlton Papers, HK 23)


2. "Re: ”Re: In response to message # 2”"
Posted by theebmonique on Mar-28th-04 at 11:21 AM
In response to Message #1.

Fritz, I am rather new to this game, but your explanation seems to make a lot of sense.  I think that Bridget would have done what she could, short of confessing herself, to protect Lizzie.  AND, I think Bridget knew SOMETHING about what happened, maybe not much, but something.   Tracy...

3. "Re: ”Re: In response to message # 2”"
Posted by Kat on Mar-28th-04 at 11:18 PM
In response to Message #1.

Bridget says that Andrew always brought in the clothes line and locked the cellar door.
It could still happen the way you said, tho, Fritz, because all it would take would be no one contradicting her.