The Lizzie Borden Society archive

Forum URL:

1. "Lizzie's Hat"
Posted by Susan on Apr-30th-02 at 3:28 AM

I believe it was in Victoria Lincoln's book A Private Disgrace that I had learned of Lizzie coming downstairs wearing a hat as if ready to go out.  Why was Bridget never questioned about this?  It would back up Lizzie's story about going to the barn to check on those lead sinkers and then going downstreet to the shops to pick up some fishing lines. 

Hyman Lubinsky saw Lizzie coming back from the barn, but, without a hat on.  Alice Russell carries the hat off the dining room table with the handkercheifs upstairs.  She was never questioned about this as far as I can see?  Lizzie said she came in from the barn and laid the hat on the table.

Was it a dress-up for downstreet hat actually or just a sunhat?  No one ever seemed to question the whole hat thing much, what gives?  And where were Lizzie's gloves?  No self-respecting lady of the period would leave the house without.  Just one of my many curiosities about the case! 

I think a lady would not don a hat and gloves to just go into the back yard (and give privacy to her Dad and his visitor).
Maybe Bridget just misremembered this event?

Is it implied in Lincoln that Lizzie was dressed to go out, but decided to check the barn before she left, to see if she needed to buy sinkers?  I really don't remember...

Why would she dress up, including hat and gloves and then go out to the hot, dusty barn, before going shopping?  I'm assuming in the Bengaline silk?

The hat on the dining table is an intruiging question, as is "what happened to the little ironing board?" which was also on the table.  No one remembers putting either away, nor even of seeing them there after Lizzie cried for help!

Lincoln theorized that Lizzie changed for the street, including hat, to go out and establish an alibi after murdering Abby.  But her father came home unaccustomedly early before she had a chance to leave the house.

Yet, apparently Lizzie wore or took her hat with her(according to her testimony, she came into the dining room and laid her hat on the table and then found Andrew).  As I had posted earlier, I wonder if she was dressed to go shopping, where were her gloves?  Or perhaps they got blood on them and needed to be destroyed?  If she was dressed to go out, I believe Bridget would have noticed and she was never questioned on that point. 

She did go out to the barn for some reason, dressed apparently to go out, and was seen coming back to the house.  I wonder what the reason was?

And as for the ironing board, i don't recall reading about anyone putting it away, I could be mistaken, but, perhaps when they brought the Borden's bodies into the dining room to lay them out on the table, it was just put to the side?

I think the ironing board was put on top of the china cupboard where it was most likely stored.  That's where it is today at the B & B.

I am not convinced she even HAD a hat on...I think Lizzie only "thought" she had one but might have actually had the hat on the previous day.  I truly believe she was in shock after "discovering" her Father whacked to death.

Like the "laughter on the stairs" I think both she and Bridget were "shell shocked" and mixed up their "hats and laughter".

BC

But, yet, I do recall in a number of books(2 or 3) that state that Alice Russel brought up Lizzie's hat along with the handkerchiefs.  The ones that weren't ironed went on a towel rack or some such thing in Emma's room.  See, nobody had really checked into the whole hat thing!

I took a look at Lincoln and have extracted the quotes below. All page numbers are from the paperback edition. I'll now tackle the other books to see what I can find.

Andrew comes home. Page 92

"Lizzie came down the front stairs and joined him. She wore her hat and she was dressed for the street; though somewhat oddly on such an excessively hot day."

Page 98:

"Lizzie was on her way downstairs when Andrew came in. She followed him into the dining-room, where he had gone to be out of the way of the window-washing. She spoke to him, hesitated. She took off her hat and laid it on the dining-room table."

Page 189:

"She (Lizzie) then went directly to the loft. With striking formality, she put on a hat for her two or three steps from kitchen to stable door."

Lizzie returning from the barn.  Page 193:

"She (Lizzie) went through the kitchen to the dining room, where she took off her hat and laid it on the table."

Alice Russell cleans up. Page 129:

"She brought up Lizzie's hat, and some handkerchiefs that had been lying beside the ironing board on the dining-room table. There were five or six of these, two or three only sprinkled and not yet pressed. Lizzie told her to hang them on the rack in Emma's room."
 

(Message last edited May-1st-02  2:42 PM.)