The Lizzie Borden Society archive

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1. "Poison"
Posted by Kat on Feb-27th-02 at 4:46 AM

Lizzie Borden: A Case Book of Family and Crime in the 1890's,
Williams. Smithburn, Peterson-editors, 1980.

From the Fall River Daily Herald
Aug.6, 1892:
"A STARTLING THEORY
gained some believers Friday night who put more faith in the poisoning story than the evidence seems to warrant.  Was it not possible that the vctims had been rendered unconscious by poison before the butchery began?  The attitude in which Mr. Borden was found may have given support to this theory, but it is not so easy to explain why Mrs. Borden was found stretched at length on the floor where she had been stricken down by the murderous blow.  Had she felt the effects of the poison slowly creeping over her, as it could be supposed that her husband did, was it not possible that she would have sought a resting place?

The trouble with the idea is that Mr. Borden was seen on the street half an hour before the news of his death was flashed over the country.  During that half hour, it is known that he walked from his block on Main street to his home on Second street, exchanged his street coat for a house coat and sat down to read a paper.  If he took poison after his trip down town it must have been prussic acid, for nothing else would have produced death so quickly.  Professionals contend that there was nothing to indicate a dose of poison heavy enough to cause death or drowsiness.  Poisons do not compose people to sleep, as a rule, and if morphine had been administered there would have been traces of it in the physical appearance of the man and woman."

Same source.
August 8, 1892

"The Absence of Blood Continues a Puzzle
_________________________________
DEAD BEFORE THE BUTCHERY
      _____________________
A New Bedford Man's Theory of the Small Flow of Blood

Josiah A. Hunt, keeper of the house of correction, who has had an extensive experience as an officer of the law in this city, in speaking of the tragedy advanced a theory which has thus far escaped the notice of the police, or, if it has not, they are putting the public on the wrong scent.

Said Mr. Hunt:  'It is my opinion that both Mr. Borden and his wife were dead before the murderers struck a blow, probably poisoned by the use of prussic acid, which would cause instant death.  The use of a hatchet was simply to mislead those finding the bodies.  I believe this to be the real state of the case, for if they had been alive when the first blow was struck, the action of the heart would have been sufficient to have caused the blood to spatter more freely than is shown from the accounts furnished by the papers.  There was altogether too much of a butchery for so little spattering of blood.

...That so little blood was found in the Borden home is surprising.' "

-I suppose it WOULD be easier to hatchet a person who was already dead, especially if you were Lizzie Borden...(?)
-I don't even think that it's considered a crime...maybe a misdemeanor...
-Had to stop right in the middle of this post to see Bob Dylan on the Grammy's.  Only caught the words "cry" and "lawyer"...

(Message last edited Feb-27th-02  10:21 PM.)

Did She Or Didn't She?
New Bedford Evening Standard
Aug.6, 1892 :2 :

"...If a person wished to kill and avoid detection, and that person were wise, hydrocyanic acid would be first choice among all deadly drugs.  It is a diluted form of prussic acid and it does it's work surely.  It is not necessary to use it in bulk; homoeopathic doses are all-sufficient.  It is absorbed by the nervous system and leaves no traces, and it produces none of the anti-mortem symptoms peculiar to most violent poisons.  There is no vomiting, no spasms or convulsions, no contraction of the muscles- hydocyanic acid simply takes hold of the heart and stops it's beating.  It may not have been used in this case, and the detectives do not claim that it was.

The theory that Mr. and Mrs. Borden were drugged and murdered is not believed by the detectives, who contend that there was nothing to indicate a dose of poison heavy enough to cause death or drowsiness.  Poisons do not compose people to sleep, as a rule, and if morphine had been administered there would have been traces of it in the physical appearance of the man and woman.  Consequently, their theory is that a woman committed the murders.  The Blows Were A Woman's Blows, there were many of them; ...."(emphasis, author's).

Did She Or Didn't She?
New Bedford Evening Standard
Aug.4, 1892 :6  :

"ARSENIC IN THE PEPPER
Used on the table at the Fatal Dinner at the Cable House
Haverhill, Aug.4.- A dispatch from Newburyport states that arsenic has been found in the pepper that was used on the table at the Cable House, Salisbury Beach, on the day of the fatal dinner there..."

Aug.5, '92 :6 :

"Arsenic in Tea
SALISBURY BEACH, Mass.
Aug. 5.-
Arsenic in tea is the generally accapted theory of the cause of the poisoning cases here."

-Seems like arsenical poisoning was in the papers at the time of the Borden  murders....

Same source, Aug.5th, '92 :5

For those Astrologically or Astronomically inclined:

The full moon for August was Monday, the 8th.