The Lizzie Borden Society archive

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1. "What Is All This And What Are We Doing Here :)"
Posted by dave rehak on Jan-9th-02 at 11:05 PM

Andrew Borden--self-made businessman, officially retired since his fifties, possessor of assets worth well over 500, 000 bucks, forced himself and his family to live in a cramped-up shoe box of a house in a not very fashionable district becuase he wanted to be close to his business interests. Does he care more about his money than about the feelings of his family? Abby appears to have been almost as much of a Puritan when it came to thrift, but Lizzie it appears never was tightfisted in the least way. Andrew starts out making coffins, he moves on to building furniture, and the money starts rolling in--not a fortune, but very good money nonetheless--and very steady. Borden & Almy are a great team. They each start investing heavily in textile mills, stocks, and real estate--a fortune begins to build up year after year. Andrew eventually becomes a president and/or board member of several banks, and director of various companies. Then one mild, sunny day all of his life's worth of hard work is lost--nay, STOLEN--from him by the most brazen and ghastly murder ever seen in Fall River history, in broad daylight, carried out with such inhuman savagery. His wife is hacked up in similar fashion.

The murderer is never caught, and his suspected daughter lives out the rest of her life in supreme comfort and ease, spending some of this money (which her father had worked so hard to accumulate) on any passing whim she may have, investing some of it with the good business sense she had learned from him, and donating and bequeathing the rest to various loved ones and organizations upon her death.

Then over two generations later, a bunch of people meet on something called "The Web" or "the Net" and on a public message board talk about this woman and every known aspect of her life and this most intriguing crime. My how weird life is when u really think about it. Could anyone have ever forseen all this on August 4, 1892 ?!?!?!

(Message last edited Jan-10th-02  2:50 AM.)

I think Pearson knew it, and we're just a "plugged-in" fancy-schmancy form of the Pearson-Knowlton Correspondence...

That was very philosophical of you, Dave.

To think that Andew's supposed miserlyness is what made Lizzie's life so wonderful after he was dead and gone. If he had not scrimped and saved and lived below his means and invested wisely, Lizzie and Emma would not have died rich themselves. So to those who think Lizzie Did It, she had her father to THANK for her motive.

Dave you have inspired me!

What's the point in "Dying Rich"?

So your family is taken care of?

You know, you don't look ANYTHING like your photograph!-kat

I know. I need to get my hair cut.

Get Lizzie to cut your hair with . . .  her favorite hatchet LOL


Thats true, Stef, if Andrew had only stuck to coffins and bureaus rather than mill stocks and real estate, he might have lived past the date of August 4, 1892.