1. "Abby's Final Position"
Posted by Edisto on Oct-29th-02 at 8:58 PM

I've been rereading my old Lizzie Borden Quarterlies recently and have come across a few very interesting items.   This is one of them.  I think it presents a common-sense explanation for why nobody heard Abby fall to the floor when she was struck with the hatchet (or whatever).  This is from Vol. V, #2 (April 1998) and is by Kathleen Troost:

First Ms. Troost explains that she had been unemployed recently, which has given her a lot of time to think about the Borden case.  Dangerous as it is, I'm going to edit and paraphrase some of her text, because it's just too long to type in its entirety. 

"...I never thought much about Abby's corpse until I was unemployed...it only struck me recently how really strange it is for Abby's corpse to be in that position...it is generally accepted that Abby, struck in the face, wheeled around somehow and with the subsequent blows took a giant pratfall (with her arms folded neatly beneath her, to boot) crashing to the floor with a tremor that would certainly have been heard and felt throughout the house.  Lizzie and Bridget therefore don't seem very credible when they tell us they really didn't hear or feel anything out of the ordinary, honest.

Let's refer to the photograph now.  If Abby was instantly killed by that first blow to the face - assuming the killer was near the foot of the bed as is believed - she would either be on her back, face-up, or if face-down,  at least her head would be in the opposite direction and her feet would be pointing toward the wall.  Obviously this was not the case.  So the logical assumption is that, after being attacked, she did indeed wheel around - quite purposely - and was assaulted from behind.

But you'd expect, in that case, to find her crumpled up on the floor, or huddled cowering in the corner, having fled into the farthest recess she could find.  We know this was not the case, either.  She was not found against a wall or in a corner and the body is prone, face-down and stretched out flat.  Hardly the position one would expect from a person being threatened with death, and that of the ghastliest kind.

So the question...is...'How did it get into that position?  That is one of the questions for which nobody has suggested an adequate solution.'...the solution may sound funny or illogical...but it's simple and...if not probable, at least very possible.  Looking at the photo and having actually stood in that dreadful guest room, Abby's pose strikes me as that of someone trying toi crawl under a bed.

Think about it now...Abby is dealt a terrible blow to the face...the primitive fight-or-flight instinct takes command. Flight is chosen, she wheels around, away from her attacker. All that remains for her panicked, fevered mind is to find a way of flight.  Penned in as she is by assailant behind, dresser on left, and wall before, this instantly resolves into two choices: over the bed or under the bed."

Ms. Troost explains that Abby would have rejected the over-the-bed route, because it would have subjected her to the killer's full fury; instead she dives for cover under the bed but is unable to reach her destination before she's overtaken by the assailant.  Rather than crashing to the floor as she loses consciousness, she has deliberately flattened herself out in an effort to gain cover.  Lizzie and Bridget "can't very well be expected to hear something that never happened."

This strikes me as a very plausible explanation for why Lizzie and Bridget heard no crash.  Unfortunately, it doesn't bring us any closer to solving the Borden case, but it may help to explain one small part of the mysery.  

That is good! I never thought of that, it makes sense,
and perhaps trying to get up on the bed was too much
for her to even attempt. The idea of her trying
to hide gives me chills, it seems more real now, and
it brings up how awful it must have been.

(Message last edited Oct-29th-02  9:22 PM.)

I'm with Kimberly, wow!  I have never thought of that before and it did bring home just how real Abby Borden was and not just words on a page!  That poor woman.  Thanks for posting that Edisto, new food for thought.  I'm wondering now if that bed wasn't quite high enough for Abby to fit under and thats why she was found where she was? 

Isn't it strange that all of a sudden it becomes
another human being we are talking about? I had always
felt sorry for Abby she seemed like she had a crummy
life, but I had never felt afraid for her.

That occurred to me too -- that maybe Abby couldn't fit under the bed, because it doesn't look all that high off the floor (unlike some old beds I've seen).  What I like about this theory is that crawling under the bed is probably what I'd try to do if I found myself in Abby's position.  (I might have been more successful than Abby was, thanks to judicious dieting!)  A person wielding an axe would have a much harder time landing lethal blows in that confined space, and she might have been able to yell and get help.

I thought I'd post the photo of Abby, it might help here.  From what I can see, it looks like it would have been a tight squeeze.  How awful, she was cornered and stuck in more ways than one!

I just dropped to the ground to see where my arms would be if I
was headed under the coffee table & they were up around where
Abby's were, the plot thickens........

That was a good theory and it did make Abby seem more real & human.
I read that article long ago and have read it several times since, and it's always impressive.
But...you must know I'd have a "but".
If Abby had the wits to try to scramble under the bed, she would have the wits to do it screaming...or at least whimpering and moaning.
I'm not saying she didn't either.  But that makes it worse for Lizzie & Bridget, in my estimation.  More so than a thud.

Also, I have to keep reminding myself that this posture may have been innocently orchestrated by men doctors, preserving Abby's modesty in death for onlookers and photographs, or her body could have been moved by the assailant into this pose.  Either way, we Know the body was moved.  So here's one more thing tainted that we'll never know about.  Pity.

A creative idea, and a good article.  Thanks for bringing it up.
It's still very possible, I think.

(Message last edited Oct-30th-02  4:53 PM.)

If someone is struck in the head with a hatchet while they are facing their assailant, then wheel around, I am not sure they would have the coherancy of thought to devise a plan of escape like that described. Such a theory would have to include that the assailant would have had to have been pretty slow in inflicting the next blow in that it would have given Abby enough time to turn around, and get into the position on the floor which would enable her to, she thought at the time, go  under the bed.  The evidence didn't show that she grabbed the bedspread on her way down.

I would think the assailant would have hit her again before she reached the floor and continued until done.  There wasn't any evidence that the body was dragged from another part of the room, no blood evidence given as to the condition of the rug. To me I would think that once struck while facing the murderer, Abby turned and went down there, her body is where it was but the arms were moved by many people later in examinating her.

I have no explanation for any noise that might have been made by her falling. I wonder if whether a person is unconscious or not has anything to do with the noise factor. Do people who faint make less noise than people who are knocked over?

But Troost presents an interesting theory.

I have thought that the second blow was to the upper left shoulder area.  (The wound that wasn't found right away) (Which is weird in itself).
Anyway, I picture Abby turning away with her hands going to her face/wound, and since the next blow was toward where Abby had BEEN just a split second before, the movement of Abby displaced the second blow to land on the shoulder/back area as she was falling and turning away.
That was where Abby's face Had Been, but was there no more.  So the shoulder got hit.
After that the killer made adjustments in their stance to continue the blows.  Makes one wonder if the killer was a novice with a hatchet, not realizing that once you strike something it tends to fall.  The doctors thought of that shouler/back wound as a missed blow.
I read "somewhere" that that wound would have *knocked the breath out of her*, so that might negate any verbalizing, groans, whimpers etc.

It might not have been slow acting on the killers part,
she might have ran after the first blow & only had time to
drop down before they were hitting her again. About her not
grabbing the bedspread, she didn't clutch at it while being
killed, I guess it is as possible that she wouldn't have grabbed
at it if she was headed under the bed. This just makes sense,
it always seemed strange that she didn't seem to have defended
herself & this is like she was trying to.

The blood evidence would have to be gone over pretty thoroughly to figure that one out.
But I have heard (read) that "the first blow is free"--meaning that a first blow would not gush much blood at all, so there may not be evidence of that--as to what part of the room she was First struck.
Sometimes this "saying" makes sense to me, and sometimes it doesn't...sort of like this case!

Have most people had nightmares where someone or something
is after you and you try to scream & you can't? Maybe it
can really happen, I'm sure stranger things have happened
than people being killed and not making much of a noise.

I checked the blood evidence for Abby and only found this:

On the moulding, the piece of moulding east of the north window, that is the moulding that caps the mop board, about five or six inches from the casing, there was a spot of blood.

It seems to be the only spot of blood that isn't in the area directly around Abby.  I recall reading that there was more blood found on the window closest to Abby, maybe an author's doing?

Kimberly, I had an incident like that recently in real life in one of those walk-through haunted houses.  Someone jumped out at us and I was so startled and scared, I opened my mouth, but, nothing came out!  And let me tell you, I can let out quite the scream! 

Thanks.  That spot got there behind a chair, I believe?
The window thing was dirt, they later found out.

What about that wild carpet? It would have been easy to overlook a tiny spot somewhere closer to the door. What happened to the carpet anyway? They cut 'Abby's section' out didn't they? It would be nice if they found the sofa and all the rest of the evidence stashed in a basement somewhere.

In Rebello, pg. 111-2, the newspapers mention that couch.
It was reupholestered and delivered back to the Borden home, Thursday, June 22, 1893.
Can You picture that sitting room minus the sofa, from August 5th until June 22, the following year?  I wonder if they rearranged the furniture then, finally?
And then to accept it's return?!
That's shocking.
Do you suppose they took that thing to French street?

Not unless Lizzie and Emma considered it a 'memento of an interesting occasion'.  I know I wouldn't want that thing around me, yikes!!! 

Who had it reupholestered? The girls? That is thrifty!
If it did get washed away in the hurricane, did it go
out to sea? You would think the people who got all
of Lizzie's junk when she died would have eventually
let others in on who it belonged to.