1. "Another Lizzie Legend"
Posted by Edisto on Aug-6th-02 at 12:52 PM

Last night, I was rereading a book I've had for some time, "Masterpieces of Murder," which contains some short pieces by Edmund Pearson and others by the editor of the book, Gerald Gross.  Sometimes it's hard to tell who wrote what, as some other authors are represented too.  I believe this is one of Pearson's pieces.  It's entitled "Legends of Lizzie," and sets forth some of the more outrageous tales that have been told about her, such as this one:

"One of the choicest bits of folklore goes back to a date prior to the murders.  Miss Lizzie was then a bouncing schoolgirl...she had a school friend living in Hartford, and to her home she went upon a visit.  The two girls, Lizzie and Blanche, shared the same room...
One morning, Miss Lizzie came down to breakfast, and the meal began without waiting for the daughter of the house.
After a little, one of the family mildly inquired: 'I wonder where Blanche can be?'
At this, Miss Lizzie looked up from her stewed prunes, and in the manner of one glad to enlighten, replied: 'Oh, I forgot to tell you.  Blanche died during the night.'
These Hartfordians seem to have been an impassive and taciturn group, but this news did jog them a little out of the regular morning routine.  Some of the more excitable members of the family actually went upstairs to investigate.  Miss Lizzie was right; there was Blanche, and, sure enough, she was dead.
They talked it over a little among themselves, as people will, and agreed that it was odd.
The doctor came, glanced at the girl, and said: 'Oh, heart failure, I suppose.'
Then the family, not wishing their guest's holidays to suffer, invited Miss Lizzie to stay for the funeral.
Said she: 'Aren't you going to read the will?'
They froze a little, and someone said, 'Why - no. Is that the custom in Fall River?'
'It certainly is,' briskly replied the guest.
'It isn't, here.  We read the will after the funeral.'
'Oh, all right," said Miss Lizzie pettishly; 'I'll stay."
So the day after the burial rites the testament of Miss Blanche was produced.  It only caused more trouble, because Miss Borden flatly accused the family of suppressing the true will.  She said that she and Blanche had each made a will in the other's favor, and that she was named in Blanche's will as sole beneficiary.  The family thought that this conduct was 'most unfeeling,' and they persisted that, as far as they were concerned, there had been absolutely no hocus-pocus.
Their little guest from Fall River departed in a huff, and 'it was not until years afterwards' (so runs the tale) when she was being tried for murder, that they recalled the incident.  Then they did wish that old Dr. Dibble had been a little less casual in determining the cause of death of Blanche."
Sheer balderdash, of course.  (What teenaged girl leaves a will?) The article also quotes somone who must almost surely be Louis Howe as theorizing that Lizzie and Emma conspired to murder the elder Bordens, etc., etc., etc. 

Funny.  Sounds like a great read.  My first thought was the same as yours. What teenage person has a will?  Heck, 1/2 the people of means with one leg in the grave, who should have one, don't. Probably even more common back then as well. Witness one Andrew J. Borden.

The part about Lizzie just coming downstairs and not saying anything is even too cool for our Lizzie.

Soundsl like a scene from The Bad Seed.

If the story is only half true it would mean that Lizzie was completely unfeeling and had a stone cold heart. You would think that if she was such a sociopath, she would have killed again after murdering her father and step-mother. The stories of her cruelty to cats fits the serial killer profile. Her feeling of abandonment at her mother's death would also figure in. But was she a pyro? Or dropped on her head?

More importantly, did she kill again?

What a pile of blue sheets!!!
What is the date and time of this alleged occurrence?
Who are the witnesses to it?
It sounds like a made-up joke whose humor was lost in the retelling.

Edisto, I have read this tale, oh I don't know, eons ago.  It does sound just a little too hard edged and cold for our Lizzie.  I keep thinking of all the things that she apparently did to get people to like her.

This is up there with the one about Lizzie visiting some friends on a lake or the sea and there is some old outbuilding blocking the view.  Lizzie's host says something along the lines of, Oh, next time Mike is here I'll have to get him to chop that old building down.  To which Lizzie replies, Why wait for Mike?  Get me the axe! 

Ah, yes!  That story (about the dilapidated outbuilding and Lizzie's offer to get an axe) is also among the pieces in this book.  As is the story about the kitten, which also features an axe.  Please remember, everyone, that I too believe this story is garbage.  I've brought it up only to show how misinformation about Lizzie gets circulated.  After rereading both Porter and Pearson recently, I've come to the conclusion that Pearson did Lizzie a lot more damage than Porter ever did.  But Porter, of course, was much closer to the  actual story.  Pearson had many misapprehensions, one of them being that Lizzie could have seen Abby's body if she'd been standing in the upstairs hall near her own bedroom door.   Pearson, who was apparently a kind and mild-mannered man himself, pretty much originated the image of Lizzie as a wild-eyed, axe-swinging maniac.

Actually, didn't O J Simpson run by and say "I can hack it"?