1. "Link to physiological reasons for violent crimes"
Posted by joe on May-31st-02 at 2:01 PM

Just ran across a url for "Crime Times" at http://www.crime-times.org/subjects.htm

It lists an abundant number of recent studies about violent & antisocial crimes.  I got the link while attempting to find evidence for Lincoln's "epilepsy/menstruation" theory.

Perhaps some of you can find a different physiological reason for Lizzie being the murderer.  Good luck
Joe

That was a valuable LINK, even if we were not studying the topic of the Borden crimes.  Parents should read this, too.

However, notice that it seems just about ANYTHING can trigger or precipitate violent behavior.  We cannot, as a society, eliminate ALL these factors!
It almost is easier NOT to know.

Rays has said that poor nutrition could lead to violence.
Susan could probably point to lead in everyday objects in our ancestor's surroundings causing people to act erractically.  (I do not speak for Susan, but as she is an artist, she'd be aware of the prevalence of lead in the envoirnment, 100 years ago.)

I took this link and clicked on "CHOLESTEROL".
Of course, Low HDL in women can lead to agressive behavior.
Low overall lipids also.  (I say of course, because that was what I expected the findings to be, considering the topic.)

I checked "DIET" and, of course, Diet can change, modify or eliminate aggressive behaviors, or hyperactivity, or sleep disorders.

A doctor might dismiss this stuff as being all too generalized.  (Not to say I do, but doctors are a different breed.  Try to prove a correlation to them and they'll consider it "anectdotal" unless it's in black and white in the "AJM".)

However, I still find the subject fascinating.

Here are Links to 2 other Topic Threads on possible medical causes for "Lizzie as Murderer", on this Forum.

EPILEPSY OR ?, pg. 6, LAB:


SONIC SENSITIVITY, pg. 8, LAB:


ALL in ALL, A Good Find, Joe!

(Message last edited May-31st-02  3:43 PM.)

Very interesting site Joe.

Combine some of these medical reasons with 1890's social limitations and the stifling Borden household and you have a recipe for disaster.

A little greed didn't hurt either.

Kat, I still think there is some merit in "sonic sensitivity" that you & I were toying with several months ago.  Whales, squeeky wheels, traffic noise, etc.  Maybe even carpenters working near the Borden home on the morning of the murders.  NOISE! NOISE! NOISE! It has been known to be a triggering event that trips the brain's reasoning power many times.  That coupled with a (maybe) nagging step-mother and a headache to boot could set Lizzie off.  Since I have never had to suffer through menstruation, I can only guess how that, too, might affect the female disposition.  I've witnessed women get mighty crabby, though.  Or is that a male myth that should not be brought up?  If so, I apologize.
Joe

I found another source of conjecture, just last night, in a dumb book I'm reading:
Robert Graysmith's ZODIAC UNMASKED.  (Sorry to call it dumb, but it jumps all around and does not FLOW, even though it uses a calender format--I am not published, so I'm not one to talk...)

Anyway, pg. 159
" 'If one considers the human organism as a microcosim,' psychiatrist Arnold L. Lieber wrote, 'comprising essentially the same elements as, and in similar proportion to, those of the earth's surface-- approximately eighty percent water and twenty percent organic and inorganic minerals--one could speculate that the gravitional forces of the moon might exert a similar influence upon the water mass of the human being.'  Studies on nuclear magnetic resonance demonstrated that biological tides might be sufficient to trigger emotional psychological, and psysiological outbursts in certain predisposed individuals."

--Lizzie was a Cancer, which is a "Moon-Child" AND A WATER SIGN.
--The thrust of the argument in this part of the book was the new and/or full moons effect on the killing urge in Zodiac, or whether he merely killed by full moon because he hunted humans at night and there would be more light on a full moon.

--I'm glad you brought this all up, Joe, because there are new members who may find this approach interesting, and also because I never tire of this subject of *underlying cause and affect*.

I did a little investigating and found the moon was a "waning crescent" on August 2-3,1892.  At 9:30 pm on 8/2 when Lizzie came home from her visit to her friend's house, the moon was 402,075 KM away from Fall River. On 8/3 at 9:30 in the morning it was 400,691 KM away from Fall River.  I think I read that the closer the moon is to the earth, the higher the tides.  There was no "full moon" on 8/2-3, so I'm not certain if the >2,000 KM difference is normal for a 12-hour timeframe.

Years ago, I worked in a psychiatric hospital and I can assure you that when there is a "full moon", the inmates were VERY squirrely.  I don't know what effect distance has to do with moodswings, however.

I strongly believe that the moon has an effect on our bodies.  I imagine it as setting up "tides" in our bodies because, after all, we are made up of a lot of water (as opposed to hot air).

Joe

Everyone has been looking into the personal side of the murders. Has anyone considered a business side? Certainly Andy had commercial rivals who would profit from his removal.
I have no facts, just wondering about this. We all do know about the swindle of the Brayton family a few years earlier.

Wouldn't the effect of extra light have an effect rather than gravity?
IF it is pitch-black outside you can't see much, and people do avoid the darkness. Like bitter cold, it can result in less crime.

Great site, Joe!  Do you think that Lizzie suffered from low Seratonin levels? 

I believe I read in the DID SHE /DIDN'T SHE? book of the New Bedford Evening Standard newspaper, that the full moon was on August 8th, 1892.
That would have made the moon a waxing moon on the 4th?

I can double check, but I'm pretty sure I had posted this on here somewhere.  I wonder why your source said waning?
As to the moon's closeness to earth exerting a stronger influence, that sounds like it makes sense.  That was pretty cool research.
[Edit here:  ES news, Sat., Aug.6,1892: 
"MOONS PHASES
Full Moon, Monday, Aug. 8, 6:57 p.m.
Third Quarter, Monday, Aug. 15, 1:37 a.m.
New Moon, Monday, Aug. 22, 5:59 a.m.
First Quarter, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 8:29 a.m."
                     also
"Aug. 7, Sunrise= 4:44 a.m., Sunset =6:54 p.m.
Length of Day= 14 hr. & 13 min."
End Edit]


Rays:  Yes, that ZODIAC book's quoting of that psychiatrist included the phenomenom that cops notice that the DARKER it is out at night, the less crime.

THEN:  You also brought up the possibility of the killing of Andrew as BUSINESS crime.  If so, then the home would not have needed to be invaded and Abby killed.  In fact, killing Andrew in the house would probably be the LAST POSSIBLE WORST place to try to do him in, don't you think?  (Am not yelling...I capitalize for emphasis)

There would be too many variables beyond the control of the assassin.  Including extra innocent people.  A "HIT" is more a business crime, I think, and that could be done by kidnap and ransome/murder, humiliation of the family publicly, a street-car or buggy accident like a hit-n-run...plus all kinds of impersonal type scenerios.  If it was a business hit it would have been contracted out at least semi-professionally?  And made to look like a robbery?

What is the "Brayton" swindle?

(Message last edited Jun-1st-02  6:49 PM.)

The swindle of the Brayton family was written up in one of the few books on the subject. Andy knew the family was split over their inheritance of property. He made an offer to one side for a low sum; they took it. Then the same offer to the other side; they also took it. Andy then resold the property for a small fortune! Brayton was one of the first suspects.
J Carpenter (bookkeeper caught embezzling) was another.
They all had alibis.
But WHAT IF there was something that had not yet happened? Could this have caused it? And few would know about this.
Some say JFK was killed to prevent a withdrawal from Vietnam, not for anything he had done. (Or all of the above?)

Thanks for the extra info.
Now, I've just looked up this bit in Hoffman, by following your lead:

WILLIAM BRAYTON

"Andrew Jackson Borden used some of the profits he realized from his undertaking business to buy property.  The story told in Fall River involving him and Wm. Brayton was used as an example of Andrew's business sense and ruthlessness.

According to the story, when one Horace Brayton died, he was buried by Borden, Almy and Co.  Brayton's survivors fought among themselves as to dividing up the late Horace Brayton's estate, especially several valuable real estate plots.  Andrew offered to purchase the parcels at a price under their current value.

Fearing one relative would get everything, all of the survivors except William Brayton were willing to sell to Andrew.  Brayton threatened court action against Andrew, but finally went along with the rest of his family and sold out to Borden.  For years after, the story goes, William went around Fall River denouncing Andrew and speaking of revenge.  By then, Andrew had resold the property at a handsome profit.

This story could have been pure fabrication.  Proof of its veracity has never been discovered.  It fits into the same category as Andrew buying cheap coffins and charging full price and the gruesome tale of cutting the legs off tall corpses so that they would fit into shorter, cheaper burial boxes."

--Do you remember which author promoted this incident as true?