1. "Why the rush?"
Posted by harry on Jul-24th-02 at 10:42 PM

A huge mistake was made by the police in the issuance of the warrant for Lizzie's arrest even before she testified at the inquest. This ended up getting her testimony excluded at the trial.

I wonder what was the rush to actually have the warrant in hand. I believe Hilliard had the papers in his pocket while she was testifying. This is the major reason her inquest testimony was excluded at the trial. i.e. They let her testify knowing they would arrest her when she finished. All the police had to do was have the warrant issued after her testiimony. I think her testimony would have then been allowed at trial.

I believe the Mayor and Hilliard visited the Borden house on the Saturday after the killings, the 6th. The Mayor stated "Yes, Lizzie, you are suspected." This was a full 3 to 5 days before the inquest (which was held the 9th through the 11th).  So she certainly knew she was a suspect at the time she gave her inquest statement. Also, Jennings was already on board as her attorney, so she had access to legal advice.

(Message last edited Jul-24th-02  10:45 PM.)

I've been thinking about this for an hour...& watching Jay's monologue.
i picked up Porter and he seems to point the finger at the press, unknowingly.  Seems public opinion was high; arguments were breaking out in the citizenery; they had expected (or been led to expect?) an arrest by Saturday evening. (47)..This would all have been fueled by news reports as far as I can see.
It's not as if she was a flight risk...I don't think.

I wondered why she wasn't allowed bail?

Yes, I don't think Lizzie was about to flee the country.

The media then, like now, beats the drums and certainly did agitate for action.  The police bobbled the inquest in at first they weren't even willing to admit that an inquest was taking place.

The police should have taken the opposite tactic and stressed that an inquest was taking place and that they were gathering evidence.

We had quite a discussion at the end of March on the bail issue. It's at:

http://www.arborwood.com/awforums/show-topic-1.php?fid=27&taid=1&topid=308

Thanks for the link...i remember that discussion, But I thought the "Bordens" could get around that.
Knowlton sounds almost vindictive, grouchy at the League, rather than citing the LAW at them.
If Jennings asked for bail repeatedly, than for some reason he thought there was a chance...

I have a question that is almost on topic, here.  Rebello (p. 511) states that Franklin L. Almay, who owned the Fall River Daily News, provided bail for John V. Morse and Bridget Sullivan.  Why did they need bail?

So maybe AR Browns' theory of fixing the case isn't all wrong? As a high level manager of a big corporation, he probably heard many a story about how things really work.

Decades ago I worked for a large corporation that was located off a highway exit. People would drive .5 mile to the light, make a rt hand turn, then go .5 mile to the parking lot. One day in a meeting somebody asked why they couldn't put in an exit from the highway exit into the parking light before the light; no waiting. The answer was: they can't put in a road to a private parking lot. But months later this was done. Campaign contributions?

(Message last edited Jul-25th-02  5:34 PM.)

Answer is: they were material witnesses and would have to be held over for the trial.

That's why "I didn't see anything" may be the best answer if travelling around, and witnessing something. Or so I heard.

The answer is given by Spiering and Brown.
The population spontaneously went on a general strike to discuss this case. Appearing to solve it would send everybody back to work. There were contracts to fulfill, and schedules to keep.

Does anyone else here remember November 22, 1963? The news caused a work stoppage, and we were all told to go home for the day.

Not me Rays. I was is the army at the time. We went to work, even more so. High alert status.

I was off work that day too.  I was a civilian employee of the Defense Department and was going to New York to spend the weekend and take in a few shows.  While I was packing, I had the TV on.  As soon as I saw the news, I got into my working togs and went to the office.  I thought sure it was an attack of some kind and there were going to be more attempted assassinations.  I was in charge of a library of military plans, and I thought they were finally going to be needed.  Shortly, I was on my way back home.  No trip to New York though.  I never did get to see "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" with Zero Mostel.

Well, Edisto, it sounds as if you had your VERY OWN " A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to New York".

WHY did THIS crime stop Work?