1. "The Doors Chez Borden"
Posted by Kat on Feb-25th-03 at 10:55 PM

Of couse Stefani gave me access to these movies as she was finishing working on them.
In my view, I saw something interesting in the cellar.
It's a wonder no one ever remarked on it and so I doubt my senses!
Remember when Morse goes around trying to plant the idea that the cellar door was *open*?  I never really knew if he meant unlocked, or visibly ajar.
Well, apparently that doesn't matter because from what I could tell there were TWO cellar doors!
There is An Interior one with the *original locks* and STAIRS going UP>
On the outside of the house in the rear we see a box-like little structure attached to the back, with an Exterior door.
That box-like structure had DEPTH.
Therefore, there was an interior door to the cellar that opens inward to find stone steps which go UP to ground level, and then an exterior door which we see in the photo's.
This  I noticed because there are no stone steps showing OUTSIDE.
[Bless you Stef! You are inspiring!]

Yes, I have noticed that the outer cellar door was like that before.  I hadn't given a thought to there being another door inside at the top of the stairs.  I guess it would make sense - otherwise a person would open that outer door and fly down the steps.  (Tho I had a house like that once.  And my daughter DID open the door and fly down the steps!)  Now what are you thinking?  Why is this important?  Someone could have hidden there? 

I noticed it too, but, didn't think much of it at the time.  It is quite a find, I always assumed that the outer door pictured was the cellar door that is always refered to, such as when Lizzie asks Bridget if she is sure that it was locked.  It was the inner door to which they refered.  Does this outer door lock?  I had to go back and watch the cellar video again.  BTW, is that Stefani narrating the video?  Such a beautiful voice whoever is doing the voice-over. 

In the original film the steps (I should call them steps) are there as the cellar door is opened inward.  The door probably opened inward because of the steps.  Then the cement, or stone steps go UP,  3 or 4 steps, and there is the Exterior door at ground level.
I don't know about someone hiding there, but that is extra doors to lock and Morse also cannot know if the interior cellar door is locked leading into the house from outside where he is, so why would that matter to him to mention to anyone that the outer door was *open*?  It becomes meaningless...

Yes, that is Stef's voice.  We have been told we sound alike.

Oooo, just watched the cellar video again.  Love Stef's voice, its so authoritative.  And you sound just like her too?  My sister sounds so much like a young girl to me, I guess its that 8 year difference.  I think I sound more like a woman.

In the cellar video the tour guide goes up the steps and it looks as though she is playing with a bar of some kind, perhaps its what used to lock the old outer door with from the inside?  Does Stef know? 

I'm thinking if one door was locked, knowing Andrew's penchant for locked doors, I should think that the outer one would be secured in some way also.

But, it is still a neat find! 

If it was the inner cellar door that had the good locks on it (SOP?), then the pictures tell us nothing. More speculation then?

The picture's do tell the tale.
It's the testimony of Morse that doesn't make sense.
Also of Lizzie and also of Bridget.  Not one of them implied 2 doors!  Jeesh!
The guide told Stef, and demonstrated, the several locks that were still good and original to the interior basement door that leads to the steps that go up.
When she opens the door and reaches inside the darkness she is describing the back way into the Leary Press, and lifting a Trap Door to a higher floor that is part of the attached Press building there now.  She called it an *escape hatch* or some-such.
This is in answer to Susan's question as to what the lady was doing when she reached past the opened door.

Thanks, Kat.  That part of the video is so quick and shes up the steps in the dark, I couldn't tell what the tour guide was doing.

Now, because of your post, I wonder...since Morse, Lizzie and Bridget all seem to mention only one door being locked, would that be the outer door or the inner door being locked only?  My supposition is that maybe when Bridget was doing the indoor/outdoor work like laundry, only one door was locked and the other left open, since Bridget would be going in and out so much. 

There is also a door from the cellar to the ground floor hallway, that was also supposedly kept locked.
So that's 3 cellar doors, locking.

Sounds like a Christmas Carole:
3 cellar doors, locking
2 molasses cookies
and 1 cup of cof-fee in the kitchen.

Yes, thats true, 3 cellar doors, hmmmm.  Mr. Sawyer was the one to finally bolt the top cellar door the day of the murders.

  I like it, I like it!  I was thinking....And a hatchet in a pear tree, 2 headless doves, etc, etc....