1. "LIZZIE BORDEN CONTEST! Ends Tomorrow Night!"
Posted by stefani on May-23rd-03 at 10:10 PM

Yes, folks, it is time to count the errors!

Here are the rules. Read the following article that appeared today on snitch.com. Find all the errors and post them here with corrections.

The person that catches the most errors and accurately corrects each error wins. You are to start now and record one error and its correction in each post. Do not edit your posts but use a new one for each error you find. If somebody has already posted that error you cannot also post it. BUT, if they post the error and get the correction wrong, you can post the correct answer and get credit.

Winner gets a lovely collection of 24 old-time cat stickers. A must-have for every Victorian spinster! Family members of the moderator are ineligible to participate. Sorry Kat. You are being drafted as a judge!



Here is the link. Ready, Set, GO!!!!  http://www.snitch.com/000127.html

Contest ends 11pm on Saturday, the 24th of May. Yes, that is tomorrow night! In the event of a tie, the winner will be selected by a random drawing.

Good Luck!

"Their stepmother even locked the "girls" in their adjoining bedrooms every so often for added discipline."<<<<<

untrue...an assumption on my part.

David

"Lizzie... finding the still-queasy Bridget in the kitchen, she ordered the girl up to bed."<<<

I thought Bridgette went to her room on her own recognizance.

Davi

"But 10 minutes later she was roused from her attic bedroom by Lizzie's screams: "Someone has come in and killed him!" <<<


I haven't studied this case in a while, but wasn't it closer to 45 minutes?  what do I know? I have a dial watch; how old fashioned.

Dav

"Lizzie's claim that she'd been wearing her best silk dress on a hot working day rang suspiciously untrue as well." <<<

I don't recall reading that..."if I had a time machine, I know just where I'd go..." Al Stewart (tho referring to Josephine Baker).

Da

"a druggist's testimony about her purchase of a deadly poison, prussic acid, the day before the ax murders."<<

she was unsuccessful at purchasing the acid.  and Scott looks very suspicious.

D

"a druggist's testimony about her purchase of a deadly poison, prussic acid, the day before the ax murders."<<

she was unsuccessful at purchasing the acid.  and Scott looks very suspicious.

D

"Sweet, shy Emma had been out of town on the fatal day, visiting friends."

visiting relatives, wasn't she?  according to one book, she returned that day to commit the murders, as her buggy was spotted in front of the Borden house by someone during the times of the murders...then slipped away.

Da

"She (Emma) moved out on her own, her kid sister calling after her, "You wouldn't last a week without me around!"<<<

first time I've heard about that comment from LB.  true? false?  only Mark Geragos could prove it one way or the other.

Dav

"Both sisters left the bulk of their estates to bird sanctuaries to take care of their sweet, innocent pigeons."

I don't know about Emma, but didn't Lizzie leave a lot of $ for a local organization for all Fall River animals in general?

Dave

After the family barn had been burglarized repeatedly,

No mention of the "robbery" occurring in the house, specifically in Andrew and Abby's bedroom.

kathy

the sisters had worried over their pet pigeons housed there

I thought they were just Lizzie's pigeons.

kathy

A heat-born headache, combined with the nausea the entire family had suffered the night before, had forced him home to bed.

Never heard about the heat-born headache. Also, he returned home because he had finished his errands and was expecting Uncle John for dinner.

the old curmudgeon began loudly abusing the answering maid, Bridget.His rant ceased abruptly, however, at the light sound of laughter.


Never heard that he had verbally abused Bridget.Also the laughter was supposedly Lizzie's response to Bridget saying "pshaw" while fumbling with the lock to let in Andrew.

Lizzie laughed as she descended the front hall stairs.

Nobody saw Lizzie descending the stairs.

kathy

The usually timid spinster hustled her quarrelsome father into the parlor for a nice rest

Nobody thought of Lizzie as timid and she didn't "hustle" Andrew into the parlor, he went in of his own accord so far as we know.

The sisters, then already "old maids" of 43 and 32,

Emma was 41.

kathy

The trio burst into the rear parlor to find the ghastly remains of Andrew Borden.

they did not arrive as a "trio".

kathy

The miserly banker had been struck dead with 10 bloody blows from an ax.

I believe it was 13.

kathy

Mrs. Abby Borden, also hacked to death, from a stunning overkill of 19 blows.

18, but who's counting?

kathy

Both sisters left the bulk of their estates to bird sanctuaries to take care of their sweet, innocent pigeons

No way. They both left family and friends well taken care of. The Fall River Animal Rescue League (not a bird sanctuary)received $30,000 from Lizzie and $20, 000 from Emma. Hardly the bulk of their fortunes.

kathy

It doesn't look as though there are many participants to the contest, I guess I will have to take a whack at it.

1) The Victorian villas on the "Hill" in turn-of-the-century Fall River, Mass., showcased their owners' newly-minted wealth.

As far as I have understood it, the "Hill" is where all the old money families in Fall River lived, though, I suppose there could be a few nouveau riche families that had made their way up there.

2)Why, then, did the entire Hill shun Miss Emma and Miss Lizbeth?

There is no evidence that Emma was ever shunned, just Lizzie.

3)Despite their father's cushy banker's salary, the family lived on a miserly allowance.

Only a banker's salary?  What about all the other boards Andrew sat on, and the property he owned and rented, and his stocks?

4)The aging sisters were expected to remain inside nearly 24/7, as did all nice, unmarried ladies.

There is no evidence that Lizzie and Emma were expected to stay at home all day, every day.  The sisters traveled, visited friends, Lizzie had her WCTU meetings, taught Sunday school, went to Europe, etc, etc, etc.

5)The heat wave that swept the country in May that year brought with it a fever of petty thefts and vandalisms.

What heat wave in May?  No evidence of this.

6)After the family barn had been burglarized repeatedly, the sisters had worried over their pet pigeons housed there.

Its never been proven that the pigeons were pets of Lizzie's, they certainly weren't Emma's. 

7)A heat-born headache, combined with the nausea the entire family had suffered the night before, had forced him home to bed.

Andrew normally came home everyday around that time to have his dinner(lunch) and possibly have meetings with renters and such.  There is no evidence that Andrew was still nauseous, he ate a fairly big breakfast that morning.  He may have been weak though from his illness the day before.

The usually timid spinster hustled her quarrelsome father into the parlor for a nice rest.

Andrew went of his own accord to rest in the sitting room.

9)A few minutes later, finding the still-queasy Bridget in the kitchen, she ordered the girl up to bed.

Bridget would normally go up to take a nap before lunch when there was time, it was her normal routine.

10)Bridget ran screaming across the street for the doctor.

There is no evidence that Bridget went screaming anywhere that day.

11)As Dr. Bowen responded, so did a nosy neighbor, Mrs. Adelaide Churchill.

The nosy neighbor, Mrs. Churchill, was the first on the scene.  Dr. Bowen didn't arrive until later.

12)The trio burst into the rear parlor to find the ghastly remains of Andrew Borden.

There was no trio to go into the sitting room.  Dr. Bowen was the only one to go in to see Andrew, Mrs. Churchill declined viewing him.

13)With Bridget's return, accompanied by Lizzie's pal, Alice Russell, the group checked the upstairs bedroom and found Mrs. Abby Borden, also hacked to death, from a stunning overkill of 19 blows.

There was never a group to check the upstairs guestroom, just Bridget and Mrs. Churchill.

14)Besides contradicting Bridget's testimony by claiming she'd been ironing in the kitchen upon her father's arrival home, Lizzie slipped a couple of whoppers.

Lizzie never claimed to be ironing in the kitchen, it was the dining room where Bridget was finishing up her window washing.  Lizzie claimed to be many different places when her father returned home, but, finally settled on that she was sitting in the kitchen reading a magazine waiting for her flat irons to get hot.

15)Her alibi of searching for iron fishing sinkers in both the attic and the barn's loft was belied by the undisturbed layers of dust in both locales.

Lizzie never claimed to be looking for sinkers in the attic of the house.  Just in the barn and the loft of the barn.

16)And her claim that she'd been wearing her best silk dress on a hot working day rang suspiciously untrue as well.

Lizzie never claimed that it was her best silk dress.  It was a Bengaline silk, 2 piece, cotton and silk combo material dress that Lizzie claimed to be wearing and no one could agree to exactly what they had seen Lizzie wearing just after the murders.

17)Three days after the murders, Alice Russell spotted Lizzie burning what the spinster claimed was a "paint-stained" dress.

Alice never actually saw Lizzie burn the dress.  She saw Lizzie tearing it up and saying she was going to burn the old, paint-stained thing up.

18)Only a couple of days before, Lizzie had urged her sister to go to the country for her health, to escape the heat.

Lizzie never urged Emma to go anywhere.  Emma was visiting the Brownells in Fairhaven, her own choice.  I don't believe that Fairhaven could be considered the country, it wasn't Swansea.

19)Lizzie Borden died on June 1, 1927, following complications from gall bladder surgery. A week later, sister Emma fell down the back stairs of her rented house. She died two days later.

From what is known, Emma fell the day that Lizzie died and broke her hip.  She died 10 days later.

Welcome to the forum katmgck! Sounds like you know a
little bit about Lizzie already.

You are not a spinster Susan, what do you
need cat stickers for?

20)Emma and Lizbeth, though snubbed by the town, lived together quietly and happily until about 1908, when the 50ish Lizzie took up with a traveling actress, Nance O'Neil, whose unconventional lifestyle appalled shy Emma.

Emma moved out in 1905, Lizzie would have been just 45 years old, not quite 50ish.

Just upping the odds, you know me and contests! 

Yeah, what do you do with all that stuff anyway?

I had a Lizzie accident a couple days ago -- I dropped
one of my pear salt shakers & it just shattered. It was
very traumatic. 

>Welcome to the forum katmgck! Sounds like you know a
>little bit about Lizzie already.
>
>

Hi there!
I've been a lurker for a long time, but couldn't resist playing!
Long time Lizzie-ite,
kathy

  Hi Kathy, didn't mean to be rude.  Nice to see a long time lurker posting, welcome!