Lizzie Borden Exonerated

[LBE]

http://christinesmith.us/wordpress/2015 ... xonerated/

[mbhenty]

Once one studies the borden murders, that is to say, reading the court testimony, preliminaries, witness statements, and a host of books, 20 at the least, then reached a rudimentary conclusion to what can only be an elementary puzzle, it is easy to sort things out. At least you would think so. Yes it is easy to solve this flummoxing crime simply by using one's common sense, simply by weighing out the facts, and employ timelines as a slide rule.

Yes it is easy to find Lizzie guilty. There are many out there who have, who want to, who are willing to ignore the facts to do so.

If Bridget Sullivan helped with the crime then its an entire new ball game. And we don't know if she did. For if she did, one can throw all the timelines right out the proverbial window.

It is very well possible that Lizzie Borden did kill her parents, but only if the maid did not lie.

And if the maid did indeed tell the truth it does not entirely absolve Lizzie of guilt. Not if Lizzie knew who did the killings, or participated in them, by giving the killer entry and egress.

So all the blogs, all the forums, and all the speakers in the world can only shine light on this age old, puzzling dilemma. To say they have solved it is imprudent if not rash to say the least.

I know, there are those that want so much to believe......to love Lizzie. And that's alright. Love is not always measured by practical sense. Talk to my friend Willy. No success with women. Went to prison for 4 years and had love letters from more women...... got married too......and divorced. Ahh! the things we want to believe in.

The most anyone can do is exercise dismal modicum of faith in Saint Lizzie. The truth is we will never know. All we are left with is a monopoly game where Lizzie Borden is in jail one day and on Boardwalk the next.

[Curryong]

No, we will never know what happened that morning, mb, and that is one of the fascinations of this intriguing case, that much of what we do know can be read in two ways. Lizzie's demeanor afterwards for instance has always been a point of contention with some. Plus, she never was 'exonerated' in her home town during her lifetime, of course. So, in a strange sort of way, exoneration now wouldnt mean anything anyway.
People will always say that they have solved the murders or have the 'final solution'. Look at the numerous books on Jack the Ripper, for instance, who claim that very thing. Now, there's an industry built on theories!

[debbiediablo]

The Christine Smith blog is somewhat frustrating in that she condemns factoids and then cites others (it was a severely hot day) as evidentiary.

[Fargo]

Mbhenty, my friend willie fell in love with a hooker and had to be institutionalized for awhile. That was some time ago, he's doing ok now.

[mbhenty]

That's funny Fargo! (funny strange not funny Haha)

To be a little more honest Willie was not a friend of mine but my friend's brother. And of course his name wasn't really Willie. But he did spend time in prison.

The way I heard it was that he got into an argument with his girlfriend and would not let her leave. She got to a phone and called the police. They sent out the swat team and they surrounded the house. He got scared and pulled a knife or something. Still he would not let her leave. The police called the house and got the girlfriend who said that he would not let her leave and had a knife, and that she was making him a cup of coffee. The police said to throw the hot coffee in his face and run. She did and got out. He got 15 years and did like 3 or 4. But while he was in prison he had all sorts of women writing to him and finally married one. Married her while he was still in prison. Tuff character. When he got out of prison I figured he'd get a job as a construction worker, or a fisherman. Last I heard he was a hair dresser. I've known some weird, funny, and dangerous people in my time.

[debbiediablo]

The world is a strange and unpredictable place.

Our neighbor was brain injured in a motorcycle accident in his early 20s. He is in no way dangerous but very much disinhibted at times. About ten years ago his aging parents lost a moderate amount of money while gambling on a local riverboat, so this 'Willie' wrote a threatening letter to the casino.

Now understand that we live in a place so rural that there's nothing to see but trees, fields and farms and a few windmills in every direction. The nearest non-gravel road is three miles away. Nothing exciting ever happens...until the day the ATF came to get Willie. Roads were closed off on both sides of their farm. My husband is standing in the yard when an ATF SWAT-type team goes flying by in an army style transport. One helicopter and one plane are in the air above the farm. The SWAT team simultaneously kicks in the front door and the back door of the farmhouse, catching Willie and his elderly parents watching afternoon televsion. Willie 'disappears' first into the helicopter and then into a high security medical facility for about five years...apparently until someone figures out that he was and is entirely harmless.

[patsy]

Lost me at severely hot day. But I will give it a better read later on.

Although I may go with the radio play solution (another thread) above all.

[Curryong]

I wish Christine Smith would join the Forum and argue her theory out here! She had no contactable link posted or I would have invited her.

I notice with amusement that she kept emphasising the amount of deep and meaningful research that she had done, but apparently she never took a look at this forum, the first port of call, IMO, if you are going to Google Lizzie Borden or the trial, or anything. I also note that she cites wiki a couple of times there! Yes, way to go for accurate info! She also seems to have become obsessed with Bridget and rather bizarrely cites 21st century cases as backup.

[snokkums]

"It is very well possible that Lizzie did kill her parents, but only if the maid did not lie" We'll never know weather or not Bridget lied or not, but being a maid was her job and the Bordens' were her employer, so she might have been very careful at what she said. Even to the point of just keeping her mouth shut.

[twinsrwe]

I wish Christine Smith would join the Forum and argue her theory out here! She had no contactable link posted or I would have invited her. ...

The author of this thread is Christine Smith. (See LBE's 'real name', which is indicated in the profile information under her user name).

[Curryong]

Whoops! OMG!

[Curryong]

Whoops! OMG! Sooo sorry for being insulting about wikki and not checking the name , but my stance is still the same as regards Lizzie.

[debbiediablo]

I'd love to have her join us again to discuss her viewpoint....and I do agree, Curryong, that what I read on that site glosses over some of the facts. If you're reading this LBE, please try to convert us into true believers!

[twinsrwe]

I would also like LBE to state her sources for some of the information in her essay.

[twinsrwe]

LBE, in your essay you stated a couple of times that you can ‘refute every claim of “evidence” frequently cited as proof of Lizzie Borden’s guilt', yet you failed to provide the readers of your essay with even one example.

In your essay you stated: All “evidence” used to suggest guilt I can easily refute (and I will and am gladly doing so in the media interviews I am granting concerning this thesis). This is nothing but a cop-out statement for the readers of your essay, who are truly interested in what you have to say.

Please, provide us with us some examples.

This may be nit-picking on my part, but I have a problem with authors who claim they have done extensive research into the Borden Murder Case, yet refer to Lizzie Andrew Borden as ‘Lizzy’. LBE, you used both spellings, 'Lizzie' and 'Lizzy', in you essay.

Furthermore, there are several errors, which I have underlined, in the following paragraphs:

On the day of the murders, Sullivan was required to wash the windows indoor and outside on that, a severely hot day while already very sick (having vomited in the yard during the morning after preparing breakfast for everyone). She maintained she went upstairs to rest (upstairs where Abby’s dead body was) after Mr. Borden came home.

August 4, 1892 was NOT a severely hot day.

Leonard Rebello’s, Lizzie Borden: Past & Present; page 61: Weather report until Thursday night, August 4, 1892. Fair, preceded by coast showers today, warmer Thursday, variable winds. Herald office temperature 8 a.m. 66, 12 noon 72 and 2 p.m. 76. Highest 78, Lowest 63. Fall River Daily Herald

Rebello page 62: No information was located to determine the humidity on August 4, 1892.

Since the recorded temperatures for August, 4th was preceded by coast showers, it is possible that the humidity was high, which would have made the high temperature of 78 degrees seem a lot warmer. However, to state that it was a severely hot day is just not true.

It’s true that Bridget did go to her room to take a nap. However, her room was located on the other side the house from the room Abby’s dead body was. Lizzie’s bedroom door was literally a couple of steps away from the room where Abby’s dead body was found.

Lizzie Borden, despite the distance between herself and Abby, maintained a good relationship with her father. (Never did he take the ring from his hand she had given him as a gift.) She tucked him in on the sofa, as he needed a nap and was feeling unwell (perhaps a result of the apparently spoiled mutton or other food the family was consuming that week due to a non-functional icebox), and she maintained she proceeded to go to their barn to look for fishing lures for an upcoming trip in their cool loft. (The time she would have been returning from the barn to inside her home corroborated by Hyman Lubinsky’s testimony describing the woman he saw doing just that as he rode by in the ice cream truck.)

Please state your source for a non-functional icebox. This is the first time I have heard anything regarding the Borden’s icebox being non-functional.

Lizzie did not go to the barn to look for fishing lures. She stated that she went to look for lead to make sinkers. However, she changed her story by stating that she went to the barn to find a piece of iron to fix a screen. An upcoming trip to their cool loft??? Supposedly Lizzie was going on an upcoming fishing trip.

Hyman Lubinsky did not corroborate anything. As a matter of fact, Lizzie contradicted his statement that the woman was not wearing a hat.

Trial testimony of Hyman Lubinsky, questioned by Mr. Jennings, pages 1409-1410:

Q. Did you go down by the Borden house?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. Well, when you got to the Borden house did you see anybody on the premises?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. Whom did you see?
A. I saw a lady come out the way from the barn right to the stairs back of the house--- the north side stairs, from the back of the house.

Q. Right side of what?
A. I saw a lady come out the way from the barn right to the stairs from the back of the house.

Q. Can you tell how she was dressed?
A. She had on a dark colored dress.

Q. Could you give the color of it?
A. I can’t tell what color it is.

Q. Did she have anything on her head?
A. No, sir.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/phyg5ca

Lizzie inquest testimony page 77:

Q. When you came down from the barn, what did you do then?
A. Came into the kitchen.

Q. What did you do then?
A. I went into the dining room and laid down my hat.

Source: http://lizzieandrewborden.com/wp-conten ... nquest.pdf

Furthermore, Hyman Lubinsky did not know WHO the woman was that he saw walking from the barn...

On April 04, 2007, Harry posted:

Found this small article in what I believe to be a Fall River newspaper (The FR Evening News) dated Aug. 8, 1892. It covers an interview with ice cream peddler, Hyman Lubinsky. Bear in mind the date as it is before the inquest began. In part Lubinsky describes the woman he saw in the yard:

"He relates that while riding in his cart past Andrew J. Borden's house, at half past 10 a.m., on Thursday, he noticed a woman walking from the barn to the door on the north side of the house, which she entered.
The woman was, he thought, a little taller than himself; that is, about 5 feet 4 inches.; was bare-headed; wore brown or dark clothes - he didn't take particular notice which; and had one hand on her hip, and the other hanging or swinging; that she walked at an ordinary gait; that he did not know who she was, and did not remember that he had ever seen her before; that the woman was not Bridget Sullivan, to whom he once sold ice cream at the house, and whom he could identify if she passed."

1) At half past 10 Andrew was not home yet and Lizzie testified she went to the barn after her father returned home.
2) Lizzie was 5'4" according to the police arrest record.
3) According to Lizzie's inquest testimony on the 10th she wore a hat on her trip outside.
4) Lizzie wore a blue (light blue?) dress of some sort that morning.

He repeats the same thing at the trial, page 1409:

"Q. Can you tell how she was dressed?
A. She had on a dark colored dress.
Q. Could you give the color of it?
A. I can't tell what kind of color it was.
Q. Did she have anything on her head?
A. No, sir."

He does alter the time at the Trial (p1409)

"Q. Can you tell about what time it was when you left the stable?
A. It was after eleven.
Q. How much after eleven?
A. Well, a few minutes after eleven."

What amazes me is that he was a witness for the defense. His description on the 8th of August, just 4 days after the murders, certainly doesn't appear to describe Lizzie. No wonder Robinson made a shamble of his testimony.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/ofclh8l

[snokkums]

I think somehow or another Lizzie and Bridget knew something. Bridget I think was just protecting Lizzie and her job She knew a good thing when she saw it and wasn't about to tell anything.

[twinsrwe]

I also think Bridget may have been protecting Lizzie, but she also had her future to consider. Although she immediately left the Bordens, she didn’t need any stigma from the murders preventing her from obtaining future employment.

[snokkums]

I can see that. Don't think she wanted the stigma of being assiocated with the scenrio. Sometimes it's just best to remove yourself from the situation.

[twinsrwe]

In Bridget's situation it certainly was a positive move on her part.

[Curryong]

The police and authorities did not want Bridget living with the Borden sisters following the murders, especially after she gave testimony at the inquest. At first Bridget was frightened and didn't want to stay in the house anyway, especially at night, after the murders. That's why she just grabbed a few things and went off to sleep with the Kelly's maid.

However, after the police had gathered everyone's statements, became suspicious about Lizzie and realised that Bridget would probably be a pivotal witness for the prosecution if they were going to put Lizzie on trial, it became vital that Bridget not be 'got at' by Emma or by Jennings.

If she could be 'persuaded' by a money 'gift' or by sentiment to 'remember' that she heard Lizzie going out to the barn at about eleven or that she'd seen her out in the garden for an hour or two in the morning after 9am, or had 'seen' a male intruder leaping, bloodstained, over the back fence, the prosecution case would be a goner!

Remember that Emma would be applying for probate on Andrew's estate as soon as possible and there would be a great deal of money floating around.

So it was decided that Bridget should be tucked away somewhere not too far away but far enough that Jennings and crew couldn't have contact. Josiah Hunt was an ex Marshall of Fall River and then became Jail keeper at New Bedford. It was thought ideal that Bridget go and work there for his family.

She and Uncle John (who wanted to go back home to the west for a while before the trial) had to pay bail to make sure they (a) didn't skip off and (b) came back to testify if they did, but I think it's pretty clear that the authorities paid Bridget's bond and they kept a very close eye on her. She was the prosecution's star witness.

At first I think Bridget was happy to comply but later on,judging by a statement she made, I think she was bored at New Bedford and didn't think it was respectable that she was lodged at a prison. She certainly stated that in a witness statement to a police officer.