Dr. Bowen

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CerintheM
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Re: Dr. Bowen

Post by CerintheM »

Again, I'm new to this board. But I had a few thoughts about Dr. Bowen.

First, to repeat from above, this was Jane Gray's witness statement: "Dr. Bowen’s character is al least suspicious. Four years ago, while the Borden family were summering over the river on the farm, Lizzie remained at home. One Sunday evening during this time, she and Dr. Bowen came to church together, and sat in the Borden seat. I myself saw them this evening. At the time, and since, there was much comment on this act. Some remarked how courageous she was to remain in the house alone; but others replied in a knowing way,
perhaps she has very acceptable company."

So this obviously implies not only that the town rumors were that Dr. Bowen and Lizzie were daring enough to go to church together, they were alone in the house a lot together, and pretty explicitly the rumors are that they having an affair.

I feel like an explanation of Bowen's somewhat odd behavior is somewhat similar to Kat's original idea that he was not so much an accomplice, but a bumbler. I'd like to add the possibility, though, that he might have been having an affair with Lizzie, or simply aware that everyone else thought so. But that doesn't make him an accomplice, or only the most half-hearted one. When he stumbled on the murder scene, he might have been pretty overwhelmed with thinking not only it was likely that everyone would realize Lizzie did it. Also, they might think (if they thought she was sleeping with him) HE had something to do with it too. Or at least, that the rumor of his and Lizzie's affair would get wider play than ever.

What looks like covering up for Lizzie may have been only self-protection.

He seemed pretty flustered at the scene. Unable to see that Abby was killed by hatchet/axe, asking Addie Churchill to go look at Andrew's body, etc.

At the inquest he was asked:

Q: How long have you lived there?
A: I lived across the street from Andrew Borden 20 years.
Q: You undoubtedly were well acquainted with the family?
A: Yes Sir.
Q: And intimately so?
A: Well, yes, neighbors.

I've wondered if Knowlton added "And intimately so?" to throw off Bowen. He's established that they were well acquainted. At the time, according to OED, "intimate" had both the connotations of "being really close with" and "having sexual intercourse with." Maybe he wanted to get him a little flustered by hinting at the rumors.

At the trial, his description of his relationship with the Bordens actually doesn't make sense. First he says their relationship is social is well as professional. Then he says he has "very seldom" visited the house socially only. Then he immediately says that their relationship is equal parts social and business. I wonder again if he's worried about rumors that suggest he's having an affair with Lizzie.

He could want to downplay any tears he had on seeing Andrew's body if such tears suggested he had an inappropriate relationship with Lizzie.

He didn't have to bring up the fact that Abby worried she was poisoned, did he? Because that's pretty incriminating! Which suggests he's not an accomplice. Unless there was some other record of it, or he told his wife about it or something.
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Re: Dr. Bowen

Post by CerintheM »

Thanks to everyone for being patient with an excited newbie. I know what it's like when you've been hashing over stuff for a long time and a new person comes along, probably repeating stuff you've already hashed over! I am also reading old posts as I get my thoughts out.

Looking through Dr. Bowen's various statements, I had a couple of other thoughts.

This is from the inquest:
Screenshot 2016-09-05 08.49.51.png
First he says he can testify with authority that he's seen them together "a good deal," and that Lizzie's relationship with Abby was "harmonious and perfect and natural" (even Emma didn't go that far!). Then a couple of lines later, he stresses again that he was only ever with them to treat their illnesses (of which there weren't many) or business affairs. Again we have something of a contradiction, in which he seems to want to emphasize that he wasn't ever at the house socially (although he obviously knew them well socially). Again, I think this could be to cover his embarrassment at either a real or suspected affair with Lizzie. Not so much covering up for Lizzie, although maybe that too! He wants everyone to know that he was NOT in that house except on business.

He also seems to overemphasize how much attention he did not pay to Lizzie. In the inquest, when he called her dress "drab," he added, "or not much color to attract my attention." In response to a question of whether he took much notice of Bridget, he emphasized that he didn't pay attention to either of them.

In general, he comes off as defensive. I don't have the preliminary testimony yet, though I've ordered it. I understand from the OP that he was defensive about crying. In the trial testimony, he contradicts others who state he initially thought that Abby died from fright. It's pretty clear why he would contradict them due to maintenance of his professional reputation. Then he seems also especially defensive about his inquest statement about the "drab" dress color, when he could have just explained himself simply - "I didn't notice the color, and all I meant by "drab" was an unnoticeable color," would have sufficed.

Anyhow, all this to say he does seem bumbling and defensive, but possibly for personal reasons.
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Re: Dr. Bowen

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From all we know of Bowen's behaviour that day he's not coming across as a man with a steady nerve. It's like he's the one having a fit of the vapours, he's the one needing the fainting-couch... So does a markedly nervous married man have an affair with the first neighbour his wife can see out their window? (Phoebe Bowen did a lot of window-watching, too, and was friendly with Abby Borden wasn't she?)

Yes, he's very defensive in his testimony. I agree. Would it be because his professionalism was impugned? They're implying he burnt evidence, they're suggesting he was in tears, and he couldn't tell the difference between a woman who dies of fright and one with her skull smashed in. They ask him just how much morphine he gives Lizzie, and at the Trial itself if it's true he's now been giving her morphine for a year. All in all Bowen might have been most worried about his professional reputation? Yes he seems angry over press speculation, and we know the gossips were at work just because he took Lizzie to church - but what was it, four years previously? I've wondered too if he's piqued over social distinctions. He'd like it understood he's on the same social level as the Bordens, but now everyone knows Andrew Borden 'used him ill' the day before the crime and drove him away from his door.

Bowen and Lizzie didn't belong to the same church, I think I've read, yet when her family was away he escorted her.... That struck me as belonging to a general trend - for some reason people saw the need to take care of Lizzie.

My abiding impression of Bowen is his anxiety, but I'm far from able to decide just what made him so anxious.
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Re: Dr. Bowen

Post by NancyDrew »

I agree with many things you've expressed here. However, where is the evidence that he thought, initially, that Abby had died of fright?

From, "Testimony of Dr. Seabury W. Bowen in the Trial of Lizzie Borden
June 8, 1893"

"Never did I say to anyone that she had died of fright. My first thought, when I was standing in the door, was that she had fainted. A moment later, I saw that she was dead. I went downstairs, and told the people in the kitchen that Mrs. Borden had been killed, by the same instrument, I thought, and that it was fortunate for Lizzie she had been out of the way, or else she would also have been killed."

(source: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/f ... imony.html)

Sorry if this has been gone over before...
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Re: Dr. Bowen

Post by InterestedReader »

Absolutely - He's fielding the accusation, when on the stand. I'm afraid I don't know exactly who accused him of it. He's clearly narked about 'press reports - was it something that just appeared in the papers? I'll have to have a look for who made the claim.

Bowen is the first person Lizzie calls for after Borden's death. Bowen later shepherds her up to her room, his behaviour a shade towards loco parentis. I 'spose what I've mainly wondered, reading the transcripts - Was there some kind of dependency on Bowen, in Lizzie? Or in Bowen, some kind of tenderness or sense of liability she calculated on manipulating to her advantage?

This may be an unpopular idea but when Lizzie changes to pink with red trim amid the scene of carnage, this bizarre colour-choice is what most, to me, spells loopy. She re-emerges from her room into the house as if she's dressed the heroine of a play. This wasn't anything to do with Bowen's attention, was it? I mean, if Lizzie had been fantasizing an affair with Bowen, it might explain a lot.
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Re: Dr. Bowen

Post by twinsrwe »

Here is further testimony of Dr. Bowen stating that Abby had fainted of fright, died with fright, or died of fright (Underlining is mine.):

Witness Statements, page 1, George W. Allen (Fall River, Mass. August 4, 1892):

The Marshal gave him orders to go right up to Mr. Borden’s house. He was there by twenty five minutes past eleven o’clock A. M. Just before we got there, Officer Doherty was ahead of us. When we went up stairs the Doctor said Mrs. Borden had fainted with fright. Officers Mullaly and Doherty turned her over. Officer Doherty said “My God her face is all smashed in.”

http://lizzieandrewborden.com/wp-conten ... sState.pdf

Witness Statements, page 4, P.H. Doherty (August 4, 1892):

11:35 At this hour I, with Frank Wixon, entered the Borden house 92 Second Street. Dr. Bowen met me at the kitchen door and said, “I am glad to see you.” I inquired, “What is the trouble?” He said, “Mr Borden is dead.” I went into the next room, and there found the remains on a sofa covered with a sheet. In low tones the Doctor told me he was satisfied there was something wrong, for they all had been sick the day before. He followed this by saying “to make matters worse, Mrs. Borden is lying dead upstairs. I suppose she saw the killing of her husband, and ran upstairs, and died with fright.”

http://lizzieandrewborden.com/wp-conten ... sState.pdf

Trial, opening statement of William H. Moody, page 73:

It is to be regretted that Dr. Bowen, a witness accustomed to observation, was the family physician and friend, and therefore affected, naturally, by this dreadful series of murders, for we might expect from him something of accurate observation; but Dr. Bowen thought Mrs. Borden had died of fright, and so expressed himself at the time.

http://lizzieandrewborden.com/wp-conten ... orden1.pdf

However, Dr. Bowen denies he said such a thing.

Trial testimony of Dr. Bowen being questioned by Mr. Moody, page, 308:

Q. Where were you standing, Doctor, when you saw the form of Mrs. Borden?
A. Directly in the door of the room.
Q. What did you do?
A. I went around the back of the bed---that is, the foot of the bed---and between the form and the bed, and placed my hand on her head. It was a little dark in the room, somewhat dark, not very light. I placed my hand on her head and found there were wounds in the head. Then I placed my---felt of her pulse---that is, felt of the wrist, and found she was dead.
Q. At the time when you first went to her, did you ascertain the cause of her death, or form an opinion as to it?
A. At the first time?
Q. Yes.
A. That was the first time.
Q. Yes, I understand that was the first time. You did so?
A. Certainly.
Q. Did you make any statement to any one that she had died of fright or in a faint?
A. No, sir.
Q. To no one?
A. No, sir. I will say this in explanation: My first thought, when I was standing in the door and saw the form over the bed,---my first thought was that she had fainted: but in a moment afterwards I convinced myself that she was dead.

http://lizzieandrewborden.com/wp-conten ... orden1.pdf
Last edited by twinsrwe on Sat Nov 12, 2016 11:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Dr. Bowen

Post by InterestedReader »

Thanks for setting it out, Twins. So Officers Allen and Doherty both heard Bowen say it. Then Moody is critical of Bowen, in his opening statement. It's weird, but, the guest-room was dark and Bowen in a state of shock.

Where it gets super-weird for me, is with Bowen's words reported by Doherty:
'In low tones the Doctor told me he was satisfied there was something wrong, for they had all been sick the day before.'
What? How would a bout of tummy-trouble end in fatal head-wounds?
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Re: Dr. Bowen

Post by twinsrwe »

You're welcome, Interested. Dr. Bowen sure doesn't display the professionalism that one would expect of an experienced physician. He tells Doherty that he supposed she saw the killing of her husband, and ran upstairs, and died with fright. What kind of a physician would say such a thing? At the trial when Mr. Moody asked him if he had made the statement that she had died of fright or in a faint to any one, why did he feel the need to provide an explanation after he had already stated that he had not?
InterestedReader wrote:...Where it gets super-weird for me, is with Bowen's words reported by Doherty:
'In low tones the Doctor told me he was satisfied there was something wrong, for they had all been sick the day before.'
What? How would a bout of tummy-trouble end in fatal head-wounds?
Good question! Unfortunately, Andrew and Abby took that explanation to the grave with them. :sad:
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Re: Dr. Bowen

Post by CerintheM »

Thanks so much, Twins and Interested, for laying that out!

Twins, you're totally right that he hardly behaved with professionalism. And Interested, you're also right that his anxiety is possibly just traceable to concerns about his professional reputation. Indeed, I'm certain that at least part of his anxiety was due to that. I wonder if both the "low tones" comment and his saying at first that Abby must have died of fright are related to professional anxiety. She said to him that she thought she'd been poisoned, he laughed it off. It would look bad if she really did turn out to be poisoned. Maybe when he saw Andrew was murdered, he assumed Abby might have been poisoned after all, and wanted to get the idea that she was murdered out of anyone's mind. So he started saying it when he hadn't checked her closely. Then, of course, she turned out to have a bunch of hatchet wounds.

That same professional anxiety might explain that police statement about how he got so anxious when he heard about a possible second agent of death. He was worried it WAS poison and he'd missed it.

(On that - anyone know why he didn't testify that Abby was worried she'd been poisoned at the trial, only at the inquest? This thread has some suggesting that Abby meant food-poisoning. http://tinyurl.com/j2c8qeq That's possible, I suppose, but it seems less likely to me.)

But he seemed to act strangely as soon as he got there. The single thing that sticks out to me the most is that immediately after checking out Andrew's body, he asks Mrs. Churchill if she would like a look-see. That doesn't seem very Victorian gentlemanly! Actually, seems a little strange for anyone. "Hey, that guy we both know well has had his face hacked to bits. Why don't you go see?" He didn't testify to that, but Mrs. Churchill did at the inquest, and there doesn't seem reason to doubt her.

According to Mrs. Churchill's testimony from the inquest, she said (in the midst of a long answer on pp. 128-9): "Dr. Bowen went into the sitting room, came out and shook his head and says 'that is awful'. He said to me, he was very much confused, 'Addie', he says, 'wont you go in and look at Mr. Borden'? I says, 'O, no Doctor, I dont want to see him. I looked at him out in the yard this morning, he looked nice to me, I dont want to see him.' He says, 'Perhaps it is best you should not', or 'it is just as well.'"

(seems worth noting that she continues: "Lizzie says 'Doctor will you send a telegram to Emma, my sister, for me'? Ie [sic] says 'I will do anything for you'." Fits into this caretaker role!)

The other weird thing is that at Miss Russell's and Mrs. Churchill's testimony at the inquest, and Bridget's at the trial, imply that they started discussing whether to look for Abby AFTER Dr. Bowen had seen Andrew's body but BEFORE he left to send the telegram to Emma. His story differs. But from their story, it seems like when they started talking about whether to go upstairs to look for Abby, Bowen asked for sheets to cover Andrew's body, gave Bridget a key so she could go upstairs to get the sheets, then high-tailed it out of there. Seems again like the Victorian gentlemanly thing to do would be to check the upstairs for dead bodies or murderers before letting Bridget get the sheets or leaving them in the house, no?
Bowen is the first person Lizzie calls for after Borden's death. Bowen later shepherds her up to her room, his behaviour a shade towards loco parentis. I 'spose what I've mainly wondered, reading the transcripts - Was there some kind of dependency on Bowen, in Lizzie? Or in Bowen, some kind of tenderness or sense of liability she calculated on manipulating to her advantage?

This may be an unpopular idea but when Lizzie changes to pink with red trim amid the scene of carnage, this bizarre colour-choice is what most, to me, spells loopy. She re-emerges from her room into the house as if she's dressed the heroine of a play. This wasn't anything to do with Bowen's attention, was it? I mean, if Lizzie had been fantasizing an affair with Bowen, it might explain a lot.
I suspect she was at least crushing on him, if not having an outright affair. Was it only the church visit that set tongues wagging, or was that just the most concrete example people had of a general trend? Maybe it wasn't just the prospect of spending money that irritated Andrew when Bowen showed up at the house the night before to check on everyone.

As Twins notes in this thread http://tinyurl.com/k789cnb, not only is it noticeable that Lizzie called for Dr. Bowen before she called the police, she didn't turn to the other two doctors who lived nearby. Curryong suggests in that thread that's because the other doctors were the "wrong" ethnicity; Joseph Conforti suggests this too in his book (so were most of the police, as far as that goes). Or maybe she wanted Dr. Bowen.

It's also a little noticeable that his wife didn't go over until called by Bridget, and then had to be sent from the room when she had an audible emotional response to Mrs. Borden's death.
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Re: Dr. Bowen

Post by NancyDrew »

Thanks, twins...I should have known that. I've been at this case so long, I forget what I've forgotten!

I noticed that according to Dr. Bowen himself, when summoned to the Borden house, he didn't go in the front door. Does anyone find that significant? He had just been thrown out the day before by Andrew Borden, and before entering the house, he didn't know Andrew was dead yet, no? There were no police guarding the front entrance yet either. Wouldn't etiquette dictate that he knock at the front door rather than using the side?
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Re: Dr. Bowen

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Oh my goodness, I've just searched the entire Forum for something and can't find it.

There's a letter or diary entry... about a social event. Young ladies convened for something. And the writer finishes with *So-and-so did the decent thing by Lizzie Borden*. Meaning that when it came to going-home-time Lizzie had no chaperone, so some chap obliged. When we read it we feel we recognise what Lizzie was - we all knew a girl like Lizzie. Some lack of easy affability, or charm, or physical attraction, or some kind of gaucherie, would leave her hovering unhitched at the end of the party. That piece of writing shows that Lizzie was a known phenomenon. She didn't get the 'normal' amount of male attention, she got obligational courtesies.

Oh where is it!

Bowen was 52 at the time. I just feel that if Lizzie was very isolated by her 'oddness' she might magnify even his smallest kindness. If Lizzie was a case of 'arrested development' (and I mean in the social sense) a man of Bowen's age would fit the bill for a crush.

Returning to Doherty's Witness Statement...

'He [Bowen] followed this by saying “to make matters worse, Mrs. Borden is lying dead up stairs. I suppose she saw the killing of her husband, and run up stairs, and died with fright.”

'I requested to see her; and on going up stairs found her lying on the floor, face downward, between the bed and dressing case. Several spots of blood was on the bed, and also a large tuft of hair. On examining the body, I found she was lying in a pool of blood. I informed the Doctor of the fact, and he expressed much surprise.'

At the Trial Doherty would make another attempt, but he's cut off:
A. I told Dr. Bowen that she had been murdered too.
Q. Had Dr. Bowen said anything to you as to the cause of her death before that?
A. Yes, sir.
MR. ROBINSON. Wait a moment. How is it competent?

What I imagine might be happening is, Bowen hangs back. He hangs back - as he says in self-justification - in the doorway a while. It's Doherty with the body who first sees the nature of the crime. And later in court Bowen is embarrassed by his own squeamishness. Are we happy with this explanation, or is Bowen just behaving too oddly throughout the day?

Dr Kelly next door was rather Irish and I'm not sure about Dr Chagnon out back, what 'ethnicity' he might be... but neither were available that morning of August the 4th. I suppose Bowen was 'their' doctor inasmuch as they subscribed to one - is it that simple?
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Re: Dr. Bowen

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Bowen took Lizzie to church, says Jane Gray. Fall River gossiped at the time and didn't stop. This is 1892. The actual transgression, according to Jane Gray, was 1888.

That's remarkable isn't it, four years' worth of gossip. Was Fall River really so desperate for topics of conversation? Gossip doesn't care about accuracy, of course, and as a member of Abby's family, Jane Gray might lean to the hostile side.

It must have gone hard with Lizzie when Andrew Borden gave up their carriage, but exactly when did this happen? Police-officers found the barn still set up for use as a carriage-house, with stalls and equipment, but apart from this our knowledge of the Borden household has a blind-spot when it comes to the carriage because no-one pursued the matter in 1892. All we have is Bridget's estimation during testimony, and Bridget thought the carriage went the year before. She'd been in their employ some three years (indeed the Fall River Herald said it was four) - long enough to know the carriage and see the going of it.

In 1895 a man fetched up in Brighton claiming to have been the Bordens' coachman - to have been in their employ about eight years and still in their employ when the murders happened. Since we've never heard of William Hamilton before it's easy to dismiss him at this vantage-point, but the ex-Governor himself, George D. Robinson, accompanied by five Fall River police officers and a lawyer named Adams, sped to Brighton where Hamilton was being held in prison. He'd been caught sending a letter to Lizzie Borden, he said the Bordens had been his employers, and he was black. Robinson, the lawyer and the five Fall River officers all vouched for 'Will' Hamilton, all said they knew him, and immediately got him released. Robinson had additional reason for vouchsafing the coachman's character - Hamilton had worked for Robinson himself before working those eight years for the Bordens. The most curious part of this is that Hamilton said he was 'on his way to the depot to collect Miss Emma Borden at the time of the murders'. What stopped him?

IrishLass found the wonderful Will Hamilton story. You can read the newspaper article in full here:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5785&hilit=hamilton

I initially interpreted Hamilton's words to mean his employment with the Bordens ended the day of the murders, but looking at it again, that's not what he says at all. He's trying to write to 'his former mistress' Lizzie in April 1895 - and throughout March he'd been unemployed 'a few weeks'. He's a familiar figure to Robinson and five Fall River police officers, 'Lizzie Borden's Former Coachman'. Did he again work for the Borden sisters after Lizzie's release? Or was there something about Emma's itinerary on August the 4th that Robinson didn't want people to know!

In any case, the fact the coachman is still well known to them in 1895 brings to mind Bridget's words in court - no great time had passed since Andrew Borden got rid of the carriage.

When Lizzie had no carriage, Bowen drove her to church.
It didn't take much to start tittle-tattle.
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