Why held so long?

[DWilly]

In a few of the papers I've been reading a couple of reporters complained about Lizzie being held for what they felt was a long time without a trial. Is it possible the prosecution thought she might break in Jail and confess? Or were they simply trying to find more evidence?

[Kat]

I think there's a complicated answer.
Partly tho, I think you covered 2 good reasons.
Other than those, I think another reason was that the timing of everything was hard to sync up between the defense and the State, and the docket at New Bedford for Superior Court had to be determined.
I do think, tho, they thought jail would break her. They were still looking for insanity in her family and maybe there was a small hope Lizzie'd end up in Taunton Asylum.

[Elizabelle]

If anything, I think being held in jail that long gave Lizzie the motivation and determination NOT to confess (if there was anything to confess to), or breathe a word of anything to do concerning the murders.

That time spent in jail couldn't have been very fun, and I'm sure her goal was to not spend the rest of her life there. I can visualize a stubborn Lizzie thinking to herself, "By gum, they're not getting ANY INFORMATION FROM ME!!!"

And they didn't.

[snokkums]

I think the police thought that maybe that a good victorian woman like Lizzie would finally come about. Or maybe they thought that she would go "crazy" and they would have an explaination as to why she went and killed her parents, she was insane at the time.