Understanding the Reason Why Lizzie May have Murdered

[Reasonwhy]

Hi, folks. I am new here, and have only posted three times, to MBHenty's "Upper Farm" topic. I have lurked for a good many years before that, though, hooked by the thoughtful posting of early contributors and all of you current writers! I thought maybe before I try to reply to more of your topics, I should explain my central fascination with this case.

That is, why did Lizzie (if she was the culprit) commit the murders?--hence my username, "Reasonwhy."

Have many of you been able to take advantage of the recent publication in affordable ($27.95 on Amazon today) paperback of "The Knowlton Papers"? I finally got my own copy this way, and searched for two letters I recalled having read when I borrowed a library copy. To me, they get to the heart of this mystery of how she (or any of us?) could be capable of such depravity.

--Writing to H.M. Knowlton, Esq. (the lead prosecutor), on page 283:
"....There is genius in crime as in poetry, Law, and Science. Just beyond the borderline of sanity there seems to be a dearth of perceptions as to moral right, the accused inhabits the land beyond that line--not an exceedingly rare order of being, but exceptionally rare in this respect, that she has calculation, intense and deep cunning, abnormal will power, and abundant courage to execute her will...."
Jesse C. Ivy,
Counsellor at Law,
113 Devonshire St., Boston, Mass., June 21st, 1893

--also writing to H.M. Knowlton, Esq. (the lead prosecutor), on page 327:
"....She is a member of my own church (Congl') but I know how often religion cloaks the vilest heart. I know also how relentless and unreasoning is jealousy. There are in this world and since this trial have been led to believe they may be rare, because so many refuse or cannot see it in the case of Miss Borden there are certain combinations of traits that produce the subtlest kind of torture for their friends who live with them while outwardly their conduct is irreproachable. Whether Miss Borden was one of these there is no one now to testify...."
Yours respectfully,
Elvira M. Daggett
Coventry, Vermont. June 24/93

I would so greatly appreciate your thoughts!

[PossumPie]

Hi, folks. I am new here, and have only posted three times, to MBHenty's "Upper Farm" topic. I have lurked for a good many years before that, though, hooked by the thoughtful posting of early contributors and all of you current writers! I thought maybe before I try to reply to more of your topics, I should explain my central fascination with this case.

That is, why did Lizzie (if she was the culprit) commit the murders?--hence my username, "Reasonwhy."

Have many of you been able to take advantage of the recent publication in affordable ($27.95 on Amazon today) paperback of "The Knowlton Papers"? I finally got my own copy this way, and searched for two letters I recalled having read when I borrowed a library copy. To me, they get to the heart of this mystery of how she (or any of us?) could be capable of such depravity.

--Writing to H.M. Knowlton, Esq. (the lead prosecutor), on page 283:
"....There is genius in crime as in poetry, Law, and Science. Just beyond the borderline of sanity there seems to be a dearth of perceptions as to moral right, the accused inhabits the land beyond that line--not an exceedingly rare order of being, but exceptionally rare in this respect, that she has calculation, intense and deep cunning, abnormal will power, and abundant courage to execute her will...."
Jesse C. Ivy,
Counsellor at Law,
113 Devonshire St., Boston, Mass., June 21st, 1893

--also writing to H.M. Knowlton, Esq. (the lead prosecutor), on page 327:
"....She is a member of my own church (Congl') but I know how often religion cloaks the vilest heart. I know also how relentless and unreasoning is jealousy. There are in this world and since this trial have been led to believe they may be rare, because so many refuse or cannot see it in the case of Miss Borden there are certain combinations of traits that produce the subtlest kind of torture for their friends who live with them while outwardly their conduct is irreproachable. Whether Miss Borden was one of these there is no one now to testify...."
Yours respectfully,
Elvira M. Daggett
Coventry, Vermont. June 24/93

I would so greatly appreciate your thoughts!

Welcome Reasonwhy!
Often we compare other's motivations or behaviors on the only person we know completely-ourselves. I've often thought "I could never kill my father in cold blood" but I've also thought that if someone was trying to harm my wife or any of my grandkids, I could absolutely kill them. I can't dismiss the possibility of Lizzie's guilt simply because she was kind to animals, a church-goer, and because I couldn't have done it if I were her. While we can't get in Lizzie's head, imagine YEARS of living below her means, seeing the wealthy live in luxury, take trips, etc. while she didn't even have indoor plumbing. This was the beginning of the age of luxury, the Titanic was only 20 years in the future. Lizzie knew that she was never going to marry, that if her father died her step-mother would get the money, and perhaps, just perhaps she decided that to kill her step-mom (who she admitted not liking) and her father (who was cold, detached, and disliked by many in the town) to get a chance at a good life.
How often do we hear friends, neighbors, and family say of a killer: He never showed that he had this in him! I'd never have guessed! The bond of sisterhood should be stronger than any bond, but for whatever reason, even Lizzie's sister gave up on her and never spoke to her again.

[Beowulf]

The no indoor plumbing would do it for me.

I have often thought when Lizzie went to church as she did on a regular basis and was around what would be her peers but were not because of the living conditions that the Borden's were subjected to through Mr. Borden's idea of saving money. Was she treated by what should've been her class level peers as somewhat 'subhuman' simply because they considered the family as living in a style not up to their standards, a style that included as part of it's lowly nature, uncleanliness? Unclean by the standards of the day.

Went I was in school we lived on the edge of town, a town that had money and in a house set back from a road with no sidewalk and which the back of was a woods. Personally I loved it. My father made the same money as some of the ones on the better side of town but he had a fear of being in over his head with debt, and so he bought a much less expensive home that did not measure up to the ones my classmates lived in on the other side of the same town.

I could not socialize with them as they were too far for a child to visit on a daily basis. We were isolated on that edge of town. But as I grew older the kids who knew us and our house where we lived ostracized me, considered me 'poor' though actually we were in less debt but being a kid I did not know that at all. All I knew is I felt ashamed of our home and it made me feel like I was some dirty urchin in a shanty house. Though we did have plumbing.

I did not want to kill anyone but I well remember the experience because it quite defined my outlook of who I was for many years. I never felt good enough to be bold and make friends, feeling I would suffer disdain and the pain of rejection. I lived and still do as an introvert, though I made a good living and own a house now that is above average in real estate pricing. It doesn't actually make me feel better than others, just that I can see through it, your worth is not your possessions. I never can forget that lesson. I knew my worth. I am not materialistic.

I think Lizzie experienced this but was of a different nature than I am. Maybe it was the 'no plumbing'. Having to use a chamber pot, rooms all connected, little ability to feel safe in ones own space without having to live behind locked doors. The church ladies possible whispering behind your back and keeping 'that distance' easily picked up on. The mental intrusiveness could be a deal breaker. Maybe she felt her life was on display, she could not rise to her station and enjoy the life that was so close to her grasp were it not for her father. Then she discovers all her life's yearning to grasp that brass ring is going to be taken away from her and handed to the partner in crime of the same imposed upon conditions. Whatever relations existed between them all in their cramped and not cozy home over many little painful episodes, bumping into the other crowd who should've been your station and being rejected by them as if it's 'you'.

Might make that brass ring pretty darn important. Might make one finally obtain a little palace for oneself, wear the finery, find the 'life' denied for so long.

I sympathize with that. I really do.

[Reasonwhy]

Hello Possum Pie, and thanks so much for your welcome!

It means a lot to me that you responded to my topic, as I've admired the logic of your posts through the years, as well as your professional insight reflected in them. It is my good luck to be able to join this forum when such as Kat and yourself are posting again.

I think you have summed up well factors behind Lizzie's motivations - her desire for luxury, dislike of Abby, Andrew's emotional/financial withholding. Also, I agree with you that 'perhaps, just perhaps, she decided to kill...to get a chance at a good life.'

Isn't that it, EXACTLY? She stole her parents' lives to make her life better.

Maybe with her rumored reputation for kleptomania, and her having been virtually caught at actual stealing from Tilden-Thurber, this shouldn't surprise. And she was full of a sense of entitlement. Recall the words of her Uncle Hiram Harrington from "The Fall River Daily Herald" of August 14, 1892: "lizzie ...was haughty and domineering with the stubborn will of her father and bound to contest her rights."

But to have this weakness of character, along with her other meanesses of personality (would that make a good topic itself?) explode into these horrific butcherings is undeniably evil. The Ivy letter quoted in my original post describes her "dearth of perceptions as to moral right," and that's the nut of my struggle to understand.

Most, as you, Possum Pie, and I, too, could well see themselves capable of taking a life--to save a life. Especially, to protect family. We feel that primal duty deep within ourselves.

BUT Lizzie destroyed her family. She's utterly outside of the moral order.

In my view, this makes her inhuman. It marks her as a monster. How was Lizzie made into a monster then? How are monsters made today? Can we prevent it? How do we medically treat these beasts? Or, if that's not possible, at least recognize their capacity soon enough to run from them and try to limit their powers of destruction?

[PossumPie]

Hello Possum Pie, and thanks so much for your welcome!

It means a lot to me that you responded to my topic, as I've admired the logic of your posts through the years, as well as your professional insight reflected in them. It is my good luck to be able to join this forum when such as Kat and yourself are posting again.

I think you have summed up well factors behind Lizzie's motivations - her desire for luxury, dislike of Abby, Andrew's emotional/financial withholding. Also, I agree with you that 'perhaps, just perhaps, she decided to kill...to get a chance at a good life.'

Isn't that it, EXACTLY? She stole her parents' lives to make her life better.

Maybe with her rumored reputation for kleptomania, and her having been virtually caught at actual stealing from Tilden-Thurber, this shouldn't surprise. And she was full of a sense of entitlement. Recall the words of her Uncle Hiram Harrington from "The Fall River Daily Herald" of August 14, 1892: "lizzie ...was haughty and domineering with the stubborn will of her father and bound to contest her rights."

But to have this weakness of character, along with her other meanesses of personality (would that make a good topic itself?) explode into these horrific butcherings is undeniably evil. The Ivy letter quoted in my original post describes her "dearth of perceptions as to moral right," and that's the nut of my struggle to understand.

Most, as you, Possum Pie, and I, too, could well see themselves capable of taking a life--to save a life. Especially, to protect family. We feel that primal duty deep within ourselves.

BUT Lizzie destroyed her family. She's utterly outside of the moral order.

In my view, this makes her inhuman. It marks her as a monster. How was Lizzie made into a monster then? How are monsters made today? Can we prevent it? How do we medically treat these beasts? Or, if that's not possible, at least recognize their capacity soon enough to run from them and try to limit their powers of destruction?

I tend to avoid flowery language and stick with evidenced-based-information. "monsters" are born and made. Genetic traits are passed on such as temper and lack of empathy, and evolved through interactions with parents, friends, and family. Twins separated at birth often show shocking similarities reinforcing the genetic component of personality, and yet a child raised in a cold, detached family can overcome good genetics and become "evil". I've seen killers who have been raised in relatively warm homes (Jeffery Dahmer) and wondered where the killing instinct came from, and seen other killers such as Ed Gein's mother who was directly involved in Ed's crazy personality. It is a mixture of genes and environment.
Lizzie had "cold-calculating" genes from her father, and was raised in a cold stark environment. We no nothing about the day-to-day conditions, some people speculate about sexual abuse by father (no proof but Emma and Lizzie lived alone with their father for a while until he re-married). There is NOT enough proof to convict her, but there is enough information to speculate.

[Reasonwhy]

Hello, Beowulf. Thank you for sharing some of your own life. That was a beautifully written post. You really made me feel a bit of what you experienced. I am sorry you received such unkind, ignorant treatment and felt that pain.

If it is not presumptuous, may I say that your ability to empathize with Lizzie's conditions of life shows strength and is kind to her, perhaps from my view, more than she may deserve. (I do feel sympathy for Lizzie in several respects, mostly in the loss of her mother at only age two, and in the aspects of her personality she could not seem to control, to her own sorrow, such as her inability to make many lasting connections with other people).

In contrast to Lizzie's, it seems your character grew in empathy as a result of your sufferings. And you were already stronger than her, in knowing your own worth, and in not accepting materialistic judgments. I perceive your point that she may have been hurt in lasting ways by people ostracizing her, as you say you were.

Yet this is the puzzle I'm trying to get at. From what you write, you seem decent and admirable--never wishing anyone dead, gaining wisdom and compassion from tough times in your life, writing with sensitivity to help us understand this case. To me it seems there is a vast gulf between a person like you and Lizzie (again, if she was the murderer.) All of us have experienced pain, some of it horrendous, even brutal. What makes a Lizzie decide she is justified in taking her father and step-mother's lives as revenge or for social betterment?

You showed courage and were generous in sharing so frankly, and that's impressive to me. Thank you.

[Reasonwhy]

I tend to avoid flowery language and stick with evidenced-based-information. "monsters" are born and made. Genetic traits are passed on such as temper and lack of empathy, and evolved through interactions with parents, friends, and family. Twins separated at birth often show shocking similarities reinforcing the genetic component of personality, and yet a child raised in a cold, detached family can overcome good genetics and become "evil". I've seen killers who have been raised in relatively warm homes (Jeffery Dahmer) and wondered where the killing instinct came from, and seen other killers such as Ed Gein's mother who was directly involved in Ed's crazy personality. It is a mixture of genes and environment.
Lizzie had "cold-calculating" genes from her father, and was raised in a cold stark environment. We no nothing about the day-to-day conditions, some people speculate about sexual abuse by father (no proof but Emma and Lizzie lived alone with their father for a while until he re-married). There is NOT enough proof to convict her, but there is enough information to speculate.

Possum, it is fascinating to study the influence of genetics and environment to try to tease out the reasoning for behavior. And I think the science is getting there, recognizing the importance for studying criminals' backgrounds, DNA and brain imaging. Yet understanding exactly what contributes to acts of murder has not evolved far enough to remove the mystery in individual cases, especially from long ago. In the meantime, it's absorbing - and weirdly engrossing! - as on this forum, to try to decipher from the limited clues we do have.

Yet, it's serious, too, as in interpreting Lizzie we're trying also to figure out human nature, and our own capacities for mental health ("good") or aberrance ("evil"). I'm enjoying your posts as they further my thinking.

[Kat]

Hello!
There's a statement made that the girls lived alone with Andrew for a while, but actually the reverse is true- they lived within a large family unit at Ferry St. Not a lot of privacy, there...and Andrew married Abbie while still at Ferry St.
Timeline from LizzieAndrewBorden.com
This offering is plz only to help contribute to the dissection of Lizzie's personality and character. Thanks.
(Can click on pic to make bigger)

[Beowulf]

Reasonwhy:

Those area very nice things to say of me. Lots of nice things, and I thank you, I come off quite the angel

I will say, regarding my strength. I had loving parents who always told me how I was good I was or smart, and by reinforcing the better angels of my nature led me to become a better person.

I don't know how Lizzie's parents were with her, raising her. I'm thinking her father valued money to the extent he sacrificed his families creature comforts and ignored the separation of the daughters from their class. In all things demonstrated his value of money and was known for it then Lizzie was her father's daughter and that became her personal ideal.

I think I sympathize with her because there is more about her and not much about her parents to open up an empathetic view of them. If I knew them, saw the deed done maybe I'd be less sympathetic, but as with the rest of the town I bet I'd find it hard to imagine she did it at the moment of discovery. So horrible a thing you want to see some creature foaming at the mouth as the offender.

Instead you see a young woman in a clean dress. I think it took time to slowly consider the facts and realize she may have been the offender.

[Reasonwhy]

Reasonwhy:

Those area very nice things to say of me. Lots of nice things, and I thank you, I come off quite the angel

I will say, regarding my strength. I had loving parents who always told me how I was good I was or smart, and by reinforcing the better angels of my nature led me to become a better person.

I don't know how Lizzie's parents were with her, raising her. I'm thinking her father valued money to the extent he sacrificed his families creature comforts and ignored the separation of the daughters from their class. In all things demonstrated his value of money and was known for it then Lizzie was her father's daughter and that became her personal ideal.

I think I sympathize with her because there is more about her and not much about her parents to open up an empathetic view of them. If I knew them, saw the deed done maybe I'd be less sympathetic, but as with the rest of the town I bet I'd find it hard to imagine she did it at the moment of discovery. So horrible a thing you want to see some creature foaming at the mouth as the offender.

Instead you see a young woman in a clean dress. I think it took time to slowly consider the facts and realize she may have been the offender.

Hi, Beowulf. I’ve been thinking about your posts on this topic. I was remembering a lecture I once attended giving advice on how teachers should treat - and not treat - their students. I cannot remember the speaker’s name now, or I would credit him.

The gist of his talk was this: It is hurt people who hurt people. He was talking about the importance of not humiliating students in the classroom with sarcasm or put downs. Also he stressed talking to the whole class as one would talk to the best students (those most striving, most engaged, those good at encouraging and developing others’ ideas). He said it was especially key to deal with all individual kids respectfully, and as if they were the best, when seeing them outside of class (in the hallways, at games) and most vital to do this in front of other people. When teachers behaved in the opposite way, he said, they mortified kids into feelings of shame and planted thoughts of vengeance.

If Lizzie had repeatedly been made to feel ignored or embarrassed by Andrew and Abby; if no one ever much valued her efforts or contributions; if Abby was “mean” to her and “never seemed to be interested” in her; if Andrew slaughtered the pigeons she cared for; if the Swansea farm(s) where she’d enjoyed fishing with her father were to be signed over to Abby behind her back, as the half-sister’s house had been secretly gifted by Andrew; if she couldn’t succeed as she wanted to at the piano and had quit school early and found little return for all of her efforts at church….
Then I can see these wounds and insults congealing in her mind, building through her paranoia into a dangerous belief in her victim hood - and fueling a rage to hurt back.

How different it all might have turned out if she had been well-taught by the adults around her to keep trying to build herself into someone she could be proud of; if they had encouraged her attempts, and guided her in how to build real achievements and turned her away from selfishness and greed. Instead, Her family built her into a bully they grew to be afraid of, by indulging her temper and demands.

They did not seem to know how to show her love nor to instill discipline, and thus threw fuel onto what may have been a genetic spark of mental illness. She was hurt. So she hurt others.

[Kat]

This is a fakefoto Harry made of Lizzie in mourning the day of the murders, when she changed clothes and stayed in her room with her minister. We would oftentimes try to find some comic relief during serious discussions, but it may be informative, too.

[Beowulf]

Reasonwhy, yes. I have wondered about lizzies state of mind and thought what the heck led her to such an act ? That teacher was wise. Good point, ‘hurt people hurt people’.

I found Harry’s photo amusing and interesting so I’m putting here an oil painting I did of the borden house and a painting of a guilty Lizzie. It’s titled Memories of murder in the Lizzie Borden house.

My husband wanted me to call it ‘Don’t axe me what happened’

[Reasonwhy]

Reasonwhy, yes. I have wondered about lizzies state of mind and thought what the heck led her to such an act ? That teacher was wise. Good point, ‘hurt people hurt people’.

I found Harry’s photo amusing and interesting so I’m putting here an oil painting I did of the borden house and a painting of a guilty Lizzie. It’s titled Memories of murder in the Lizzie Borden house.

My husband wanted me to call it ‘Don’t axe me what happened’

Beowulf, You can write and paint? You got the gifts, girl!

[Reasonwhy]

This is a fakefoto Harry made of Lizzie in mourning the day of the murders, when she changed clothes and stayed in her room with her minister. We would oftentimes try to find some comic relief during serious discussions, but it may be informative, too.

Thanks for a needed chuckle, Kat. Just seeing an image of that wrapper makes me cringe--what horrible taste for post murder. Does anybody else think she's dressed like Mary Poppins?

[Beowulf]

I can write?

As for the dress…just a spoonful of sugar helps the Prussic go down

[Reasonwhy]

Oh it's a jolly 'oliday with Lizzie
Lizzie makes your 'eart so light!
….
No wonder that it's Lizzie that we love!

[PossumPie]

Poor Lizzie, now I feel kinda bad for her. I wonder why she never married? She was cute. I know her personality wasn't the greatest, but I love her eyes... I guess bringing a beau home to dear old dad sort of killed the chances of romance. BTW, I wonder how she dealt with sleeping in a room next to her father and step-mother with only a thin door between...I'm sure she spent many a night listening to the headboard bang...That would be enough for me to kill.

[Kat]

Beowulf, that painting is fantastic. It not only captures Lizzie's essence ( by actually hinting at her features, not fully defined) but the visual perspective is very creative! WOW TWO pears!

[Kat]

Emma had that room the longest period of that marriage- I feel more sorry for her than Lizzie

[Reasonwhy]

But there again is oddness. Lizzie may have wanted the room for its bigger size, and larger space in which to display her European treasures (and Emma may have been mollifying a bullying Lizzie by giving it to her - or not).

However the switch came about, Lizzie jams her bed up catty-cornered into just that part of the room nearest the door to the senior Bordens’ room, and very near the head of their bed. Seems like she wanted to overhear their talk. Creepy and paranoid and possibly malignant.

[Reasonwhy]

Oops, double post.

[PossumPie]

But there again is oddness. Lizzie may have wanted the room for its bigger size, and larger space in which to display her European treasures (and Emma may have been mollifying a bullying Lizzie by giving it to her - or not).

However the switch came about, Lizzie jams her bed up catty-cornered into just that part of the room nearest the door to the senior Bordens’ room, and very near the head of their bed. Seems like she wanted to overhear their talk. Creepy and paranoid and possibly malignant.

Yes...remember there were not TVs, radios, or sound machines to drown out the sounds back then. You laid in bed and heard all the house sounds. I always wondered about the symbolism (or lack of it) with bed positioning in front of the communicating door to the Borden's room. The bedroom used to be a kitchen and there are some built in cabinets, but there are a few other places a bed could have gone. The current owners have placed all of the upstairs furniture in Lizzie and Emma's rooms in more convenient places, not where they were back then. Lock a door, push a bed up against it...at an angle no less which wastes precious space behind Lizzie's headboard. My years of doing counseling cause the incest red flags to pop into my mind, but as Kat states that they spent almost no time living with just the girls and him. It could have been simple design of the room that made her put the bed there. There have been many speculations about incest (and even some hoaxes) but with domestic servants in the home, the strange way you had to pass through other rooms to get to your room, locked doors, I think it is all unsubstantiated rumor, the kind of rumor that can ruin reputations. I've read through most of the incest theories and while they are dramatic, exciting, and full of illegitimate kids and former maids with dark secrets, there just is no proof.

[Beowulf]

Kat,

Thank you for the kind words

What led me to it is I kept wondering if she had ever thought back on the murders, which I cannot imagine she did not. This is all presuming she was the murderer, but that is what I think.

I wondered if years later memories of that day would come to her and I wondered ‘how would she remember it’? Because from our point of view we might think of her remembering it in a remorseful way but then I thought perhaps she would think of it with the still hatred for them in her heart and remember it in a cold fashion as if she were gloating over the murder of her stepmother.

[Reasonwhy]

....What led me to it is I kept wondering if she had ever thought back on the murders, which I cannot imagine she did not. This is all presuming she was the murderer, but that is what I think.

I wondered if years later memories of that day would come to her and I wondered ‘how would she remember it’? Because from our point of view we might think of her remembering it in a remorseful way but then I thought perhaps she would think of it with the still hatred for them in her heart and remember it in a cold fashion as if she were gloating over the murder of her stepmother.

Worth more than a thousand words. You have powerfully conveyed her frigid eyes. I find it a potent, frightening painting, honestly.

[Beowulf]

Not to go on and on about my art and derail the subject but I thank you for your compliment of my capturing her frigid look and to quote you, " I find it a potent, frightening painting, honestly" I have to say, normally my paintings are all landscapes and pretty scenes of trees and flowers, lol. That painting is the exception, but Lizzie is a compelling subject ;)

[Reasonwhy]

Beowulf, I miss you! Come back!

[Beowulf]

Beowulf, I miss you! Come back!

That’s very sweet of you, thank you. I have read a few things here but have been very busy, my mother died a few months ago and we are in the process of having to go through the entire house and do something with it all. It’s sad and exhausting. I’m here but uninspired at the moment.

[Reasonwhy]

My heart is with you, Beowulf. I went through this with my own beloved mom and dad. Hope this forum may be a distraction and relief for you, when you are ready.

[Kat]

You must be feeling very overwhelmed, Beowulf. So sorry for your loss.
I think I came back here after 8 years for a distraction from the several things going on, myself, along with fatigue. Meet some new people who at least I know are Lizzie enthusiasts.

The mien you captured, of Lizzie looking upon Abbie's murder, seems to say "yes, this is what I have wrought, and I would do it again..."

[InvestigatorGal]

Great posts everyone and I agree with the theories that have been presented. In addition to what has already been stated, I wonder if seeing Andrew and Abby get sick in their older ages that week, or just the fact that her father would soon be 70, gave Lizzie thoughts of their mortality and thus she needed to ensure the order in which their deaths happened (specifically that Abby went first). I also wonder if after committing one act, was she simply emboldened to carry it further to hasten her inheritance? I still find myself wondering why these murders happened and that’s what makes this case so fascinating to me. If Lizzie did it (which I believe she did), I think she had to be very, very clever and methodical in her planning and carrying out of the murders.