Yacht Mabel F. Swift

[camgarsky4]

Based on her comments to Alice Russell on Aug 3rd, Lizzie visited Marion in the days before the murders. Borden sleuths have had two choices on what date that trip occurred.….newspaper reports tell us she was on Blake’s Point in Marion on Monday July 25th and Emma testified that it was Saturday, July 30th.

Rebello Pg. 62-64 and Parallel Lives Pg. 539
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New Bedford Evening Standard July 26, 1892
“Yacht Mabel F. Swift of Fall River is now at Marion. Her owner, Charles W. Anthony, is cruising with a party of friends including Hon. Simeon Borden, Hon. James F. Jackson and Messrs. Holder W. Durfee, William Winslow and R. W. Bassett.”

The following ladies from Fall River are stopping at Blake’s Point: Mrs. James Jackson, Misses Edith Jackson, Jennie Stowell, Anna Holmes, Mary Holmes, Mabel Remington, Louise Remington, Alice Buck, Isabelle Fraser, Louise Handy, Elizabeth Johnston, Annie Bush and Lizzie Borden.”

Fall River Evening News July 27, 1892
“Sloop yacht Mabel F. Swift was at Marion, Monday, where the following ladies from Fall River are stopping at Blake’s Point: Mrs. James Jackson, Misses Edith Jackson, Jennie Stowell, Anna Holmes, Mary Holmes, Mabel Remington, Louise Remington, Alice Buck, Isabelle Fraser, Louise Handy, Elizabeth Johnston, Annie Bush and Lizzie Borden.”

Emma’s trial testimony (full context pgs. 1550-1551).
Q. During that time (5 days Lizzie in w/ Poole’s), do you know, did she go to Marion?
A. No sir, she did not
Q Do you know of her going to Marion while you were away?
A. Yes sir
Q. What day was that?
A. It must have been a week the following Saturday. We went to New Bedford Thursday.
Q. The Saturday before you came home?
A. Yes sir.

Bridger Preliminary Hearing cross examination. Pg. 54
Q. Did Lizzie go away any time after that, and before the tragedy?
A. I cannot tell.
Q. Did she not go away a Saturday?
A. I don't know.
Q. Did she go away the Saturday before the tragedy?
A. I cannot remember.
Q. Did she go away Sunday?
A. I do not know.

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But now we have more clarity on when she was in Marion. Reading Mrs. Poole’s interview in the Jennings Journals pg. 251, we get a far greater understanding of Lizzie’s activities those 5 days in New Bedford.

Jennings Journals – Notations by Jennings via interview w/ Mrs. Poole of New Bedford (see pg. 251 for full activity recollection).
“Monday (July 25th) -- She (Lizzie) did not go out,. I went out and engaged horse to go to Westport next morning”

Emma & Mrs. Poole seem very definitive in their recollections. So why would the newspaper article be wrong on something like this. There are at least two plausible (and likely) scenarios. (1) Note that Lizzie’s name is last in both articles. I don’t think that is just a coincidence. It seems reasonable to me that whomever of the group was giving the reporter their names, decided to add Lizzie out of ‘team spirit’ since she had intended to be with the group. (2) A similar option is that the girls (aka women) provided the writeup to both newspapers (name listings are identical) as part of the ‘fun’ of the outing. I ran community newspapers for a decade in Southern California and most smaller local snippets were submitted by readers to the newspapers for publication because most papers don’t have the staff to cover small events.

After careful consideration, I am of the solid opinion that Lizzie made a day trip to Marion on Saturday July 30 and was not in Marion on Monday July 25th.

The question outstanding is why did she make this single day trip when she had consciously avoided joining the Marion ladies earlier due to schedule conflicts. What drew her to hop over to Marion just days before the murders? Why didn’t she stay overnight? Seems like Lizzie would have mentioned when describing her recent travels at the Inquest. Also interesting that the defense poked Bridget to see how aware she was of Lizzie's travel in the days before the murder.