Lizzie Borden Society Forum

This item has just a couple of hours left before bidding is over. It claims to be a lock of hair belonging to Lizzie when she was a child.

There is a huge problem with this sale. One is: It's on eBay. An item this valuable would go up to a big auction house, not eBay. And thought the owner of the letter and hair was a real person/collector, there is no proof that this is Lizzie's hair. The COA is worthless. All it says is that the collector owned the item. Credible COAs are not issued by the collector. There are many particulars behind a tenable certificate stating that the item is what it is. This one does not reach that level. Also, the hand writing of the letter does not match Emma's. Nor does the signature. And in the old day, when someone cut hair to save, they did so in a longer manner, and usually tied by a ribbon, string, etc. They did not just clip off a few strands. (If Emma did sell it, she could have had a pony tail and cut off a sample to sell. But, I can't imagine Emma selling such an item. But who knows. NO one)

This sale is very tempting. The collector is assumed to be a real person, very rich, and a collector of some very rare and unique items. But the proof here is just not convincing.

Sold

Here in the UK there was recently a documentary about the market for hair relics. I think it was called 'Dead Famous' and focused on the DNA aspect - DNA has become a lucrative commodity. There were shifty types like David Irving trying to flog Hitler's hair. I think I recall a Harold Shigley being under investigation for fraud. Isn't he the one who's spent years building up his backstory of a grandfather with the hugest collection of 'dead famous' hair? You know, lots of presidents and so on. But he's thought to be selling fakes. He was pushing this 'Emma letter + Lizzie lock' ten years ago.

(By far the best bit of the programme was the discovery of Eva Braun's hair on her hairbrush - it's most probably hers. Analysis shows that the last thing Hitler did in his bunker was to marry, unwittingly, a woman of Ashkenazi descent.)

hmmm Interesting