Franz wrote:KGDevil, to be honest, I would say that it's for me very difficult to imagine how to suspect a figure as Mrs. Churcill using the SAME weight of evidence I have for Morse.
Theory of Mrs. Churchill orchestrating the murders, with the help of Thomas Bowles, and Dr. Benjamin Handy.
Mrs. Churchill lived right next door to the Bordens for all of the years they lived on second street. That gave her ample opportunity to learn the habits of their comings and goings. To learn when the maid washed the windows. She stated that Thursday was generally the day for Bridget to wash windows. (Inquest page 127) She could watch their house every day for years. For instance, she just happened to see Andrew leaving that morning. She happened to see Bridget washing the parlor windows that morning. She happened to see Lizzie through the window after coming home with her groceries. This suggests that Mrs. Churchill had a habit of watching the Borden house. Why? What would her motives be for watching their home so intently that she knew the movements of almost everyone that day? She sees and can corroborate almost all of the key comings and goings that morning except the killer's and John Morse's. How convenient. She even started that Abby went out to do the marketing a good many times, and that they marketed at Whiteheads (also inquest page 127). Mrs. Churchill knew a good bit about their habits. Even through her protests that she didn’t pay attention to their business, and didn’t know the private business of the family, she also had to state that she knew the family intimately. Which is it?
Thomas Bowles was outside that morning supposedly washing a carriage. Was it a coincidence that Mrs. Churchill gives him a reason for being outside that morning at around the exact time of the murders?
Witness statements page 8: Mrs Churchill said she left her house about 11:00 am. Around the same time that Andrew’s murder took place. But she claims to have seen nothing strange. Why is she putting herself at a distance from the Borden house at the exact time frame that the killer would need to escape? She said that she returned to her house around 11:15 - 11:20. But again, she sees nothing strange except Bridget running across the street. Almost exactly right after Lizzie found Andrew’s body. Then she just happens to see Lizzie looking upset through her window, across the yard, and through the back screen door. She could see Lizzie that clearly? Mrs. Churchill had been a very observant woman that morning. She saw almost everything. Coincidence?
The clerk at Hudner’s market places Mrs. Churchill leaving around 11:05 or 11:10. It was supposedly a five minute walk. Mrs. Churchill’s brother also worked there. She said she was having him make a phone call for her. So she knows someone with a phone, but doesn’t phone police, or a doctor about what’s going on.
On page 11 of the witness statements, after already being interviewed two times, Mrs. Churchill starts to elaborate on what happened after she went over to the back door. Now saying that Lizzie thought she heard Mrs. Borden come in. That Lizzie thought they had killed Mrs. Borden too. Why is she giving the statement of both Bordens being dead before she had even gotten into the house? And why is she still not calling police?
Page 9 of the Witness statements: Saturday August 6, 1892. Mrs. John Gomeley No. 90 Second street. “Please fix the time”? “About eleven o’clock, I could not say whether it was before or after, first heard of the case from Mrs. Churchill, she ran through the house saying, Mr. Borden is murdered.” How did Mrs. Churchill already know Mr. Borden had been murdered?
She also says that she asked Lizzie “Has any man been to see your father this morning?” Why ask that question?
Then, knowing that Andrew was dead, killed, Mrs. Churchill offers to go get a doctor. What is a doctor going to do for a dead man? Is she stalling for time? She is the first one on the scene. She does not send for police, though she knows where there is a phone she can use. She claims to have gone looking for someone to go and find a doctor, on a street close to several doctors, but sent her hired man Thomas Bowles. Instead, she hangs around the stables across the street talking to possible witnesses. Why is she going to look for someone else to look for a doctor anyway? What kind of sense does that make?
Then there is Dr. Handy’s agitated man that he actually traveled to try and identify on page 15 of the witness statements, but on Page 19 of the Witness Statements Dr. Benjamin Handy: “Entered Second Street from Morgan Street, continued down and turned into Borden street, did not stop until I arrived home. No 37 Rock street. Now, Mr. Harrington, I never told you that I thought the man I saw committed the crime, did I? I never said the man I saw committed the crime, and don’t think he did.”
Why is Dr. Handy going to identify someone on page 14 to see if it is the man he saw that day, and trying to disparage this alleged man as being the killer on page 19? Maybe because Dr. Handy lied? Because he does not want to be someone who can identify the killer? Or because he had been trying to throw off the identity of the real killer? He seems not to even be able to fully explain why he supposedly noticed this man in the first place.
Why does he seem like such a reluctant witness?
Also on page 19 of the witness statements: Harrington says “ the fact that Dr. Handy so readily pronounced him not the man, is, to my mind, very significant. His social relations with Miss Lizzie are very close. She was to spend her vacation at Dr. Handy’s cottage at Marion with his daughter.”
Dr. Handy was very close socially with Lizzie. She spent time staying at his cottage. And he was expecting Lizzie to be away for a vacation. But she had changed her plans and stayed home. Then John V. Morse shows up one day and gives the police someone else to throw suspicion on. As long as they act quickly. Could this be why Mrs. Churchill noticed the comings and goings of everyone but Mr. Morse? She didn’t want to corroborate his story?
Dr. Handy seems to go out of his way to make sure that it’s known that he doesn’t know the man, cannot identify him, can’t explain why he noticed him, and never said he was the killer. Even when those are not the questions that are being asked. Guilty conscience?
Dr. Handy at trial page 1369:
Q. Did you see anyone in the vicinity of that house that attracted your attention at that time?
A.I did, sir.
Q. Won’t you describe what you saw and what the person was doing, as near as you can?
A.I didn’t know the person that I saw.
Dr. Handy page 1370:
Q. Do you know Thomas Bowles that works for Mrs. Churchill?
A.Yes, sir.
Q. How well do you know him?
A.He used to work for me.
Q. Was it he?
A.No, sir.
Witness Statements page 12: Mrs. Churchill “So Bridget and I started. I think she lead the way. We went up the front stairs, but I only went far enough to clear my eyes above the second floor. The door to the spare room is on the north side of this hall, and was open. I turned my head to the left, and through this door I could see under the bed of this room. On the north side of the bed, on the floor, I saw what I thought to be a prostrate body.”
Why is Mrs. Churchill stopping in the exact spot of the steps where she could clearly see Abby’s body under the bed? Is it because she already knew that Abby was there? So she need not go all the way up, and she knew where to look? Thomas Bowles could have told her where he left the body.
Why is Thomas Bowles not in the witness statements? Exactly when in the case was he named as a witness? He wasn’t at the inquest either. He doesn’t show up until the trial. Was it because his name was purposefully withheld?
Trial testimony of John Cunningham claims that he saw Mrs. Churchill run across the street to Hall’s stable. He was collecting money for papers on that street. He continued up the street to Wade’s store collected his payment, came back down the street to see Mrs. Churchill talking to two or three gentleman on the sidewalk in front of Hall’s stable. Not getting a doctor, or calling police. He heard what had happened and he finally stepped into the paint shop and phoned police. There is another phone Mrs. Churchill could have used to call police, or a doctor. Page 421 of trial testimony he telephones the Central Police Station. As Mrs. Churchill stood and talked to witnesses.
Thomas Bowles had been known to the family at 90 Second for at least as long as 12 years.He also worked for Dr. Handy.
Then after 1892 Thomas Bowles seems to just disappear. Why?
Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell. - Arthur Conan Doyle