Mondo Lizzie Borden

While watching the documentary “Murder in the Family,” produced for American Justice and A&E, “newsscout” noticed and reported to me that the film contains a hitherto unseen image of the Borden house on 92 Second Street. I looked at all my sources and online collections and lo and behold I discovered that it is indeed a rare shot, and one that does not seem to be reproduced in any other source. Below is a screen capture from that film.

After careful examination, the conclusion is that the building to the right of the Borden front door is the rear shed from the Kelly yard. It appears to be so large because of an optical illusion created by the position of camera so low to the ground and the angle of the shot pointing up towards the front door, capturing the distant building as looming much larger than it did in real life.

Ta da!

Len Rebello, author of Lizzie Borden Past and Present, tells us that his book has officially sold out. Still need a copy? I suggest abebooks.com or bookfinder.com for used copies.

Says the auction title: Lizzy Borden Mansion. Orig. Blueprints. One of a Kind. Only $3000! Not an auspicious start to a very expensive offering when they get the spelling of the main character’s name wrong! Lots of errors in the listing too. See if you can spot them.

Up for auction is a piece of American History and perhaps the end to a 100 year old mystery?

The images in this auction are photos of a one of a kind set of blueprints that Lizzy Borden requested of a prominent architectual firm for the design of a victorian mansion that she wanted to have built for her and her sister. There are eight blueprints to this set. They were designed by the very fashionable architectual firm of ANGELL and SWIFT Architects of Providence, Rhode Island. The design depicts a very elaborate (even for victorian times) mansion that Lizzy Borden wanted built with her fathers money. These are authentic documents and gauranteed to be the only set in existence. The title block says: “Plans for the Residence of Misses Borden Fall River, Mass. Angell and Swift Architects, Providence, R.I..”

The real intrigue here is that this design was contracted before the murder of her parents. Had they been available for admission as evidence in her court trial, she might not have been acquitted. How do I know this? These blueprints were given to me by a friend of my mother. His Grandfather was a contracter in Fall River, Mass.. and was asked to quote on this design. The story that goes with these documents is that when Lizzy Borden approached her father with the plans he absolutely refused her the money. He had a reputation as playing his bank account very close to his vest.

We cannot specifically identify the exact date that these documents were drawn up (as they are not dated), but the contractor who originally handled them for quote claims they were before the parents were murdered. According to the many books written about this sensational trial, when it was over Lizzy had paid off so many Lawyers and judges (and jury members) that she had little money left to build such a grand home. She settled for something much more modest in the area.

These documents have been examined by Sotheby’s and the Lizzy Borden Museum in Fall River, Mass.. They are claimed to be authentic. Sotheby’s quoted a verbal auction estimate of $5-6,000 dollars. ANGELL and SWIFT Architects designed some of the most prominent homes on the East Side of Providence and can be gooogled on the internet.

There are eight 19″ x 26″ blueprints in this set. I only photographed seven. The missing one is the Second Story Plan. This is a tremendous collectors opportunity. Think about it; had these documents been admitted as evidence for motive would you acquit her?

Final note: On the tombstone of the Borden family housekeeper it reads: “Secrets Never Known”.

Balderdash. Lizzie never paid off jurors or judges. Lizzie’s housekeeper (unnamed here) did not have this written on her tombstone.

And since there is NO DATE on these drawings, how are we to know “that this design was contracted before the murder of her parents”? Plus, if the seller had these appraised through Sotheby’s, then why are they not handling this auction? And last, but not least, Borden was a common name in the Fall River area. Don’t you think that these might have been made up for someone else?

No true provenance, no true date, no true connection, facts wrong in the auction listing, incorrect understanding of the case. All this adds up to trouble. Stay away!

In an interview with Crime Historian E.J. Wagner on Laura James’ Clews blog, the author of Science of Sherlock Holmes responds to a question put to her about Lizzie Borden.

In Science of Sherlock Holmes, you neatly highlight the forensic failings of the medical examiner in the Lizzie Borden case. I noticed you cited Victoria Lincoln’s book about the case in your bibliography. So you think Lizzie did it?

Oh yes — I believe Lizzie was seriously lethal. Even if one overlooks the many discrepancies in Lizzie’s account of events, it is telling that Lizzie’s response to finding her father’s battered body was to inform the maid “Someone’s come in and killed father” and then send the maid out of the house while Lizzie remained inside. What made Lizzie sure that the “someone” was no longer in the house, ready to re-use the axe? What made her certain that the maid was not the assailant?

In spite of all this, I gloomily suspect that someone, somewhere, will write a book “proving” that Mr. Borden killed his wife for serving mutton soup at breakfast, and committed suicide in a fit of guilt. Lizzie then hid the weapon to protect her father’s reputation. A perky title and we’re all set.

I have this book. It is next on my “To-Read” list. Will let you know more about this author’s take on the case soon.

Bud- Neil Munro Owned & Initialed by Lizzie Borden 1st.

A note on provenance from our client: “I recently purchased 6 books that had belonged to Lizzie Borden from a local woman who is personally known to me. She is the daughter of a man who was Ms. Borden’s chauffeur in her later years. As the books were given to the chauffeur by Ms. Borden during her lifetime, they are not technically part of her estate. My acquaintance knew Ms. Borden as a child. The inscribed book is self-explanatory as to provenance, and the ones initialed ‘L.A.B.’ were done in Ms. Borden’s hand, according to my acquaintance. The books with the “Maplecroft” sticker on the endpaper also speak for themselves, as Maplecroft is known to be Ms. Borden’s estate as a matter of public record.”

According to Len Rebello’s Lizzie Borden Past and Present, this would have to be referring to Grace L. Terry, Ernest Alden Terry’s daughter, who was a minor at the time of Lizzie’s death in 1927. Ernest Terry was Lizzie’s chauffeur, and he died in 1955 in Fall River at the age of 70.

I am reading this terrific book titled Restless sleep: Inside New York City’s Cold Case Squad, by Stacy Horn, and she mentioned that unclaimed property held by the NYC police department is sold online at Property Room Police Auctions. Thought you might like to check it out.