Mondo Lizzie Borden

The Manitowoc Herald News of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, writes today that The University of Wisconsin–Manitowoc is inviting the community to participate as the jury in a theatrical retrial of Lizzie Borden on January 13, 2007, at the University Theatre.

The trial will be a re-creation, using excerpts from original trial transcripts, as well as period costumes. Volunteers are needed to portray small parts, which will be read directly from the script, as well as jurors. The verdict, however, is unscripted – the jurors will deliberate and present their own verdict. No previous stage experience is required, and only two rehearsals will be held.

The infamous Lizzie Borden ax-murder trial of 1893 has fascinated those interested in crime for over 100 years. Andrew J. Borden and Abby Borden were brutally murdered with a hatchet in their otherwise quiet neighborhood. Their daughter/step-daughter, Lizzie Borden, a respectable Sunday school teacher, was charged with the crime based on almost entirely circumstantial evidence. There was a great deal of newspaper coverage, and public opinion was greatly divided on her guilt or innocence.

Those interested in participating in this re-trial of an unsolved murder should contact Dean Campagna’s office, UW-Manitowoc at 920-683-4710 by Dec. 1.

Let’s go!

News release here.

A site called Uncyclopedia has a cute section on nursery rhymes that for some reason includes the Lizzie Borden doggerel.

Lyrics
Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one.

Origins
This famous children’s rhyme was inspired by a girl’s alleged double murder of her father and mother. While this does not appear to be suitable for a children’s rhyme (due to the fact it may put dangerous ideas into kid’s heads) it has still been passed along for generations. However, a few verses have been lost along the way (mainly because they were redundant and repetitive not to mention unnecessary).

Lizzie Borden took a nine*
And shot her mother in the spine.
When she saw what she had did
She shot her father in the head.

Lizzie Borden took an M-16
And shot her mother in the spleen.
When she saw what that entailed
She shot her father while getting the mail.

Lizzie Borden took a lance
And stabbed her mother in the pants.
When she saw what she did commit
Onto her father she dropped a brick.

Lizzie Borden had a little LAM**
And blew her mom up while sendin spam.
When she saw the smoking house
She threw another to make sure her dad didn’t get out.

Lizzie Borden took a mace
And swung it at her mother’s face.
When she saw the chain had broke
She made her dad and house explode.

Lizzie Borden took some WMD’s***
And killed her mother with the greatest of ease.
When she saw that burned up whale
She killed her dad with anthraxmail.

Mama Borden was a slut
So lizzie had to kick her butt
When she finished doing that
She lypo-sucked her father’s fat

*9mm
**Lightweight Attack Munitions
***Wobbly Massage Dinkytoys

What Have We Learned?
Be nice to your kids.
People get carried away with slander.
Writing stupid violent rhymes can be educational.
At a certain point, it isn’t necessary to have sources support your claims. For example, although the 5th verse suggests Lizzie sent spam mail, this is most likely just a slanderous and unbased comment to make people dislike her more.
After a while, you run out of ways to kill.
Children’s literature is creepy and macabre.
Lypo-sucking your father is really nasty and uncalled for.
Actually Lypo-sucking your dad is not cruel, mean, or deadly at all, it is actually quite nice if your father is very obese and needs some type of surgerey, and this misconception was not reconciled until 1989.

This was on TV last season and someone put the Lizzie Borden B&B on YouTube for our enjoyment. This clip starts off with the end of the previous segment on the Mansfield Reformatory in Ohio. At the 2:43 mark is the Lizzie Borden case.

Each clip is over 8 minutes long. If you are on dial up, it will take a long time to see these.

It continues on this portion:

Although not marketed as containing this info, this 2002 book by Katherine Ramsland, includes a section on her staying at the Lizzie Borden B&B. Might be worth a looksee.

Ghost: Investigating the Other Side, St. Martin’s Press, 2002.

From Publisher’s Weekly

Ramsland (author of numerous books on Anne Rice, vampirism and other ghoulish subjects) is just the sort of person you’d want to tell you a ghost story: credible, smart, sane and funny, neither a believer nor a skeptic. Cast as an adventure in “participatory journalism,” the book begins with Ramsland’s chance acquisition of a haunted silver ring. Determined to extract its secrets, she sets out on a quest that gradually turns into a full-blown investigation of psychic aberration in America. She plunges into the vast culture of ghost detection, sleeping in haunted bed-and-breakfasts from Salem to Sedona, familiarizing herself with the latest technology while also consulting conventional occult modes tarot, palm, Ouija. Charmingly understated at all times (”I never quite know how to talk to someone who lives simultaneously in two time periods”), Ramsland admits to being impervious to the spirit world; while psychics and sensitives of every description reel and recoil at the mere sight of her ring, she at first feels and sees nothing. Her gradual conviction, as she delves deeper and deeper into the realm of the unseen, that “something is out there” is all the more spine-tingling. Ramsland is a master of foreboding, and as her tale unravels, an explosive climax seems inevitable. What results more a creepy certainty than a frightful resolution may disappoint some readers. But whatever its payoff, the book will find avid fans among X-Files watchers, amateur ghost hunters, and the vast majority of those who feel that things that go bump in the night should be heard rather than seen. Agent, Lori Perkins.

A nifty poem by Gail Mazur appears on PoetryFoundation.org.

EXCERPT

I want to find my way back to her,
to help her, to grab her hand, pull her
up from the wooden floor of the stacks
where she’s reading accounts of the hatchet
murders of Lizzie Borden’s harsh parents
as if she could learn something about
life if she knew all the cuts and slashes;

her essay on Wordsworth or Keats
only a knot in her belly, a faint pressure
at her temples. She’s pale, it’s five years
before the first migraine, but the dreamy
flush has already drained from her face.

Gail Mazur, “Girl in a Library” from Zeppo’s First Wife: New & Selected Poems (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2005).

SpiritEncounters, a UK website, offers a section on Lizzie Borden. Full of factual inaccuracies and misspellings, it is still a good sample of what the latest craze with Lizzie seems to be: haunted Borden!

Yes, more scary Lizzie in the days to come! It is October and Halloween time after all!

A very strange but true story of a young man who killed his neighbor appears on CourtTV news. “Convicted teen killer knew tragedy, drugs early in life, but was considered gentle”.

MARTINEZ, Calif. — Scott Dyleski was a 16-year-old college student, animal rights’ activist and budding artist when he woke up one morning last fall and apparently decided to bludgeon his 52-year-old neighbor to death.

The horrific crime left his friends and neighbors baffled. They would soon learn that the teen took evident pleasure in the act. He carved a symbol into his victim’s back as she lay dying and then joked with friends that night about killer Lizzie Borden as they pondered how many whacks it would take to kill a human being.

AOL has published “Halloween Frightfest on AOL CityGuide: Top 13 Haunted Houses and Freaky Attractions, Celebrity Costume Ideas, Daredevil Dishes, Biggest Bashes, and Supernatural Salem” and the Lizzie Borden B&B has made it to #2 on the list of Top 13 Freaky Attractions.

Here is a link to the list in case you want to go traveling this Halloween!

A new volume of poetry by Julianna Baggott has recently been released titled Lizzie Borden in Love: Poems in Women’s Voices. A review of the book appeared today in the Lexington Herald-Leader: “Inside the minds of outsiders. Poems put words in mouths of infamous women”. You can read it here.

Of note is the critics take on Baggot’s Lizzie poems.

At the heart of the book, Lizzie Borden speaks to her trial jury. In the tradition of My Last Duchess by Robert Browning, Lizzie Borden Addresses Her Jury of Men is a dramatic monologue. It is visceral, shocking, grotesque and yet funny. Borden is depicted as a complex character, both crazy and stubborn. She speaks to the readers as a jury, saying she is not unlike them: Look again into my pale, damp face / so like your daughters’, sisters’, wives’.

My review of this collection will be published in the near future in The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies.

In the Maptech Embassy Guide for Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, 5th Edition (2001), there is a blurb about Fall River which includes mention of the Borden murder case. Let me share the text with you.

Lizzie Borden took an axe And gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done She gave her father forty-one!

So goes the legend, anyway. Truth is, Miss Borden, who was an old maid of 32 at the time of the crime, was acquitted in the killings of her father and stepmother. The case remains unsolved, despite overwhelming circumstantial evidence—more advanced forensic methods would likely have put Lizzie behind bars. Of course, it seems that Lizzie owned her acquittal not to the persuasive powers of an innocent face but rather to aiding and abetting (a neighbor was caught helping Lizzie destroy evidence). Nevertheless, the 1892 Borden double axe murder trial made for the most interesting headline in Fall River’s history.

Hmmm. Modern forensic methods would put her behind bars? A neighbor was caught helping Lizzie destroy evidence? The Borden double axe murder trial was held in 1892?

I find it fascinating that so many essays, articles, and blurbs get the case and this woman so wrong! It is not like there aren’t any sources for people to use to check their facts. It is not that there hasn’t been anything written about this case which would make it extra hard to know what’s what. It just feels like people make stuff up when they should conduct a little research instead. Is it so hard to take the time and effort necessary to present factually the story of Lizzie Borden, Fall River, and the murders that made Fall River famous?

I wish I could say that this type of error-filled essay was the exception to the rule. However, with the recent release of a book on the case (by a Harvard historian no less), that contains factual innacuracies, bold assumptions, and misstatements, I am afraid that the Borden case is doomed to be forever relegated to the world of the apocryphal.

Thanks to author Michael Brimbau for the find!

Visiting the Newport Mansions at Christmastime seems like a great idea!

The Preservation Society of Newport County offers tours of some of the stately homes and if you visit their site you can view the schedule of tours, events, and special packages.

The glitter of gold and the sparkle of silver will dazzle you as you tour The Breakers, The Elms and Marble House decked out in Yuletide finery, with thousands of poinsettia plants, spectacular evergreens, trees, wreaths and fresh flowers. Dining tables set with period silver and china and mannequins dressed in authentic costumes complete the elegant setting.

All three houses are decorated and open daily for tours from November 18 through January 1.

Purchase tickets online, or in person at any of the three properties.

Wow! Kewl! A Lizzie Borden maple skateboard deck! Sweet!

Boardpusher.com offers this unique item for only $49.99. And Christmas is coming!

A seller on eBay has this explanation for the exorbitant shipping being charged for their auctions:

Don’t get sticker shock over the shipping cost. Obviously, I’m factoring in a base starting price to save on fees. Can I do that? Well, others do. Let’s see what happens. (Can you tell I’m new to selling?) haha

$11.50 shipping for a $12 mug. Hmmm. Does the honesty make it all right? Or does the honesty make you doubt the integrity of the seller? Here is a link to the auction. You decide for yourself.

eBay does have rules about such things:

Excessive Shipping Charges Policy

Sellers may charge reasonable shipping and handling fees to cover the costs for mailing, packaging, and handling the items they are selling. While eBay will not prescribe exactly what a seller may or may not charge, eBay will rely on member reports and its own discretion to determine whether or not a seller’s shipping, handling, packaging, and/or insurance charges are excessive. Shipping and handling fees may not be listed as a percentage of the final sale price.

Sellers who want to be sure they are in compliance with this policy may charge actual shipping costs plus actual packaging materials cost (or less).

In addition to the final listing price, sellers are permitted to charge:

Actual Shipping cost: This is the actual cost (i.e. postage) for shipping the item.

Handling Fee: Actual packaging materials costs may be charged. A handling fee in addition to actual shipping cost may be charged if it is not excessive.

Insurance: Sellers offering insurance may only charge the actual fee for insurance. No additional amount may be added, such as “self-insurance”. Sellers who do not use a licensed 3rd party insurance company may not require buyers to purchase insurance. This is a violation of state law.

Tax: Only actual applicable federal, state, country, city, VAT, and equivalent taxes may be charged.

For cross border transactions, sellers may not collect tariffs and duties. However, buyers may be responsible for actual, applicable tariffs, and duties as requested by respective country laws.

Violations of this policy may result in a range of actions, including:
Listing cancellation
Limits on account privileges
Account suspension
Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings
Loss of PowerSeller status

I do note that the seller no longer includes this “honest” caveat to their auctions, but continues to try to charge very large shipping fees.

Note this auction.
And this auction.
And this auction.

A very enterprising group of actors have created some unique theatre experiences in Rochester, Michigan. Murder Mystery and Dinner Theatre Productions offers “A suspenseful night of interactive dinner theater filled with humor, mystery, and live entertainment.”

You can treat your clients or friends to several different events, including “Last Night on the Titanic,” “Jewel Heist at the Stardust Ballroom,” “Houdini Halloween Seance,” “Murder at the Sands,” “Phantom of the Op’ry,” and of course, “The Re-Trial of Lizzie Borden.”

The Re-trial of Lizzie Borden: Who killed Lizzie Borden’s parents? On a hot August morning in 1892, the Borden house was locked. The maid was outside washing windows. Emma Borden, Lizzie’s sister was out visiting friends. Lizzie was the only one in the house. Yet, when both her parents were found hacked to death… Lizzie was found “not guilty”. You will enjoy a night of mystery and laughter as our attorneys, who are also stand-up comedians, call our cast members up to the witness stand. The re-trial, complete with a twelve-member jury which is randomly selected from the dinner guests that night, along with a judge and two actual attorneys. While using audience participation throughout the evening, guests will determine if Lizzie is still “not guilty”. Package includes props, costumes, music, and actors. Other packages are available that include program production, invitations and publicity.

More info can be found here.

“The Mystery of 100 Year Old Murder Comes to DVD for Halloween” is a very informative press release about the DVD release of the independent film “Villisca: Living with a Mystery.”

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) October 18, 2006 — What happens when murder visits a small town and remains a mystery? After over 14 months in theaters in 52 cities, the award-winning and critically-acclaimed independent documentary film “Villisca: Living with a Mystery” will be released nationally on DVD on October 24, 2006 through Passion River Films.

When an entire family was murdered on a June evening in 1912, a small Midwestern town spiraled into chaos and division. The still-unsolved axe murder mystery made national headlines, built and ruined political careers, created a lasting community split over the guilt or innocence of a local State Senator, and produced three sensational trials.

“Villisca” tells the epic true story of Iowa’s worst mass homicide, the Villisca Axe Murders. This true-crime mystery is more mystifying than America’s Lizzie Borden and more intriguing than London’s Jack the Ripper.

Link to the flim’s website.

I have seen the film, having purchased a copy on eBay a while back, and found that while it feels like the definitive telling of the murders and the search for the perpetrator of this heinous act, the filmmakers paid too close attention to the sensibilities of the small town of Villisca to the detriment of the story.

In the film they spoke often of how the town would rather not remember/celebrate/commemorate these crimes, not only for the impropriety of the gruesome nature of the axe murders, but because the ensuing search for the killer pitted neighbor against neighbor and created deep social rifts that continue to this very day.

In my opinion, the film does not go far enough to tell the tale. For instance, there are no crime scene photos included in the footage. Apparently out of respect for the citizenry of Villisca, the flimmakers have elected to work around the gore. I found this probelmatic and a bit disengenous to sell the film as the “epic true tale” without presenting the physical evidence to the viewer as well. All the carnage is left to the imagination, and this makes the film less than satisfying as a true documentary film.