Mondo Lizzie Borden

This is big if it proves to be true. Jack Tarrance. He may be a household word in a few weeks.

Read all about it here.

Watch the news here.

This clip is from the Discovery Channel’s 2004 documentary titled “Lizzie Borden Had an Axe.” In this short piece, Professor Thomas Mauriello and Detective Tom Lange (of OJ Simpson fame) examine the handleless hatchet and Abby’s scarf.

This video is meant as a tandem to the outstanding essay by Kat Koorey in the latest issue of The Hatchet. The article fully examines the history of Abby’s scarf and traces it from first mention to its current location. It is a remarkable piece of journalism and highly recommended! It is titled, “On the Trail of the Bloody Handkerchief.”

Hard copies (B&W or Color) and digital downloads of this issue are available here.

Two pretty big news pieces on the lawsuit between the Lizzie Borden B&B/Museum in Fall River and The True Story of Lizzie Borden in Salem are slated to run next week, one nationally. The Democratic Convention and the hurricane coming to the Gulf Coast have held them up. MondoLizzie will report them to you here when they hit the presses.

In Edmonds, Washington, the Driftwood Players will present a new play about Lizzie Borden entitled “A Memory of Lizzie” by David Foxton.

• 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 24-26, “A Memory of Lizzie.” Transport back to Victorian America and glimpse into Lizzie Borden’s childhood, the woman who allegedly took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks. Note special times for this production.

Show times are 7 p.m. Sundays, 8 p.m. Mondays at the Wade James Theatre, 950 Main Street, Edmonds. For tickets call 425-774-9600, or visit www.driftwoodplayers.com.

Link.

E.J. Dionne is a substantial journalist. He works for the Washington Post and appears frequently as a commentator on This Week with George Stephanopoulos and Meet the Press. He wrote a sweet piece about being from Fall River and Ted Kennedy that you might find interesting. It captures the spirit of Massachusetts very nicely.

Oh, and by the way, when Dionne appears on This Week it is like seeing double. George Stephanopoulos is also from Fall River!

Today on TheDay.com from Connecticut:

More than a century ago Lizzie Borden was accused of taking an ax and giving her mother 40 whacks (and her father 42), and now two Massachusetts businesses are battling over who gets to use the name of the former Sunday school teacher.

The owner of the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast in Fall River, where the 1892 slayings took place, has filed a federal lawsuit to prevent a new museum and gift shop in Salem from using Borden’s name.

We say: Take an ax and chop the name in two

I went to the grand opening of The True Story of Lizzie Borden today in Salem, MA. The day was spectacular, with the prettiest weather I could wish for. Unfortunately, the drive to Salem was a real pain, so my advice to you is that if you are coming from the South, do not follow Google’s map directions. Those take you right through the middle of Boston. Remember to travel around the city—and save yourself a lot of time.

The museum is very well arranged—you enter and move from space to space, unaccompanied. It is nice to take your time and meander, spending more time where you wish without being a part of a group.

The spaces make sense too. You start out in the Fall River area, learning about the history of the time and place with words and images. Sprinkled throughout the exhibit are period furniture pieces and antiques that go to make the place rather cozy and warm.

After the Fall River area, you learn about the family, including Bridget Sullivan. Lots of enlarged images and text adorn the walls, with some period clothing also decorating the space.

I don’t want to give away the farm, but from here on out, the exhibit gives a lot of bang for the buck. There are newly made exhibits that uniquely show the location where the murders took place, both the neighborhood of Second Street and the inside of the house at 92 itself. I was oohing and ahhing about a remarkable diorama. And then from there, well, from there you are in the murder rooms. Without gore, without sensationalizing the crimes, without blood or wax figures, The True Story of Lizzie Borden encapsulates the crimes in a very visual way. Neat, neat, neat.

The courtroom is really cool, as you get a very good sense of the legal world and the case here. It was here that those amazing new skulls are located. I wish they were for sale, because they are primo!

After you go through the court, you are taken to Maplecroft and life after the case. Then forward to the deaths of Emma and Lizzie. Some optical illusions here pleased me very much and it was a super way to end the tour. There is even a huge display on the way about the Lizzie Borden B&B/Museum, which offers information on how to contact them for tours and lodging. It fits right in with the story, and I think will prod people to visit Fall River, if they didn’t know, for instance, that the house where the murders took place is open to the public.

As with all of the Fall River Lizzie Borden businesses (Lizzie Borden B&B/Museum and the Fall River Historical Society), there is a gift shop where you can purchase all sorts of apparel, glassware, keychains, pens, and some amazing real life skulls that would make a great addition to any Halloween house.

All in all, this was a really well done show —my only suggestion would be to add some sound in some “rooms” if possible, perhaps voices talking some of the signage so that you don’t have to read so much, and a little interactivity would be sweet.

Owner Leonard Pickel told me that the exhibit is in a state of constant flux and will be changing and evolving over time. I am looking forward to returning around Halloween when the leaves are changing. I think it would be a great time to visit!

Oh, and don’t forget to take some time to visit other historical sites up this way. Salem is just a few exits away from Concord, Lexington, Danvers, and other amazing and lovely communities. History is all around you in Massachusetts. A new adventure is around every corner!

Not only does Salem beat Fall River in a Google Fight, but OJ Simpson trounces Lizzie Borden!

link.

More internets news regarding the Lizzie Borden lawsuit. This time, the pundits are opining about it all. Some of it is quite funny!

Googling the story is fun. Here is a photo of the funny headlines that reporters are writing to get their readers to read the story—creating puns about death, no less. Oooh, la la.

The True Story of Lizzie Borden, located in Salem, MA, is set to open tomorrow, Saturday, August 23, 2008.

The hours will be 11am to 7pm.

Here are the directions to the exhibit.

Here is a coupon to receive $2 off admission price.

On August 20, lawyers for Leonard Pickel and The True Story of Lizzie Borden Gift Shop and Museum filed a motion for extension of time to respond to verified complaint and pending motion. The extension requested was September 10.

On August 21, Lawyers for the defendant, Lizzie Borden B&B, assented. The new date for a response to the Verified Complaint and Motion for Preliminary Injunction has been extended to September 10, 2008

Same story, different papers/venues.

And this from LaCrosse, Wisconsin:

Brad’s Desk 8/22

August 22, 2008 by Brad

Lizzie Borden Took An Ax…And Helped Our City’s Sales Tax

THERE’S A FIGHT IN MASSACHUSETTS OVER WHO GETS TO CAPITALIZE ON A NOTORIOUS MURDER CASE.
MORE THAN A CENTURY AFTER LIZZIE BORDEN’S PARENTS WERE KILLED WITH A HATCHET, YOU HAVE THE STRANGE SPECTACLE OF TWO BUSINESSES IN MASSACHUSETTS FIGHTING OVER WHO GETS TO USE HER NAME TO ATTRACT VISITORS. LIZZIE WAS SORT OF THE O-J SIMPSON OF HER TIME. SHE WAS ACQUITTED OF MURDERING HER PARENTS, BUT THERE’S STILL THAT LITTLE POEM ABOUT THE AX AND ‘40 WHACKS.’ THE MURDERS HAPPENED IN FALL RIVER, AND THE MAYOR THERE SAYS THE CASE IS ONE OF HIS TOWN’S TOP TOURIST ATTRACTIONS. IF YOUR TOWN BASES ITS TOURISM INDUSTRY ON A GRISLY DOUBLE MURDER, YOU NEED HELP. BUT THEN THERE’S SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS, WHICH CAPITALIZES ON ITS DUBIOUS REPUTATION AS A TOWN THAT HELD WITCH TRIALS. AND IT’S SALEM WHICH IS FIGHTING WITH FALL RIVER OVER WHO GETS TO CLAIM LIZZIE BORDEN AS A FAVORITE DAUGHTER. SHEESH.

THE HOUSE WHERE THE MURDERS OCCURRED IS NOW THE ‘LIZZIE BORDEN BED AND BREAKFAST’…AND THAT BUSINESS IS SUING TO STOP A MUSEUM IN SALEM FROM USING THE BORDEN NAME. THE STAFF AT THE B-AND-B HAS BEEN TOLD NOT TO COMMENT TO THE MEDIA ABOUT THIS. NICE. THE OWNER OF THE MUSEUM IN SALEM CLAIMS HIS BUSINESS WILL HELP BOTH COMMUNITIES. I’M NOT TAKING SIDES ON HOW THIS TURNS OUT, BUT IS THIS GOING TO START A TREND OF MAKING MONEY OFF REAL-LIFE CRIME? WHEN I WAS A KID, MY FAMILY STAYED ONCE IN DEADWOOD, SOUTH DAKOTA…BEST KNOWN AT THE TIME AS THE TOWN WHERE WILD BILL HICKOK WAS SHOT WHILE PLAYING POKER. WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF ED GEIN’S HOMETOWN IN CENTRAL WISCONSIN OPENED A ‘BATES MOTEL’? THE GEIN CASE INSPIRED THE MOVIE ‘PSYCHO.’ COME TO THINK OF IT…HAS ANYBODY BOOKED TRIPS TO JONESTOWN LATELY?

It is all over the press today. The AP story about the lawsuit between the Lizzie Borden B&B Museum and The True Story of Lizzie Borden in Salem.

This time Fall River is “a gritty industrial community 80 miles south of Salem.” Gritty. I guess.

Here is the story on Salon.com.

Mass. businesses battle over Lizzie Borden legacy
By RODRIQUE NGOWI Associated Press Writer

Aug 21st, 2008 | BOSTON — Two Massachusetts businesses are battling over the macabre legacy of a former Sunday school teacher who was accused in the hatchet deaths of her wealthy father and stepmother more than 110 years ago.

The owner of the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast in Fall River, which is in the home where the 1892 slayings took place, has filed a federal lawsuit to prevent a new museum and gift shop in Salem from using Borden’s name.

Donald Woods insists the attraction would infringe on his trademark of “Lizzie Borden Museum” and siphon business away from Fall River, a gritty industrial community 80 miles south of Salem, which is in Boston’s far-north suburbs.

Fall River Mayor Robert Correia said the double-murder mystery is one of his community’s top tourist attractions. Borden was acquitted but widely believed to be guilty. No one else was ever charged.

“It’s not something we are proud of that happened, but it’s a fact,” he said. “It has become a mystery that enthralls people, and to that extent, I’d love to see businesses here take advantage of that,” Correia said.

Leonard Pickel plans to open the Lizzie Borden museum this weekend in Salem, a historic seaport famous for its 17th century witch trials.

“About 600,000 tourists come to Salem looking for the dark side of history,” he said.

He said the new museum should help bring more interest to Fall River.

“The majority of the people that are walking past our door have no idea even what state the Borden murders took place, much less what city,” Pickel said. “By us explaining to them the place that the murders happened is only 80 miles south of here, it’s going to drive traffic to Fall River.”

Pickel’s group owns the domain name http://www.lizziebordenmuseum.com and an e-mail address with a similar name, LizzieBordenMuseum@gmail.com.

Woods is asking a judge to prevent the group from using the term Lizzie Borden in a trade name, trademark, domain name or e-mail address.

His attorneys also want the judge to order the Salem business not to represent itself as affiliated with the Fall River business, or to engage in conduct that will cause confusion over the relationship between the two businesses.

Pickel contends his Salem facility would also draw more visitors to the Fall River Historical Society, a nonprofit that maintains the largest collection of artifacts relating to Borden’s life and trial.

Woods did not return a call seeking comment, and a tour guide at the bed and breakfast said staff had been instructed not to talk to reporters.

Woods’ attorney, Jeremy Blackowicz, declined to comment.

A hearing on the case is not scheduled until after this weekend’s planned opening of the new museum in Salem.