Mondo Lizzie Borden

Hello History Club members and interested parties:

Our October meeting will be held this Wednesday, the 15th at 6:30 pm in the Fall River Public Library. Stefani Koorey will speak on the topic of “Looking at Lizzie: The Life of the Infamous Lizzie Borden Re-Examined.” Please invite anyone you know who is interested in Fall River’s history.

The club’s November meeting will be held on November 19th, when Ken Champlin will speak on the granite industry in Fall River.

All meetings are held on the third Wednesday of the month at 6:30 in the Fall River Public Library.

Other than the news that the Salem exhibit is changing its name to the “40 Whacks Museum,” this opinion piece by the Fall River Herald News seems a bit late in deciding that the two Lizzie Borden businesses should work together. I think the lawsuit was great publicity for all involved and probably well worth the cost of the lawyers’ fees. Just think, it went national quickly, as would any Lizzie Borden story, even after all these years.

OUR VIEW: Marketing the macabrem 10-10-08

The Herald News
Posted Oct 10, 2008 @ 12:00 AM

Now that the fight over who has rights to Lizzie Borden’s name has ended, the two museums purporting to tell “the true story” of Fall River’s most notorious resident need not battle over customers. In fact, the two venues would do well to work together, opening each to a new market of tourists seeking macabre entertainment and history.

The Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast, on 2nd Street, won a legal battle Tuesday with a new museum in Salem that was calling itself “The True Story of Lizzie Borden.” In the heart of the city’s downtown witch district, the museum tells the story of the brutal ax murders of Andrew and Abby Borden, for which Lizzie was tried and acquitted.

Bed and breakfast owner Donald Woods sued Salem entrepreneur Leonard Pickel in federal court, claiming infringement of the bed and breakfast’s trademark. The parties settled out of court and Pickel agreed to change his business’ name to The 40 Whacks Museum, a reference to the dark nursery rhyme that implicates Lizzie in the crimes.

Now that the legal battle is over, it seems natural that the two tourist attractions would join forces to advance both businesses. Woods indicated he would be willing to work with the Salem museum in the future.

No time like the present. With Halloween approaching, Salem’s tourist season is now hitting its stride. It is the perfect time for Woods to reach out to Pickel and work out a cross-promotion campaign. Many of the witch hunters streaming into Salem have surely heard the infamous Lizzie Borden story and may not be aware that the actual site of the murders is just a 90-minute car ride away. The bed and breakfast could be opened to a whole new group of tourists who happened to stumble upon 40 Whacks on their way to the Salem Witch Museum.

Similarly, when Halloween ends and Salem returns to a sleepy, seaside hamlet, Pickel will likely be looking for new clientele. The interest in Lizzie Borden on the SouthCoast is obvious, and a partnership between the two museums may be incentive enough for some local residents to make an off-season trek to Salem.

There’s no need for the two museums to fight over customers when they could easily share them.

Funny, really. I own 40whacks.com. It diverts people to my site LizzieAndrewBorden.com. Now I might get more traffic! Thanks Salem!

The Winter 2008 issue of The Literary Hatchet: Lizzie Borden’s Journal of Murder, Mystery & Victorian History has just been released.

Download your FREE copy from the Literary Hatchet’s website!

Just released on Amazon.com! Larry W. Allen’s book of 50 Lizzie Borden poems entitled Do Come In and Other Lizzie Borden Poems. It is the only book of its kind—-not just one Lizzie Borden poem but a title that markets her name, but the entire collection is about Lizzie Borden and her life.

Hey, and look!!! A cover by the famous Rick Geary! How cool is that!

Battle Over Use of Lizzie Borden Name Settled
Last Edited: Tuesday, 07 Oct 2008, 12:15 PM EDT
Created: Tuesday, 07 Oct 2008, 12:15 PM EDT

Legal Battle Brewing Over Lizzie Borden Story

Two businesses who battled over the use of the infamous “Lizzie Borden” name have settled out of court.

The owner of a new museum and gift shop in Salem has agreed to change its name so it won’t be confused with the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast in Fall River, which is located in the home where Borden’s father and stepmother were gruesomely killed with a hatchet in 1892.

The owner of the Fall River business sued in federal court, saying The True Story of the Lizzie Borden Gift Shop and Museum infringed on his trademark of “Lizzie Borden Museum” and would siphon his business away.

The Salem business’ owner, Leonard Pickel, said Tuesday that the settlement agreement allows him to use the Lizzie Borden name in a tagline describing his business. But he can’t use the full name in the name of his business.

thanks to chris richards for the heads up about this ap story.

For Immediate Release:
9 p.m. EDT, October 6, 2008

Contact:
Stefani Koorey
PearTree Press
peartreepress@mac.com
407-761-2361

PearTree Press Announces Release of New Lizzie Borden Book

https://www.createspace.com/3354462

FALL RIVER: MA—PearTree Press (http://peartree-press.com/) announces the release of a new Lizzie Borden book: Do Come In and Other Lizzie Borden Poems by Larry W. Allen.

For some, the name Lizzie Borden conjures an innocent young woman who bravely faced her trial with strength and fortitude. To others, she has become the icon of all things gruesome because of the bloody nature of the crimes for which she was charged. Yet, others see Lizzie Borden as a woman who got away with murder.

In Do Come In, Larry W. Allen offers up 50 poems that trace the life of this enigmatic woman—from the 19th through the 20th century. We meet her as a young adult and watch her develop into an old woman living alone on “the Hill.”

Says editor and publisher Stefan Koorey, “Do Come In and Other Lizzie Borden Poems is a remarkable collection of poems entirely devoted to the Lizzie Borden story. It is the first book of its kind. Most poets who use Lizzie Borden in their titles only have one poem in their collection about the case or the woman. Larry’s work is entirely about Lizzie Borden. The poems range from the humorous to the horrific.”

The cover art for Do Come In and Other Lizzie Borden Poems was created by famed graphic novelist Rick Geary. Geary is the author of The Borden Tragedy, a breakthrough interpretation of the Borden murders of 1892 in an all-graphic format.

“We are honored to have Geary’s new sketch of Lizzie Borden grace our cover,” says Koorey. “Rick Geary is not only a great artist, but his book, The Borden Tragedy, really gets the story right. And as the first all-illustrated telling of the Borden tale, it made it possible for all of us to see the case in 3-D—an important new angle to view the facts from.”

Do Come In and Other Lizzie Borden Poems can be purchased through CreateSpace.com at (https://www.createspace.com/3354462), and soon also through Amazon.com. It has a list price of $14.00. Book details: ISBN/EAN13 0981904300 / 9780981904306, 106 pages, B&W interior, color cover.

Author Larry W. Allen is the past president of The Columbia Chapter of The Missouri Writer’s Guild. He has had poems published in Fine Arts Discovery Magazine, The Mid America Poetry Review, Well Versed, and The Hatchet: Lizzie Borden’s Journal of Murder, Mystery & Victorian History. Larry is a probation and parole officer for the State of Missouri.

Cover artist Rick Geary has been working in comic industry since 1977. He was a contributor to the “Funny Pages” of National Lampoon for thirteen years. Geary’s comic stories were published in Heavy Metal, Dark Horse Comics, and the DC Comics/Paradox Press Big Books. His illustrations have appeared in MAD, Spy, Rolling Stone, The Los Angeles Times, and American Libraries. Geary’s graphic novels include the continuing series A Treasury of Victorian Murder. Geary is the recipient of the Inkspot Award from the San Diego Comic Convention and the Book and Magazine Illustration Award from the National Cartoonists Society. Read more about Rick Geary at http://rickgeary.com.

Editor and Publisher Stefani Koorey, who holds a Ph.D. in Theatre History and Dramatic Criticism from Penn State, is the webmaster of LizzieAndrewBorden.com, the preeminent Lizzie Borden web site, the administrator of the Lizzie Borden Society Forum, author of the blog MondoLizzie.com, and the editor and publisher of The Hatchet: Lizzie Borden’s Journal of Murder, Mystery & Victorian History (http://hatchetonline.com).

The Hatchet is an online quarterly journal devoted to the examination and investigation of murder, Victorian history, the Borden Murders of 1892, and the history of Fall River,
Massachusetts. Written for both the novice and seasoned Lizzie Borden enthusiast, The Hatchet takes a literate and entertaining approach through wide-ranging feature essays, reviews and criticism, interviews, fiction, art, poetry, and humor. Fact-filled, The Hatchet contains contributions by authors, poets, non-fiction writers, Lizzie Borden scholars, and historians worldwide. Submissions are open and all authors and artists will receive monetary compensation for their work.

Koorey, an international speaker on all things Borden, recently appeared as an expert on the case on the Discovery Channel’s documentary Lizzie Borden Had An Axe (2004). She also served as a consultant on the project and worked closely with producer Tim Evans of Morningstar Entertainment on locating other experts on the case and even advised former detective Tom Lange (of OJ Simpson fame) on where best to conduct the luminal test of the house.

Media Contact for Larry W. Allen, Rick Geary (as the cover artist of Do Come In and Other Lizzie Borden Poems), or Stefani Koorey should be made through peartreepress@mac.com, or 407-761-2361.

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