Mondo Lizzie Borden

...news, clewes, reviews

November, 2009

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Happy Thanksgiving from Mondo Lizzie Borden

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Lizzie Borden Thanksgiving Wishes
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Fall River Historical Society Holiday Open House

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

Tonight was the annual Holiday Open House at the Fall River Historical Society. The event was very well attended, with every room filled with the most interesting people! The food was first rate, and the wine was delicious.

Here are a few images for those of you who couldn’t attend. Michael Martins and Dennis Binette outdid themselves with the Victorian Christmas decor. Lovely!

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Fall River History Club in the Herald News

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

We had a truly wonderful meeting of the Fall River History Club on Wednesday night. Without a lecturer scheduled (the holidays are neigh after all), the idea was hatched to ask members to bring in anecdotes of growing up in and around Fall River and/or select a few artifacts from their collection to share.

We had a great turnout and some new members came as well. The stories were fantastic and the company was full of good cheer. It is a great experience to have so many interested people turn out for a story or two. We all went away more enriched because of it.

Here is the write up in the Herald News.

Herald News Marc Dion told the story of his grandmother’s rosary, bringing it in for us to hold. George Petrin shared with us some of his Fall River souvenir ware and a screwdriver with the advert on it for Kaplan’s Furniture Store, his mother’s favorite place. Oh, he also brought a beer bottle from King Philip’s Brewery, and told stories about the old breweries in Fall River, with the audience members adding to the tale with their own remembrances.

A highlight of the night was Rosemary Pettine who read a letter to us from the Confederate soldier who had killed her ancestor at the battle of Fredricksburg. This letter was written with such grace and compassion, that it brought tears to our eyes, some 130 years after it was penned. The soldier was writing to her grandfather letting him know he had some possessions that belonged to the Union man he had killed in that battle and wanted to return them.

Dave Dennis told an amazing story about meeting a long lost relative while trying to secure the needed signatures to have a recount done after losing a city council seat by just 40 votes. The woman was agonizing over what to do with her dead husband’s pocket watch. The watch belonged to Dave’s grandfather, as this woman’s husband had been Dave’s cousin. The watch had been treasured by Dave’s grandfather, a cop who walked the Corky Row beat for years. The sequence of events that led up to this gift of the watch is almost unbelievable, with so many different things having to line up to make it possible.

Al Lima brought a photo of his sister Rikki, and told a few stories about her. She died years ago from asthma when she was just 39.

Alan Amaral served up some tales of his Italian heritage and donated two copies of a book about the Italian immigrants in Fall River (which were immediately borrowed!).

Everett Castro brought in some really old images of the Quequechan and asked the assembled group to ID their current incarnation/location.

Mary Jane Walls brought in a WWI German bayonet she had found in the house she moved into.

Jim Mullins brought in a piece of the floor from the old city hall where his father was the tax collector and regaled us with humorous tales of his boyhood and the way things used to be.

I brought in a load of postcards of Fall River and a 1922 Planning book that had been commissioned to improve the look of the city. Some of this plan is actually in the new master plan. If only they had followed this plan back in 1922—Fall River would be such a different place!

It was a grand time had by all. There won’t be a meeting in December, as usual, but we will return again in the new year for our January meeting. If anyone would like to join us, we meet the third Wednesday of every month (but December) at 6:30 in the Fall River Public Library. Or you can join our mailing list by emailing us at fallriver(at)mac.com.

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Lizzie Borden Acquitted Again

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

trialnb

UPDATE: here is an even longer and better story about the latest mock trial in Taunton.

The third and final mock trial, LIzzie Borden Redux, has ended with the jury again finding for the defendant. Lizzie Borden was set free once again.

These retrials were quite interesting. I attended all of them and they were very different from one another. The actors and the judges were the same, but the attorneys for each of the events were pulled from the local areas. In New Bedford we had lawyers defending and prosecuting from New Bedford. Same with Fall River and Taunton.

One of the great good things about these shows is that we got to sit in these splendid courtrooms. The New Bedford courtroom was the best, of course, because it was in that very space that Lizzie was tried and acquitted in 1893.

I videotaped all there events as well, and in the coming days will be posting them to YouTube so you can watch the entire event, city by city, for yourself.

The retrial this week in Taunton was noteworthy because several members of the bar who had tried the Big Dan trial were playing roles. And for this showing, the jury of the audience acquitted Lizzie by the largest margin yet.

The story has been picked up by the AP. Here it is.

A great deal of work went into these productions, and the actors are to be commended for their work. With three different sets of lawyers, each approaching the case in a different way and asking different questions, they performed admirably. It was charming, albeit inaccurate, to have Lizzie herself testify at these mock trials, but even with her giving her story, she was still set free each time. The jury had to admit that there was no evidence to convict her of these heinous crimes. Perhaps if Lizzie had testified back in 1893 a similar outcome would have been in store for her.

Another observation I would like to make is that the living breathing recreation was a great historical event. Even with one as versed in the case as I am, I still learned new things, realized bits and pieces that had gone unnoticed before, and had a greater appreciation for the process of law by seeing these trials. It was as if one were watching the real thing, in a way, and for that, nothing can rival it as a learning experience.

Sometimes it was just the way an attorney phrased something that made me think anew about this case. For instance, when the defense attorney, who was trying to show there were other suspects not pursued and therefore doubt could be cast on Lizzie’s guilt, pointedly declared that Bridget Sullivan was the only one in the house that day who had direct access to a bucket of water and cleaning implements. If she was the killer, she could have changed clothes and bathed and no one would be the wiser. It was a thought that I had never entertained before hearing this lawyer make his case.

All in all, these mock trials were first rate and if you missed even one of them you should consider yourself deprived.

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Google Street View Does Fall River

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

I have been waiting for this. For a year or more, Google maps had one road on their street view of Fall River: President Avenue.

Well, now they have mapped out a lot of the city (leaving out a great deal too, I might add). You can travel down Fall River’s streets and see the “for rent” signs, look at the deepening potholes, and feel saddened that the new courthouse doesn’t fit in with the architecture of the surrounding neighborhood.

One thing that I think is really cool about this, however, is that it looks like they came by 92 Second Street on August 4th! When you see that street view you see the tent in the side yard that is erected to offer visitors cookies and lemonade and a place to sit while waiting for a tour.

You also see people waiting outside for their tour and if you look very closely, you see a reenactor at the side door. Cool huh?

google2nd

google2nd2

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Lizzie Borden Overload

Friday, November 6th, 2009

There have been so many events in the past few months centering on Lizzie Borden that I have been hearing folks say that they are in Lizzie Borden overload. Lectures, trial reenactments, plays . . . . and they are not yet over.

On November 19, the last trial reenactment will be held in Taunton. My tickets arrived yesterday. I wanted to see each one as they are different from one another—-the lawyers change which changes everything! The questions are not the same and the focus of the prosecution and defense reflects the change in council each performance.

But after the trial redux, I think that will be the end of Lizzie for 2009. Oh, I almost forgot, the next issue of The Hatchet will be out soon. Announcements to follow in a day or two.

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