Mondo Lizzie Borden

A site that gives the top ten of about every topic you can imagine, has the Borden murders on the list of Top 10 Unsolved Crimes. For such a brief mention, there are multiple errors, not the least of which includes the name of one of the murdered (Ann) and the assumption (wrong) that Lizzie’s given name is Elizabeth.

Can you count the errors?

Oh, by the way, the Borden Murders came in 3rd, behind Jack the Ripper and Zodiac.

3. Andrew and Anne Borden

On a Thursday morning, August 4, 1892, Andrew Borden left home to conduct his business, leaving in the house, besides his wife, an Irish maid (Bridget Sullivan) and his daughter Elizabeth (Lizzie). On his return, he settled on a sofa for a nap. About 11:15 AM, Lizzie (according to her testimony) discovered her father dead, repeatedly struck in the head with a sharp instrument. Upstairs his wife’s body was found, even more brutally mutilated; examination proved that her death had preceded her husband’s by an hour or so. It was found that Lizzie had tried to purchase prussic acid (a poison) on August 3, and a few days later she was alleged to have burned a dress in a stove. Sullivan, who also has been suspected, later that evening reportedly left the house carrying an unexamined parcel. No weapon was found, though an axe found in the basement was suspected. Lizzie was arrested and tried for both murders in June 1893 but was acquitted, given the circumstantial evidence. She was nonetheless ostracized thereafter by the people of her native Fall River, Massachusetts, where she continued to live until her death in 1927.

It all started when DAN DUNN COLLECTIBLES of Buzzards Bay, MA (capecollector on eBay) labeled this person as Lizzie Borden. Since then, this person has appeared in YouTube movies, on eBay, websites, and goodness knows where else!

Please be aware that experts agree that this woman is not the accused hatchet murderess. The Fall River Historical Society also has added their nay to this image. So don’t be fooled. It ain’t her. It is so not her that this image has been nicknamed “man hands Lizzie”—the real Lizzie Borden is much more attractive (see below). Don’t you agree?

In a myspace blog about upcoming Nightwatchers events—ghost-hunting around the country—there is an advertisement/poster about a May 2008 overnight at the Lizzie Borden B&B. Nice poster. Only thing is, that isn’t a photo of Lizzie. This is the now famous “man-hands” Lizzie image that has been rejected by Borden scholars, the Fall River Historical Society, and aficionados of the case as a likeness of Lizzie Borden.

I don’t think this poster bodes well for the authenticity of the event. Do you?

Have you ever received an email from some Nigerian businessman or foreign government employee who requests your assistance in helping him to free up the millions he has tied up in red tape and when you do he will share the loot with you?

Of course you have. We all have.

Sometimes when people get these fraudulent solicitations they reply and turn the tables on the scammers. This is called scambaiting.

For one such exchange, the scambaiter used the identity of Lizzie Borden to ferret out the fraud. It is a remarkable read.

Take a peek here.

I am not the first to blog about the mistake by the Fall River Herald News in this morning’s paper. That credit goes to Shelley Dziedzic (hear that Herald News, that’s S-H-E-L-L-E-Y) on her site Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts. However, I may just be the only one with the image and the solution as to just who this person is.

The Fall River Herald News had this as their front page this morning:

Notice anything funky? Yes, that photo on the left that says under it “Andrew Borden.” That isn’t Andrew Borden. How could they be so wrong? Don’t they proof the images they print? I see they took him off their online version of the story and replaced it with an image of Lizzie. How nice. Now what to do about the thousands of print copies that are all over town?

Apparently this is big news. Newspapers from as far away as Florida are calling Borden historian Len Rebello to ask him what he thinks of this “newly discovered image.” Of course, he told them it wasn’t Andrew. Anyone can see it isn’t Andrew.

So who is this guy and how did he make it into print?

The mystery as to who the man is has been solved by Michael Brimbau, who accurately remembered where he had seen that face before. Check out page 521 of Philip Silvia’s Victorian Vistas: Fall River, 1901-1911. There he is plain as day.

Who is that man? None other than the author Silvia’s grandfather, Frank M. Silvia, from a Fall River Daily Herald article from September 3, 1907.

Now ain’t that a kicker the day before the day before the murders in Fall River? Poor Andrew. Killed in life and now killed in the press.

KXNet.com North Dakoka News has decided to give you some advance on the news. They have posted an Associated Press article that is supposed to appear on August 4th. It is like living in the future! Kewl!

Read all about what other papers will print in a few weeks here.

Over the years, I have done some editing to the Lizzie Borden page on Wikipedia. I have found various erroneous statements and some factually inaccurate statements that needed correcting. This has been an ongoing process, and an ongoing headache.

As a college professor, I know that students use this Internet encyclopedia to aid them in writing term papers, to quickly research a topic, and to spot find a factoid to include in presentations. Colleges and universities are dissuading students from using Wikipedia as a resource of any kind as the nature of the site is such that anyone can post anything there, adding to the mountain of knowledge and misinformation.

Wikipedia is a grand idea, in theory—the people’s encyclopedia—free and open. But it is also everything you should be warned against about the Internet: don’t believe everything you read. When the Internet first geared up, millions of web pages appeared that were full of flubs, fiction, and faux facts—one had to rely on the academic sites to provide scholarly and fact-checked information. Today, that is still the case.

Unfortunately, this exciting experiment in online education has encountered many problems, most notably what has become known as the Essjay controversy. Several prominent pages (Adolf Hitler, Jesus, Gerry Adams, retired journalist John Seigenthaler, and others) were the victims of vandalism and malicious entries. Wikipedia’s solution? Wikipedia’s editors implemented a semi-protection policy for certain articles, and in effect, locked down certain pages from editing. In addition,

removed the ability of unregistered users to create new articles in Wikipedia.

Unregistered users will still be able to fix spelling mistakes and add to existing articles, but are required to register a user account before creating new pages. Link.

But this change in policy only came about when the national news media, and the reporter at the heart of one such attack, brought this to the attention of the public at large, exposing, as it were, the unsavory side of what an open and free encyclopedia can become.

I have had “issues” with Wikipedia for years. One problem is that you cannot contact anyone who is anyone at Wikipedia, either by mail, email or telephone. Their solution to any problems with their site is to have you work it out with the person you disagree with. They have posted extensive instructions on proper behavior and standards in disputing facts with those who have posted before you. The process even includes formal mediation. Isn’t this how eBay got started? And isn’t this what is horrible about eBay? It relies on its members to police the site, refusing to accept responsibility for any fraudulent behavior, even though they have the technology to prevent such matters from occurring in the first place.

So my Lizzie problem is that every time I update the Wikipedia page, it reverts back to the one I just corrected by the “author” or what I call the “gate keeper” of the page. For instance, take a look right now at the page.

Notice anything wrong here?

How about photos purporting to be Lizzie and Emma that are not Lizzie and Emma. I uploaded correct images, standard ones that are these people, and they get taken down time and time again and these images appear.

I mean how silly is this going to get? So what is a scholar to do? Apparently, according to Tualha, who operates as the bouncer for the page, I must follow the rules and cite every source for every fact presented on the page (even though the page that is there now does not do this!). Says Tualha

Contrary to some opinions, experts are very welcome here. But we do insist that, like everyone else, they support the claims they make in articles instead of simply waving their credentials and saying “shut up, I’m an expert”. It’s considered polite to learn a little about how we do things here before making wholesale changes and complaining when people revert them, too.

I have been put in my place, I suppose, and now if I want to work with the gate keeper, I must post footnotes. Ok, that will come in time as I find the time to spend doing this.

It is a catch22. You try to help, you try to clean up the Internet a bit in the tiny tiny corner of Lizzie Borden studies, and you find yourself being lectured by a person who feels the need to tell you that “Citing “LizzieAndrewBorden.com”, and the entirety of Rebello without page numbers or specific citations, doesn’t cut it here any more than it would in academe.”

So I guess that Wikipedia is expecting experts to do the hard work while amateurs get to rule the roost.

Poor Lizzie.

In recent posts, I noted that while Fall River is well regarded as being one of the top 10 least segregated cities in the county for blacks, it is at the same time infamous for appearing second on the list of most segregated cities in the nation for Latinos. All this is based on census information, and examines eveness, exposure, concentration, centralization, and clustering. Why study this now?

For the most part, sociologists are interested in residential segregation, which simple means refers to the racial/ethnic mix of blocks, neighborhoods, cities, and metropolitan areas. We tend to be less concerned with segregation as a legal concept, and it seems that a minority of sociologists studying segregation focus on school segregation or segregation in other social institutions such as churches and families.. I suspect that we don’t focus as much of school segregation because it is so highly correlated with residential segregation. I think too often people start by looking at school segregation, but they ignore the fact that more integrated neighborhoods would lead to more integrate schools. I suspect that people don’t focus on residential segregation because it is much harder to challenge, and it’s much more firmly entrenched (at least it is in recent history).

The reason why Fall River made this Latinos list is simple. It is the government’s fault. The State of Massachusetts made a great deal of money by bringing in, or importing, Latinos to Fall River and putting them in low income housing. These folks are not from the area. They were brought to the city in busses and planted here.

So this black eye of Latino segregation in Fall River is not because the people of Fall River are segregating the Latino population, it is the government who has created the segregation!

Fall River has a rich long history of absorbing minorities and immigrants into the fold. Portuguese and Irish live side by side with English and African American neighbors. But then the State steps in and literally creates a segregated community! What could be a worse reputation for a city? Segregation of this nature reflects badly on the city and its people and gives prospective businesses and newcomers the impression that the people of Fall River are a bigoted bunch—-a perfect way to further depress an already depressed economic situation.

By the way, this importing of low income housing residents has come under federal scrutiny recently, as possibly being a big payoff for some. The former governor Mit Romney was instrumental in creating the housing by providing “tax credits, grants and low-interest loans to produce over 548 rental apartments.” (source: Office of Gov, 8/25/2003). I read, but cannot locate, a Boston Globe article claiming that some of this section 8 housing was involved in some illegal practices.

So who suffers from this segregation problem? The community at large, who has become a dumping ground for low income families from other areas and becomes known for being number two in the nation for segregating Latinos.

I found a question posted on a site called Officer.com from a man who was thinking of relocating to the east coast and wondered about living in Fall River. The responses he got from contributors on the site’s forum was surprising to say the least.

Officer.com seems to be a catch all site for law enforcement people that need info on news, agencies, products, jobs, events, and matters relating to such careers. Their forum area is quite active and very interesting to read.

So what was so surprising? This:

07-05-2007, 09:10 AM
#1
just joe
Forum Member

Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: ohio
Posts: 354

Living in Fall River?

My wife and I are thinking about moving to New England. Would like to live in RI, but Mass looks a little cheaper. Is this correct? What about Fall River. I am not familiar with the neighborhoods, but I see North Side, South Side, Highlands, St. Anne, etc. What’s good and what’s bad? Thanks.

Yesterday, 09:47 AM
#2
george4
Forum Member

Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 60

Fall River

Fall River = GHETTO, look elsewhere if possible..

Yesterday, 08:02 PM
#3
BlueLineCop
Forum Member

Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: NH
Posts: 13

I second the ghetto comment. You should look outside of Fall River

I like Fall River. A lot. It is very close to the ocean. The weather is rather mild. The city is located nearby several great cities (NY and Boston). The rental prices of apartments are slightly lower than Orlando, FL, my home state. There is a TON of history here, and not just Lizzie Borden stuff.

Now I am sure there are lots of reasons not to like it here, but that can be said of anyplace. A ghetto? I don’t think so. Not by a long shot.

Link.

In an opinion piece in the Ledger Dispatch of Jackson, CA, letter writer Joe Dirickx penned a letter titled “More handgun laws are not the answer.” He cites various instances where major crimes were committed by people who would have stopped at nothing to do their dastardly deeds. Of course, here we have the standard inclusion of Lizzie Borden. Even when we all know she was acquitted.

If an individual is set on doing harm to you, your family or the public, they will find a way. In the 1995 Oklahoma bombing, Timothy McVay killed 169 men, women and children using a mixture of fertilizer and fuel oil, materials available to anyone. On March 3, 2006, Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar drove his rented Jeep Cherokee into a crowd of students at the University of North Carolina. Luckily he didn’t kill anyone, but that was his intent. After his surrender, he was charged with nine counts of attempted first-degree murder and nine counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious bodily injury, and then there was Lizzie Borden and her ax.

Here is a link to his entire argument.

Dr. Charles Frost is a professor of Social Work and the Director of the Social Works Program at Middle Tennessee State University. He has a website that offers up his research on various topics, such as International Social Work, Leadership Skills and Interviewing Skills.

A link on his site is labled “Mitigation’s Web Page” and one can only assume the work is his, although his name is not attached to the article presented.

Mitigation Defined

Mitigation is that which tends to soften, temper, or make less harsh or severe. Mitigating circumstances surrounding a criminal offense are those circumstances that tend to lessen the apparent badness of the particular crime in question or the apparent badness of the particular defendant.

Mitigating circumstances are not limited by the law; they may be unlimited in number, as long as they are based upon the evidence introduced by either the prosecution or the defense at trial or sentencing.

The existence of any mitigating circumstances does not require proof beyond a reasonable doubt. A mitigating circumstance exists if there is any evidence supporting it introduced by either the prosecution or the defense at either the guilt-innocence or sentencing stage of the trial, which is uncontradicted or which outweighs any contradictory evidence. . . .

continued here.

If you click on the additional link labled “Murderers” there is another piece, apparently by Frost, in which he includes the following reference to Lizzie Borden:

Examples throughout history of serial murderers and other types of murderers are captured in the book: “Human Monsters: An illustrated Encyclopedia of the World’s Most Vicious Murderers” by David Everitt (Contemporary Books: Chicago, 1993). All quotes in this summary are drawn from his book. . . .

Lizzie Borden (1860-1927) is one of America’s most famous murderers….according to folklore, she took her axe and gave daddy 20 whacks and then gave mommy 9 more. Mommy was really her stepmother. And instead of being convicted, she was found not guilty by the court, but not by public opinion, which decided she was indeed the murderer. All evidence does point to her guilt; however, the jury just couldn’t see this nice young lady as being capable of two such dreadful murders. She was 32 when she killed her parents and lived on to age 67.

Lizzie Borden is an example of how important appearances are, often more important than facts or evidence. That is why the jury needs to see the accused dressed, shaved, looking as presentable as possible. That is why OJ was helped tremendously when he was allowed to try on the glove and address the court and jury stating his innocence without having to be cross examined—he knew how to play the role of OJ, the nice guy from the movies and commercials.

One of America’s most interesting murderers, far more interesting though not as famous as Lizzie, was H.H. Holmes (1860-1896). . . .

Here we find the commonly drawn connection of Lizzie to OJ Simpson. Nothing new there. But besides getting the number of whacks incorrect and reversed (it was 19 to Abby and 10 to Andrew), the author proffers the bold assertion that “all evidence does point to her guilt” and summizes that the reason why Lizzie was acquitted was solely because of her gender and the manner of her appearance. Quite an indictment of 19th Century jurisprudence!

All evidence did not point to Lizzie’s guilt. In fact, there was no evidence that pointed to Lizzie’s guilt! Only opportunity and motive.

Of note also is the source that the professor uses in his paper. Human Monsters is one of those mass marketed sensational murder books that has very little to offer in the way of scholarship. This book is like the National Inquirer’s version of history—certainly nothing to use as source material for a research study.

I guess even PhDs can get it wrong, but I hope that isn’t the sum total of his investigation into the Borden case. Nor the sum total of what his students hear of it either.

Thanks to Sherry Chapman for this link!

A new, yes new, haunted purse, supposedly belonging to Lizzie Borden is on sale on eBay.

Here is the seller’s ad—-the caps are their’s, not mine. I would never yell at you!

THIS VERY SPOOKY , VERY OLD , LEATHER PURSE, WITH CHANGE PURSE STILL ATTACHED, IT IS NOT IN BAD CONDITION, COULD BE USED BUT I WOULD FRAME IT! IT IS SAID TO HAVE BELONGED TO THE FAMOUS MURDERESS,LIZZIE BORDEN,WHO WENT INSANE AND MURDRED HER BOTH PARENTS, WITH AN AX, IN THE 1800S NOW I HAVE HAD VERY RARE ITEM, FOR OVER 20 YRS, BEACAUSE OF ITS HISTORICAL VALUE,AND MY ATTRACTION TO THIS ONCE IN A LIFE TIME FIND, I PURCHASED IT IN FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS AT A SALE, BACK THEN, THE MAN WHO SOLD IT TO ME TOLD ME THAT HE KNEW THRU HIS GRAND FATHER, ANDREW , ANDREW BORDEN WAS , ( LIZZIES FATHER, THAT SHE WAS ACCUSED OF KILLING WITH AN AX.) A VERY FAMOUS NEW ENGLAND MURDER, ! HE SAID THAT HIS GRANDFATHER AND HER FATHER ANDREW ,WERE FRIENDS, THEY WERE A WEALTHY FAMILY, AND I WAS TOLD IT WAS LOANED , TO ONE OF THE RELATIVES FOR AN OUTING, AND NEVER RETURNED, BECAUSE THERE WAS NO CONTACT AGAIN AFTER THE BRUTAL MURDERS,AND PUBLICITY, OF ONE OF THE MOST HORRIFIC , COLD BLOODED MURDERS IN ALL OF AMERICAN HISTORY,WHEN HE DECIDED TO SELL IT, THIS MAN WAS IN HIS LATE 80S. AND WHEN I PICKED IT UP HE TOLD ME THAT HIS WIFE DIDNT WANT IT NEAR HER ,GRANDCHILDREN, AND ASK HIM TO TAKE IT OUT OF THE FAMILY HOME! LIZZIE WAS SAID TO BE SEEN IN THE EARLY DAYS, ON OCASSION CARRING THIS PURSE DAILY TO AND FROM THE BANK IN TH MORNINGS , PERHAPS RUNNUNG ERRANDS FOR HER FATHER!IT BEING A PART OF HISTORY, IS ENOUGH BUT I HAVE SEEN THE GHOST OF LIZZIE BORDEN WHEN I HAVE BEEN ALONE IN MY ROOM , SHE IS CRAZED LOOKING, AND I HAVE SEEN HER MANY TIMES, STANDING THERE WITH HER AX, AND ALL FULL OF BLOOD! I KNOW YOU WILL SEE HER TOO ! THIS IS A VERY VERY HAUNTED ITEM, NOT A TOY OR FOR MISUSE, SO PLEASE BE READY FOR IT! GOOD BIDDING

Starting bid? only $29.00.

Now the stranger part of this story is that not one month ago on eBay was yet another haunted Lizzie Borden purse. They were asking $500 for that one as a starting bid. No one wanted it, alas.

Here is that description:

As told to me by my mother, this purse was given to my great grandmother by Lizzie Borden.

My great grandmother immigrated from Italy via New York. Her journey to Boston/Maine led her to Fall River/New Bedford area, where she worked for Lizzie Borden doing laundry and sewing for a few weeks. Upon her departure Lizzie Borden gave my great grandmother this purse which has been handed down from generations.

Inside this purse were 2 coins : a silver dollar dated 1890 and a one cent penny dated 1853.

The purse is in immaculate condition as well as the coins. Black sequence with (I believe )is a silver base.

The problem with this beautiful purse is that when it is taken out of storage, strange things happen to the people and those around them that have handled it. We have had strange sensations of being watched, touched, strange sounds, shadowy figures as well as weird feelings, especially when alone. Circumstances seem to occur that things even break.

So is this a simple outbreak of Lizzie haunting her accessories? Or perhaps, an epidemic of insanity among eBay sellers? A sucker is born every minute, said a banker named David Hannum (no, not PT Barnum!).

If one of my faithful readers actually purchases this “haunted” purse, please email me and let me know when you see the “crazed looking,” axe weilding matron of Maplecroft.

On eBay right now is a framed image of a woman for sale: Vintage Oval Convex Curved Bubble Glass Picture Frame.

Seems the interest was not going as well as the seller wanted so they added this note on December 29th: “Could this photo be of Lizzie Borden? I did a Google search and the similarity is amazing! Look on Google for yourself and decide.”

13 bids so far. Hmmm. Namedropping Lizzie Borden on eBay seems to have its advantages.

Is it Lizzie? Nope. But then the seller doesn’t say it is, do they?

Found this short 57 second piece on a show called Perfectly Strange. The tv crew went to 92 Second Street to try to capture paranormal activity. This clip shows that they did.

A new eBay listing “Lizzie A. Borden Autograph Display 8×10 Rare Autograph Display!!” caught my eye. Starting bid: $400! Check it out!

A very rare signature of Lizzie A. Borden, professionally matted together with a black and white photograph to an overall size of 8 x 10 inches. In excellent condition .

Lizzie Borden was born on July 19, 1860.She is known as an american woman accused of killing her father and her step-mother. The elder Bordens were hacked to death with an ax on Aug. 4, 1892. Although Lizzie Borden claimed that she was out in the barn at the time, she was accused of the murders and tried. The trial, which aroused great public interest, ended with a verdict of not guilty. The case was never solved.She died on June 1, 1927.

The Autographs World is a proud new member of the European Division of the Universal Autograph Collector’s Club, we offer only authentic hand-signed autographs which are guaranteed for life and we guarantee the fastest possible delivery from Central Europe. We appreciate your support and look forward to serving you for many years to come!

Only problem is that this isn’t Lizzie’s photo and it isn’t Lizzie’s signature. Hmmm. Wonder if this is the first time she has been confused with the woman she was accused of murdering?