Read it here in the Herald News.
The photographs in this article in the Herald News were taken by me at the last mock trial in New Bedford in September.
Every day, it seems, we hear of even more events that revolve around Lizzie Borden. Something is definitely in the air!
Here is a recap of what’s ahead for the month of October. Check back soon for all the events for November!
October 14, Wednesday, Lynn Public Library, Lynn, MA, 7-8:30 pm.
The Delvena Theatre Company will once again present their play “The Trial of Lizzie Borden,” where the audience serves as the jury.
The Lynn Public Library is located at 5 North Common Street | Lynn, Massachusetts 01902 | Phone: 781-595-0567.
For further information.
October 16, Friday, Fairhaven Town Hall, Fairhaven, MA, 7 pm.
Donations accepted and light refreshments will be served.
Jules Ryckebusch will present a lecture titled “Lizzie Borden: Myths and Legends”
Info on the Town Hall.
Story about the lecture.
October 19, Monday, Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA, 6:30 pm.
Free. Building C, Room 111.
Part of the Fall River Historical Society’s Lizzie A. Borden Lecture Series
Kim Dennis, psychic medium, lecture titled “Lizzie Borden – Her Side of the Story”
If Lizzie Borden could tell her story, what would it be? Canadian clairvoyant and medium Kim Dennis believes she was contacted by Lizzie who is ready to reveal the truth behind the Borden murders. Find out how Kim first became aquainted with Lizzie in her living room, and how she paired up with a journalist to document and accurately verify her “insider” information with a trip to Fall River in 2008 and a stay at the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast. The revelation will astound you and the details may put to rest the theories and finally bring peace to the 117 year old mystery.
For further information.
October 22, Thursday, Fall River Superior Court, Fall River, MA, 7 pm.
Free.
Lizzie Borden Redux, a mock retrial of the Lizzie Borden trial of 1893.
To obtain free tickets, mail a self-addressed stamped envelope to “Lizzie, Redux Request”, care of Clerk Magistrate Marc J. Santos, Bristol County Clerk of Courts, 441 N. Main St., Fall River, MA 02720. There will be two tickets issued per request. Tickets will be honored until 20 minutes before the performance, after which there will be a general admission until capacity is reached.
For further information.
October 23, Friday, Providence, RI, 7 pm.
Providence Ghost Tour, featuring some “haunts” of the Borden sisters.
Check out the web site here.
October 26, Monday, Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA, 6:30 pm.
Free. Building C, Room 111
Jill Dalton, award-winning actress, lecture titled “Lizzie Borden Live: From the Page to the Stage”
Jill Dalton’s Lizzie Borden Live combines historical facts with theatrical license as she portrays one of the most famous women from the annals of America’s Victorian past. This is a fascinating look at how the actress took a historic character and adapted her for the stage. Who knows? Lizzie may just make an appearance.
For further information.
October 31, Saturday, Eagle Performing Arts Center, Fall River, MA. 8 pm.
Tickets $25. At www.lizziebordenlive.com Click on ‘Schedule’ page or call (508) 989-9207.
$5 off for students, seniors and current union members (available at the door only)
If you like come dressed as your favorite character from the story or any costume you wish. Prizes for best costume
Grand prize: One night stay at the Lizzie Borden B&B (If you dare!)
Second prize: One-year subscription to The Hatchet
Third prize: Two tickets for the Providence Ghost Tour
For further information.
Many years ago, Channel 10 in Providence, RI, had a series of biographies that they produced. Here is their film about Lizzie Borden. I bought it on eBay a while back and converted it for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!
From today’s SouthCoast Advocate:
Society hosting Lizzie Borden talk
The Fairhaven Historical Society will be hosting a talk, “Lizzie Borden:Myths and Legends,” given by Jules Ryckebusch, retired professor of English at Bristol Community College, on Friday, October 16, 2009, at 7:00 PM at Fairhaven Town Hall. Light refreshments will be served and donations are requested.
She is everywhere! Truly!
The Fall River Herald News ran a story today about the recent lecture by Cara Robertson on the legal aspects of the Lizzie Borden trial.
You can read all about it here!
The images are from the Herald News. The story is by Deb Allard.
It was another full house last night as Cara Robertson presented her talk titled “What the Jury Heard: Evidence in the Trial of Lizzie Borden.”
It was extremely interesting and the points made by this amazing legal scholar and Lizzie Borden expert were profound. Unfortunately, there was no recording made of the talk as the material presented is part of her unpublished book, so if you were not there, you will not get to see it again.
The talk focused on two legal issues in the trial: the exclusion of Lizzie’s inquest testimony and the prussic acid testimony of Eli Bence and others. To me, the most interesting conclusions drawn by Cara concerned the way the gender of the defendant worked both in her favor and against her—how each side used her femininity to generalize and stereotype her according to their positions of her guilt or innocence.
It was standing room only once again!
Cara Robertson is an independent scholar and lawyer writing a book on the trial of Lizzie Borden. Educated at Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford, she served as a law clerk at the Supreme Court of the United States and as legal advisor to the UN War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague. Her writing has been published in The Boston Globe, The Raleigh News and Observer, and the Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities.
There will be NO lecture next Monday as that is Columbus Day, but in two weeks, on October 19, medium Kim Dennis will reveal what she has channeled concerning this case.
The Delvena Theatre Company will once again present their play “The Trial of Lizzie Borden,” where the audience serves as the jury, at the Lynn Public Library on October 14, from 7-8:30 pm.
I have not seen this performance yet, but from what I hear it is a really fine show and not to be missed.
The Lynn Public Library is located at 5 North Common Street | Lynn, Massachusetts 01902 | Phone: 781-595-0567 .
On Thursday, September 24, the mock trial of Lizzie Borden was held in the very courtroom in New Bedford where she was tried in 1893.
While the ballots were being counted, Judge Kane was asked about what was the difference between then and now, between trials from Lizzie’s time and current procedures. His responses may surprise you!
Monday, September 28, 2009.
6:30 pm
Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA
Building C, room 111
NOTE: Last week’s lecture was AGAIN standing room only, so please arrive early!
Annette Holba, Ph.D., author
Lizzie Borden as “Conscious Pariah”: A Discussion About Private Life
Lizzie Borden and the Borden murders are often sensationalized and exploited in some fashion by contemporary media. From the 1975 made-for-television movie, The Legend of Lizzie Borden, to some more recent mediated offerings that have exploited the Borden story through the slasher film genre, The Curse of Lizzie Borden (2006) and The Curse of Lizzie Borden 2: Prom Night (2008), it is evident that the stories lose factual basis and they are potentially exploited. This presentation enters the conversation about the Borden phenomenon through an alternative lens intended to shed a different light on the person, Lizzie Borden. Unmarred by her post-trial reputation and disconnected from some of the theories that have come and gone in the last one hundred years, this presentation looks at some of Lizzie’s public action as a parallel to one of the twentieth century’s most significant female political theorists, Hannah Arendt. Lizzie Borden made life choices in the aftermath of the murders that are consistent with Hannah Arendt’s notion of a “conscious pariah,” a label that Arendt gave to herself in the aftermath of her noteworthy critique of Adolf Eichmann in Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963). Lizzie also made conscious choices in her public life that perhaps she knew would be in disfavor with the larger public. Consequently, we can learn more about Lizzie as a conscious pariah in her environment that might offer more constructive insight for ongoing contemporary public discourse.
Dr. Annette M. Holba is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies in the Communication and Media Studies Department at Plymouth State University, New Hampshire. She earned her B.A. in Law & Justice Studies from Rowan University, her M.A. in Liberal Studies from Rutgers University (Camden), and her Ph.D. in Rhetoric from Duquesne University. She has articles published in The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies, World Leisure Journal, PRism, Cosmos and History: Journal of Social and Natural Philosophy, The Pennsylvania Speech Communication Annual, New Hampshire Journal of Education, Florida Communication Journal, and The Review of Communication. Dr. Holba has a book chapter in Media(ted) Deviance and Social Otherness: Interrogating Influential Representations, and is the author of Handbook for the Humanities Doctoral Student; Philosophical Leisure: Recuperative Praxis for Human Communication; and co-editor of Philosophies of Communication: Implications for Everyday Experience; and Lizzie Borden Took an Axe, Or Did She?
On Thursday, September 24, 2009, the Superior Court of Massachusetts, in commemoration of 150 years of existence, sponsored and produced a mock trial of Lizzie Borden in the very courtroom that she had been tried in 1893.
I was there and taped the show. Here is Lizzie Borden’s testimony. Played exquisitely by Lucy Bly.
Remember, Lizzie never testified at her own trial, so this appearance by her on the stand was a fictional moment.
For part two, visit YouTube HERE.
Tonight in New Bedford, in the very courthouse, the very court room that she was tried 116 years ago, Lizzie A. Borden was once again adjudged not guilty.
Testifying were Emma Borden, Dr. William A. Dolen, Bridget Sullivan, and (surprise!) Lizzie Borden herself.
This is Emma on the left, and Lizzie with her council and Reverend Jubb by her side.
If you don’t have ticket, I guess you could still join the standby folks who are hoping some don’t show for this event . . . .
The mock trial of Lizzie Andrew Borden is this evening in New Bedford, in the very courtroom she was tried in in 1893. I wonder how strange it will feel to be there listening, and judging, the case, pretending we are back in time and trying to figure out a woman’s guilt or innocence.
I have heard that every other recreation or mock trial has found Lizzie not guilty. We shall see if this is again the case.
Details on the event will be posted later or tomorrow. As a member of the audience/jury, I am wondering how I will be voting!
Monday, September 21, 2009.
6:30 pm
Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA
Building C, room 111
NOTE: Last week’s lecture was standing room only, so please arrive early!
Bonnie Mendes, Director of the Somerset Public Library and Ann Rockett-Sperling, educator
Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River
Readings from the Fall River Historical Society’s upcoming publication
Relying on an extensive number of previously unpublished manuscripts and diaries, including a plethora of material gleaned from private collections, Parallel Lives provides unprecedented insight into Lizzie’s world, into Her Fall River. Researched and written for the Society by its curatorial staff, Parallel Lives uses the time span of the family of Andrew Jackson Borden as the framework around which the story unfolds. No attempt is made to retell the story of the Borden murder case, but, rather, a picture is painted of the Fall River Lizzie knew. It was a city of sharp contrasts, where a privileged few, entrenched on “the Hill,” lived their lives surrounded by the factories and laborers that were their lifeblood, with one unable to exist without the other. Fall River is brought to life: the people, the sounds, and the events that formed its history. Parallel Lives takes the reader back in time and provides a never-before-seen look at her life, and the environment in which she lived it. Here we meet a flesh and blood Lizzie in full color—a woman who was anything but the icon created by those who did not know her personally. Those who did painted an entirely different picture of the mistress of Maplecroft—and the stories they had to tell are here collected for the first time in Parallel Lives.
As the Library Director of the Somerset Public Library, Bonnie Mendes is well known in the local community. A Somerset native, she attended Fitchburg State College, obtaining her degree in English with a concentration in American Literature. After graduation, she began work in the Reference Department of the Fall River Public Library, thus sowing the seeds of her passion for Fall River history. She attended the University of Rhode Island, graduating with a Masters in Library and Information Science in 1986, and at that time began work as the Reference Librarian at the Somerset Public Library. She currently holds the position of Library Director, and is a candidate in the American Library Association’s Certified Public Library Administrator program. An avid reader, she is involved in a number of professional library associations as well as many community organizations. Visit the website for the Somerset Publc Library!
Ann Rockett-Sperling, a retired elementary educator in the Fall River Public School System, is an active member of the Fall River Historical Society.
Yet another tantalizing tidbit from the Fall River Historical Society’s new book, soon to be published, titled Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River.
This one is a stunner! Soon, very soon, we will be able to view, read, and consume a letter or letters from Lizzie’s incarceration in Taunton in 1893! Oh, what intimate thoughts and fears might be contained within those pages?
I can’t wait.
At first, the Superior Court of Bristol County’s 150th Anniversary had announced that they were presenting a Lizzie Borden Trial “Reenactment.” That sounded interesting and well worth seeing all three times it was advertised.
Now, the posters are calling them a “Mock Retrial” with the audience serving as the jury. Even better!
Lizzie, Redux
A Mock Retrial of Lizzie Borden
New Bedford Superior Court
441 County Street, New Bedford, MA
Thursday, September 24, 2009
at 7PM.
There is no charge for tickets but seating is limited. For tickets, mail a self-addressed stamped letter to
Lizzie, Redux Request
c/o Clerk Magistrate Marc J. Santos
Bristol County Clerk of the Courts
441 County Street
New Bedford, MA 02740
Two tickets per request. Tickets will be honored until 20 minutes before the presentation, after which there will be a general admission until capacity is reached.
