Mondo Lizzie Borden

Well . . . that got your attention, didn’t it? It got mine! When I went to the auction site, I found, to my dismay, that this image is not Lizzie Borden at all. At least not the Fall River woman who this blog is named for. Not the accused hatchet murderess. Not this lady. Not in a million years.

So sorry Smith Auction Gallery in Providence, RI. Nice try. Better luck next time!

You can now own genuine sand from the Lizzie Borden B&B, or so they say, in addition to practically any other place you can think of, all preserved in a keychain or magnet.

FootWhere Link. Wholesale only.

It didn’t sell on eBay the first time because people saw it for what it was. Now it is for sale again. And the seller really wants to get rid of it, they say, but hasn’t lowered the price of $350. Alas.

You too can have bad luck if you buy this purse. And not from any curse on the purse, but by the reduction of your bank account for purchasing it!

Freaky things happen with this purse….Must Sell!!! Please!!!!!!!!!!!!

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.

We just no longer want this in our house. The purse itself is of real antique value, but the paranormal activities makes this purse more interesting in value.

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?

I found this somewhat new publication: a 2006 reprint of Porter’s Fall River Tragedy, by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. It is overpriced at $95, but I really like the cover!

Porter, Edwin, H. The Fall River Tragedy. A History of The Borden Murders. 1584775467.

2006 ISBN 1584775467 Porter, Edwin, H., Reporter. The Fall River Tragedy: A History of The Borden Murders. A Plain Statement of the Material Facts Pertaining to the Most Famous Crime of the Century, Including the Story of the Arrest and Preliminary Trial of Miss Lizzie A. Borden and a Full Report of the Superior Court Trial, with a Hitherto Unpublished Account of the Renowned Trickey-McHenry Affair Compiled from Official Sources and Profusely Illustrated with Original Engravings. Fall River: J.D. Munroe, 1893. 312 pp. Illustrated. Reprinted 2006 by the Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN-13: 978-1-58477-546-1. ISBN-10: 1-58477-546-7.

Cloth. * Compiled nearly contemporaneously with Lizzie’s sensational trial, the author aims to provide “a connected story of the whole case, commencing with the day of the tragedy and ending with the day that Miss Borden was set free.” He touches on such topics as the discovery of the murders, the adjournment of the preliminary hearing and some the many theories that were advanced before any arrests were made. The book is handsomely illustrated with photos and line illustrations of the deceased, the accused the jury and others. Porter was the Police Reporter of the Fall River Globe.

This auction is for a book that is quite interesting but if you wish to read it I would suggest that you Interlibrary loan it for free. It really isn’t a book to buy at a premium as it is a very short reference work that is only 18 pages long. Starting bid is $49.95 and BuyItNow is $99.95.

LIZZIE BORDEN AND THE LIBRARY CONNECTION. RARE

LIZZIE BORDEN AND THE LIBRARY CONNECTION by John David Marshall. 18 page softcover book. Published by the School of Library and Information Studies, Florida State University. Frontis of Lizzie Borden. 18 pages.

INSCRIBED TO KENNETH SOUZA AND SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR ON THE TITLE PAGE

A very rare Lizzie borden item, the theme of this is Lizzie’s connection with three librarians, a judge and, of course, her connection with books

Says the auction title: Lizzy Borden Mansion. Orig. Blueprints. One of a Kind. Only $3000! Not an auspicious start to a very expensive offering when they get the spelling of the main character’s name wrong! Lots of errors in the listing too. See if you can spot them.

Up for auction is a piece of American History and perhaps the end to a 100 year old mystery?

The images in this auction are photos of a one of a kind set of blueprints that Lizzy Borden requested of a prominent architectual firm for the design of a victorian mansion that she wanted to have built for her and her sister. There are eight blueprints to this set. They were designed by the very fashionable architectual firm of ANGELL and SWIFT Architects of Providence, Rhode Island. The design depicts a very elaborate (even for victorian times) mansion that Lizzy Borden wanted built with her fathers money. These are authentic documents and gauranteed to be the only set in existence. The title block says: “Plans for the Residence of Misses Borden Fall River, Mass. Angell and Swift Architects, Providence, R.I..”

The real intrigue here is that this design was contracted before the murder of her parents. Had they been available for admission as evidence in her court trial, she might not have been acquitted. How do I know this? These blueprints were given to me by a friend of my mother. His Grandfather was a contracter in Fall River, Mass.. and was asked to quote on this design. The story that goes with these documents is that when Lizzy Borden approached her father with the plans he absolutely refused her the money. He had a reputation as playing his bank account very close to his vest.

We cannot specifically identify the exact date that these documents were drawn up (as they are not dated), but the contractor who originally handled them for quote claims they were before the parents were murdered. According to the many books written about this sensational trial, when it was over Lizzy had paid off so many Lawyers and judges (and jury members) that she had little money left to build such a grand home. She settled for something much more modest in the area.

These documents have been examined by Sotheby’s and the Lizzy Borden Museum in Fall River, Mass.. They are claimed to be authentic. Sotheby’s quoted a verbal auction estimate of $5-6,000 dollars. ANGELL and SWIFT Architects designed some of the most prominent homes on the East Side of Providence and can be gooogled on the internet.

There are eight 19″ x 26″ blueprints in this set. I only photographed seven. The missing one is the Second Story Plan. This is a tremendous collectors opportunity. Think about it; had these documents been admitted as evidence for motive would you acquit her?

Final note: On the tombstone of the Borden family housekeeper it reads: “Secrets Never Known”.

Balderdash. Lizzie never paid off jurors or judges. Lizzie’s housekeeper (unnamed here) did not have this written on her tombstone.

And since there is NO DATE on these drawings, how are we to know “that this design was contracted before the murder of her parents”? Plus, if the seller had these appraised through Sotheby’s, then why are they not handling this auction? And last, but not least, Borden was a common name in the Fall River area. Don’t you think that these might have been made up for someone else?

No true provenance, no true date, no true connection, facts wrong in the auction listing, incorrect understanding of the case. All this adds up to trouble. Stay away!

It all started with a stolen sign. On March 17th, 2006, a seller on eBay, one leejeansct (powerseller) put up for sale one Lizzie Borden B&B metal street sign. From their auction ad:

Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum Mass Metal Sign. There really is a bed & Breakfast with Museum, located in Fall River, Massachusettes - in the restored Victorian home of Lizzie and her parents Andrew and Abby - site of the famous 1892 hatchet murders. Guilty or not guilty? Hmmm. Sign measures 12″ by 18″. Sign has a picture of Lizzie and part of a hatchet. Has 2 holes in the center to mount it. Blank white back. Great conversation piece. Get this one and make your parents nervous.

I contacted the current owner of the B&B inquiring about the provenance of this object and whether she had others for sale. She told me that as far as she knew, the sign was one of eight that were made, and three that were stolen off of Columbia Street, back when the city of Fall River put up directional makers to 92 Second Street. The seller said they got it from a flea market. The sign was sold to capecollector (also a PowerSeller on eBay) for $93.

Then a photo, supposedly of Lizzie Borden, appeared. What do these two things have in common, you might ask? Well, the person running around town trying to sell the photo was none other than capecollector, one Dan Dunn of Dan Dunn Collectibles. According to his AboutMe page on eBay, following graduation from college, Dan spent two years working for Leland’s Auction House in NYC.

Dan offered the image to the owner of the B&B but wasn’t happy with the price offered and so went along his way, attempting to get some Borden person to authenticate the image as Lizzie. As far as I know, the Fall River Historical Society did not offer him their blessing, nor did several other experts on the case. Some were unsure, and said so, but none were willing to say that this was definitely her.

Recently, the image appeared on Leland’s auction site online, with a description stating unequivocally that it is an image of Lizzie Borden. Here is that description:

Lot 1026. Newly Discovered Lizzie Borden Photograph. Lizzie Borden took an axe. Gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done she gave her father 41. This recent find is an image that was not known to have existed until 2005. It’s a cabinet photo taken around the turn of the century that shows Borden standing in a studio by a small table. On the table are a basket and a book. Her right hand sits atop the book while her left hand grips another book. Image was taken in the Robinson photo studio in New York and marked on the mount at the bottom. Lizzie was quite wealthy and known to travel to NYC quite a bit. This photo is one of only a handful known to exist of her. It is one of only two to show the large, masculine hands that gripped the axe that allegedly felled and massacred her father and stepmother. Looking at her it is not difficult to picture her doing the deed. . . . Photo is EX-MT while mount is VG.

This woman is not Lizzie Borden. The ears, lips, chin, and eyes are different from any of the known images we have of her.

When tying to confirm whether an image is someone, the most telling feature is the ear. According to a paper “Shape Model-Based 3D Ear Detection from Side Face Range Images”, authors Hui Chen and Bir Bhanu (University of California, Riverside) assert that the human ear is an important recognition biometric because “it is a stable structure which does not change with age; it doesn’t change its shape with facial expressions, cosmetics and hair styles.” (Study, PDF)

Elementary, my dear Watson. Simple examination shows without doubt that this “new” photo is someone other than Lizzie Borden. The ears never lie!

So back to the sign. This same Dan Dunn who bought the sign for $93 on eBay in March, turned around in May to offer it up for sale on eBay, this time with a BuyItNow price of $200. It isn’t a timed auction, so it looks like the seller has it up for sale until someone purchases it. His description:

ITEM DESCRIPTION: Authentic USED Fall River street sign from in front of the Bed and Breakfast made famous by the August 1892 Axe Murder that is still unsolved. Sign was used in front of he building for years then replaced. It is heavy guarge metal and measures 12 x 18 inches. Light wear. Definite use!! Shipping $12.

Unfortunately, this ad is misleading. According to the current owner of the B&B, the sign did not come from the front of the B&B, although that hatchet arrow pointing up might make you believe it did. The seller has no proof that it was used and then replaced.

And the beat goes on.