A copy of the new book by A. Cheree Carlson, published by the University of Illinois Press that includes a chapter on the Lizzie Borden case of 1892, arrived on Friday and I read the Borden chapter.

The book is titled The Crimes of Womanhood: Defining Femininity in a Court of Law.

The chapter in question is titled: “Womanhood An Asset and Liability: Lizzie Andrew Borden”

This book is a work of scholarship, yet it is not dense or full of academic jargon. It is immensely readable, and I look forward to reading the other chapters as well (Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard, Mary Harris, Mary Todd Lincoln, and Madame Restell).

Carlson’s take on the Borden case is well reasoned. She investigates the use of gender in the trial itself, used by both the prosecution and defense, to argue their case for and against the guilt of the accused, one Lizzie Andrew Borden.

A few of the facts of the case are incorrect, but that rehash does not affect the overall argument posed by Carlson.

The author posits that the prosecution tried to use Lizzie’s gender against her. Lizzie’s lousy relationship with her stepmother, her seeming stoic behavior after the discovery of the bodies, her unfeeling response, now famous, that Abby was not her mother, but her stepmother (her true mother having died when Lizzie was 2), all work to make Lizzie less than the ideal woman, a person who, instead, has an unnatural mother/daughter connection, and thus, perhaps, is then capable of the crimes since she is so unfeeling about Abby.

Carlson then shows how the defense turned that argument on its ear and proved, or presented evidence to the fact, that Lizzie had a warm and close relationship to her father. In her daughterly duty to her dad, her charity and church work, Lizzie exemplified the ideal of womanhood, and thus was incapable of such heinous actions.

Carlson also delves into class as well as gender and, without giving away the story, makes an interesting argument for a way of reading the Lizzie Borden case in a new light.

I recommend this book.

Well, not officially. But in the seventh grade in the Gifted and Talented program at Belmont Middle School in New Hampshire recently they did. The students opened a civil case and held a mock trial. Students participated as jurors and audience members.

What a great idea!

Here’s the skinny:

A hung jury was declared Friday during the civil case against Lizzie Borden after jurors could not come to an unanimous vote.

Borden has been dead for some 82 years but the seventh grade students in the Gifted and Talented program at Belmont Middle School re-opened a civil case during a mock trial that took place at the Laconia District Court with students participating as jurors and audience members.

For the past three months, the students have been compiling evidence and rehearsing their presentation of the civil case against Lizzie Borden who was acquitted in a criminal case for the murders of her father and stepmother.

The mock trial was part of their study of the Constitution, which applies to the Fifth Amendment and the Double Jeopardy law.

Gifted and Talented teacher Laura Dwyer said she feels that civics is one area in the school curriculum that does not receive much attention and programs such as the mock trial give the students a real-life experience of the courtroom.

“The mock trial program is important. It reminds them of their civic duty and always makes them aware of their civic responsibility,” said Dwyer. “When they get into the court like this, it becomes real.”
Dwyer believes civics should be reinforced in the schools and, if started in the elementary schools, it can have a lasting impression for students.

During the students’ case study, they canalized the case and met with the author of “Lizzie Borden Took An Axe, or Did She?” by Annette M. Holba to discuss details of the case. In addition, students traveled to Fall River, Mass., to visit the Lizzie Borden Inn where the actual murders took place to gather evidence as part of their trial. Students spent the night in Fall River and the next day were greeted by a historian and lawyer who gave a bit of history about the criminal case as well as helping them to analyze clues during their visit.

Acting as the judge in the civil case on Friday was Attorney Sally O’Brien, the corporate counsel for New Hampshire Ball Bearings and an adjunct professor at Franklin Pierce Law Center.

“I think the students did a really great job,” said O’Brien. “They took this case and wrote it from a criminal case to a civil case and that’s hard to do.”

O’Brien said that many of the students throughout the years that have been involved with the competition have gone onto law school and she believes the program is a great way to introduce young students into civics.

“It’s just really fulfilling to see students start here and go to law school,” said O’Brien. “The students know they can do this and it’s huge.”

Throughout the mock trial, O’Brien gave the students advice on how to go through proceedings in a courtroom. Students called witnesses to the stand and integrated them as if they sworn in under a real justice.

A jury comprising a few students and Shaker Regional School District Superintendent Michael Cozort sat in the courtroom as the details were revealed. After the jury went into deliberation, they came back and a hung jury was announced.
“If I get the students involved at this level, then when they get to the high school they’ll call for government and civics in education,” Dwyer said.

Link.

The new book on Lizzie Borden and Fall River, due out late this year, and written by the curatorial staff of the Fall River Historical Society, promises to be a humdinger.

According to a “tantalizing tidbit” on the FRHS website, we will finally find out the identity of Todd Lunday, author of the 1893 pamphlet The Mystery Unveiled:—The Truth About the Borden Tragedy.

The identity of Lunday has long been the object of debate. Those who have spent a great deal of time with this issue have their best guesses. I know that one eminent scholar has compared the words used with known publications to help determine the name of the person who wrote the book (ala the deciphering of who was Anonymous, the author of Primary Colors, using word and textural identification).

One novice writer has based their opinion on the “phrasing, sentence structure, vocabulary, wit, and general degree of callousness” that they find in the writings of Lunday and one “James Dennan O’Neil, Irish Catholic, managing editor of the Daily Globe.” I guess the fact that the gent was an Irish Catholic is somehow important to his identification, although I cannot imagine why.

So those who care about such things, and there are many, will soon find out whether they are correct or not.

I can’t wait!

The Spring 2009 issue of The Hatchet: Lizzie Borden’s Journal of Murder, Mystery & Victorian History is now online for your reading pleasure. Subscribers log in now here!

This issue is chocked full of great articles!

We have a grand piece on the story of Spritism by Kat Koorey

A stunning work by Shelley Dziedzic about the Victorian Celebration of Death.

An interview with Wunderkind director Cameron Munson on his new Lizzie Borden film.

A new tale to tell about the Emma Borden photograph I found and detailed in the last issue of The Hatchet, called Emma Borden: The Plot Thickens.

A truly inspired work of fiction by David Marshall James, entitled Mesdemoiselles of French Street in “The Adventures of the Green Cape”

An important essay by Melissa Allen titled “When My Fire Burns Low”

A great work by Denise Noe on the Bible Verses spoken at Lizzie Borden’s Funeral, and

The final installment of Douglas Walter’s works From the Compositor’s Bench (we will miss him dearly).

And that is not all! We have 2 new poems by Michael Brimbau, 1 by Brenda Kern, 1 by Melissa Allen, 1 by Aurora Lewis, and 2 old poems by A.L. Bixby.

In addition, we have super fabulous Sherry Chapman pieces for your amusement: Bridget’s Kitchen, and Dear Abby.

So if you want to subscribe at the low low price of just $15 per year, for all three issues ONLINE, please visit HERE!

It will be a few weeks before the print copy will be available. So Online is the only way to go for now!