Mondo Lizzie Borden

I have to say I watch this web-only show. I keep up with each episode and find it fresh and interesting. 30 Odd Minutes is the brainchild of Jeff Belanger. He is interested in all things paranormal and has created a great informal interview show that is well worth watching. His cohorts and coworkers include Matt Moniz, Rob Bailey, Andrew Lake, Andy White, and Sarah Samways. Check out their bios here, and don’t forget to mouse over the pictures for a laff.

30 Odd Minutes has produced a show on the Lizzie Borden house.

Here is their description:

Episode 27 – “Live” from Lizzie Borden’s

In Episode 27 we come to you “Live” from the haunted Lizzie Borden house in Fall River, Massachusetts. Okay, not totally “live” because we filmed the episode about a week before it aired. Nobody does a documentary like the 30 Odd Minutes crew! And Lizzie Borden is no different. Just like our studio show we do the whole thing live, straight-through, in one take. You get a tour of the house, learn about some of the history, hear from the manager, Lee Ann, and learn from our special guests: EVP specialist, Mike Markowicz, and the host of Spooky Southcoast Radio, Tim Weisberg. You just don’t know what will happen during this show. Do we uncover evidence of the paranormal or just a prank? Tune in to find out! If the truth is out there… 30 Odd Minutes will find it… but only by sheer accident.

Enjoy!

The Fall River Spirit, a weekly addition to the Herald News, did a nice piece on the famous of Fall River, besides Lizzie Borden! It is a great collection of facts and presents the city and its contributions to culture, politics, sports, and cuisine in a wonderful light indeed.

Link to the article is here.

Bloody Rare Books has had a placeholder for a long while where their Lizzie Borden Collection was one day supposed to go. Well that day has finally arrived and I am happy to say that the site is spectacular!

With research and writing by Richard Behrens, of “Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective” and GardenBay Films (which produces the Lizzie Mini films), this section of the rare book store site is jam-packed with Lizzie info, including a most excellent retelling of the trial of Lizzie Borden.

Bloody Rare indicates that their Lizzie Borden inventory will be uploaded soon. I can’t wait!

Gwen, in her blog Things in My Head, has posted 5 questions that she would like to ask Lizzie Borden. Her post inspired me to add my five questions. Perhaps you have questions as well?

Here are her questions:

1) Let’s get the obvious one out of the way. Did you do it? Did Emma do it? People have written books supporting you both did it or you did or just Emma did it.

2) Did you know someone turned the house on Second Street into a bed and breakfast? People pay over $200 for a night even in Bridget’s old room.

3) Where you and Nance O’Neil girlfriends? Or just friends?

4) Did your father have things to do with you or Emma? There is definitely a something is very wrong vibe there.

5) Why did Emma move out after all those years together? Did she confront you about Nance O’Neil and your theater friends? Just couldn’t stand the sight of each other anymore?

My questions are:
1) Why did you stay in Fall River after your acquittal?
2) Did you burgle your own house on June 24, 1891?
3) Did you celebrate birthdays and holidays like Christmas in your home as you were growing up?
4) Were you a kleptomaniac?
5) After Emma moved out, did you communicate with her again ever, either in person, by telephone, or letter?

Some students at Waltham High School (MA) have put together a short video on the Lizzie Borden case. It is a straight retelling of the story, with a strong emphasis on Lizzie’s probable guilt.

The students cite their sources at the end of the show, but get many of the facts of the case incorrect. Can you spot their mistakes? Comment on your findings below.

Victoriana Magazine, a free online journal of all things Victorian, has returned, and with a new lovely design.

This came to me in an email, which prompted me to visit the new site.

Victoriana Magazine Is Back!

Victoriana Magazine has returned as a new daily blog magazine for Victorian style living featuring fashion and accessories, house remodeling and home decor, entertaining and holidays, food and recipes, history and lifestyles, and much more.
Now you can experience a bit of the 19th century everyday when Victoriana posts a new article related to the Victorian era.

You can receive free updates by email or by your favorite feed reader — you can unsubscribe at any time.

For those who received emails from Victoriana in the past, you will need to sign-up again on our new site to continue using this convenient feature.

Visit Victoriana now to escape to the 19th century!

A group of rather inventive T-shirt designs have popped up recently on Zazzle.com.

Zazzle is the world’s leading platform for quality custom products. Zazzle’s proprietary technology enables individuals, professional artists, and major brands, including Disney and Hallmark, to create and offer billions of unique products for customers worldwide. Zazzle’s rapidly expanding product base covers every topic imaginable and includes t-shirts, business cards, invitations, in addition to a variety of custom gifts. Upon creation, products are instantly and accurately visualized on the site and offered in the Zazzle marketplace. When ordered, each product is made on-demand, typically within 24 hours. Launched in 2005 and based in Redwood City, California, Zazzle’s vision is to redefine commerce, powered by the world’s imagination.

Here are a sampling of their Lizzie Borden wearables.

I really like this one!

Purchase yours here.

This one is less dark and more comical.

Purchase yours here.

This one reminds me of the Haunted Mansion characters at Disney World.

Purchase yours here.

The print version of the 4th edition of the Literary Hatchet is available for sale!

You can order your copy here for only $8.00!

This issue contains some amazing fiction and poetry, from some fabulous writers.

Here is the Table of Contents:

Please support our writers and order your copy today!

The new issue of the FREE Literary Hatchet is now online for your reading pleasure. This issue is dedicated to the late William Schley-Ulrich.

You will find wonders within its pages, a gem in every poem and story.

We hope you enjoy it.

You can download your free copy here.

Just click Downloads, fill out the form for Issue #4 and it will download to your computer.

Warm wishes for a happy new year,

Stefani Koorey
Editor/Publisher
The Literary Hatchet

This image is from Zillow.com, a site where you can find real estate. Once I entered Fall River in the search box, and clicked on the city on the map, the outlines of Fall River are shown with the red marks showing the houses for sale.

So it was to my surprise to see that the part of Fall River where the people live is shaped like a hatchet!!! Do you see what I see?

Another little tidbit from Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River was posted online today at the website for the Fall River Historical Society.

And a lovely Christmas present it is!

Also: the Historical Society has released a statement regarding the book’s scheduled publication!

I have seen the cover of this book and it is going to be a first class production.

For those who like to hold their Hatchets in their hands, the print version (hard copy) of the latest issue is available for order!

You can grab yours here. Only $14.99 for 86 pages of great scholarship, humor, and excellent analysis!

Check out the content here.

A blast from the past: A letter to the editor of the New York Times from 1992, written by Neilson Caplain of Fall River, Massachusetts, former president of the board of the Fall River Historical Society.

Letter: On Lizzie Borden; The Murder Weapon Mystery
Published: May 16, 1992

To the Editor:

According to a report from George Washington University (Campus Life, April 26), Prof. James E. Starrs hopes to dig up the bodies of Abby and Andrew Borden to compare the chips on a hatchet with the wounds inflicted by the hatchet when they were slain in Fall River, Mass., in 1892. The professor is bound to be disappointed. The hatchet to which he has access is not the one that did in the Bordens.

The hatchet he would examine, dubbed the “handleless hatchet,” is in the collection at the Fall River Historical Society. It is indeed the one presented at the trial of Lizzie Borden in June 1893. However, the prosecution did not claim that this was the very instrument used in the double murder. Reference to “The Trial of Lizzie Borden” by Edmund Pearson, which gives the verbatim testimony, discloses that the good doctors who testified said only that this hatchet could have been the murder weapon.

Furthermore there was no evidence presented at the trial to tie the hatchet to the crime — no blood, hair or tissue staining the metal or wood, or in the crevices between the two. To the contrary, the testimony of the forensic experts at Harvard was that the hatchet was clear of any such tell-tale matter.

To this day the mystery of the murder weapon has sustained interest and titillated investigators. What happened to the hatchet? How could it have been hidden or otherwise disposed of? Never before has a credible explanation been postulated.

Now, however, 100 years after the commission of the crime, startling new information regarding the actual murder weapon has become known and will be revealed in forthcoming books, confirming that a hatchet other than the one at the historical society did the dirty deed.

Under the circumstances exhumation of the bodies would serve no useful purpose, and it is to be hoped that the responsible authorities in Fall River will bar any violation of the graves. NEILSON CAPLAIN Fall River, Mass., April 30, 1992 The writer is a director and immediate past president of the Fall River Historical Society.

Saturday, December 19, from noon until 2:30, you can meet Rory Raven, the author of Wicked Conduct, a new book on the Sarah Cornell story—another famous Fall River murder.

Here are the details of the book from the Historical Society’s website.

Here is a big story about the book by Deb Allard in today’s Herald News.

If you can’t make it to the book signing, you can purchase your copy on Amazon.com at a discount.

The Literary Hatchet publishes contemporary short fiction, poetry, prose, photography, cartoons, and humor by established and emerging writers and artists from around the world. Subjects range from mystery, murder, macabre, horror, monsters, ghosts, and things that go bump in the night.

The next issue is due to be published soon and we are accepting submissions until Friday, December 18, 2009 at 9 pm.

Please submit your creative work to peartreepress (at) mac.com.

Please visit the website for The Literary Hatchet and download the last three issues for FREE.