Lizzie Borden and Dead Files
Let me offer this review of the latest foray into the paranormal with an investigation into the goings on at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast, which was aired Friday night (April 20, 2012) on the Travel Channel. The show in question is The Dead Files. If you have read my previous posting, before the airing of the episode, you can easily tell my bias. I am not a fan of this show. I want to be one. I keep trying to be one. But I am consistently disappointed by the high jinks of this supposed paranormal show and I have never made a public comment before now about it. But last night they tread on my territory and made fools of themselves in the process.
I am officially accusing this show of fraud. It is clear to me that these two investigators (one a NY homicide detective and the other a psychic) are in cahoots and do speak to one another before the big “reveal” at the end. There are too many roadsigns pointing me to this conclusion. Just take a look at the clips that were posted on the Travel Channel’s site for the show (and are linked at my previous post) to see the not so subtle way in which the detective hears the word poison, and the psychic feels the word poison. And yet, this all important segment does not make it into the final cut. I wonder why?
In addition to this fakery, there are other problems. The detective claims to have reviewed the case, studied it for clues perhaps not yet found, and is shown turning pages of newspaper clippings. Big deal. You cannot learn about a murder case from the Victorian era from the newspaper accounts. They are full of contrived bits and pieces, which made for great sales. Remember, this was right at the beginning of the yellow journalism craze. I have studied this case, ad nauseam studied this case, and one thing I know is that to learn about this murder you have to read the transcripts: the police witness statements, the inquest, the preliminary hearing, and the trial. Through sworn testimony can one glean some kernels of interesting facts that may actually assist you in your attempts to solve this most enigmatic of murder mysteries. But certainly not by using the newspapers, which, by the way, got it all wrong on the very first day they printed the story.
But the worst part of all was the ending. Here is the big “reveal” where the image that was dictated by the psychic to the sketch artist is compared to the “brand new never before seen” image that the detective has “uncovered.” As I waited with bated breath, he shows us an image that I recognize. It is Lizzie as an old woman, a brand new photo just published in the new book by the curatorial staff of the Fall River Historical Society. The book is Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River.
How do I recognize her so quickly? I helped edit this book and wrote the index for it. So I have been involved in the project for some time.
I was APPALLED by the photoshopping that was done to this lovely image of a sweet old lady sitting on a bench in some lovely roadside park. They took off her hat. They changed the color of her hair from white to dark (to match the image done by the sketch artist) and changed the background. Very badly photoshopped I might add. If anything proves this show is a farce, a fake, and a fraud, then this image is the smoking gun.
These people should be ashamed of themselves.
Here is a screen grab of the image the detective reveals to us:
Here is a screen grab of the two images from the show side by side that they broadcasted:
And here, my friends, is the image, the REAL image from the book of Lizzie Borden as an old woman.
Now let me show you the real photo and the one they photoshopped for the show compared, side by side.
Notice how they changed the hat, the hair, the background. How they highlighted her features. Took away her glasses. Removed the car. Removed the trees. You can plainly see the deception.
My ire is ignited when they mess with Lizzie Borden’s story and try to gain viewers by deception. This is a serious case where two people were brutally murdered. And it cannot be told by two people who swoop into town, make wild assumptions, and then leave as quickly as they arrived. They are making fools of Fall River, of the Borden story, and of the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast. And all of us deserve more.
April 24, 2012 at 5:41 am
Thank you for a sensible review of the show. I was really looking forward to it but was left very disappointed. This was the first episode that I had seen, so I don’t know if it is indicative of all episodes, but I found the whole thing corny and staged. I hope that the detective did a better job of investigating cases before he retired and the ‘strained, terrified’ looks on the medium’s face smacked of bad acting to me.
Thank you also for publishing the real picture – the other is a poorPhotoshop effort indeed!