Lizzie to be Retried
The Manitowoc Herald News of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, writes today that The University of Wisconsin–Manitowoc is inviting the community to participate as the jury in a theatrical retrial of Lizzie Borden on January 13, 2007, at the University Theatre.
The trial will be a re-creation, using excerpts from original trial transcripts, as well as period costumes. Volunteers are needed to portray small parts, which will be read directly from the script, as well as jurors. The verdict, however, is unscripted – the jurors will deliberate and present their own verdict. No previous stage experience is required, and only two rehearsals will be held.
The infamous Lizzie Borden ax-murder trial of 1893 has fascinated those interested in crime for over 100 years. Andrew J. Borden and Abby Borden were brutally murdered with a hatchet in their otherwise quiet neighborhood. Their daughter/step-daughter, Lizzie Borden, a respectable Sunday school teacher, was charged with the crime based on almost entirely circumstantial evidence. There was a great deal of newspaper coverage, and public opinion was greatly divided on her guilt or innocence.
Those interested in participating in this re-trial of an unsolved murder should contact Dean Campagna’s office, UW-Manitowoc at 920-683-4710 by Dec. 1.
Let’s go!
October 29, 2006 at 5:37 pm
La Liz can be retried from hell to breakfast, and she will go on being found “not guilty,” UNLESS some of the previously inadmissible evidence is admitted into the record for another jury to consider.
I’m thinking in particular of her own words, at her inquest, which I recently reread with great fascination and a strengthening conviction that she was a facile liar and at least a co-conspirator in her parents’ murders, and most probably the murderess herself.
First, there’s all the information that she supplies about the ill will that had developed in the Borden household since her father supplied her stepmother’s half-sister’s daughter with a residence. Yes, Lizzie admits, she stopped calling Abby “Mother” after the incident. And she insisted on due recompense for herself and Emma. Now, we know EXACTLY what Lizzie had come to expect– that is, exactly what Abby received.
Lizzie’s feelings are running so strong during the inquest that she doesn’t bother to restrain them, bringing up how she was not allowed in the guest room (and that Abby used it to store HER things), how Abby was “in charge” of the downstairs. It doesn’t take an advanced psychology student to deduce Lizzie’s mindset. It’s all there, on paper.
Second, we come to understand the role of Uncle John, who has a keen way of ferreting out Mr. Borden’s financial dealings.
These are not suppositions. These are facts, according to Lizzie.
Then, she begins to squirm all over the place about what transpired the morning of the murders. She develops the lie about Abby receiving the note AFTER she realizes she cannot account for Abby’s whereabouts that morning. This is a key piece of information that Lizzie does not provide UNTIL it becomes clear that she cannot fib her way around Abby’s absence.
(Lizzie also ascends the stairs past the blood-splattered guest room at least once, never noticing what Bridget and Alice Russell can see plainly from the landing, a few hours later.)
Further on, there’s the complete sham of an admittedly nauseated Lizzie finding respite in the intense heat of the barn loft, and consuming at least one pear. Or was it three? She can’t decide. Balderdash! What is this woman attempting to hide?
Okay, here’s my take on that infamous morning, given the information that Lizzie supplies via the inquest–
Mr. Borden’s will is up in the air. Inquiring daughters want to know– Uncle John is summoned to find out whatever he can. (It’s convenient that Lizzie allegedly dislikes him, that she allegedly avoids him. Why? So Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Borden will trust him all the more? If Lizzie had disliked him so intently, had had nothing to do with him, then why not finger him as the murderer? However, she hastily absolves him. At that juncture, Lt. Columbo would have said, “Miss Borden– how do you know so much about these murders?”)
I’m willing to bet that Uncle John stopped off in New Bedford for a secret meeting with Emma, prior to continuing on to Fall River. However. that is, of course, just a supposition.
The fact is that Uncle John often discussed finances with Mr. Borden.
The night before the murders, I believe he learned something very important about Andrew’s plans for the dispensation of his estate. All Uncle John had to do, to clue Lizzie in, was to slip a note under her door, later that evening. I’m willing to bet that she sat up that night in a stew, plotting, seething with rage over how she was probably going to be “cheated.”
Not in a million damn years.
The following morning, after coming downstairs and sizing up everyone’s comings and goings, she retreated to her bedroom, listening for Abby to enter the guest room. Lizzie couldn’t very well kill her downstairs, where Bridget or Andrew or some caller could discover her. Abby HAD to die in that guest room (this is a strike against the “wild intruder” theory. Some have suggested Abby was drugged and moved, but– if the manpower were available for that, why not cart her drugged body off and dispense of it in some secluded spot, or weight it down and toss it in the water? Lizzie could not have moved Abby upstairs by herself. If Lizzie HAD had accomplices, why not knock Abby in the head, as bloodlessly as possible, and cart her off? She could have been lifted out a window on the opposite side of the house from where Bridget was cleaning, or just been carried surreptitiously out the front door, when the coast was fairly clear. She could have easily been rolled up in a rug, a la Cleopatra.)
Enough digression– Abby had to die in that room, and she would have seen her assailant enter it, given the proximity of the door to the spot on which she was killed. Abby did not die in a defensive posture. Lizzie could have entered the room, concealing the hatchet behind her. Then, Lizzie could have gotten close enough behind her so that the attack would have come as a surprise.
Lizzie probably was wearing the dress she later burned. It may or may not have been previously ruined with a paint stain. If she had been wearing a covering, Abby would have noticed. HOWEVER, this first murder would have proven a dry run on the subject of blood splattering. Lizzie would have to do better on her next victim, but, after all, he would be asleep, and in a most defenseless posture.
After killing Abby, Lizzie headed back to her inner sanctum– her bedroom– to tidy up and re-dress. She had a washstand and a slop bucket, and she could have dispensed of the bloody water in the basement toilet, or even outside. No one would have suspicioned her carrying her “slops” through the house. With her bedroom door locked, Lizzie need not have worried while she cleaned up. She had plenty of time– at least an hour, by all the guesstimates.
Remember, Bridget swore that Lizzie was upstairs when Andrew arrived home, fumbling with the front-door lock. Bridget testified that she heard Lizzie giggle when Bridget emitted some curse words.
Then, Lizzie merely had to wait for Bridget to retreat to the third floor, and for Mr. Borden to settle down for his nap. Lizzie easily could have dispatched him in protective clothing. She probably had forty-five minutes, given Bridget’s testimony.
So–
Given the inquest testimony’s admissibility at trial, Lizzie would not fare as rosily. Then, there’s her infamous statement to Alice Russell, prior to the murders, about fearing that something horrible was about to happen. Lizzie probably already had a pretty good idea that Andrew’s will wasn’t going to go her way. Or, that she and Emma were going to come out on the short end of the stick, in comparison with Abby. Never, ever, ever would Lizzie have tolerated that. Her own words speak as much, along with her Uncle Hiram’s. He alleged that Lizzie was the hardheaded sister, the one who argued with Andrew about not being able to entertain at home in the style that her friends did.
Yes, not without Abby in charge of the downstairs, as Lizzie commented in the inquest.
(We’re not even getting into the “robbery” of Abby’s money and jewelry. If Andrew thought this were an inside job, which he apparently did, given the positioning of the key on the mantel, he probably was not thinking about rewarding Lizzie in his will.)
Back to Uncle John– Lizzie no doubt informed him of her murderous intentions that fateful morning (or even the night before), so he knew he had to secure his airtight alibi. For whatever payoff he received, he helped Lizzie cover things up. How convenient to have a valise, or some such, in which he could have toted away key evidence the evening of the murder day.)
To put a period on a sentence that was not forthcoming– of course Lizzie got off at trial. She had a legal dream team with a direct connection to the bench. Massachusetts has never quite gotten over the ignominy of hanging so many alleged witches. Short of Lizzie’s admission, the State didn’t seem terribly eager to hang another woman, especially a Victorian “lady” who taught Sunday School! Lizzie sat in jail long enough for a ground swell of public sympathy to build in her favor. In the day, temperance leaders were fighting for their cause, as were suffragettes. Lizzie was WCTU. How could she be guilty? The State probably feared a riot if there were a conviction.
(Think O.J.– you’d better believe there would have been one if he had been found guilty.)
Of course, it’s always better to err on the side of reasonable doubt. However, history– Miss Lizzie’s post-trial lifestyle and the information that was inadmissible at trial– has given us a sharper focus, to believe that she was AT LEAST part of a conspiracy. That does not imply something with the complexity of an Oliver Stone plot. It merely conveys that Lizzie most probably and at least had some sort of prior knowledge of the murders, and that she did nothing to stop them. That’s guilt.
The more I read about and ponder her case, the more I believe she committed the murders, aided and abetted by her sister and her uncle as detailed above. Perhaps others helped, too, but perhaps not as directly.
Nevertheless, had I not read the transcript of her inquest– if I only knew what the jurors at her trial knew– I doubt I would have voted to convict her, either.