We Are Oh So Close to Our Goal for Porter’s Grave
As of today, August 27, 2023, we have raised $2,466 in checks and donations to our GoFundMe fundraiser to erect a grave marker for Edwin H. Porter, the author of the first book on the Borden case, The Fall River Tragedy. That means we only need $334 dollars to reach our goal! Can you help? […]
A Headstone for Edwin H. Porter
As you may know, The Fall River Tragedy: History of the Borden Murders, by Edwin H. Porter, was the first book ever published on the case. A crime reporter for the Fall River Daily Globe, Porter was one of the first on the scene that August 4th morning. He wrote regularly about the case for […]
The Passing of the King of Lizzie Borden Studies: Leonard Rebello
It is with a heavy heart that I announce the death of one of my best friends, Len Rebello. He died February 12, 2023.
I still cannot believe he is gone. Those of you who knew him might remember him for his interest in the Lizzie Borden case and as author of the seminal work “Lizzie Borden: Past and Present”—still regarded as a resource manual. His book, fondly referred to as “the Rebello” by frequent users, came out in 1999, with the assistance of Len’s best friend Bill Pavao.
Lizzie Borden Uncut Author Interview
While I was part of the design and editing of both of Bill Spencer’s book (The Case Against Lizzie Borden and Lizzie Borden Uncut: A Casebook of Theories), I will still say they are both great works of Borden scholarship. Bill was in Fall River for a book signing at the Fall River Historical Society […]
A Journalist’s Take on the Lizzie Borden Story
Dan Medeiros of the Herald News is out today with a news article/feature on the Lizzie Borden story. You can read it here. I think the best thing about this piece is that it is so fair and balanced. There is no snark. No sideways glances at the ghosthunters or true crime enthusiasts. Everyone is […]
The New Lizzie Borden Film
I haven’t seen it. Nor do I want to—right now. As I said to the Herald News, “I support fictional accounts of the Lizzie Borden story and the murders. In this case, the demonization of the victims is offensive to me. To make Andrew a sexual predator is undeserved in fact or fantasy. The lesbian […]
They removed Lizzie Borden’s maple trees today
At a very early hour this morning, I was awakened by the sound of what I thought was road construction. The city of Fall River has been digging up the streets of late to lay pipe, so my thinking that the commotion was some concrete digger/scraper seemed reasonable. But this was not the case. Instead, […]
Reviewing Abby Dead Photo with New Eyes
I happened to have in my possession an 8×10 of Abby Borden in her death pose with the bed removed. She is lying horizontal to the camera. We see her with her right arm tucked underneath her shoulder, with her elbow outward, akimbo. She has one a white top of some kind. There is a […]
Wanna Buy an Historic House?
A new and surprising addition was planted today at Maplecroft. I will let the photos speak for themselves.
William Moody, Borden case prosecutor, exhibit at Buttonwoods
From the EagleTribune: HAVERHILL — William H. Moody was a remarkable man who served the city of Haverhill and his nation in several important ways. You can learn more about him when the Buttonwoods Museum holds a free open house of the newly renovated, permanent exhibit of the Moody collection. The open house will be Sept. […]
LizzieAndrewBorden.com Gets a Complete Makeover
The parent website for this blog, LizzieAndrewBorden.com, has received a long-overdue redesign and makeover. Redesigned from the ground up, the site sports a slide show on the front page from illustrations created for the fictional book on the Borden case, Lizzie Borden, the Girl with the Pansy Pin, by Michael Thomas Brimbau (available on Amazon.com […]
The Literary Hatchet #17 is ONLINE and in PRINT
Issue #17 of The Literary Hatchet is now Online for your viewing and downloading pleasure. Free to all, this issue is a whopping 210 pages and includes poetry, artwork, short stories, reviews, and essays from authors and artists worldwide—including the US, Canada, Netherlands, Sweden, India, and the UK! Download yours TODAY at this address. Order your […]
Buyer Beware. Or Not.
A seemingly remarkable item has been on sale this week on eBay that, if real, is an AMAZING collectible to those who study the Lizzie Borden case or is interested in her life or Fall River, for that matter. A lock of Lizzie Borden’s hair from when she was a teenager and a letter from […]
Did Jack the Ripper write to Marshall Rufus Hilliard about Lizzie Borden?
A curious letter arrived in the mail to Fall River’s City Marshall Rufus B. Hilliard in 1893. It is the fragment of a page of paper that purports to be from Jack the Ripper! In this note, “Jack” suggest the police speak to a policeman named Jim Dunn, who may help them solve the Borden murders […]
The Doggerel Discovered
You know it. You have heard it a million times. Yes, that little ditty. Lizzie Borden took an axe Gave her father forty whacks When she saw what she has done She gave her father forty-one Lizzie Borden enthusiasts and historians have attempted to track this doggerel to its origins, with little success—until now. Previous […]
New Lizzie Borden fiction
A new work of fiction on the Lizzie Borden case will be published in August of this year, titled She What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt, and it is getting some pre-press praise. A recent story in The Guardian touts this debut novel as an “historical fiction highlight.” According the the book’s description on Amazon.com: […]
Has Rebecca Pittman Solved the Lizzie Borden Case?
A new book released in December of 2016, The History and Haunting of Lizzie Borden, by Rebecca Pittman, purports to have solved the Lizzie Borden murder mystery. I am still in the reading process of this tome (915 pages), and find it interesting and thorough in its attempt to leave no stone unturned—so I cannot comment […]
Historic Fires of Fall River on Lizzie Borden Podcast
Author and podcaster extraordinaire, Richard Behrens, has just posted the podcast of an interview he conducted with me about my latest book, Historic Fires of Fall River (History Press, 2016). If you crave Fall River history, like I do, or just want to hear about how the city burned down again and again, only to […]