Table of Contents
1. Greetingz
2. Contest — September
3. Upcoming Eventz
4. Lizzie in the Newz
5. Web Site Additionz
6. Web Site Coming Attractionz
7. Lizzie Borden Quarterly
8. Lizzie Gifts
9. Thiz and Thatz

1. GREETINGZ

Welcome to the first issue of the Lizzie Borden Newzletter!

My mission in Lizzie Borden Studies has long been to share the wealth — by providing, free of charge, copies of sources, reports, documents, books, and essays that have hitherto been unattainable or available only to those rich enough to afford them. With my partner in document transcription, Borden scholar Harry Widdows, we have labored long to put these hard-to-find and all-important materials into EVERYONE'S hands — thereby making us all equally able to discuss the case and perhaps solve the most enigmatic murder mystery of this or any century.

To that end, I now bring you the Lizzie Borden Newzletter. It is an attempt to provide you with up-to-the-minute Lizzie-related news, event information and announcements, research tips, and updates. I hope you will find this an enjoyable read.

If you have any questions, comments, contributions, or suggestions, don't hesitate to contact me.

I don't know what I have said. I have answered so many questions and I am so confused I don't know one thing from another. I am telling you just as nearly as I know.
Lizzie Borden, Inquest Testimony

2. CONTEST — SEPTEMBER

Every month I will conduct a contest, the winner of which will receive a Lizzie-related gift item.

This month's prize is a free computer disk of Porter's Fall River Tragedy and Pearson's The Trial of Lizzie Borden. Both of the books come in PDF format, readable on any computer system, and contain the full texts plus all photos from the original editions. Unlike the copies available for download from the web site which do not.

September Contest: Anagrams

Take these words:

LIZZIE ANDREW BORDEN

and make as many words that are 3 or more letters as possible. No proper names allowed. Email your list to me by September 28, 2002 at noon. The winner and the winning list will be published in the next newzletter. In case of a tie, a random drawing will determine the winner. Good Luck!

3. UPCOMING EVENTS

Kathleen Carbone, a contributor to both the Lizzie Borden Society Forum and the Writers Corner of the Lizzie Borden Virtual Museum and Library, is presenting a program on Lizzie Borden for the Brighton Allston Historical Society at the Allston Public Library, outside Boston, on November 13. Anybody in the area at the time should consider attending this event!

Forty Whacks:
Lizzie Borden Through The Looking Glass

A century has passed and still we are fascinated with Lizzie. She died long before the Holocaust, Hiroshima, the Cold War, Kennedy, Viet Nam, the Civil Rights Movement, and well before the media bombardment that has been desensitizing us to human suffering for so long. Who remembers the name of that woman in Texas who drowned her five babies, or the prom queen who gave birth in the ladies room, killed the newborn and was back on the dance floor before last call, or the female serial killer who hitchhiked up and down the Florida coast, shooting potential johns?

Not many----but who hasn’t heard of Lizzie Borden? And why do we still know her name? While not presuming to answer the unknowable, this pictorial look back to Fall River opens the case once more and continues our quest. With the documentation that has been left to us, some old familiar images, and a few not-so-well-known ones of the crime scenes---then and now---we pay another visit to the infamous heiress who, like it or not, put Fall River on the map for most of us.
November 13
Allston Public Library
Speaker: Kathleen A. Carbone

4. LIZZIE IN THE NEWZ

On the 110th anniversary of the murders, CBS News Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood presented a short segment on the case. In case you missed it, it included a factual retelling of the case supplemented with photographs and newspaper headlines/caricatures. Osgood did the voice over work in poetry style, his trademark. The Lizzie Borden Virtual Museum and Library was pleased to be asked to assist CBS in the creation of the production. For details of CBS's coverage, check out the Recap August 4 section at the bottom of the CBS web site here:

For information as to the events that took place at the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast on August 4 of this year, click here to read the story in the Herald News.

Here's an article by a recent visitor to the B&B, from the Sunday, July 28, 2002, Honolulu Star Bulletin. Click here to read all about it!.

Haunted Hamilton is an interesting essay on the purported hauntings at 92 Second Street. Click here for Haunted Hamilton.

The long examination is now concluded, and there remains but for the magistrate to perform what he believes to be his duty. It would be a pleasure for him, and he would doubtless receive much sympathy if he could say ‘Lizzie, I judge you probably not guilty. You may go home.’ But upon the character of the evidence presented through the witnesses who have been so closely and thoroughly examined, there is but one thing to be done. Suppose for a single moment a man was standing there. He was found close by that guest chamber which, to Mrs. Borden, was a chamber of death. Suppose a man had been found in the vicinity of Mr. Borden; was the first to find the body, and the only account he could give of himself was the unreasonable one that he was out in the barn looking for sinkers; then he was out in the yard; then he was out for something else; would there be any question in the minds of men what should be done with such a man? So there is only one thing to do, painful as it may be—the judgment of the Court is that you are probably guilty, and you are ordered committed to await the action of the Supertor [sic] Court.
Judge Josiah C. Blaisdell, spoken September 1, 1892, (110 Years Ago Today) from Porter's Fall River Tragedy, p. 139-140.

5. WEB SITE ADDITIONS

I have recently added several new pages to the Lizzie Borden Virtual Museum and Library. They include:

• 2 new chapters to "This is Maplecroft" by Kathleen Carbone
• a new page of Fall River Postcards (page 4)
• a new page of Fall River Photographs
• Search Feature on first page
• The Borden Case - 1893, by John H. Wigmore. "The Borden Case" was originally published in the American Law Review in November of 1893. An important legal analysis of the Borden Murders of 1892.
• The Conduct of Law - 1894, essay by Judge Charles G. Davis. A series of 5 letters published originally in the Boston Daily Advertiser in December 1893 and February 1894. A legal discussion in which the letter writer disagreed with some of the rulings by the Court. Davis was quoted extensively by Edmund Pearson.
• To Lizzie - poem 1907, by A. L. Bixby. First published in a collection of poetry entitled Driftwood: A Modest Collection of Random Rhymes Written at Odd Times for Odd People. Lincoln, NE: State Journal Company, 1907.
  

I went to the door, and I met them in the hall, I went in the side door, I thought I would get in there quicker, I was so much in a hurry I happened to go that way. I met Miss Lizzie in the hall, and Bridget. I says “Lizzie what is the matter?” I spoke pretty quick. I says “what is the matter Lizzie?” She said she was afraid her father had been stabbed or hurt. I think the word stabbed was used. I says “has there been anybody here”? She said no, not as she knew of, I would not say that she said “no”, I take that back; she said not as she knew of, I think. She said she had overheard her father several times talking loud recently, and said she was afraid some of the tenants had had some trouble with him. That is just as near as I can remember it.
Dr. Seabury Bowen — Inquest Testimony

6. WEB SITE COMING ATTRACTIONS

• An interview with actress/playwright Marjorie Conn, on her one-woman show of Lizzie Borden which she performs nationally.
• An interview with Victor Mascaro, the web master of the site on Elizabeth Montgomery.
• An essay by Stephanie Smigleski and Derek Dumas describing their experience of having their wedding at the Lizzie Borden B&B on October 31, 2001.

8. LIZZIE GIFTS — NEW ITEMS

Here is a list of the newest additions to the Lizzie Borden Gift Shop. Please visit the store at this address for contact information regarding purchasing these items.

Lizzie Borden Bumper Sticker! Now for the first time you can own a "Lizzie Borden -- Did She or Didn't She?" bumper sticker. These high quality bumper stickers are made from the finest synthetic (polypropylene or polyester) materials. The color pigments are heat-fused onto the material.  This makes the image resistant to weather,  carwashes, etc. The stickers are flexible and easy to apply. Our bumper stickers are the standard 3" by 10" in size.  The sticker is black and white (see image). Please note that the word "COPY" does not appear on the finished bumper sticker, it is used for advertisement purposes only. $4.95 each or 2 for $9.00, shipping is only 45 cents! .

The Preliminary Hearing transcript. 481 pages, 5 volumes. August 25 - September 1, 1892. Available for the first time in .pdf format on a CD-ROM. Searchable and complete. With introductory essay by Harry Widdows and Stefani Koorey. $25.00 + $2.50 S&H (first class).

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Older Sister. VHS. gs: Joan Lorring (Emma Borden) Patricia Hitchcock (Margaret) Carmen Mathews (Lizzie Borden) Polly Rowles (Nell Cutt) Kay Stewart (Neighbor) Wendy Winkelman (Little Girl). A reporter discovers the truth about the infamous Lizzie Borden murder case. b: 22-Jan-56 writer: Robert C. Daniels story: Lillian de la Torre director: Robert Stevens. $10, free shipping, USPS Priority.

The Legend of Lizzie Borden, VHS. Starring Elizabeth Montgomery. Remastered, unedited & with beautiful restored color. It comes packaged in a full color video box illustrated with color photos, cast credits & synopsis. I accept Postal money orders or PayPal. Check out my site, you can order from there as well. The Legend of Lizzie Borden. I am also having my 16mm TV print transferred and will be offering copies of that as well, soon. VHS $40 plus $4 postage.

"A Pensive Gaze" from the Lizzie Borden Portrait Plate Collection. Second in a series offered exclusively by the Fall River Historical Society. This fine ivory china plate is thrice decorated with alternating bands of 24K gold which gracefully frame this issue's sepia-toned portrait taken circa 1880. 4 plates available. Original boxes with certificate of authenticity. $25 a plate plus $5 for shipping and handling.

"Lizbeth" from the Lizzie Borden Portrait Plate Collection. First in a series offered exclusively by the Fall River Historical Society. This fine ivory china plate is thrice decorated with alternating bands of 24K gold which gracefully frame this issue's sepia-toned portrait taken circa 1890's. 5 plates available. Original boxes with certificate of authenticity. $25 a plate plus $5 for shipping and handling.

B.M.C. Durfee High School Collector Plate. Offered exclusively by the Fall River Historical Society. Shows the building as it appeared in an engraving of the period. White rococo style porcelain plate measures 6 3/4", features an embossed edge and is heightened in 24 karat gold. 1 plate available. $25 for plate plus $5 for shipping and handling.

Lizzie Borden: A Dance of Death by Agnes de Mille. 1968 hardback first edition with dust jacket, very good condition. $25.00 + $2.50 S&H (media mail).

April 1964 American Heritage (hardbound) with brief Lizzie Borden article and full page "pansy brooch" photo. Article gives a factual recount of the case and mentions Radin's forthcoming book. $15.00 + $2.50 S&H (media mail).

9. THIZ AND THATZ

Totally unrelated to the topic at hand, I offer you some wild and wooly links to unusual web sites. None contain adult content and all are whimsical and/or informative. Enjoy!

Priceless: shibumi.org

A nifty effect (requires java): The Clock

A new kind of web search: kartoo.com

Free blank calendars: Calendar

Inflation Calculator: Inflation

The Lizzie Borden Newzletter is published by the Lizzie Borden Virtual Museum and Library, (c) copyright 2002. All rights reserved.