Denise NoeThe Deepest Question Raised by the Borden Case
by Denise Noe
First published in February/March, 2004, Volume 1, Issue 1, The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies.
“If you exclude the events in Oklahoma City, Tim was a good person.” The preceding quote was made about convicted mass murderer Timothy McVeigh, the homegrown terrorist who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, in April, 1995. A friend who wanted to help McVeigh escape the death penalty made the statement in all seriousness. Is it truly possible for someone to be a good, moral person and still be guilty of committing a brutal, premeditated, multiple murder? Can a person have such opposite sides to their personality that some may think of them fondly while others revile their existence?
Perhaps no one begs this question more than Lizzie Borden, the major suspect in America’s most persistently baffling murder mystery. For if we accept the hypothesis of her guilt, with or without accomplices, we are confronted with a person who lived a virtuous life both before and after the day she perpetrated or conspired in two vicious slayings, one of them of her own father and the other her step-mother.
Lizzie Borden appears to have possessed good qualities in full measure, both the “cool” virtues of modesty and chastity and the “warmer” positive attributes of kindness, generosity, and caring. In fact, the years leading up to the crime had been devoted to good works.
In 1885, the Borden family were members of the First Congregational Church, but Lizzie changed membership and began to attend the Central Congregational Church, where she became a devoted and dedicated member. She involved herself in affiliated church activities, and taught Sunday School at The Central Mission School. In 1890, Lizzie became Secretary of The Fruit and Flower Mission. By June, 1891, she was a Member of the Woman’s Board of the Fall River Hospital. In 1892, Lizzie became Treasurer of the Young Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Mrs. Handy, a family friend, explained to the press on August 10, in the Fall River Evening News, that Lizzie “is kindhearted and has done much for the poor. For three winters she did sewing for the needy at home” (Rebello 11-17).
Mrs. Kate (Swan) McGuirk, authored an “Interview” with Lizzie while she was awaiting trial. McGuirk claimed she had worked with Lizzie in the Fruit and Flower Mission and was considered to have known Lizzie well. She recalled their time when Lizzie “used to load up the plates of vigorous young newsboys and poor children at the annual turkey dinner provided during the holidays for them and take delight in their healthy appetites” (Casebook 129+).
It could be argued that we don’t know the motives behind Lizzie’s charity work. In an era when upper-class ladies rarely pursued careers or held jobs, involvement with a charity was often a way to keep busy and could eventually become one of the primary vehicles for social advancement. It is possible that Lizzie was using her work with the poor and sick as a means to an end instead of performing it out of the goodness of her heart. Since we will never truly know the intentions behind her actions, we can only say for certain, based on the evidence, that she was indeed active in her community in positive ways.
Nathan Leopold, half of the notorious Leopold/Loeb thrill killing team, admitted in an interview late in life that he had been given too much credit for his good works in prison. Together with Richard Loeb, his partner in murder, he had founded a school for the prisoners. Leopold himself had reorganized the prison library. He told the interviewer that these projects were undertaken not because he or Loeb felt they owed a debt to society but because they were a challenge and broke the monotony of prison life. However, unlike Lizzie Borden, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb had committed many crimes prior to the murder of Bobby Franks. Leopold led a somewhat dissipated life after his parole —violating his parole by frequenting houses of prostitution, bars, and gambling dens, for example.
Miss Borden has a far stronger claim to personal goodness. As is well known, Lizbeth (as she called herself after 1905) was ostracized after her acquittal. She was no longer able to participate in the group charitable activities that had been such a major part of her life up to the slayings. Her treatment of those people who did have contact with her, however, does indicate that she remained kind and generous and was charitable on the private basis which was still available to her. Her sense of gratitude and politeness are evident when, as Kent wrote, “Soon after she returned to Fall River, Lizzie made a trip back to Taunton, to thank Sheriff and Mrs. Wright for their care of her during the ten months she was imprisoned” (Kent 208).
Kent quoted Helen Leighton, Lizbeth’s best friend, in describing her reciprocation to those who treated her well. “She was not as friendless as she has been described,” Leighton maintained. “She had at least a dozen devoted friends who did all they could to cheer and brighten her life. Miss Borden was most appreciative of the solicitude shown her and she bestowed many, many kindnesses upon her friends. She disliked to accept gifts but could never do enough for her friends. Many, many individuals were aided by Miss Borden. She delighted to help people and gave most generously of her means. She helped several young people to obtain a college education. Fond of good reading herself, she saw to it that many persons who enjoyed good books but could not afford to buy them were well supplied with reading matter. Very few people knew of the extent of her charities” (Kent 209).
Russell Lake knew her after the trial when he was a little boy. In Frank Spiering’s Lizzie, he is quoted as recalling that “as he grew older — ‘I still continued to go across the street to visit with Miss Borden whenever I came home from boarding school. . . . she was very generous and kind to anyone who worked for her or was associated with her. A Mrs. McFarland was Miss Borden’s dressmaker, as well as my mother’s. I know that Miss Borden helped her out financially. Miss Borden also helped her coachman buy a house. Mother told me she also helped his children through college.’’ Mr. Lake then comments that ‘as kind and good a woman as Miss Borden could never have committed such a gruesome murder. . . . It would have to be done by someone with a great hatred and absolutely furious at their victims. . . . Miss Borden was never that kind of person’ “ (Spiering 219).
We keep asking ourselves what kind of person commits two horrible, pre-meditated murders? Could that person actually be good in all other respects? That someone could brutally kill another and otherwise live an admirable life is, perhaps, one of the deepest mysteries of the human condition.
Works Cited
Kent, David. Forty Whacks: New Evidence in the Life and Legend of Lizzie Borden. Emmaus, PA: Yankee Books, 1992.
Rebello, Leonard. Lizzie Borden Past & Present. Fall River, MA: Al-Zach Press, 1999.
Spiering, Frank. Lizzie: The Story of Lizzie Borden. NY: Random House, 1984.
Williams, Joyce G., J Eric Smithburn, M. Jeanne Peterson, eds. Lizzie Borden: A Case Book of Family and Crime in the 1890’s. Bloomington, Indiana: T.I.S. Publications, 1980.
