Edwin Porter’s Fall River Tragedy: A Hermeneutic Entrance into the Borden Mystery

by Annette Holba, PhD

First published in December/January, 2005, Volume 2, Issue 6, The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies.

It is a fact that numerous journalists covered the aftermath of the Borden murders on a fairly consistent basis. David Kent, in his Lizzie Borden Sourcebook, comments that the courtroom was packed beyond capacity and added 50 more seats for members of the press as it became evident that newspaper reporters had taken an immense interest in the trial. Kent identifies Edwin Porter as a local reporter from the staff of the Fall River Globe who was one of the journalists assigned to the Borden trial (Kent, p. 322). One of Porter’s main assignments was to cover police/crime news. As a result of Porter’s assignment to the Borden trial he published The Fall River Tragedy: History of the Borden Murders in 1893. Porter’s account is written much like the journalistic style of the day that contained a complete narrative account of the case in a presentation that “makes a devastating case for Lizzie’s guilt” (Williams, p. 269).  

The first half of the book explains events prior to the trial; the other half deals directly with the trial itself, day by day. Porter was given notice by attorney Jennings not to publish/release the book before the Borden trial because it could prejudice the case, and forbidden to print certain pictures or likenesses upon threat of injunction and legal proceedings (Rebello, p. 359). Sources tell us that even Lizzie herself did not care for the account of her circumstances in the book so after her acquittal she purchased the pressing and destroyed as many copies of the book as she could find, although she was not able to destroy every one. In fact, in the Foreword of the 1985 republication of Porter’s text, Robert Flynn revealed that after a forty-year search he located a copy of the original publication at which time he proceeded with the 1985 reprint. He believed that offering the reprint of the rare text would be important to those interested in the Fall River mystery. While Porter’s text contains factual flaws and factoids, it also provides the audience with unique insight into the particular historical moment in which it was fashioned. 

This essay argues that we can take a new look at the Porter text and find gems of wisdom that illuminate human experience in a world seemingly far removed from the one in which we reside. By considering a few of Porter’s interesting factual flaws and factoids we may be pointed towards a new insight into a different historical moment  and the renewed valuation of a dubious text.  

The methodology of this essay explores Porter’s text through a constructive hermeneutic approach that means the process begins by deconstructing the factual flaws and factoids followed by reconstruction of meaning. Edwin Porter created an account of the Borden case that has contributed to our understanding of Victorian New England through conceptualizations of gender, media, and the interplay between public and private spheres. By exploring The Fall River Tragedy through a constructive hermeneutic, serendipitous and novel meaning is illuminated which invites a new perspective into a story that has remained a significant point of interest in the historical American consciousness. This exploration begins by deconstructing factual flaws from the Porter text.

Factual Flaws

A fact is information that is presented as an event or evidence that is consistent with an actual occurrence. The Fall River Tragedy is a text pervaded by a display of information presented as facts but are not based on an actual occurrence. For the purpose of this essay, facts that are not based on factual occurrence are factual flaws. This author does not suggest that Edwin Porter was intentionally misrepresenting information; rather it is more likely that the book was written and published quickly to capitalize on the public’s intense interest in the case. Nevertheless, page after page contains questions of accuracy as these ‘facts’ are presented. For example, Porter stated, “Bridget was in her own room in the attic where she had gone to wash the windows” (p. 9). This statement is a factual flaw because it is not consistent with the trial testimony of Bridget Sullivan that is accepted as an actual occurrence. In the trial, Bridget testified that she went upstairs after washing the windows and after Andrew Borden returned home in the morning and rested in her room:

Q. What did you do when you got to your bedroom?

A. I went up stairs to my bedroom. When I got up in the bedroom I laid in the bed.

The fact that Porter misrepresents the actions of Bridget is not as inflammatory as it is potentially just a sloppy mistake made by a reporter failing to compare his earlier reporting with what was later revealed in sworn testimony. 

Another factual flaw concerns Porter’s description of the front staircase in the Borden house. Porter stated, “Reaching a landing half way up where their eyes were on a level with the floor, they looked across the hall, through a open door, under the bed, and saw the prostrate form of the dead woman [Abby Borden]” (p. 10). While it is true that the first time Mrs. Borden’s body is observed it is by a witness standing on the front staircase about half way up, there is a question as to whether or not there is an actual landing there. The staircase turns and steps are constructed to adjust to the direction of the hallway, thus the ‘landing’ is a few steps that are constructed wider and in a more triangular shape as compared to the traditional width and shape of the first seven (approximate) steps in the whole staircase. While this might be a case for semantic consideration, it does represent that Porter’s description is not a carefully crafted report of the crime scene. Bridget Sullivan’s trial testimony does not indicate a ‘landing’:

A. As I went up stairs I saw the body under the bed. I ran right into the room and stood at the foot of the bed.

Q. How far up stairs did you go before you saw the body?

A. I don’t remember how far, but I remember to see the woman’s clothing.

Q. What?

A. I don’t remember how far up I went. I guess I went far enough to see.

The dictionary definition of ‘landing’ is “a level part of a staircase (as at the end of a flight of stairs).”  We could argue semantics over whether or not the few steps in the staircase reflect a landing but the point over the factual representation is established regardless of semantic theory. Porter’s account is potentially an embellishment of the scene description that might serve more to provide vivid imagery as one tries to capture the scene itself if one has never entered the Borden home.

Another factual flaw is Porter’s description of Andrew Borden, including referring to him as being “highly esteemed, retired from active life, without a known enemy” (p. 13). Porter’s description of Andrew is an angelic representation that has been rebutted by witness interviews and Borden scholars (Rebello, p. 25-27). At the time The Fall River Tragedy was written this representation could be indicative of a bias in Porter’s perception of the victim, but not factual. Often, lives of victims of violent crime are presented though a “halo effect” (DeVito, p. 97) out of respect for the dead or victimized, rather than out of a truth. These three small examples of factual flaws may seem unimportant in the overall scheme of the Borden story; however, Porter’s book contains many such subtle flaws that can color our understanding of the account. In truth, these factual flaws guide how we come to interpret and understand the event, and may sometimes create factoids in popular culture.

Factoids

A factoid is “an invented fact believed to be true because of its appearance in print.”  The myriad of newspaper articles claiming to represent the case from official or unofficial sources resulted in the invasion of many factoids into the minds of those who were interested in following the case. Porter recounts Lizzie’s initial questioning, “The conversation was prolonged and during the entire time Miss Lizzie controlled her emotions wonderfully for a young lady who had so recently been called upon to witness the blood of her father and step-mother flowing from dozens of hideous wounds” (p. 12). Besides other accounts that suggest Lizzie was not an emotional person, the factoid here suggests that Lizzie controlled her emotions (stoically) which might lead readers to believe Lizzie was a naturally emotional woman, which actually had not been established. Additionally, this factoid is connected to the factual flaw that assumes Lizzie saw her stepmother dead when she did not. The numerous news reports indicated so many different tales about Lizzie’s experiences that finding the truth became difficult. Accepting the factoid was much easier than critically evaluating all the sources later. 

Another factoid in The Fall River Tragedy suggested that the position that Andrew Borden was found in was a normal and comfortable position customary to his daily practices. Porter quoted Dr. Bowen as saying, “It was his custom to lie in that way. His position was perfectly natural” (p. 16). It is unclear in Porter’s account if Bowen truly had the knowledge of how Andrew Borden liked to rest or repose, nevertheless, the language Porter uses as a quote from Bowen asserts this statement as fact not as opinion. There is no basis for Porter at this point in the book to suggest that Bowen knew this as fact. 

A third factoid suggested that money was the motive for the murders. Porter reports the words of Hiram Harrington, Andrew Borden’s brother-in-law, “The trouble about money matters did not diminish, nor the acerbity of the family ruptures lessen” (p. 25). Additionally, Porter repeats Harrington is “positive that Emma knows nothing of the murder” (p. 26). In this case, Porter reflects opinion and conjecture – not facts, but in time these statements came to be factoid shaping our perception of the Borden mystery. 

New Perspectives

From this short deconstruction of Porter’s text we can come to the quick conclusion that The Fall River Tragedy is not a text worth reading if one wants to learn about the Borden murders and the aftermath from a factual perspective. For the imaginative readers seeking to find a gem of invention from which to make a dramatic account this text might prove useful. The real value that this text holds is not so much connected to Lizzie Borden directly; rather, we gain new insight and a fresh perspective when we read between the factual flaws and factoids. What emerges is the revelation of a historical moment. From this we find evidence that offers cultural insight and new historical perspectives related to gender construction, media, and the interplay between public and private spheres in Victorian New England. 

Gender

While Porter often alluded to the guilt of Lizzie, from his accounts we can also understand Lizzie Borden to be a good citizen from a Greek philosophical perspective advanced by Isocrates. According to Isocrates, a good citizen is someone who acts as an embedded agent in the polis – the center of Greek life – market place/politics (Isocrates; Poulakos). This person will be an individual who is guided by ethics and who has concern for the well being of the polis. While Isocrates may not have considered a woman to be a citizen, the other attributes of being a political agent, speaking for, in, and among others in the polis is a central requirement. Porter suggested Lizzie Borden was an embedded agent within the town of Fall River, at least as much as a woman could have been in her time. Before the murders, Porter reports that Lizzie “taught a class of young people [at her church],” was active in church work, and “was a member of the Fruit and Flower Mission and other charitable organizations as well as the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. In all of these she was considered a valuable and conscientious worker” (p. 23). Women had limited opportunity in the Victorian Era. Lizzie stepped outside of her private realm and into the public realm in a capacity for service to her world (polis), potentially as an embedded agent. Without Porter’s Fall River Tragedy, it is unlikely that we would immediately consider Lizzie Borden an ideal Greek citizen. Reading Porter’s text through a constructive hermeneutic approach invites new possibilities for the reader to consider. To take an accused killer and see her through a rhetorical lens is a novel way of looking at the actors in this dramatic story. Through a constructive hermeneutic we can also take a glimpse of the media situated in the historical moment.

Media

Edwin Porter’s Fall River Tragedy gives us insight into Victorian Era media. By stating that “almost every newspaper in the country failed to accept it [referring to the Eli Bence incident] as authentic, and while it served to point the police toward a possible solution of the great murder mystery, it also brought down upon them the vituperation of many a bucolic newspaper man who knew not of what he wrote, or knowing cared little for justice and truth” (p. 20). Porter is highly critical of negligent news reports that apparently had become customary in the day. Porter also reports that a clergy member beckons to reporters writing on the crime to be “careful of the reputations of the living, which could so easily be undermined” (p. 42).  

The accuracy of news reporting of the accounts from witnesses are exacerbated as on the first day of the trial thirty-five reporters were present in the courtroom and only a few intimate friends were present for Lizzie (p. 158). While the audience changed during the trial, the media blitz also increased. Through this constructive hermeneutic we also find a glimpse of public/private interplay in the culture of Victorian New England.

Public/Private Interplay

Porter suggested Lizzie did not act according to public norms for women in her time. Porter states that a police officer remarked that Lizzie “did not appear to be in the least bit excited or worried. I have wondered why she did not faint upon her discovery of the dead body of her father. Most women would have done so” (p. 28). By this, Porter implicitly suggested woman have an appropriate way to behave in the public sphere as a sociocultural norm.

Porter also pointed to poor police procedure during the time as he suggested their mistakes were “not surprising” (p. 48). While the crime scene was not initially secured, Porter stated police were victims caught at a disadvantage because of the lack of available officers on duty (the rest were at a police social function); they were not available in the public realm. In fact, Porter suggested that if the police were more publicly available that there still would have been criticism directed at them by the citizens of Fall River (p. 48). This suggests that the public was just as critical and concerned over police issues in the Victorian Era in New England as people are today. 

The last insight into Victorian cultural norms pertains to the private realm of citizens. Porter reports that common folk had “intense excitement” (p. 52) about the case, as it was rather unique from most other daily happenings. Tensions increased and people became obsessed about organizing their daily tasks around either attending official proceedings or waiting for the next news report. Porter claimed people became focused on murder and “the community had reached a point when it felt that it must clear up the mystery or go insane” (p. 53).  The most public event of a murder in a Massachusetts town had become the focus of most private lives of common citizens in Fall River. Society became obsessed as murder invaded their dreams, thus demonstrating a blurring of public and private realms of experience. We see this same manifestation connected to the recent catastrophic events since the new year (2005) as the tsunami invaded parts of Asia and now with the recent hurricanes and floods. People are hooked to electronic media, such as the Internet and cable television, much like people during the time of the Borden trial, waiting for the next news report to print and circulate. It seems human beings have the natural capacity to know when something different or new happens within a community. Because of this often-intuitive capacity, our engagement in the public and private sphere has the potential to transform experience in a community and allow the behavioral borders of public and private to overlap each other. We often think that we have come a long way since the Victorian Era, but examining texts rhetorically through a constructive hermeneutic approach can remind us exactly how far we have come, or not.

Conclusion

This has been an attempt to find value in a historical work that has often been subjected to criticism. This essay argues that we can use Edwin Porter’s The Fall River Tragedy: History of the Borden Murders as a constructive hermeneutic entrance into American myth and culture, instead of critiquing the text to the point of complete devaluation. This exploration seeks to resurrect this text for future critical inquiry into the nature of the Borden mystery and of humankind. 

¹ This interests me because I find that as I teach university students they tend to seek to understand the past through a contemporary frame in which they have a personal connection. The problem with seeking to understand something from the past by standing above the event, we misinterpret and misunderstand the event itself. This misinterpretation reflects lost meaning.   

Works Cited:

DeVito, J.A. The Interpersonal Communication Book. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 2004.

Flynn, Robert. “Foreword.” The Fall River Tragedy: A History of the Borden Murders. Portland, ME: King Philip Publishing Co., 1985.

Isocrates. Isocrates. 3 vols. Trans. George Norlin (vols. 1-2) and LaRue VanHook (vol. 3). London: William Heinemann, 1928/1945.

Kent, D. The Lizzie Borden Sourcebook. Boston, MA: Branden Publishing Company, Inc, 1992.

Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. 10th ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc, 1993.

Porter, E.H. The Fall River Tragedy: A History of the Borden Murders. Portland, ME: King Philip Publishing Co, 1893/1985.

Poulakos, T. Speaking for the Polis: Isocrates Rhetorical Education. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1997.

Rebello, L. Lizzie Borden Past and Present: A Comprehensive Reference to the Life and Times of Lizzie Borden. Fall River, MA: Al-Zach Press, 1999.

Williams, J.G., J.E. Smithburn, and M.J. Peterson (eds.). Lizzie Borden: A Case Book of Family and Crime in the 1890s. Bloomington, IN: T.I.S. Publishing, 1980.