Fleet’s Notes

by Stefani Koorey, PhD

First published in Spring, 2012, Volume 7, Issue 2, The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies.

Assistant City Marshal John Fleet was the one of the first investigative officers on the scene of the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden on 4 August 1892. He interviewed several significant witnesses, including Lizzie Borden, Bridget Sullivan, and John Morse. His notes have been previously transcribed and included in the document known as the Police Witness Statements. 

After examining the nine pages of notes in Fleet’s own hand, located in the archives of the Fall River Historical Society, I noticed that what we have always assumed to be an unexpurgated transcription in the published record, is, in fact, an edited report.

What follows is the complete transcription—comprising all original additions, deletions, overwriting, spelling, punctuation, and abbreviations—of Fleet’s notes, and including what appears to be a rough draft version, which is headed by the words “Throw Away.” For the very first time, we can read Fleet’s full accounting of the statements made by the principle people in the murder case and his first-hand observations of the crime scene. 

FLEET, JOHN 1848 – 1916: born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, England, son of Richard and Charlotte (Brown) Fleet. He emigrated to the United States as a youth and was employed at the American Linen Company in Fall River, Massachusetts. He then enlisted as a landsman in the United States Navy in 1864, serving a seventeen-month term. Following the Civil War, he returned to Fall River where he worked at various trades and married Miss Lydia Wallace of that city. In 1877, he was appointed to the police department and rose through the ranks from patrolman to city marshal, retiring in 1915. He died one year later in Fall River. It was as assistant city marshal in 1892 that he was called upon to arrest Miss Lizzie A. Borden for the murders of her father and stepmother. His extensive testimony at the preliminary and final trials concerned the police search for evidence at the Borden residence, providing detailed information about the hatchets found there.

From the Glossary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts VS. Lizzie A. Borden; The Knowlton Papers, 1892-1893. Eds. Michael Martins and Dennis A. Binette. Fall River, MA: Fall River Historical Society, 1994.