Impressions of Ruby

by Kat Koorey

First published in October/November, 2004, Volume 1, Issue 5, The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies.

Mrs. Florence Brigham, the curator of the Fall River Historical Society, and Mrs. Ruth Waring, whose husband’s cousin Dwight Waring was married to Andrew J. Jennings’ daughter, were very interested in Ruby Cameron’s story. When they knew Joyce Williams was on her way to Fall River for another visit, they asked her if she would investigate the matter. Mrs. Brigham had invited Dr. Williams over to read her mother-in-law’s diary – the notes of the woman who was as close to Lizzie as her own sister, championing Lizzie through her trial and tribulations. These women were friends and trusted and respected each other. Dr. Williams and her husband, who was always delighted to be of service where Lizzie Borden was involved, took their rental car on the long, hot journey to Cherryfield, Maine.

They arrived rather later than they wished. They had called ahead and were invited and expected, but were probably about two hours late. What seemed to be the makings of a luncheon meal was set out. Mr. Williams left the ladies alone, and went driving for two hours. Joyce wasn’t hungry but accepted half a deviled egg to be courteous.

She was surprised to see the house and Ruby’s living conditions. “The house was not very nice. It was in a field. Ruby did not live very well. Inside the house it was very crude.” Joyce was worried about who might be helping out the elderly lady.

Ruby seemed genuinely enthusiastic about talking about different topics. Dr. Williams’ impression of Ruby was that she was sincere—that Ruby believed her own claims. “Ruby was not senile. She was bright, alert and liked to talk about her various experiences.” One of those experiences was that she was nurse to FDR, probably in the 1920s. She had “graduated” from the Massachusetts Hospital (Mass. Gen.) and showed Joyce a photo of herself in her nurse’s uniform. “’There! There I am in my nurse’s uniform!’ Joyce recalled Ruby exclaiming. “She was emphatic—her statements were emphatic and forceful, as if she underscored everything she said.” As for Ruby’s claim that she nursed for FDR, Joyce explained, “Ruby liked Eleanor. She told Eleanor ‘You just get out and enjoy yourself!’ Ruby was sorry for Eleanor—all those kids—she wanted her to go do her own thing.” 

As to Ruby’s story about Lizzie, which had brought Dr. Williams to her door, she had little to say. “Ruby said she was the nurse for Lizzie in 1927, after the gall bladder operation. Lizzie told her she had a boyfriend. He did it.” 

Ruby wanted Joyce to know that she had several reasons to say that Lizzie’s “boyfriend”, David Anthony, “did it.” “One was that Lizzie told her herself; another was that her own relatives worked for the Anthonys. Ruby was most anxious that people believed the story that Lizzie had a boyfriend and that he killed her parents. When Lizzie was living at Maplecroft this boyfriend used to visit Lizzie. It was told in this manner to me: ‘It Was True.’ The way Ruby knew David Anthony visited Lizzie was that she knew it from Lizzie, and Ruby knew it from her own family.”

Ruby did not elaborate upon how the murders occurred. She told Joyce, “I don’t want you to talk about this while I am going to write a story about it. My friend and I blocked out four chapters- and there are four more.” Joyce was under the impression that “the story would be published within two or three months. She told me Rupert Murdoch had called her about her story. She said that he wanted to feature her story.” Joyce agreed. “I had written my books and wasn’t going to write another.” No manuscript was offered as evidence of her work, like the photograph of Ruby in her nurse’s uniform. “Ruby did not refer to her story as finished—‘Blocked’ is the word she used. She was not that organized.”

When Dr. Williams returned to Fall River she was invited to cocktails with Mrs. Brigham and Mrs. Waring. “They were very upset at the story [Ruby told],” and at what had been in the newspapers. “They said they didn’t think it could be a true story. ‘How could it be true?’” they asked. Mrs. Waring was David Anthony’s niece. It was no wonder they were so upset.

Dr. Williams’ final thoughts on the matter were reserved: “Ruby seemed most interested in establishing her closeness to Lizzie. I think she wanted to be famous, and recognized as a person—as the most knowledgeable about Lizbeth and the past.”

Ruby died that very year—the year of her brief fame, 1985.

Sincere thanks to Dr. Joyce Williams for taking the time to tell her story of that trip to Maine to meet the character that was Ruby Cameron.

Joyce G. Williams, Ph.D., is one of the editors of the widely distributed and popular work on the subject of the times and crimes, 1892, Fall River. Her book is Lizzie Borden: A Case Book of Family and Crime in the 1890s, 1980, T.I.S. Publications Division, Bloomington, Indiana.

She was the Keynote speaker at the 1992 “Conference on the Lizzie Borden Case” held at Bristol Community College, Fall River, Massachusetts, Aug. 3-5, 1992, generating the book The Legend 100 Years After the Crime: A Conference on the Lizzie Borden Case. Proceedings. Robert A. Flynn, Publisher, 1993, which is now somewhat rare and valuable.