City Marshal John Fleet Calls Fall River a ‘Moral City’
On 16 October 1910, the Boston Daily Globe reported that City Marshal John Fleet had a high regard for Fall River.
If you remember, John Fleet was Assistant City Marshal under Marshal Hilliard at the time of the Borden murders of 1892. According to Commonwealth of Massachusetts VS. Lizzie A. Borden; The Knowlton Papers, 1892-189 3. Eds. Michael Martins and Dennis A. Binette. Fall River, MA: Fall River Historical Society, 1994, this is what we know of Fleet:
“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 marshall, 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.”
Interesting find by Harry Widdows. Thanks!
