Well, I'm sure this has probably been posted here somewhere before because the date on it is August 4, 2003. I found it today while looking around for information concerning the Manchester case. Sorry for the repost, but what I'm really curious about is who is the fan from lizzieandrewborden.com they quoted in the article .
"One fan who writes in a chat room at Lizzieandrewborden.com, tells his peers: "There is no doubt the jury pool must have heard of the crime. I think it almost certainly worked in Lizzie’s favor. However, I don’t think it was a major consideration. To me, it was just the lack of evidence against her."
I don’t know who the “fan” is, Melissa, but I tend to concur that the Manchester case was not a major consideration in Lizzie's trial.
While it's true that Correiro was not officially arraigned until Monday, June 5, 1893, the opening day of the trial -- papers with June 4 datelines already carried screaming headlines "JOSEPH CORREIA IN JAIL. CHARGED WITH KILLING BERTHA MANCHESTER." (Victorian Vistas: Fall River, 1886-1900, 385)
After jury selection concluded on the 5th, the Borden jurors were given a half hour (5:00 - 5:30 p.m.) prior to their seclusion -- to arrange their affairs with family and friends. Many of these men were farmers and presumably had more than a passing interest in the case of a murdered farm girl who suffered the same fate as victims in a case they were now involved with. This interval gave them a further opportunity to learn that Correiro had, indeed, been incarcerated and charged with the Manchester murder.
A myth has persevered that Lizzie's jurors did not know Jose Correiro wasn't even in the U.S. when the Bordens were slain. Arnold Brown even claims in his book that this information was deliberately suppressed until after the trial.
However, four days before jury selection, a Fall River area paper stated that Correiro: “came to America from the Western Islands about two months ago….” (New Bedford Evening Standard, June 1, 1893:1)
So, in my view it’s unlikely the Manchester murder impacted the Borden verdict -- simply because jurors had the opportunity to learn that, not only was Jose Correiro charged with killing Bertha Manchester, he was not even in the country when Andrew and Abby were killed. (BTW - This post is basically a synopsis of an article I wrote defending this position for the April 2004 edition of The Hatchet.)
Thanks for the news item, Allen.
And good response, Diana!
Didn't this releative join the Forum to ask about the case?
Or wrote a letter to the editor of The Hatchet, or contacted the Website- I do remember the question.
Susan...what a great link ! It was wonderful to read what a family member of Bertha M. had to say. He mentioned some great genealogy, and what the family 'knew' about Lizzie's orientation, and about the possibility of her molestation by Andrew. It was fun reading back in the archives again.
You ladies are welcome. Kat definitely stirred my memory with her post and made me curious as to where I had read the info myself. It was pretty cool to read it all again.
“Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else's life forever.”-Margaret Cho comedienne
The Correiro relative also wrote us- here or a webletter.
I have Hart's e-mails- we corresponded for a time.
I guess I should ask Stefani.
Thanks for finding the Hart discussion.
Thanks everyone for clearing up another author-created myth. I'd forgotten about it myself. However, I guess this is another one of those things we'll never really know for sure--whether or not the jurors knew Correiro was in the country then or not. Does anyone know where the name DeMello came in? Was Correiro his middle name (as in Jose C. DeMello on that old thread)?
“I am innocent. I leave it to my counsel to speak for me.”
—Lizzie A. Borden, June 20, 1893
Just to confuse things further, Paul Dennis Hoffman (in "Yesterday in Old Fall River") says the name of Bertha Manchester's killer was "Manuel Jose' Carriera." (Note different spelling.) Although he has a bibliography, Hoffman doesn't use footnotes, so it's difficult to tell where each bit of information came from. Some of us corresponded with Hoffman while he was writing his book, but unfortunately it contains a good deal of misinformation. I had the feeling he had a very tight deadline and lacked the time to double-check some of his sources.
"To lose one parent...may be regarded as misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness."
-Oscar Wilde ("The Importance
of Being Earnest," 1895)
Thanks Harry -- I think I have it straight now -- Jose Carreiro deMello. Re the date of the Manchester murder, some sources seem to have the 30th (I think 80 is bleeding of the ink above & should be 30) & some the 31st as the murder date. Only way to tell for sure is that it was on Memorial Day of 1893; whatever date that fell. If on the 30th -- that would be my one claim of a case related event on my b-day.
“I am innocent. I leave it to my counsel to speak for me.”
—Lizzie A. Borden, June 20, 1893
You're welcome; I'm glad to see all those years in print media made me good for *something*...hehehe. I'm forever grateful I got to see old-fashioned typesetting before it was lost forever. I can't seem to open that news report. Sometimes my computer is ornery. I'll try again later. Thanks, Kat!
“I am innocent. I leave it to my counsel to speak for me.”
—Lizzie A. Borden, June 20, 1893
That's a good question Fargo. I have seen many crime scene photo's from famous crimes, including the murders in the house in Amityville. But I have actually seen very few crime scene photo's from the cases in that era. I would be very interested to know first if they had taken any, and then what happened to them. It's possible none were ever taken. I think that practice was still pretty much in it's infancy then.
"He who cannot put his thoughts on ice should not enter into the head of dispute." - Friedrich Nietzsche
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