A similar murder

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 8:54 am

Some of this I posted in 2002 but thought it interesting enough to post again for the new members.

This article appeared in a newspaper on June 27, 1893, a little more than a week after the Borden trial ended. The name of the newspaper is not known.

"MURDERS IN PAIRS.

The believers in to coincidences will find a strange confirmation of their theories in comparing the murder committed in a suburb of Indianapolis last Thursday morning with the Borden murder in Fall River, Mass. The similarity between the two crimes is as striking as it was between the victorious Whitechapel murders in London, England, and if Indianapolis and Fall River were not so widely separated it would be concluded at once that both were perpetrated by one and the same person. The only marked difference is that in Indianapolis there was one victim, while a Fall River there were two.
William Kline, a night engineer, went home last Thursday morning and after handing his wages to his wife retired. An hour afterward the wife found him murdered and the hatchet with which the bloody work had been done was lying by his side. The woman declares that she was about her household duties in the room next to the one in which the murder was committed and yet she did not see any one of daylight the house or hear any struggle or any blows given. Moreover, she confesses that she had laid the fatal hatchet on a table in the kitchen only a little while before the murder. With this instrument the skull of the murdered man had been crushed in, but the blunt end had been used instead of the sharp edge as in the Borden case.
The only explanation the wife can give of how the crime could have been committed without her knowledge is that she made one or two trips to a shed in the rear of the house, staying only a few minutes each time, however. A similar statement was made by Lizzie Borden, and a witness on the trial swore that he saw her going leisurely from the barn to the house about the time the crime occurred. The house in Indianapolis is a small one, consisting of a front and rear room opening into each other and a sleeping room off each room. There is much less probability that a murder could enter it in broad daylight while the wife and children were in the house and the yard, do his fiendish work and escape unobserved, then there is that the same train of events could have occurred in the Borden house. And yet no one saw a man enter or leave the house, no one heard a struggle and the last known person to see the victim alive is the wife, who found him murdered, and the hatchet with which the murder was committed must have been taken almost from under her hand.
Here is a train of circumstances that point more clearly to the wife as the Indianapolis murderer than any that was developed against Lizzie Borden. The Indianapolis house is much smaller than the Borden house in Fall River, and the chance of entering the former and committing murder and escaping unobserved are much less than in the latter. The Indianapolis woman had blood on her garments, got there she says by the effort to help her husband when she found him murdered. No blood was found on Lizzie Borden's garments. In the Indianapolis case no reason is known why the wife should kill the husband. They lived happily together and are not believed to have had any differences; while in the Fall River case a motive was conjured up from an exaggerated antipathy of step-daughter to step-mother. But no one appears to suspect the Indianapolis woman of murdering her husband. It is looked upon as a case of attempted robbery, discovery by the victim and of murder to conceal the lesser crime.
Lizzie Borden, however, to whom circumstances do not point near so clearly, was branded as a murderer by the authorities, immured in prison for ten months and then tried, and though acquitted is even now considered morally guilty by many people who permit their judgment to be swayed by their prejudice. "

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There was also this article on the same crime:

"Manitoba Free Press, June 24, 1893

BRUTAL MANSLAUGHTER

A Crime Committed in Indiana That Suggests The
Famous Borden Murder - No Clue to the Perpetrator.

New York, June 23. A Times special from Indianapolis, Ind., says: A crime committed yesterday morning at Brightwood, a suburb of Indianapolis, suggests the famous Borden murder. At 9 o'clock yesterday morning Wm. Kline, night officer at the Brightwood shops, went to his home, gave his wife his month's wages and went to bed. At 10:30 o'clock his wife says she heard him moaning and opening the door she saw a horrifying spectacle. The floor, bed and wall was red with blood. Lying beyond the bed was her husband, his head horribly mutilated and his brains oozing out. On the table was a bloody hatchet. There was nothing to indicate who had used it. A front door and a front window to the room in which he lay were closed. A back door was opened an it led through the kitchen to the back yard. Mrs. Kline says that a short time after her husband went to bed she left the premises for a few minutes and the assault must have been committed during her absence. There are no indications in any other room of any one's entrance. Nothing in Kline's room was taken. In the absence of tangible clues the neighbors think Kline had an enemy. They recall that he said a few days ago that he had been robbed by an unknown person of $30 and that he then declared he would have the life of the man who had wronged him or would lose his own life in the attempt. Nothing has developed as yet as to who the unknown enemy is. Last evening Kline was in a comatose condition with no hopes of recovery. He has three children. "

diana · Post by **diana** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 1:40 pm

That's so tantalizing! I wonder how it all played out.

lydiapinkham · Post by **lydiapinkham** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 11:25 pm

Fascinating story, Harry! Makes one wonder why one story is celebrated, the other forgotten. The fact that Lizzie was tried and found innocent? the fact that she was unstained and no bloodied weapon was found? Fascinating stuff to chew on.

--Lyddie

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 11:50 pm

I can't fathom why the wife was not suspected.
Interesting stuff there, Har!

I learned a trick.
I wanted to print the story out.
At the top of your first post there is "New Topic", "Post Reply", and a little white circle with a sheet of paper.
I clicked on that and it allowed me to print the story and the few comments- very efficiently and used every bit of the paper...no waste.

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 2:29 pm

I've just been reading this murder account again.
I was thinkig about comparisons to the Borden murders which they don't bring up.
One is that the blunt side of the hachet was used to kill this man, not the blade.

So what would determine which side an assailant used?
Blade or hammer side?
There seems to have been more blood at this scene than at Anhdrew's murder scene and the blade apparently wasn't used.
Does using the blade- since we realize there is a choice- give us any more information about our Borden murderer?

The other thing is the robbery.
This man's neighbors say that he complained bitterly about being robbed of $30 previously and vowed to get the man who did it. If our Andrew was robbed of "$80.00 in money and 25 to 30 dollars in gold" in June, 1891*, and if he was any bit as penurious as rumor or legend has it- or even if he was any of our fathers- wouldn't that be a huge big deal to Andrew or a father? That was almost $2,000 in our money.
I wonder if Andrew made any enquiries himself. He just seems like someone who would not rest until he found the culprit or at least it would have nagged and gnawed at him for a long time like a thorn.

*Knowlton Papers, pages 74-75

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 7:09 pm

Every time I read the article's title I see "Murder In Paris."
I just cannot not see that.
It's like those optical illusions, that you see once one way, and can't ever see it the other (Batman's teeth!)

I'm wondering, if Andrew really thought Lizzie had robbed him and Abby- how he would have treated her after?
Wary?
Indignant?
Did he hound her for the truth? And was she innocent?

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:12 pm

Batman's teeth?

If he did suspect Lizzie, or Bridget, or Emma, of the robbery, leaving the key to his room on the sitting room mantel in full view of them still seems odd. Unless as Victoria Lincoln supposed that it was some sort of silent message to the culprit. And the thought just occured to me, this robbery of Andrew and Abby, was it the first and only, or the first one that we heard anything about? I'm thinking Lizzie as Klepto here.

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 3:22 am

There were supposedly robberies around town that year, and it was thought possible (barely) this could be one of a string.

Rebello, 36:
"It is coincidence that an officer [Dennis Desmond] was put upon the case who knew the Borden family thoroughly. In fact, it may be said that he had, in a sense, grown up with the daughters.

There had been a series of robberies in Fall River just preceding this, and a young man was finally tripped up with a lot of sized keys in his possession, but there seems to have been something distinctive about this theft that did not indicate an expert."

..."It does not appear that anything else was taken from the house at this time, nor were any other of the houses in that neighborhood robbed." Fall River Daily Herald, May 26, 1893: 7.

lydiapinkham · Post by **lydiapinkham** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 8:15 pm

The Borden's crook used a plain old nail instead of skeleton keys, after all.

--Lyddie

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 11:50 pm

Lizzie handed over a nail. I don't know what that means. She also made sure Desmond knew the cellar door was *open.* (I don't know what that means either- there are 2 cellar doors.) Good point tho.

Here is Desmond's letter from The Knowlton Papers for reference. I keep it "saved."

"HK067
Letter, typewritten, with enclosure handwritten in ink.

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS,
OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY
FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT.
New Bedford, Mass., Sept. 9, 1892.

Hon. A. E. Pillsbury,
Dear Sir,
The enclosed reports gives all the facts the police had in regard to the burglary. It certainly lends some additional mystery to the case.

Please keep it among the papers.

If you see Wood ask him if he thinks there would be any use in now examining a gossamer which was found in the closet with no apparent stains upon it, whether it could be easily cleaned so that blood could not be found anywhere upon it.
What has become of the fifth hatchet?
Yours truly,

H. M. Knowlton,
per M. E."

"Enclosure:"

"On or about the 24 of June 1891 I Was called into City Marshal's office. 'Marshal Hilliard said "Mr Desmond, Mr Borden says his house has been robbed. You go with him, and see what there is to it." Mr Borden and myself left the office and went direct to Mr Borden's house Second St. I
found there Mrs Borden, Emma Borden Lizzie Borden & Bridget Sullivan.

On 2nd floor in a small room on north side of house I found Mr Borden's desk. It had been broken open. Mr Borden said "$80.00 in money and 25 to 30 dollars in gold, and a large number of H car tickets had been taken. The tickets bore name or signature of Frank Brightman."

Brightman was a former treasurer of Globe St. railroad co. Mrs. Borden said "her gold watch & chain, ladies chain, with slide & tassel attached, some other small trinkets of jewelry, and a red Russia leather pocket-book containing a lock of hair had been taken. I prize the watch very much,
and I wish & hope that you can get it; but I have a feeling that you never will." Nothing but the property of Mr & Mrs Borden reported as missing.

The family was at a loss to see how any person could get in, and out without somebody seeing them. Lizzie Borden said "the cellar door was open, and someone might have come in that way." I visited all the adjoining houses, including the Mrs Churchills house on the north, Dr Kelly's
house on the south, Dr Gibbs house & Dr Chagnon's house on the east, and made a thorough search of the neighborhood to find some person who might have seen someone going, or coming from Mr Borden's house; but I failed to find any trace.

I did get a 6 or 8 penny nail which "Lizzie Borden said she found in the Key hole of door," leading to a sleeping room on 2nd floor, east end of building. So far as I know this robbery has never been solved.' "

"P .S. Mr Borden told me three times within two weeks after the robbery in these words 'I am afraid the police will not be able to find the real thief.' "

"(Note: 'Capt. Desmonde' and 'Robbery Case' handwritten in lead and ink respectively on reverse side of document.)"

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 5:00 am

Hmmm, June 24 in 1891 was a Wednesday. The wash was done on Monday and taken in on Tuesday, Andrew himself made sure that the cellar door was closed and locked afterwards. Sounds like Lizzie was saying that she found the nail in the door to Andrew and Abby's bedroom, a sleeping room on the 2nd floor, east end of the building.

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 7:54 pm

Andrew and Abby were in Swansea that day.
Also, we should check the weather report because I think Bridget hung the clothes out as late as Wednesday if it was inclement on Tuesday.
I wonder how long The Borden's were out of town? Maybe Bridget left the laundry a day or two late if Abby was gone?

What is even more odd, is that was the date that Lizzie was appointed to the Woman's Board of the Fall River Hospital.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 9:07 pm

Hmmm, so far, I can't find what the weather was for the 22nd and 23rd of June, 1891. I don't even know if I'm looking in the right places for it? Didn't Bridget hang the clothes in the washroom behind the chimney to dry in inclement weather? Or, do you think she may have just waited? Once again, all we have is Lizzie's word on something and nothing from anyone else, doesn't sound like Emma or Bridget were questioned very closely or didn't have much of a response?

I did find that Nikola Tesla applied for a patent for a "System of Electric Lighting" - on June 23, 1891.