I happened to be flipping though the book "The trial of Lizzie Borden", and came across this:
"On each recurring fourth of August aniversary of the murders the Fall River Globe printed an araticl which correctly represente dthe opinion and the indignation of many citizens. Thus, in 1903, the Globe, headed an article on its front page;
'Years Roll on And yet the brutal Butcher of the Bordens travels around the land free and unpunixhed elevan years ago today. It andled an ax with deadly effect in this city.'"
Another one that really got me going was this article printed in 1905 stating:
"There was no Borden murders! Both the victims of 13 years ago died as the result of the excessive heat."
Can you believe that one? I wonder how the author explains the ax wounds.
Suicide is painless It brings on many changes and I will take my leave when I please.
That one's nearly as bad as the murder-suicide theory mentioned in an Associated Press dispatch of 4th August - reproduced with the Evening Standard newspaper coverage of the murders and the trial. The piece reports that "...This leads to the terrible suspicion that Mr. and Mrs. Borden were murdered. The murder and suicide theory is advanced and finds many supporters."
Taking the number of wounds into account, it's impossible not to ask, "Okay, tell me exactly - how do you get there from here?"
I staid the night for shelter at a farm behind the mountains, with a mother and son - two "old-believers." They did all the talking...
- Robert Frost
Makes perfect sense to me, in fact, maybe it made sense to Emma, too. She gave an interview some time after she moved from Maplecroft in which she intimated that she was convinced of Lizzie's innocence because the hatchet was never found.
Alternative a) Since lack of hatchet=lack of guilt, then the rest of humanity was also innocent by implication. Therefore, since there was no guilty party, there could be no murder.
Alternative b) Since Lizzie and the rest of humanity was without guilt, that leaves Abby or Andrew as the guilty party, by process of elimination. It was either a double suicide or a murder/suicide.
A bottle of Scotch and a high fever will help you to see this better.
To do is to be. ~Socrates
To be is to do. ~Kant
Do be do be do. ~Sinatra
Sounds good to me too, Harry. I've never heard of the suicide theory before. Sounds interesting enough to look up to see what was said about the sceniro.
Suicide is painless It brings on many changes and I will take my leave when I please.
That was on CSI-Miami!
The young guy was a "CSI-wannabee" and also collected notorious crime artifacts from E-Bay. He had "Lizzie's Ax" which came with a "letter of authenticity!"
Anyway, he interfered with a big case trying to take evidence from a crime scene and he finally killed himself with several blows to the head with "Lizzie's axe."
Yes fiction...
Anyway, Harry collects those annual stories that appeared in the papers that you refer to, snokkums. I have some as well. They went on for years! I often wondered what Lizzie thought of them.
The Fall River Globe published annually an editorial on the anniversary of the murders. This lasted from 1893 to 1914 with the exception of 1908.
Some of them were quite nasty, and in some referred to the "murderer - or murderess", "he - or she", "The Thing" and even "IT". One of the more nasty ones was written in 1903 on the 11th anniversary. This is a portion of it:
"IT stands convicted in the minds of every self-respecting man and woman in this city today, just as IT did ten years ago, when the whole country was pondering over the awful "mystery".
IT insults the intelligence of any community by IT's presence. Were it known people would shudder as IT passes them on the street lest IT might suddenly grab an axe and repeat the cruelties of 11 years ago.
The killing of the Bordens long since ceased to be a mystery.
It has been settled that a Thing committed the murders.
It is safe from molestation(?) so far as the law is concerned, and IT will therefore never get its just deserts.
IT may tell the whole story some day, but that will never be unless IT loses his - or her - senses."
In some years there are references to the Borden sisters living on the Hill with their father's money and the reward still not having being paid.
These anniversary editorials ceased in 1914 and Pearson writes in his "Trial of Lizzie Borden" (p81):
"After some years a clergyman (I believe, of the Roman Catholic faith), thinking that these articles were in the nature of unchristian persecution, succeeded in persuading some influential persons to bring to bear a pressure which resulted in stopping this annual feast of sarcasm."
What could Lizzie have done? Probably not much. They never specifically named her and most certainly she wouldn't want to go into a protracted court battle. The first few lines of the editorial quoted above certainly point to Lizzie unless there was someone else on trial 10 years previously. But again would she want a court battle?
I often wonder if she was conveniently out of town every August 4th. I would have been.
I know I ask perfection of a quite imperfect world
And fool enough to think that's what I'll find
I guess there wasn't much Lizzie could have done about this particular editorial, the references were too abstract. "It" being "convicted in the minds..." could mean anything, who knows what anyone is thinking? The editorial is a condemnation of the judges, prosecution, and jury if the focus is Lizzie. The Fall River police are also implicated. "It" being "safe from molestation" may be the most telling reference to Lizzie, due to laws against double jeopardy. That might also address the lack of any further pursuit of anyone else as the perpetrator. I wonder how the jury members felt about this annual smear?
To do is to be. ~Socrates
To be is to do. ~Kant
Do be do be do. ~Sinatra
You know, in a way those editorials are not much different than some of the comments aimed at O. J. Simpson even yet today. The only real difference would be the fact of civil liability in the latter case.
I staid the night for shelter at a farm behind the mountains, with a mother and son - two "old-believers." They did all the talking...
- Robert Frost
That one's nearly as bad as the murder-suicide theory mentioned in an Associated Press dispatch of 4th August - reproduced with the Evening Standard newspaper coverage of the murders and the trial. The piece reports that "...This leads to the terrible suspicion that Mr. and Mrs. Borden were murdered. The murder and suicide theory is advanced and finds many supporters."
