The true victim

[snokkums]

Do you think Andrew or Abby or both were the true victim? I think that both were the true victims.

[kssunflower]

I've always thought Abby was the intended target and Andrew a victim of circumstances. If Lizzie had convinced Bridget to leave the house after suggesting the Sargent's sale, she could have left too while Andrew was napping and returned to the scene under the guise an intruder had come in and murdered Abby. Which, of course, is what she claimed happened anyway. Who knows what went awry with her original plan.

[Yooper]

I think it is unlikely that Andrew would have been killed unless Abby had been killed first.

[snokkums]

Although I think that while Andrew had alot of ememies, if he'd been killed first and Abby lived the girls wouldn't have gotten the inheirtance. What I mean is, if she was still alive at the time of Andy's death, even though she was killed too, her family by law would have gotten the money and inheirtance. I think that is because, if I am understanding it right, the wife is the next of kin, and if she was alive at the time he was killed her,then she would inheirt the money, then her family when she died.


But I think that the girls hated her so much that they had her killed first, be it by Lizzie's had or someone else that they paid off.

[Yooper]

I don't remember the exact wording of the law, but I think the girls would have inherited the bulk of Andrew's estate if he died intestate. Abby would have gotten part of it for her benefit until she died but that portion or part of it would have gone to Emma and Lizzie upon Abby's death. I have a new computer and haven't transferred my old files, so I can't lay hands on the information quickly, but there were threads and postings about this on the forum.

[augusta]

I think both Andrew and Abby were victims. I don't think Andrew was the one-dimensional Scrooge he had always been made out to be. And I don't think Abby was the "lump of oatmeal" she had been looked upon as. (This phrase was used by Jules Ryckebusch in one of the Lizzie videos, and I think it is creative and amusing. Nowadays I just don't agree with it. It isn't meant in any negative way toward Mr. Ryckebusch. From what I have seen and read on him, I like him very much. I thought I should clarify that "oatmeal" phrase since I used it as an example before of how people saw Abby for years, and I'll probably use it again.)

If 'the girls' were responsible for the murders (and I think they and Uncle John got a butcher friend of Morse's to do it): What good would it have done them to just have Abby killed? They would still have Andrew and he would have controlled the purse strings, same as always.

I feel very badly for Andrew. But I feel even a little worse for Abby. Second wives are so often given a bad rap, especially from any step-children. Often, not always. But I think Abby had her share of suffering in the world. Heck, with all of Andrew's money, she still had to pay out of her allowance for stuff like doilies in the house. And she was still doing her share of the housework on a hell-hot day as August 4th. Lizzie got a seal skin coat, the Grand Tour, one-fourth of a house, and her kleptomaniac bills paid; who knows what Emma wanted or got; and Andrew held those purse strings. What did Abby get out of her life in that house? A trip to Chicago, which was I think a business one for Andrew anyway. I think she got some satisfaction when Lizzie was little and called her "Mother" and she and Abby were on more of a mother and daughter basis. But even that, which I'm sure Abby so strived for, was taken away from her when Lizzie turned against her in later life. Abby seems to me a tragic figure, one that took a LOT and didn't seem to gain very much. I think her marriage to Andrew was better than is usually said. But I think Andrew did a lot of stuff that got under her skin. She did tell him back, as evidenced in a small article I did for the Lizzie Borden Quarterly, when it was found that Abby told Andrew back for speaking to Dr. Bowen so rudely on the morning of Wednesday, August 3rd. So I don't think she was a total doormat to Andrew. I think the sisters hurt her very deeply by their attitudes. I feel that, unlike Andrew, Abby was a victim in LIFE, as well as how she died.

[Kat]

I don't remember the exact wording of the law, but I think the girls would have inherited the bulk of Andrew's estate if he died intestate. Abby would have gotten part of it for her benefit until she died but that portion or part of it would have gone to Emma and Lizzie upon Abby's death. I have a new computer and haven't transferred my old files, so I can't lay hands on the information quickly, but there were threads and postings about this on the forum.

Good memory- and it does belong here.
This is the link to the Boston Globe article that deals with inheritance in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts of 1892:

viewtopic.php?t=1352&start=0

[Kat]

It's also curious to note the length of marriage between Sarah & Andrew compared to length of marriage between Abbie & Andrew:

Sarah & Andrew 18 years
Abbie & Andrew 27 years