Radin

[Angel]

My son picked up a used copy of Radin's book on Lizzie. I read it, but it must have been a long time ago because I don't remember the gist. I have read the first part of the book so far and am amazed at how he views Lizzie. My lord, according to Radin, she should be prclaimed St. Lizzie of Fall River!

[mbhenty]

es:

I know what you mean.

But like all writers he is working his case to who he thinks the killer is.

I'm sort of partial toward Radin. Perhaps it's because it was the first book I read on the crime back in 78.

He does have his way and skewed prospective and preconceived bias about the murder. (which I don't agree with)

But he is not a sensationalist or shock-jock like Frank Speiring, Lincoln, Brown or Demille. I believe he's honest in his approach and deduction. No matter how wrong he may be.

I have always taken the stance that Radin's book was a milestone, in that it was the real first serious account and big seller on the crime since the Trail of Lizzie Borden in 1935.

A fresh look.

The first to suspect and study the case from a different angle. Suspecting another as the killer and opening the door for Lincoln and others.

And in doing so, he is very good to Lizzie. Who knows? Perhaps when he came to fall river to study the crime and fell in love with her, like many here on the forum and in Lizzie World.

He wrote a lot about crime.

I especially love some of his paperback covers. (Especially the cover of the girl with the yellow dress. How funny is that)

[mspitstop]

Radin's book was my first book on Lizzie Borden as well. I was in my early teens when I read it and thought it was the only solution. Over many years, many many years (!), I've read just about everything in print on the subject and I keep coming back to Radin. I think so many books have not considered the time those people lived in and the sensibility of the time. I never could quite see Andrew as this overbearing monster of a father and the relations in the house, while not perhaps warm, civilized enough for four adults living there. For years the house was described as small and cramped and uncomfortable, yet, when I finally got there, I found no such place. Its by no means luxurious but the rooms were larger and the house was built more solidly than I had expected and not uncomfortable.
I think Lizzie was like many women of her time. So many of the men she might have married were killed or distracted by war and poverty. She busied herself with friends and good works and comings and goings. So did Emma for that matter, though less so than Lizzie.
Radin was the first author to see the "Hipbath collection" of Jennings and so he was able to write about what we had never seen before in the way of some source material. Bridget Sullivan's testimony for one and Lizzie's inquest testimony. What he published expanded on Pearson in some very fundamental ways. And gave the lie to what had been previously printed.
Before it was made available on cd some years back, I had travelled to Boston to read the trial transcript first hand at the Public Library. That is amazing because then you see how really poor the evidence was and how correct her verdict was. Through Bridget's testimony and Emma's and others one gets a much clearer picture of daily life in the Borden house and Mrs.Borden does not come across like some kind of fat freakish recluse. And Robinson's cross examinations were amazing. If you've never read the trial, then do so. It's riveting.
And then, David Kent, who died just before the conference in 1992, published what I consider the single best book on Lizzie, notwithstanding Rebello and now the new encyclopedia which is so wonderful, "Forty Whacks" which has an unfortunate title but is so even handed and fair and as far as we in modern times can know, factual.
Lizzie Borden is my desert island crime. I could endlessly argue either side. But whenever I read her inquest testimony I can't help but think that a cold blooded killer could have made up a better alibi and stuck to it. And I keep thinking about the timeline and how little time there was for Lizzie (or anyone else for that matter) to commit it. No blood trails, no weapon. It's not so much who did it as how could it possibly have been done! Kent does that better than anyone, break down the timeline to really about 8 minutes (that was going to be my hook if I had written and he beat me to it!!!!) I am speaking of course about Mr.Borden's murder.
If you haven't read Kent then do so. And thanks to the late Robert Flynn for publishing him and all those facsimiles.

[snokkums]

Yes, he seems kind of fond of Lizze! Long distance love affair or something!

[Angel]

I need to read some of those books again. it's been a long time.

[snokkums]

Yeah, I ithink I need to read it agian too. If I remember correctly, seems some of his conclusions are bit far fetched, kinda out there. Need to read it again.