If you could time travel....

[Aamartin]

If you could somehow be an eye witness to both killings and KNOW for sure what happened. Would you?

[Yooper]

Yes. I would also want to know why the murders were committed. Good question!

[PossumPie]

I would. I also would time travel to London during Jack the Ripper b/c that one has me more stumped than Lizzie Borden!

[NancyDrew]

Great question! I think about time travel a lot...it's one of the fantasies I indulge when I'm trying to go to sleep at night..which year, and what part of the world would I choose if I were afforded 24 hours of safe observation (no danger from being killed, or contracting a disease, etc.) I usually choose ancient Rome or Greece...or 1st century Judea

I don't think I would want to witness the Borden murders; too gory; the visions of someone's head being crushed in would haunt me forever. What I would like is to travel back in time and be introduced to Lizzie...maybe as a member of the Fruit and Flower Mission, or as a fellow Sunday School teacher...so that I could form my own opinion about her I would like to be able to go back in time and attend the trial (without having to wear 4 layers of clothing...in my fantasy, I never sweat!)

Finally, I would have LOVED to be a guest at that final party Lizzie threw for Nance O'Neil and her fellow actors; the straw that broke the camel's back for Emma. Was there alcohol served? Did any of the acting troupe have cocaine in their snuff box? Were people engaging in sexual behavior, or making lewd jokes? Did anyone bring up the trial?

[snokkums]

Yes I would! I'd love to go back. I think I'd love to ask Lizzie what happened, what do you know. I'd love to pick her brain.

[NancyDrew]

skokkums: But she would have probably just say she didn't wish to discuss it, or, if pressed, that she didn't know WHO killed her father and step-mother. What we really need to know is what she said to Robinson (her lawyer) in that first meeting in the jail. And its' contained within the walls of a law firm in Massachusetts...Grrrr...(sorry, crossing threads here...)

[snokkums]

I'd love to know she told the lawyer too, but I think that's considered privileged information. Darn!! Can't find out anything!

[twinsrwe]

Great question! Yes, I would really like to know who committed these murders, why these two people had to die and where the murder weapon has been all these years.

[Aamartin]

if I could go back and be invisible-- and in the house that day? I would do it

[PossumPie]

There was once a theoretical idea that every word spoken is imprinted in soft objects like wood, and if there were a way to read them like a phonograph record, you could hear conversations from many years ago. Hmmm.....still in the realms of science fiction though.

[Franz]

There was once a theoretical idea that every word spoken is imprinted in soft objects like wood, and if there were a way to read them like a phonograph record, you could hear conversations from many years ago. Hmmm.....still in the realms of science fiction though.

Not only the sound of many years ago, but the images, in the same circumstance and atmosphere, you could see them on the wall. Hmmm...... where are we?

[Franz]

Me too I would. Mysterious things alwys fascinate me, but I prefer a solved mysterious case than an unsolved one. Certainly, solved after a great searching...

I have a lot of questions to ask to Lizzie. But I have a lot of questions to aske to someone else as well.

[Mara]

There was once a theoretical idea that every word spoken is imprinted in soft objects like wood, and if there were a way to read them like a phonograph record, you could hear conversations from many years ago. Hmmm.....still in the realms of science fiction though.

Not such a cockamamie idea! A few years ago, someone found a way to digitize "phonautographs" made on paper treated with carbon to make them "play." My husband has heard one -- it's apparently a child singing an old folk song. I have no idea where he encountered that, but here's something about the phonautograph process, which dates back to the 1850s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonautograph

[leitskev]

I believe that modern physics has shown that information can never be destroyed. So in theory, there is a record of everything that's ever happened in the universe. Just gotta figure how to read it.

[Mara]

Just found a great source for these digitized sounds, from before 1860, with explanations of the process. Really amazing; http://www.firstsounds.org/sounds/scott.php

[dalcanton]

Absolutely! Although it'd be terrible to witness the violent murders, I would want to know for sure who did it. And, if there were a way that I could intervene, I would try to stop them as well. On another note, I'd also like to time travel to the JonBenet Ramsey murder as well. That's another whodunit I've always been interested in.

[dalcanton]

Also, the book Parallel Lives has a picture of an older Lizzie sitting on her deck with one of her dogs. How I would like to be able to just go into the picture, walk up those steps & approach her & ask her, "Lizzie, did you do it or not? C'mon, already! Spill the beans!"

[Curryong]

Judging by some of her known behaviour in her later life she would probably become extremely annoyed and order you off her property at once! If I could go back I would install myself invisibly in the Borden house at about 10:45 a.m. on that Thursday and await developments, if only to see, (if it was Lizzie,) how she managed the whole thing in about 15 minutes or slightly more, and emerged pristine afterwards!

[dalcanton]

[quote="Curryong"]Judging by some of her known behaviour in her later life she would probably become extremely annoyed and order you off her property at once!"

LOL - you're right! She probably would tell me to get going & don't come back!

[Curryong]

I wish the Borden family and house could time-travel. If the murder happened today the place would be declared a crime scene as soon as police came on the scene. There would be no opportunity for anyone to hide a murder weapon so successfully it hasn't turned up in over a 120 years, no opportunity to burn papers or paint-stained clothing, or secrete whatever in pails, I could go on and on.....!

[FactFinder]

I wish the Borden family and house could time-travel. If the murder happened today the place would be declared a crime scene as soon as police came on the scene. There would be no opportunity for anyone to hide a murder weapon so successfully it hasn't turned up in over a 120 years, no opportunity to burn papers or paint-stained clothing, or secrete whatever in pails, I could go on and on.....!

I second that. Instead of going back in time let's bring the Borden's to our time with our technology.