Oh what a difference a day makes! Lizzie's Inquest testimony

[Aamartin]

<--break> = That the testimony is 'broken up' -- not copied in it's entirety. (Other questions and answers are between the copied testimony)

Q. How long was your father gone?
A. I don't know that.
Q. Where were you when he returned? A. I was down in the kitchen.
Q. What doing?
A. Reading an old magazine that had been left in the cupboard, an old Harper's Magazine.
Q. Had you got through ironing?
A. No sir.
Q. Had you stopped ironing? A. Stopped for the flats.
Q. Were you waiting for them to be hot? A. Yes sir.
Q. Was there a fire in the stove? A. Yes sir.
Q. When your father went away, you were ironing then?
A. I had not commenced, but I was getting the little ironing board and the flannel. Q. Are you sure you were in the kitchen when your father returned?
A. I am not sure whether I was there or in the dining room.
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Q. Did you go back to your room before your father returned?
A. I think I did carry up some clean clothes.
Q. Did you stay there?
A. No sir.
Q. Did you spend any time up the front stairs before your father returned?
A. No, sir.
Q. Or after he returned?
A. No, sir. I did stay in my room long enough when I went up to sew a little piece of tape on a garment.
Q. Was that the time when your father came home?
A. He came home after I came down stairs.
Q. You were not up stairs when he came home?
A. I was not up stairs when he came home; no, sir.
Q. What was Maggie doing when your father came home?
A. I don't know whether she was there or whether she had gone up stairs; I can't remember.
Q. Who let your father in?
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Q. Where were you when the bell rang?
A. I think in my room up stairs.
Q. Then you were up stairs when your father came home?
A. I don't know sure, but I think I was.
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Q. Did you come down before your father was let in?
A. I was on the stairs coming down when she let him in.
Q. Then you were up stairs when your father came to the house on his return?
A. I think I was.
Q. How long had you been there?
A. I had only been upstairs just long enough to take the clothes up and baste the little loop on the sleeve. I don't
think I had been up there over five minutes.
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Q. You remember, Miss Borden, I will call your attention to it so as to see if I have any misunderstanding, not
for the purpose of confusing you; you remember that you told me several times that you were down stairs, and
not up stairs when your father came home? You have forgotten, perhaps?
A. I don't know what I have said. I have answered so many questions and I am so confused I don't know one
thing from another. I am telling you just as nearly as I know.
Q. Calling your attention to what you said about that a few minutes ago, and now again to the circumstance you
have said you were up stairs when the bell rang, and were on the stairs when Maggie let your father in; which
now is your recollection of the true statement of the matter, that you were down stairs when the bell rang and
your father came?
A. I think I was down stairs in the kitchen.
Q. And then you were not up stairs?
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Q. I now call your attention to the fact that you had specifically told me you had gone up stairs, and had been
there about five minutes when the bell rang, and were on your way down, and were on the stairs when Maggie
let your father in that day---
A. Yes, I said that, and then I said I did not know whether I was on the stairs or in the kitchen.
Q. Now how will you have it?
A. I think, as nearly as I know, I think I was in the kitchen.
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Q. You told me you were reading the magazine when your father came back?
A. I said in the kitchen, yes.

The Next Day

Q. Now I call your attention to the fact that twice yesterday you told me, with some explicitness, that when your
father came in, you were just coming down stairs?
A. No, I did not, I beg your pardon.
Q. That you were on the stairs at the time your father was let in, you said with some explicitness. Do you now
say you did not say so?
A. I said I thought first I was on the stairs; then I remembered I was in the kitchen when he came in.
Q. First you thought you were in the kitchen; afterwards you remembered you were on the stairs?
A. I said I thought I was on the stairs; then I said I knew I was in the kitchen. I still say that now. I was in the
kitchen.
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Q. When your father was let in, you did not appear from up stairs?
A. No sir, I was in the kitchen.
Q. That is so?
A. Yes sir, to the best of my knowledge.
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Q. What were you doing in the kitchen when your father came home?
A. I think I was eating a pear when he came in.
Q. What had you been doing before that?
A. Been reading a magazine.

It seems Lizzie gathered her thoughts as to where she was between day 1 and day 2. Curious.

[PossumPie]

In remembering trivial things, we tend to get the times mixed up (it was about 4pm when it was really 3:37). We don't look at watches constantly or have time stamps in our heads.
We tend to get order of events mixed up. (I ate a sandwich, then cleaned out the litter boxes, no I did the litter boxes first).
We tend to be much more accurate on where we were when something happened. Last night I was on the couch when my wife came home from work. I was out in the garden when she called me on the cell phone. Even subconscious things. I listen to books on CD in my car on the way to and from work. Sometimes I lose my place and in re-listening to a previous chapter that I heard the day before, I KNOW that yesterday, I was turning on such and such intersection when that sentence was read. It is actually amazing. Pairing of an event and a place is much harder to confuse. SO...As Asmartin points out, for Lizzie to confuse being in the kitchen, then in her room, then on the stairs when her father comes home is highly unlikely. I do agree that much of her confusion could be honest. So many questions thrown at her. BUT I contend that she knew exactly where she was when Mr. Borden came home, the stairs, as verified by Maggie stating that Lizzie laughed at her. Why lie about where she was? It may open the idea that she had been upstairs in the guest room.