Lizzie Borden Society Forum

I have often wondered about the relationship that existed between the Bordens and Dr. Bowen. What I find particularly interesting is the relationship between Dr. Bowen and Lizzie. There was the story that circulated about Lizzie attending church and sitting in the Borden pew with Dr. Bowen while the elder Bordens were out out of town. Information about this incident can be found in the Witness Statements. The fact tht the pair attended church together caused some gossip to circulate at the time that maybe Lizzie and Bowen were a little more than friends. What I have always wondered is what sort of contact they had outside of the occassional housecall to tend to illness? I would assume if they are attending church together there is a little more going on. Even if they are neighbors this seems a bit odd to me.

In Dr. Bowens profile which is found in Rebello on page 69 it states "Dr. Bowen was on the staff at the Fall River Hospital from its origin, a member of several medical societies, trustee at the State Farm at Bridgewater, Massachussets, and city physician of Fall River from 1872-1874."


While reading trial testimony of Anna Borden I noticed she testified that Lizzie had served on the Women's Board of The Fall River Hospital. This is what sent me looking in Rebello for Dr. Bowen's profile. On page 15 the testimony pertaining to Lizzie's affiliation with the board is mentioned as well. On page 16 all the physicians that had been affiliated with this Hospital are listed. Which included just about every doctor involved in the Borden case. Was Dr. Bowen associated with the hospital at the time that Lizzie served on the board there? If so, did they have any contact in this capacity? What effect would this have had on their relationship? I find it interesting. This could've been a chance for the two to have had contact outside the home and away from Andrew and Abby. Could there have been some truth to the gossip?

add to that dr bowen's most peculiar behavior the day of the murders - from his initial obseravations and diagnosis of the deceased abby, to his time with Lizzie behind the closed doors of her room when he would not permit the police to search her room for fear it would "upset her," to the scraps of paper that he threw into the fire before anyone could fully see what it was and when asked by police made some vague statement that it was about his daughter and that it didn't amount to anything.

and then there's the strange coincidence that dr bowen was to stop in on the emerys - the very same that morse was visiting - to tend to the ill niece and nephew of morse (where he may have been prior to returning home and being called over to the Bordens?)

or prior to the murders, how about his dismissal over abby's fears that she and andrew were being poisoned? he seemed to find that almost funny.

or after the murders, why did he act so nervously as he asked Harrington and Doherty about Knowlton's statement regarding "finding another agent of death?"

and then there was the woman who lived above the bowens, who avoided officers as long as possible and then, once contacted, positively then refused to be interviewed by the police.

yes, there are many strange things when it comes to dr bowen. i tend to think there may be a lot that we don't know about his relationship with lizzie.

Didn't Dr. Bowen also go up to Lizzie's room and spend sometime alone with her while the police were downstairs? I recall in one of the letters I read in the Knowlton Papers that that is one thing they were also wondering about. After all wasn't she upstairs changing clothes?

I always wondered about Dr. Bowen too. It just seemed strange to me that after everything that went on before, what happend to him and Lizzie after the trial? He had been the Borden family Doctor, and then he just wasn't anymore. Why would Lizzie and Emma change doctors? Isn't that strange?

sguthmann @ Tue Feb 13, 2007 2:19 am wrote: and then there was the woman who lived above the bowens, who avoided officers as long as possible and then, once contacted, positively then refused to be interviewed by the police.
.

What is this??? This is the first time I ever heard about this! What is that all about? Where did this information come from?

Lizzie went upstairs alone, it turns out, and when Alice first got up there Lizzie was coming out of Emma's room tying her pink wrapper. It was later that Bowen came up- because Alice had to go back down again and wait to speak to him about an undertaker.

Mrs. Mary Wyatt is the last name, alphabetically, in Hoffman's directory of names.
Per The Witness Statements, page 20, she refused to be interviewed by police.

I think Harry mentioned her earlier in that context.
Actually, she and Mr. Miller (Mrs. Dr. Bowen's father) got out of recording any official statement about the case.

How can you refuse to be interviewed by the police? If they want to ask you some questions, you could say you didn't know anything, but I wonder why she refused? Maybe the Bowens asked her to not get involved? Very interesting, I had not heard about her before either.

"Refused to be interviewed" sounds like a newspaper report, or 'spin' on a rather prosaic event.

Q. We want to talk to you.
A. I don't know anything about it.

Ex: "When the police went to question RayS about the Borden murders, RayS claimed he wasn't even born yet. Can you believe that?"

At this point, someone should probably look at the Witness Statements for context. I'm just suggesting a source.
There may be more about her in the newspaper, too.

From the witness statements, no newspapers involved:

Mrs. Mary Wyatt, No. 91 Second Street. This woman lives over Dr. Bowen. It is she who first told Mr. M. Chace, L. Winslow, and several others who were standing in front of Wade's, about the crime. She dodged us for a week or more; and when finally seen, positively refused to be interviewed.

How odd.

Susan @ Tue Feb 13, 2007 8:09 pm wrote:From the witness statements, no newspapers involved:

Mrs. Mary Wyatt, No. 91 Second Street. This woman lives over Dr. Bowen. It is she who first told Mr. M. Chace, L. Winslow, and several others who were standing in front of Wade's, about the crime. She dodged us for a week or more; and when finally seen, positively refused to be interviewed.

How odd.

that's the one! i too find it strange. i suppose there were those that were reluctant to get involved in the matter in any way, but if the police had wanted to get a statement from her bad enough, I don't see how she could have refused them (or why)? and yet, i don't think she ever spoke to the authorities...

Mr. Miller called over a *witness* when Bridget was trying to tell him about the Bordens, supposedly.
He said later he did that so as to not become involved.
Then we find out he spent some of Thursday over in the Borden yard jawing with the men over there!
He didn't testify either.

There is also this reference to her on page 19 of the Witness statements:

"... Leander A. Winslow, No. 95 Second street. "Had been standing at the store door for sometime when a lady named Mary Wyatt told me of the murder." ..."

Mary Wyatt was summoned to appear at the opening day of Lizzie's trial, June 5, 1893. She was among many that never was called to testify however.

It is more than likely that the authorities had talked with her and were aware of any knowledge she had. She probably learned what she knew from Mrs. Dr. Bowen which would be second-hand information at that point.

sguthmann @ Tue Feb 13, 2007 1:19 am wrote:
and then there's the strange coincidence that dr bowen was to stop in on the emerys - the very same that morse was visiting - to tend to the ill niece and nephew of morse (where he may have been prior to returning home and being called over to the Bordens?)

Now that does seem an odd coincidence that both men were at the Emerys that day of the murders. Points to ponder.

I must make an edit to my first post here. It was not Anna Borden's testimony in which the statements were made about Lizzie sitting on the board of this organization for the Fall River Hospital. It was Mrs. Marianna Holmes and I apologize for the mix up. I had been reading the testimony of both women and somehow put down the name of the wrong witness. I realized the mix up when I went back to cite further testimony.

Trial testimony of Mrs. Marianna Holmes page 1499:

Q. Now when was it that you first heard of the murder, or heard of some trouble at the Borden house?
A. I think about quarter to twelve.

Q. What did you do in consequence of what you heard?
A. I went in to a neighbors and talked about it.

Q.Did you go to the Borden house?
A. I did after dinner, about 1 o'clock.

Q. When you arrived there who did you find?
A. I went first into Dr. Bowen's and he went across with me. We went into a side door and someone told me I could not see Miss Lizzie.

My question here is why did she got to Dr. Bowen's first?

Allen @ Wed Feb 14, 2007 2:55 pm wrote:I must make an edit to my first post here. It was not Anna Borden's testimony in which the statements were made about Lizzie sitting on the board of this organization for the Fall River Hospital. It was Mrs. Marianna Holmes and I apologize for the mix up. I had been reading the testimony of both women and somehow put down the name of the wrong witness. I realized the mix up when I went back to cite further testimony.
...
My question here is why did she got to Dr. Bowen's first?

If the police were turning away the curious visitors, being escorted by Dr. Bowen would gain her access to the crime scene.

Remember Bob Kardashian telling the police he was OJ's doctor so he could gain admittance to Rockingham? He was "only" a lawyer friend and advisor.

My guess all along is that Bowen sent Mrs. Dr. Bowen home to get his dinner. And after he went home to eat is when Mrs. Holmes went there and then he was ready to return to #92.
Why she went there is a good question. Maybe she knew Mrs. Dr. Bowen and wanted inside info before she saw Lizzie?
Did they know each other from church?

I've wondered alot about the relationship between Lizzie and Dr. Bowen. The fact that he escorted her to church speaks volumes to me. I would expect two people who attended church together to have more than just a casual neighborly relationship. Especially considering this was not the church Bowen normally attended. What would bring about such an occurance?

The fact that Mrs. Holmes went to Dr. Bowens first also tells me one of two things: She either knew the Bowens as friends and that the good doctor had already been at the scene, or she knew something about the relationship between Lizzie and Dr. Bowen and figured he might know what was going because of his involvement in that way. Either way if the woman was a friend of Lizzie's it is odd she would go to Bowen's first. How could she know she would be turned away at the door by police if she was a friend who could be there in support of Lizzie?

Also I am curious as to what duties were expected of Lizzie as a member of this board for the Hospital?

Did Dr. Bowen actually escort Lizzie to church or did he meet her there? I expect there would be a difference. If he met her there, was he aware that Lizzie attended that church? It is questionably coincidental that he would be there if it wasn't the church he usually attended. If they met there by coincidence, Lizzie might simply have invited him to share her pew as a friend, without thinking about how it might appear, and gossip soon bloated the event. Perhaps it was assumed that he had escorted her. If there was a romantic relationship between Dr. Bowen and Lizzie, why would they flaunt it, especially if it was a single, isolated incident? It seems rather hypocritical to attend church together if you're going to carry on in such a manner. The possibilities are endless!

I totally suspect there would never have been anything romantic going on between Bowen and Lizzie. Everything we know about her indicates she would be the last one anyone would be rhapsodizing about and leaving wives for. I think he probably was just the family doctor who looked after a slightly odd, somewhat pathetic daughter of a neighborhood family. He most likely saw some of the dysfunction going on and merely showed a fatherly like concern for someone who probably didn't get a lot of empathy from anyone else. A lot of those interested in the Lizzie Borden case tend to romanticize her character, but, in actuality, she probably wasn't that all that intriguing.

As you all might recall, from The Witness Statements, (as Missy pointed out):

Mrs. Jane Grey, No. 215 Second street. “Dr. Bowen’s character is al least suspicious. Four years ago, while the Borden family were summering over the river on the farm, Lizzie remained at home. One Sunday evening during this time, she and Dr. Bowen came to church together, and sat in the Borden seat. I myself saw them this evening. At the time, and since, there was much comment on this act. Some remarked how courageous she was to remain in the house alone; but others replied in a knowing way, perhaps she has very acceptable company.

About the robbery, I think Mrs. Fish, or her daughter in law of Hartford knows more or less about it, if they wish to tell.

(Harrington & Doherty)

There is a Mrs. Jane B. Gray, widow of Ellery Gray, at 188 1/2 Second Street in the 1892 City Directory. There is no "Grey" listed.