Lizzie Borden Society Forum

I was reading in the archives that the detectives were trying to find an old filled in cistern but were unable to locate it. Does anyone know where it was? Could that have been a place the weapon was hidden?

The reference to the cistern in the cellar as far as I know only appears in the newspapers. One was the Evening Standard of August 13, 1892.

Charles Bryant, a mason, was brought in by the police to search the chimneys for any hidden objects. He found nothing. He gave an interview after his search where in part he said:

"That finished, I asked Miss Borden if there were any flues in the garret, such as might have been put in for a stove at some time, and she said she did not know, but I had better look. I made a careful examination, but found nothing.
"Then we made inquiries about an alleged cistern said to be in the cellar and the girls said there had been at some time, but it was an old wooden affair, which had doubtless been filled up---at any rate she had not seen it for a long time. They told us what part of the cellar it had been in, and we pried around there for some time with a crowbar and found nothing."

So the chimney flues were checked. I had wondered about that. If I had to hide a weapon I would have hid it on the smoke shelf of the sitting room fireplace. But evidently that fireplace was papered over at the time of the murders.

-1bigsteve (o:

Sorry if I am uninformed, but to anyone's knowledge, was the privy ever searched? As in, the hole itself....Victorian propriety may have caused detectives to overlook that hiding place.

Hi, kfactor.

I believe the privy was searched and nothing was found, as far as weapons. I think Harry mentioned this a few months back. He may have some more details on that.

-1bigsteve (o: