Lizzie Borden Society Forum

I was reading another thread the one "How many people were there?" and it got me to thinking. The lead thread stated some names of some of the doctors that took part in the partial autopsy in the house. But, I am not familar with these names of these doctors.

The thread mentioned the Lizzie Borden sourcebook said the names were mentioned page 8.

Here are the names are: Dr. Coughlin, Dr Dedrick, Dr. Gunning, Dr Dutra, Dr. Toourtellot, and Dr Pecham.

Who are these guys and where can I can find some info on these doctors?
I can't find any info on them. Am I looking in the wrong area?

I believe Dr. Coughlin was mayor of Fall River at the time. Beyond that, I haven't a clue about any of the others.

As kssunflower says Dr. Coughlin was also the Mayor of Fall River at the time. He was also technically in charge of the police force.

Dr. Dolan insisted that what was done the day of the murders was not an autopsy. Then why all these doctors?

I don't know if any of them assisted in any way or were there out of curiosity. Since Dr. Dolan said it was not an autopsy I don't know if they would have been paid. This is from Rebello, page 272:

"... There were four medical examiners in Bristol County including Dr. Dolan who performed the autopsies on Andrew and Abby Borden. For each view of the body they received $5.00 and an autopsy cost $30.00. Autopsies requiring outside assistance cost $5.00 for each assistant. ..."

$5 in 1892 would be worth approx. $100 today.

I guess they were there in case dolan needed them. But at least it gives me something to go on.

Snokkums, I never heard of several of them, either. I believe a Dr. Cone was there on August 4, but I haven't had time to look up a source on him. He may have been at the autopsy or, as it's sometimes called, "the second autopsy" at the cemetery.

I have good bio material on some of the doctors, but it's about to be published, so I can't post it. I am sorry.

You might want to look up Dr. Bowen's courtroom testimony, or Dolan's. It seems like one of them mentioned other doctors but, again, they might have been at the (first full) autopsy at the cemetery.

You might get some insight into the characters of the doctors named on the first post of "How many people were there?" by looking up the testimonies of the actual doctors named themselves, if they testified. A lot of times they'll reveal interesting info about themselves when being questioned ("How many years have you lived in Fall River?" "Where were you before that?" "Where do you practice?") Stuff like that is helpful, especially when that's all there may be on a person.

Harry mentioned the doctors getting $5 per "view". That meant every time a doctor visually examined the corpse and/or just touched it to move it a little to look. Both corpses received many "views" on August 4.