Lizzie Borden Society Forum

On the night before the murders, Lizzie goes to Alice Russell's house. According to her trial testimony, Alice Russell says "I think when she came in she said..." and goes off into Lizzie's statement that she is always feeling like something is hanging over her, and then the family being sick, etc.

Does this not seem a little dramatic? The first thing Lizzie mentions when coming in Alice's front door is her troubles. That makes it seem like she was making it out to be an important matter, so significant that it is the first subject discussed during their visit. Was Lizzie always such a drama queen? Or was she setting the stage for what she was about to do? She could have let all this come up during conversation, but it seems like she was bound and determined to "confide" in Alice the minute she got there. There must be some significance to this.

Brian, I think Lizzie went over there with the express purpose of telling Alice that crap so that when it happened the next day, Alice could back her up in the poison incident (if there was one, which I think there was) and an enemy of Father's doing something. But instead, Alice poo-pooed her and I think it made Alice suspicious in the end.

I think in the movie "The Legend of Lizzie Borden" Abby alluded to Lizzie "always making things up". I don't know what basis the writer had for putting that in.

A great source for you in your screenplay endeavor would be reading the old "Lizzie Borden Quarterly"s. There is a bibliography of each one on this website. I don't know how you would get copies of them, tho, since they are out of print. I wonder if the curator would send you Xeroxes of them all, maybe for a fee. Or maybe just the ones you want, after you've read their bibliography. Definitely worth asking.

Thanks! I'll definitely look into that.