Lizzie Borden Society Forum

I should know this, but...

When police made a search of the house, they didn't mention anything about finding a paint-stained dress. Or, if they did, no one made an issue out of it. My question is, how could Lizzie have then produced a paint-stained dress, and burned it a few days after the murders? Had she been hiding it somewhere? And if so, what else was she able to hide?

This is probably pretty basic knowledge, but I'm surprised no one asked the police during the trial, whether they found a paint-stained dress?

I just woke up, so my thoughts are still kind of jumbled, but hopefully this post will make sense. :)

I also get the feeling that the police search of the house was not very thorough, and that it would have been easy for Lizzie to be hiding something somewhere.

I read (again "somewhere") that the dress was stained when Lizzie brushed against a freshly painted baseboard. Thus, the paint would have been on along the bottom hem.

I'm willing to bet that the police were looking at the bodices of the dresses, not along their hems.

On the other hand, I haven't read Alice Russell's testimony. Did she say she SAW dark blotches on the dress?

From the Trial, page 1540, Emma is asked about that dress:

Q: Now where was that dress, if you know, on Saturday, the day of the search?
A: I saw it hanging in the clothes press over the front entry.
Q: At what time?
A: I don't know exactly; I think about 9 o'clock in the evening.
Q: How came you to see it at that time?
A: I went in to hang up the dress that I had been wearing during the day, and there was no vacant nail, and I searched round to find a nail, and I noticed this dress.

.....

Q: What did you say to her?
A: That night?
A: Yes, about the dress?
Q: I said, "You have not destroyed that old dress yet; why don't you?"

But when Alice Russell testified at the Trial (page 410) she says:

"Emma turned around from the sink and she says, "What are you going to do?" and Lizzie says, "I am going to burn this old thing up. It is covered with paint."

If it was Emma's idea to burn the dress, or she was reminding Lizzie to burn it just the night before on Saturday, then why, when Emma saw Lizzie with it on Sunday say, "What are you going to do?" Did we just catch Emma in a lie?

Maybe Lizzie moved the dress from place to place as the search went on?

goddessoftheclassroom @ Tue May 11, 2010 3:29 pm wrote:I read (again "somewhere") that the dress was stained when Lizzie brushed against a freshly painted baseboard. Thus, the paint would have been on along the bottom hem.

I'm willing to bet that the police were looking at the bodices of the dresses, not along their hems.

On the other hand, I haven't read Alice Russell's testimony. Did she say she SAW dark blotches on the dress?

I don't know if this will help? It's Alice's testimony at trial.

"A. Emma turned around from the sink and she says "What are you going to do?" and Lizzie says "I am going to burn this old thing up. It is covered with paint."
Q. Did you see any blood on that dress?
A. No, sir.
Q. Not a drop?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did you see any blood on the remaining part of it?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did you see that it was a soiled dress?
A. The edge of it was soiled as she held it up. The edge she held towards me like this (illustrating), and this edge was soiled.
Q. As she stood there holding it you could see the soil of the dress, could you?
A. Yes, sir."

Maybe it's possible that Lizzie wore the dress turned inside out during the killings then turned it outside in before hanging it up maybe on a coat hanger, maybe underneath another dress?

-1bigsteve (o:

This has probably been amswered somewhere on here before but what I don't understand is why would one even keep a dress closet locked in the first place? I know there was alot of weird locking going on in that house but to lock your own closet were your dresses are stored just doesn't quite make sense to me...kind of like keeping our bedroom closets locked today. I'd never even consider doing that. Lizzie had to keep opening/unlocking it for the police...why not just leave it unlocked?