Lizzie Borden Society Forum

Abby's false braid, called a switch in those days, ended up apparently in the middle of the bed. Pictures of it available to us today seem to show it was hacked or slashed too, or has time given it this appearance? Don't know. Abby's real hair was noted as matted with blood, with one clump stuck to the wall. I don't find anything about blood on the switch. Doherty and others I believe noted blood spots on the bed/pillow shams/bedspread and the switch in the middle of the bed. No mention of blood with/around/near/on the switch.

Harrington and Doherty witness statements (my source lumps the two together)~"Several spots of blood was on the bed, and also a large tuft of hair."

Inquest, page 592, I think it's Doherty~:I saw blood spots on the pillow shams and a bunch of hair on the bed, black hair."
Q: Well, describe that hair, and tell upon what part of the bed it was.
A: I think it was about on the middle of the bed, right on the spread.

A bit later the prosecutor asks if the hair appeared to be severed or a hair piece.
A: It appeared to be a piece of hair which had been severed, I think.
Q: How large a piece of hair was it?
A: Well, it was half as large as my fist, I should think.
Q: Did you take it away?
A: I did not.

On pages 752-753 we find mention of matted hair, presumably Abby's natural hair which is matted with the blood stuck to the wall about 6 inches above the floor. I add this to show that this was different than the tuft or whatever on the bed. Later in the inquest testimony there is testimony, concerning the strikes to Abby's head, "all were left to right blows".

I picture the assailant grabbing Abby by the hair and...ooooops....a chunk of it comes off. The assailant is shocked/disgusted/angered/whatever, throws the hair piece on the bed and brings out the hatchet. We could argue that the hair piece was deliberately removed and discarded so the hatchet could be used more effectively but nobody seems to note blood on the switch. The first blows struck were probably not to the back of Abby's head and scalp wounds bleed profusely. It is noted that all the blows were left to right so the back swing would be to the left, right? Toward the dresser? Not the bed, as in the hair piece got caught in the hatchet blade and got flipped onto the bed? Also in my opinion, judging by the weak hair pins of the day I would assume the switch could easily have been dislodged during the attack and could have rolled under the bed or beside the corpse and that there would have been no need to rip it off so the hatchet would be more effective.

Lizzie would have known this was false hair and how it was attached. I hardly see her grabbing that particular bit of hair because she would know it would come off. I can see an intruder doing this. I can see the detachment of the switch escalating from assault into a murder as Abby slipped from the assailant's grasp. If we consider Lizzie astride Abby's body, continuously whacking, why stop long enough to pull off the false hair and toss it on the bed? Jerk it off and keep going. Aim a hatchet blow, left to right, to dislodge it. Or simply aim blows in other areas and avoid the padding, so to speak.

I picture Abby wearing this piece at the base of her neck, like a bun. Doherty describes this as the size of his fist. Did she wear it across the top of her head? If so, why is it described as a "clump", "bunch", "size of fist", etc.? Seems like it would have been described as a braid or length or tress or something, if it wasn't roughly in the shape of a bun. A braid across the top of the head would have been very much not the style for women of Abby's class in that day. Can you imagine Lizzie looking like a peasant girl with a braid atop her head, from ear to ear? Better style than what they had, in my opinion, but wasn't done then.

What if anything does any of this mean?

There is a marvellous thread called 'Fudge Head Abby' that discusses this very question (in some posts) and has photos of Abby's head taken from a different angle than the usual ones that are seen. 'All About Abby' which I can remember as being quite interesting, may have some points of discussion.

The Fall River Historical Society does have the switch of false hair, which may have been cut from Abby's own hair some time before. It was brown hair mixed with a little grey. This swathe, which may have been used to make up a fuller bun than might have been possible otherwise, was found near Abby but wasn't the length or chunk of hair that was found on the bed. That was Abby's real hair, chopped from her scalp, it seems.

The Fall River Historical Society also has pieces of her hair. I'm intrigued by how Abby wore her hair, actually. I'm wondering whether the semi-plaited switch may have been cut from Abby's own hair as a result of illness some time before. My grandmother, born in the Victorian era, had quite a serious illness as a child and had her hair closely cropped as a result. Her mother kept a long thick plait of the cut hair.

The doctor advised it as long hair was supposed to draw strength from a body, slowing recovery, or something. I've never heard such nonsense, but apparently this old wives tale was widely believed. We don't know of any serious illness that Abby had, but it is a possibility.

Or maybe her hair was thinning or in poor condition a year or two before the murders and so she decided to cut it short for a while. Then it grew so she was able to have a bun at the back of her head (a common hairstyle then) but it was a poor little thing and so she pinned and wrapped the braid around. If it was just pinned it could have just loosened with the blows and fell off.

No-one knows the sequence of events in that guest room or which wound came first. From the blood splatter however it appears that the attack happened by the side of the bed in a very confined area.

Some of those nasty, old time diseases also made hair fall out. I never heard about long hair draining strength. Amazing. I'm surprised that isn't part of the Obama Care wellness protocols.

I have very thick fairly long auburn hair and have thought of clipping a length now and then and using it for an extra braid or something. Those fancy Victorian hair styles relied heavily on hair pieces, as you probably know. I'll try to find the posting you mentioned.

I should have added this in my original post: That Abby seems to have been wearing a false hair piece; would that mean or strongly indicate that she was planning to go out or did she wear it around the house every day?

I'd imagine, although of course I don't know, that women pinned up their hair at the start of each day after dressing. A hat was obligatory if you were going out and would have hidden any minor untidiness. Of course, hair was quite elaborately dressed for attendance at balls etc in the evenings, but somehow I can't see poor Abby attending too many of those!

PS I've drawn the two threads I previously mentioned up again so they are on Page One of the threads, just under this one.