Lizzie Borden Society Forum

I was reading inquest testimonies on crimeachivies.com from the Lizzie Borden case. I was wondering a couple of things. First, I though that Dr. Seabury Bowen was the only attending physican, so why were there three other doctors? Thee was a Dr. John W. Coughlin, Dr. William Wood, an Dr. Edward Wood. The last one, (Dr. Edward Wood) was a doctor and chemist, the other two were physicans and surgeons. And I 've never heard of John W Couglin, or at least I have never read anything about him thoughtout this case. Am I missing something Who are all these doctors, other than Br. Bowen and why so many for the remaining family members? Or did they serve a different purpose?

Dr Bowen was the only family doctor, Snokkums. Dr Coughlin was the Fall River Mayor. He was the idiot who made a mistake and more or less warned Lizzie that she was a suspect when he and Marshal Fleet visited the Borden home on the day of the funeral to pay their respects.

Dr William Wood was the Bristol County medical examiner (Fall River was in Bristol County Massachusetts.) He and Dr Dolan undertook a second autopsy on Andrew and Abby at the cemetery after the funeral service.

Dr Edward Wood was a medical expert from Harvard University who was sent the axe head and bits of handle, and other bits and pieces from the Borden home to examine. He gave evidence for the prosecution at Lizzie's trial in 1893.

There were other doctors, notably Dr Dolan, (the Fall River medical examiner) who performed the autopsies and examined the crime scene for the authorities, but he and the others were only there because of the murders.

Thanks for explaining!! I was getting confused as to who did what. I knew Bowen was the family doctor, but wasn't sure what the others were doing or what their function was.

snokkums wrote:I was reading inquest testimonies on crimeachivies.com from the Lizzie Borden case. I was wondering a couple of things. First, I though that Dr. Seabury Bowen was the only attending physican, so why were there three other doctors? Thee was a Dr. John W. Coughlin, Dr. William Wood, an Dr. Edward Wood. The last one, (Dr. Edward Wood) was a doctor and chemist, the other two were physicans and surgeons. And I 've never heard of John W Couglin, or at least I have never read anything about him thoughtout this case. Am I missing something Who are all these doctors, other than Br. Bowen and why so many for the remaining family members? Or did they serve a different purpose?

Snokkums, according to the Sourcebook (pg.8), the following Drs. assisted Dr. Dolan with the autopsies: Bowen, Coughlin, Dedrick, Leary, Gunning, Dutra, Tourtellot, and Bowen. WHEW! I'm like you, this seems to be a lot. Only one missing is the vet...lol.

BOBO, I was taking a sip of my coffee when I read your last sentence; I had a hard time holding it in my mouth while I was laughing!!!

When you look at all the people that were crammed into that very small house, (not just doctors) after the murders, it's mind-boggling. There is Alice Russell, mrs Churchill, Dr Bowen (and Phoebe Bowen for a short while) Officer Allen, and Charles Sawyer by the door keeping Bridget company, and mrs Holmes, (I'll bet her husband came too at some stage) and Lizzie of course, and Uncle John, not counting all those milling outside, and that was only in the first hour!

A number of people claimed after the fact that they had been in the house that day and seen the bodies. General sight seers they seem to have been, running right in and checking out the day's entertainment in the neighborhood.

Well, there was no TV, cinema or Internet in those days! I think several were trying to be curious and some were simply nosey!