Lizzie Borden Society Forum

I was watching few documentaries, and it seemed like the 19 blows to Abby as well as 11 blows to Andrew were very accurate.

The murderer if in rage or haste did not go all over their heads. In case of Abby, it was specifically targeted in the middle of the head, and in case of Andrew it was around his left scalp, forehead and eye area. Few questions came to my mind to assess the murders:

1. Was the murderer in rage, or very well composed while whacking the hell outta both of them?
2. Was the murderer seasoned/trained enough to use a hatchet-like weapon to aim with precision?
3. Was there a purpose for precision? He/she could have easily been all over the head or face, in case of Andrew?
4. Precision takes focus, even for a trained eye. Did the murderer pause between two whacks, or was it a continued motion?
5. How much time would it take with this approach to execute 19 and 11 whacks respectively.
6. Is there any factual evidence on the hand used to hold the hatchet. Was it left, right, or two handed approach to execute?

I await responses.

These are all good questions. However, since we don’t know who the actual killer was, it is impossible to answer numbers, 1, 2, 3 and 4. I suppose number 5 could be answered after a time test is done, but then we still would only be guessing. Within the following thread, I posted two threads, which may or may not answer your question regarding the killer being right or left handed. Here is the link: http://tinyurl.com/ja9zyxz

I always wonder if the 11 blows had anything to do with the 11 o'clock.

Regarding the chimes of bells - I know the City Hall could be heard because of Bridget's testimony but - Wasn't there a church in the close vicinity..? With a louder toll of bells on the hour?

I can see the blows all going into the same spot with rage involved. A person could deliver blow after blow without really aiming. The repetitive nature of the act would get the blade in the same place. I can see the blade-wielder acting somewhat robotically, simply wanting to get the job done, the job being to eradicate the object of the rage. In fact, I can see the person not even remembering anything about the attack.

Here is St Mary's Catholic Church, just across Second Street. Very close, it seems, in Googlymaps...
Anyone think there'd be loud bells sounding the hour?

It's an odd thing, which can't be made to work in any reasonable universe - that is, the known parameters of the crime... But it's still bizarre that the successive hours provide the total number of blows. Nine, plus ten, plus eleven. There's probably no rhyme or reason to the number of blows but if, as Franz muses, the toll of bells somehow factors into the activity - be it sound camouflage or psychotic counting-system - then nine, ten and eleven o' clock yield the right number. Although Abby Borden's battering... would come in two episodes.

If we're talking psychosis I'm still struck by Lizzie reaching her 32nd birthday a few weeks before this, so 30 years have elapsed since her mother's death.

When characterising the work of the blows, no-one agrees. It is imagined and re-imagined, everything from a blind mess to controlled accuracy. Even in 1892 Knowlton seems to be at odds with himself:

'...At 2 o clock District Attorney Knowlton proceeded to make the argument for the government. After some preliminary remarks on the nature of the crime of murder, he argued that the blows were struck from behind, by a weak, irresolute, imperfect, female hand that only knew the impulse to strike.'

And he concludes, as if in corollary to this nonsense: ’This thing was conceived in the head of a cool-headed, deliberate woman.'

(The News September 2 1892)