Lizzie Borden Society Forum

Hey guys. I read somwhere that there was a deadly heatwave in Fall River about a week before the fires that killed several plp. Anyone know much about it?

Heat wave?

Fires?

Dead people?

Fires... well I have no idea why that came out of my ghost possessed texting. I meant before the murders not the fires. I think I read it in Rebecca Pittman's book?

Now 80 degrees can feel very hot. Here in New England it's all about the humidity. A very humid 80 can feel stifling. Much of the heat story connected with the crime is folklore. Yes it was probably very hot. But not the heatwave that books and those who think they know professed. Not if you go by what the newspapers were reporting. IMHO

Below is a page from Lizzie Borden Past and Present by Rebello. Page 61 On the day of the crime the high in fall river was 78.

Weather Reports

Weather Report, Tuesday evening, August 2, 1892. For RI, MA & CT Showers followed by clearing weather, (Cooler in the interior, easterly winds, shifting north. Fall River Daily Globe

Weather report until Tuesday night, August 2, 1892. Cloudy and unsettled, slightly warmer, variable winds, generally easterly to southerly. Wednesday, fair and cooler. Fall River Daily Herald

Weather report for Wednesday evening, August 3, 1892. For New England, fair, preceded today by showers on the coast, slightly warmer, southeasterly winds. Fall River Daily Globe

Weather report for Wednesday night, August 3, 1892. Con't. cloudy, cool weather, easterly winds becoming variable. Herald office temperature: 8 a.m. 61, 12 noon 66, and 2 p.m. 66. Highest 66, Lowest 60 Fall River Daily Herald

Weather report, Thursday, August 4, 1892, according to the U.S. Signal Service at 7 a.m. 67 and 2 p.m. 83 and 9 p.m. 75

Weather report until Thursday night, August 4, 1892. Fair, preceded by coast showers today,
warmer Thursday, variable winds. Herald office temperature 8 a.m. 66, 12 Noon 72 and 2 p.m. 76
Highest 78, Lowest 63 Fall River Daily Herald

Thank you, MB. I was going to post basically the same info., but now I don’t have to.

I don’t know about what is in Rebecca Pittman's book regarding the heatwave that killed several people, but I did find the following tidbit on a History.net page:

FALL RIVER turned unbearably hot during the summer of 1892. As the heat wave began to peak, a fatal outbreak of cholera raged in the city’s teeming poor neighborhoods. In the last week of July, the disease killed 65 small children.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/y2eo7x5t

Thanks for the info! I'd already looked up the week of significance (to the murders) temps, but the heatwave was supposedly before and killed several plp in FR, including children. I know Aug 4 wasn't "the hottest day" like the folklore. Hmmm.... maybe it was the outbreak instead, Twins! It seems to fit. The only reason I considered the RP info, is because her book, though speculative, (who's isn't?) leaned more nonfic than fiction. Thanks again

You're welcome, LABR. I agree that the information I posted sort of fits, but I don’t feel that it is quite the same information that you posted about. I just find it very odd that we hear so much about August 4, 1892, being 'the hottest day of the year' in Fall River, but almost nothing about a heatwave a week prior to the murders, which took the lives of several people, nor a cholera outbreak that killed 65 small children. One would think that the deaths of so many people/children would be more news worthy than it is.

LOL. Reminds me of a trip I made to amazon recently. I was considering buying a book entitled "One August Morning: The True Story of Lizzie Borden" but decided against it. Here's why: in my review of it I wrote, "100+ degrees on August 4th, 1892? Not hardly. I was considering buying this book until I read the author's assertion at the beginning of his preface that the temperature on the day of the Borden murders was well over 100 degrees. Flimflam. It never got hotter than the mid-80's. That's all I needed to read to know that the book is a work of sensationalism. Not buying.

It makes you wonder how plp get away with that? One google search clears it up. Ha. So many tropes and misinfo just to paint a myth. Yeeesh.