Lizzie Borden Society Forum

Okay, I know this is way out there, but......What if?

What if Andrew was secretly having an affair with Briget? Emma senses something is wrong, and leaves until the dust settles. Abby & Lizzie are unaware, but when Abby finds out, she wants Briget to leave. Andrew will have none of that, so Abby makes Briget's life miserable, makes her work like a mule, treats her like garbage. So, on a hot day when she was not felling well, she is ordered to wash windows. In a fit of rage she kills Abby. She has to confess everything to Lizzie. Lizzie consoles a hysterical servant girl. She is not upset that Abby is dead, she never liked her anyway. They come up with a "makeshift" plan, but realize Father must die as well. Lizzie assures Briget everything will be okay, and neither one of them will be suspected if they just go along with the plan. Briget really has no choice, and Lizzie sees an opportunity to make sure she inherits what is rightfully hers.

I never thought of it like that, but you know, that sounds almost bizarre enough to be true.

i've considered it. but you've developed the story further than i have. it sounds good. i'm interested in the concept of developing these scenarios and then testing them against evidence -- see what will work and how and if it can be plausibly created.

Is the plan then that Lizzie kills her father?
Then both are guilty and Lizzie burns a dress (or 2)? 2 murders, 2 assassins, 2 dresses? 2 weapons too?

Maybe, as Lizzie consoles Bridget, she accidently gets blood on her dress, therefore implicating her. Then there would be 2 dresses to discard. Perhaps Lizzie has time to think about what Father has been up to, and this fuels her fire enough to get involved.
......Just grasping at straws here, letting my imagination run away. Testing my imagination against the facts is quite another thing.
2 dresses perhaps, but 1 murder weapon?

Actually, there was a comic book version of the case that was on eBay a year or two ago, with time travelers going back to find out who'd committed the crimes. Turns out that Andrew, who was going to run away with Bridget, had killed Abby and was going to kill the sleeping Lizzie when one of the scientists intervenes and gets ahold of the axe...guess whom he ends up killing, and who gets blamed?

Scott, I guess I'm asking if Bridget killed both Abby and Andrew in this speculation or did then Lizzie go on to kill Andrew? That wasn't clear to me- that's why I was asking about 2 dresses and 2 killers and that also opens the possibility of 2 weapons.

You have such good stories, Bob-O!

what if Phoebe Bowen did it?

what if
what if
what if

Kat - I was assuming Bridget killed Andrew and Abby. Lizzie knows about it and helps with the clean up. Another question came to my mind while pondering this speculation, did anyone ever account for how many dresses Bridget owned?

Scott

Kat - I was assuming Bridget killed Andrew and Abby. Lizzie knows about it and helps with the clean up. Another question came to my mind while pondering this speculation, did anyone ever account for how many dresses Bridget owned?

Scott

Sorry everybody for the duplicate entry. I HATE when I do that! I hit the back button , and bingo - 2 entries. Sometimes my fingers act before my brain registers what I am doing!

We know from the search that she had 3 dresses. She may have had more but the police mention 3 particularly.
She changed her dress that afternoon.
I wonder if Bridget was the familiy's *rag bag*-- whether she ever got hand-me-downs?

I do wonder if she took "hand-me-downs" from the girls, after all 3 dresses seems rather paltry even for a maid at that time. She would be washing those dresses almost every other day. I guess a good sale at Sargents really meant nothing if you didnt have the money.

Perhaps Emma's dresses would have been suitable for Bridget to wear-- But didn't Lizzie like a longer train on even her "at home" clothes? Not very practical for Bridget to be doing her chores in !

I think Bridget was taller than Lizzie. How would I know that, though? 5"6" I think?
The Bedford cord seems to have been a *mistake.*
Mainly because it wasn't usual for Lizzie to have such a long indoor dress.
I think if she took the ruffle off it may have made it a bit shorter.
We don't know how tall Emma was, I don't think?
Some think Bridget spent her money on Beer!

Who would want to have an affair with O'l man Andrew? YUK! i think Bridget was only 26. Andrew was 70,besides being staunchy !
Oh -Yeah the perfect match!

Stranger things have happened. Look at Anna Nicole Smith. She was 26 when she married 89 year old J. Howard Marshal!!!!

Oh so hitting the back-button is the culprit for
double posting? Thanks Smudgeman, I hate it too
when I do that! Did Bridget visit the Pubs on her
days off Kat, I hadn't heard that?

I have read posts where people have thought that since she was Irish and had sick headaches in the morning and barfed Thursday, that when she was out with friends, as she was Wednesday night, they might have had some pub beer.

Andrew might have been having an affair with Bridget, and Lizzie could have found out. That might be a very good motive. Why would an upstanding citzen as Andrew Bordon have an affair with a servant girl? Someone beneath him?

snokkums @ Sat Mar 19, 2005 2:28 pm wrote:Why would an upstanding citzen as Andrew Bordon have an affair with a servant girl? Someone beneath him?

Because she was powerless to stop him. Because she was available. I doubt that it happened, but it could easily have been true -- upper-class men were accustomed to taking their pleasure with lower-class women. It wasn't often a love affair as we would imagine it, but a physical release.

Remember the Sandyford mystery? It was a Scottish murder case in 1862, in which a dirty old man killed a servant he kept trying to molest, and blamed it all on another servant.

Lynn

Honestly I dont see this kind of rage fueled by Andrew having an affair, for either Abby or Lizzie. Seems like Abby felt when she got married she got stuck in a torture chamber and did her best to avoid it all and the fact that she didnt have any better prospects because she was considered homely, etc...avoid it all except doing her duties. And I dont think of Abby being a spiteful sort such as working bridget like a mule. If Bridget were involved with Andrew she might have been happy to have his attentions invested elsewhere.

Why would Lizzie care unless there was an unnatural relationship between her and her father? Ok, Lizzie had more of a sense of being of the elite and taking her rightful place than Andrew, but since this was done by upper class men, I dont see a conflict here. Though I do think it possible she may, as Scott suggested, have taken advantage of the opportunity...

but the rage, unless the rage is a cover up for more subtler motives...what would have unleashed such rage as suggested by the mutilation and depersonfying nature of the wounds?

What if the maid Bridget did it because Abbey wanted her to leave? Or maybe Lizzie found out that Abbey wanted her to leave and she decided to kill Abbey cause she liked the maid better than Abbey. To make it look convinceing she had to kill the father too.

Ok, if we are thinking along the lines of Bridget did it. Maybe this is why they often quoted line about the "sale of dress goods at Sargents" was uttered by Lizzie. Maybe Lizzie knew Bridget planned to kill Abby. Bridget only had 3 dresses or something like that? Maybe it would make it look less suspicious for Bridget to buy material to make a new dress because one of her old ones had gotten too soiled to wear anymore .

I think that is a very good scenario.What other way to get rid of someone everyone in the house (other than andrew) hated.