Investigating Joseph Carpenter

[Lorcan]

This is a new thread where we will collect information about Joseph Carpenter. We are kicking it off with an old post by Kat Koorey. Camgarsky will be adding more.

In The Knowlton Papers, there is reference to Carpenter:

Page99
"#HK098
Notes, handwritten in lead.

Joe Carpenter, about 35.
Stole from Borden & Almy.
Family in F. Riv.

Once in Binghampton, N.Y.
Last known in Holyoke
Peddling ink & before murder!

Man shaved him in Fall Riv Monday Aug. 1 -
(Pete Driscoll, barber.)

Geo. W. Barney is his father in law-
School teacher in F R named Dean knows that Carpenter was in F.R. Aug 4th & left with his wife next day."
______________________________

Page 100
"#HK099
Letter, typewritten.

ATTORNEY GENERAL'S DEPARTMENT,
COMMONWEALTH BUILDING,
Boston, Nov. 22, 1892.

My Dear Knowlton:-
Jennings was here to-day, evidently indisposed to consent at first, but more inclined to before he left, I think. He went away saying that he must see Adams, and that he would let us hear from him as soon as possible.

Jennings tells me a story about one Joe. Carpenter, who had a grudge against Borden, who he says ought to have been looked up. He says Pete Driscoll a Fall River barber shaved Carpenter in Fall River Monday, August 1st. He is a son-in-law of George W. Barney, of Fall River, and is known there as a rather shady character. Have you ever heard of this; or
has anything been done about it?
Yours truly,
Attorney General

Hon. H. M. Knowlton"

______

ALSO:

Page 153
"HK143
Affidavit, typewritten, with notations handwritten in ink, notarized.

State of New York,
City and County of Albany, ss:
Joseph W. Carpenter Jr, being duly sworn, says that he resides in said City and County; that from the 18th day of July 1892 to the 13th day of August 1892, both inclusive, he occupied a room in the premises Nos. 33 and 35 Maiden Lane, in said City every night during said time, and that he was not absent therefrom on any night during said period.
Sworn to before me this Joseph W. Carpenter Jr.
24th day of January 1893.
Wm. F. Beers
Notary Public
Albany Co. N. Y."

"State of New York,
City and County of Albany, ss:
Victoria A. Foreman, being duly sworn, says that she resides in said City and County, and occupies the premises Nos. 33 and 35 Maiden Lane in said City, and rents furnished rooms in said premises; that she knows Joseph W. Carpenter above named, and rented said Carpenter a furnished room in said premises during the period mentioned in his affidavit; that she had read the foregoing affidavit by him subscribed, and
knows the facts stated therein, and that the same are true to her own knowledge.
Sworn to before me this Victoria A. Foreman
24th day of January 1893.
Wm. F. Beers
Notary Public
Albany Co. N. Y."
______

ALSO:

"CARPENTER, JOSEPH WILMARTH, JR. 1855 - 1899: born in Fall River, Massachusetts, son of Joseph Wilmarth and Phoebe A. (Kershaw) Carpenter. A partner for a short time with Z. L. Bruce in the produce business, he was subsequently employed as a bookkeeper by the firm of Borden, Almy and Company, until a dispute between him and the firm's proprietors caused his dismissal. He was married to Miss Annie Barney, daughter of George W. Barney of Fall River. In 1882, he relocated to Holyoke, Massachusetts. After this time, he was employed as a traveling salesman in association with an ink manufacturing firm. He died in Worcester, Massachusetts, at the residence of his sister. Although an attempt was made to implicate him in the Borden murders, he was cleared by an alibi provided to Captain Philip Harrington by Mrs. Victoria A. Foreman of Albany, New York."

From:
Commonwealth of Massachusetts VS. Lizzie A. Borden; The Knowlton Papers, 1892-1893. Eds. Michael Martins and Dennis A. Binette. Fall River, MA: Fall River Historical Society, 1994.

--You see, Carpenter was supposedly cleared by Harrington, but Duniho shows how these 2 could have known each other since "boyhood."