Lizzie Borden Society Forum

I did a little digging after hearing the testimony of the promotions during the trial in the audiobook I'm listening to. I tried a forum search and didn't see a thread on this, but it does strike me as being something to ponder.

CONFIRMED POLICE PROMOTIONS BETWEEN THE BORDEN MURDERS AND THE JUNE 1893 TRIAL

The clearest promotion testimony comes from Francis L. Edson’s cross-examination. He identifies himself as promoted, then names Harrington, Doherty, Medley, Connors, and Desmond as others “around the house” who had been promoted. He expressly says Mullaly had not been promoted.

Francis L. Edson
Rank/status at time of murders, Aug. 4, 1892: Acting sergeant / sergeant of police
Rank/status at trial, June 1893: Lieutenant of police
Promotion date stated: February 1893
Notes: Edson states he was lieutenant at trial and acting sergeant the previous August. On cross-examination he confirms this was a promotion in February.

Philip Harrington
Rank/status at time of murders, Aug. 4, 1892: Patrolman
Rank/status at trial, June 1893: Captain
Promotion date stated: February 10, 1893
Notes: Harrington states directly that he was a patrolman in August 1892, captain at trial, and promoted “the tenth day of February last.”

Patrick H. Doherty
Rank/status at time of murders, Aug. 4, 1892: Special officer, detailed for special work; “what sometimes is called inspector”
Rank/status at trial, June 1893: Captain
Promotion date stated: Not found in the testimony reviewed
Notes: Doherty gives his own before-and-after status: special officer in August 1892 and captain at trial. Edson separately confirms Doherty had been promoted.

William H. Medley
Rank/status at time of murders, Aug. 4, 1892: Patrolman
Rank/status at trial, June 1893: Inspector, with rank of lieutenant
Promotion date stated: December 1892
Notes: Medley says he was a patrolman the previous year and had been promoted in December. Edson describes his trial status as “Inspector with rank of lieutenant.”

Patrick / P. Connors
Rank/status at time of murders, Aug. 4, 1892: Acting sergeant
Rank/status at trial, June 1893: Captain
Promotion date stated: Not found in the testimony reviewed
Notes: Edson names Connors as promoted. He says Connors was acting sergeant at the time and captain at trial. The transcript question appears to ask “Now lieutenant?” but Edson’s answer is “Captain.”

Dennis Desmond, Jr.
Rank/status at time of murders, Aug. 4, 1892: Acting captain
Rank/status at trial, June 1893: Captain
Promotion date stated: Not found in the testimony reviewed
Notes: Desmond’s own testimony gives the before-and-after status: acting captain in August 1892 and captain at trial. Medley also describes him as “acting captain by appointment of the mayor” during the later search.

EXPLICIT NON-PROMOTION
Michael Mullaly
Rank/status at time of murders, Aug. 4, 1892: Patrolman
Rank/status at trial, June 1893: Patrolman
Promotion result: Not promoted
Notes: Edson was asked whether Mullaly had been promoted and answered no. Mullaly’s own testimony says he was a Fall River police officer, had been on the force over fifteen years, and his position was patrolman, the same as the previous August.

COUNT AND PERCENTAGE
A broader roster from the trial and witness statements includes at least Allen, Fleet, Hilliard, Harrington, Doherty, Mullaly, Medley, Edson, Mahoney, Desmond, Connors/Conners, Quigley, Riley, Devine, Seaver, and others who appear in particular searches or follow-up work.
If that broader working roster is treated as roughly 16 police or police-adjacent investigators, then the six confirmed promotions represent approximately 37.5%.

Caution on the broader percentage:
The 85.7% figure is the strongest testimony-based percentage because it uses the exact group discussed under oath in the promotion questioning. The 37.5% figure is an estimate based on a broader reconstructed roster, because the record does not provide one clean master list of every officer “on scene.”

SUMMARY ASSESSMENT
Six promotions in under a year among officers visibly involved in the Borden investigation is conspicuous. It is not proof of impropriety by itself: several officers were already in acting, special, or investigative roles, and Desmond’s movement from acting captain to captain looks more like regularization than a full step up. Still, the pattern is not casual. Harrington rose from patrolman to captain, Medley from patrolman to inspector with lieutenant rank, Doherty from special officer or inspector-type work to captain, Connors from acting sergeant to captain, and Edson from acting sergeant to lieutenant. Within the subset actually discussed under oath, 85.7% were promoted; even under a broader on-scene roster estimate, about 37.5% were promoted. For less than a single year, that looks unusually dense unless Fall River had a major force-wide reorganization, expansion, or political turnover. The trial record alone does not establish such a general reorganization, so the safest conclusion is that the promotions were numerous enough to be rhetorically useful to the defense and historically notable, but the record does not prove they were rewards for the Borden case.

The topic is covered on the forum (search 'reorganization' or 'promotions'), but no specific thread. Below is a post I made few years ago (can't believe I'm been posting so long!) about the promotions. I'm versed on the topic if you have specific questions. A police reorganization was one of Coughlan's primary platforms when he ran for mayor in 1891. Fall River city elections back then were every year!!
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Thread - Re: What makes the "handleless" hatchet the suspected weapon ?
Post by camgarsky4 » Tue Jun 07, 2022 6:52 am

All the promotions were approved December 1892 and the trial occurred June 1893. Per the Fall River newspapers, Mayor Coughlan had been planning the police force reorganization well before the murders.
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Fall River Globe December 31, 1892
“Ordered, That the office of inspector of police may be established with the rank of Lieutenant, the number of said inspectors to consist of four.
That the rank of sergeant be abolished and the rank of lieutenant substituted.

The Mayor then announced the following nominations:
For Captains – Dennis Desmond, Jr., Patrick Connors, Phillip Harrington and Patrick Dougherty.
For Lieutenants – Jeremiah Fahey, John Devine, John Brocklehurst, Andrew Milton and Charles Hinckley and Francis Edson for Day Lieutenant.
Inspectors – Martin Feeney, William Medley, Isaac Wordell, Adelard Perron.”
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Observations:
Of the police officers often recognized to have participated in the Borden case, Hyde, Allen and Mullaly were not impacted by these promotional decisions. Desmond went from acting to permanent captain and Edson got promoted since all sergeants got promoted to lieutenant and sergeant rank eliminated. So those two don't jump off the page at me as peculiar changes.

That Medley, as lead detective for the Borden case, would be given one of the initial investigator position makes sense. That said, I do believe that Medley was very zealous in his pursuit of becoming a detective and wouldn't let a little 'creative problem solving' get in the way of his aspirations.

The promotion that feels like an outlier to me is Phillip Harrington jumping from patrolman/officer to Captain. Per the article, Harrington had the choice of a captaincy or being an inspector. He chose the captain position. Hilliard and Mayor Coughlan preferred he take the inspector spot. Interesting that he was so highly thought of that he was given a choice of which promotion he preferred.

The newly promoted Captain Harrington died less than year after the promotion and just days after getting married to his 2nd wife. He went bedridden on his wedding day and did not recover. He was only 34 years old.

Found this summary in my notes. It is from a handful of newspaper articles.

The majority of the police force promotions that went into effect in 1893 were due to a comprehensive reorganization and the Mayor was the 'driving force'. The reorganization had been proposed early in 1892 (before the murders), but due to Fall River political dynamics, the promotions were not approved by the board of aldermen until December. Even the final vote was very cantankerous amongst the aldermen. One alderman who was against the 'blanket' promotions claimed someone had attempted to bribe him to approve two of the nominees, but refused to name which nominees.

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It's a good brain exercise to consider which promotion nominees this alderman didn't vote for. My personal candidate is Medley, who had made a few influential enemies in the local Republican party. Coughlan was a democrat. But for that same reason, Coughlan 'owed' him a favor or at least felt he owed him a favor.

Excellent info - as for Harrington, I would take it if his fatal illness was known, he got the promotion that would best support his young family with a pension - at least I hope that's what happened. So many threads to pull in this case. Let me post the obit and see what we can find out.

From the obit, he sounds like a standup guy. He worked for Andrew Borden (Borden & Almy) as an apprentice. I didn't know about that personal connection.

His work at Almy & Borden overlapped with Joseph Carpenter's tenure. Hilliard assigned Harrington to rundown and validate Carpenters alibi in upstate New York. As you can imagine, some current 'sleuths' suspect Harrington covered up for his former work buddy. Anything to imply a conspiracy is always pounced upon!

Newport, RI Death Register 1893
click on image to enlarge