Lizzie Borden Society Forum

Has anyone read Troy Taylor’s book —One August Morning?
Published 2015 , it gets good reviews.
Lizzie is innocent book by the way.

Never heard of it.

He is the founder of the American Ghost Society and as an author specializes in the supernatural.
Maybe he can compare notes with Rebecca Pittman.

Yes, that’s a big turn off for me.
Did you read Spencer’s theories book?

I’m really enjoying his final chapter in CALB .
His conclusions are well done, with only a very few points he calls facts that I may consider unverifiable.
I appreciate you recommending his book to me.

His Borden book which challenges most of the published books theories is as well documented and written as CALB.
I've also got his book about the Manchester murder. That wasn't written as well and was tough for me to read. I'm guessing he went ahead and wrote the Manchester book because he had gathered all the information and wanted to do something useful with it.

Googled Troy Taylor and read a super short, high level summary. It seems his theory is that Lizzie got railroaded by the police, but was still someone a bit involved in some conspiracy that resulted in a madman killing the Borden's. So he has her innocent, but somehow involved in setting the stage. He's written dozens of true crime/paranormal books, so I'm sure he has a plot formula that he follows in kicking out new books.

Amazon has a used copy for sale for under $10. If you're a prime member, free delivery.

Thanks. I haven’t seen any evidence of police corruption. I shouldn’t have brought him up.

When I first ran across the seemingly huge number of promotions (new job titles in the testimony) for the police officers involved in the case, it was surprising, but there was a complete reorganization of the entire police department well underway prior to the Borden murders.

I finished the audiobook. The narrator did a good job. I have to give a No on recommending this book. I'd say if some of the police were alive, he'd be at serious risk of a lawsuit for slander. The main problem I have with the book is he declares many things as facts and proven that simply aren't. He has Lizzie letting William Borden into the house via the cellar door, ignoring the cobweb evidence, and Uncle John arguing about the will and how much he was going to give to each child, including William. In his theory, Lizzie is technically an accomplice, but she didn't know he would kill either Abby or Andrew. He even has William always carrying his trusty hatchet everywhere, which he named and talked to. Just a sloppy book in my opinion.

The only two things from the book I need to look up are:

1. He said at some point, I think well after Emma left Maplecroft, Lizzie bought Emma's share of some property, but I didn't catch which property it was or if it would be of any interest in the case.

2. Toward the very end of her life, he said that Emma had a back staircase, kept an axe hidden there and had an elaborate one button first floor lighting system and that she was afraid people would come for her. Then he has her going down the stairs in the the middle of the night to turn on the lights and falling down the stairs causing the injuries that led to her death.

He spun a little Arnold Brown in there.

I have foggy recollections of the Emma and hidden back staircase thing. It was another non-contemporary invention. I'm 99% sure we discussed on this forum, so might try searching with some of those keywords.

When Emma moved out of Maplecroft, she and Lizzie signed a legal document providing Lizzie with the 'right' to occupy and pay all maintenance and ongoing costs of the house. When the first one died, the survivor would have full ownership. Since Lizzie died first, Maplecroft was 100% part of Emma's estate, not Lizzie's. All that said, for all of Lizzie's life, they both owned 50% of Maplecroft.

The other major property was the AJB Building. Each owned half. Emma sold her half in the early 20's and in ~1927 Lizzie's estate sold her half to the same person who already owned Emma's half.

So maybe he knows some minor transaction that occurred where Emma sold her half to Lizzie, but I'm not familiar with it and pretty sure I would been aware. I've read most of their real estate transaction deeds.

To Inspector's, and numerous other's, point and research, there is ZERO proof that Andrew had a son with any woman. This has been researched ad nauseum, but a good clean writeup is in Spencer's book which studies each of the alternative book theories. It's as well written and documented as his book 'Case Against Lizzie'.

Inspector is correct, this guy seems to have 'borrowed' from Brown quite a bit.