Lizzie Borden Lizzie Borden took an axe And gave her mother forty whacks And when she saw what she had done She gave her father forty-one.
Lizzie, aged 16 Lizzie Borden was born on 19 July, 1860, to respectable conservative parents and raised in sober, equally respectable and conservative, small-town America. Her life was predictably uneventful, up to a point. She was to gain notoriety as the only suspect in the brutal murder of her father and step-mother at the family home in Fall River, Massachusetts, on 4 August, 1892. Andrew Borden was a wealthy man but it had been a fortune made on the misery of others. He was a slum landlord and effectively his own debt collector. Every morning he would make his rounds collecting money, issuing threats and banking the proceeds. A bad-tempered, aggressive, and arrogant man he was noted for his rapacity and meanness. He was hugely unpopular in the town. Something his wife Abigail was more than aware of. She had already written to her doctor claiming that someone was trying to poison them and just a few days before the murders the entire family had gone down with food poisoning. The whole family, that is except for Lizzie who had not eaten dinner that day. It was unusual now for the family to all eat together and Lizzie and her sister Emma lived in a separate part of the house to their parents. Indeed Lizzie rarely addressed her step-mother as Abby but always as Mrs Borden, even though she had been married to her father for thirty of Lizzie's thirty two years and she had never known any other mother.
Lizzie's Father
On the morning of 4 August, 1892, Andrew Borden returned home from doing his morning rounds. It was around 11.00 am and Andrew sat upon on the sofa looking forward to his nap as usual. The family maid Bridget Sullivan was also resting in her room. She was unhappy at having been asked to clean the windows on such a hot day and so soon after having suffered from food poisoning. She was woken by cries of "Bridget, come down quick! Father's dead! Somebody came in and killed him". Bridget rushed down stairs and found Andrew Borden slumped upon the sofa his face smashed to a pulp, his nose had been severed and his left eye socket was hanging out. He was unrecognisable. The Police were called while Lizzie was comforted by neighbours. A little later Bridget discovered the body of Lizzie's mother Abby in an upstairs bedroom covered by a coat. At the inquest that followed it was found that Abigail Borden had suffered thirteen blows to the head and face, Andrew eleven, inflicted by an axe or hatchet. No valuables were taken so robbery was dismissed as a motive. More pertinently very little, if any, blood was found at the scene of the crime. It was also revealed that Andrew Borden had not made a will, so the two sisters, Lizzie and Emma, would inherit the family fortune. Lizzie's erratic and unusual behaviour at the inquest became the talk of the town. She was often in a dreamlike state. She would ramble and talk about irrelevancies. Her testimony would change from day to day. Sometimes she would laugh hysterically, but she never cried. Her rambling, incoherent responses to questions made her indictment for murder inevitable. But why would Lizzie murder her parents? had broken out. Andrew Borden had decided to split the family fortune between his daughters and his wife's family, and he had already started to transfer property. A huge row had erupted between Andrew and his daughters on receipt of this news. It was exacerbated by the presence of John Viniculum Morse, Abigail’s brother. who was staying at the house to negotiate further transfers. Furious, the sisters moved out. But Lizzie soon returned.
The Older Lizzie Lizzie Borden was arrested for the murder of her father and step-mother on 11 August, 1892. The evidence against her was incriminating but largely circumstantial. No murder weapon was found though a hatchet with the handle removed (possibly because it was covered in blood) was found in the garage. Lizzie's attitude during the trial was one of callous indifference. Fortunately, her testimony at the Inquest was excluded. As also was the fact that prior to the murders Lizzie had tried to purchase prussic acid from the local chemist. She claimed it was to clean a seal skin coat. The pharmacist, Eli Bence, had refused her. He was willing to testify to this effect at the trial but was denied the opportunity to do so. The strange absence of blood at the scene was brought up. A neighbour, Adelaide Churchill, who comforted Lizzie while they waited for the Police, testified that she saw no blood and that Lizzie was perfectly arranged and her clothes in no way dishevelled. However, it was known that Lizzie had been seen to burn a blue dress in the stove soon after the murders. Because Lizzie would only have had twenty minutes in which to clean up any blood it was suggested that she had committed the murders naked, cleaned up the blood with the blue dress and then changed back into her original one. Also, if her father had been taking his usual nap then the layout of the house meant that she could have killed him without having to emerge from behind the door. This would explain the lack of blood on Lizzie's person but does not convict her of the crime. Something now weighed heavily in Lizzie's favour. News was received that a similar axe murder had taken place in Fall River a few days before the trial, committed by a vagrant, Jose Correia, even though it was proved that he was out of town at the time of the Borden murders. A witness for the prosecution, a relative of Lizzie's, Hiram Harrington said of her "Lizzie is of a repellent disposition, and after an unsuccessful passage with her father would become sulky and refuse to speak to him for days on end". He went onto say that "her father's constant refusal to allow her to entertain lavishly angered her". The defence now produced evidence that mysterious men had called at the house and angered furiously with Andrew Borden and that threatening letters had been sent to Abigail. All these things it transpired, however, had been reported by Lizzie. The jury retired for only 90 minutes before returning with a verdict of not guilty. They could not see what would drive this prim, virginal, church-going spinster
to murder. What would turn this Sunday school teacher and leading member of the local temperance league to do such a ghastly thing? But in the eyes of the public she was guilty. After the trial Lizzie and Emma moved to a new house they named Maplecroft. Lizzie found herself shunned by both her local Church and worse Fall River society. But she was like a woman reborn. She became heavily involved with the theatre and in particular a notorious actress, Nance O'Niell, with whom she embarked upon a tempestuous lesbian affair. She began to hold lavish parties for her theatrical friends and soon began to squander the family fortune. After one such party in June, 1905, she argued violently with her sister, the two never spoke again Lizzie Borden died of pneumonia on I July, 1927. She had been ostracised by her neighbours in Fall River, the town she had lived in all her life and few people attended her funeral. In her will she left $30,000 to the Fall River Animal Rescue League, even though she was known not to like animals and never kept a pet. She also left $500 a year in perpetuity to the upkeep of her father's grave, but nothing to the care of her step-mothers. Nine days after Lizzie's death her sister, Emma Leonora Borden, died in a fall at her home. Postscript: Other than Lizzie, no other strong suspects have ever emerged in the case of the Borden murders. It has been stated that Bridget Sullivan had just as much opportunity to commit the murders as Lizzie. That she may have killed her employers out of anger at her treatment or that she was having an affair with Lizzie and had killed them at her request. But there is no evidence for this just conjecture. Likewise, Emma Borden benefited financially just as much from her parents death as Lizzie and was at the time still estranged from her family. But she was still living away from the family home at the time and it is highly unlikely she would have been able to commit the murders without being seen. It has also been suggested that Andrew Borden had an illegitimate son who had been demanding from his father his share in the family fortune. Lizzie had testified at her trial that a man had visited the house and argued furiously with her father. But this could not be verified. The fact is that all the evidence produced at the trial pointed towards Lizzie as the killer: the broken hatchet, the attempt to purchase prussic acid to clean a seal skin coat that could not be produced, the burning of the dress that was witnessed, her erratic behaviour and constantly changing testimony, and her callous indifference to the death of her parents. Lizzie Borden may well have been acquitted at her trial but she has been condemned before the Court of History.