Episode 1. Lizzie Borden.
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This is one of my favourite and most influential true crime stories.
Lizzie Borden, and the brutal murder of both of her parents is infamous. It’s likely that you have either heard the case itself or you have seen the Netflix series, or perhaps read a novel about it.
While the case is considered unsolved, Lizzie borden has been condemned for years by the general public, many of whom believe wholly in her guilt. Though, she was actually acquitted at trial in record time by a jury of her peers, which leads me to believe that there is much more to the story than simply an angry woman with an axe.
Lizzie’s father, Andrew, grew up with modest livings. He struggled with money as a young man, though he was born to wealth. He believed in making a name for himself and building his own empire. Which he did. He made his fortune making furniture and caskets, ironically, and ended up owning several textile mills.
By the time he died his estate was valued at US$300,000, which is approximately US$18 million as of 2016. Despite his fortunes, Andrew was known for being frugal. There was no indoor plumbing in the Borden home on either the first or second storey, and he chose to live near his businesses in an industrial area.
As in modern society, industrial areas are not considered particularly desirable. For example, I live on the west side of the city of Melbourne. Our roads and landscapes are poorly kept and are incredibly congested, and we are surrounded by farms and factories, that come with some unpleasant scents on warm summer days. On the east side, houses are mansion-like, roads well kept, and even the air smells cleaner.
Most affluent people in Andrew Borden’s time were living further from the industrial area in a place considered much more fashionable.
Andrew’s frugality didn’t win him any friends. He was disliked by many people in town and I can’t imagine that living with him was any better.
Lizzie Andrew Borden was born 19 July, 1860. She was the younger of Andrew’s two daughters with his first wife.
Lizzie and her older sister Emma Lenora Borden were brought up under religious conditions, though nothing out of the ordinary for the time. In fact, Lizzie was involved with her church, and taught at the Sunday school for local children who had immigrated to America.
Lizzie was active in her community and well known and liked, though, sometimes considered a little bit strange.
Lizzie and Emma’s mother, Andrew’s first wife, died in 1863 when Lizzie was barely 3 years old. Lizzie would not remember her mother but shew would come to know her step-mother well enough: Abby Durfee Borden (nee Gray). Lizzie was recorded as saying that she believed Abby was only after her father’s money, and she would only call her “Step Mother”, not mother, and definitely not by name.
This later indicated to investigators, and the public, that their relationship was civil at best.
Lizzie was known for faking illness in order to avoid family dinners and her step-mother especially. I can’t imagine this behaviour is unusual, even for an adult, who might dislike a person living under their roof. I’ve avoided a few conversations this way, myself.
Lizzie was a little strange, and childlike, as an adult.
In 1892, at 32 years, old she built a pigeon coop to keep pigeons as pets. A little bit odd but nothing to indicate that anything was wrong with her, especially not that she would have violent tendencies.
Her father, Andrew, howver, wasn’t exactly a fan of the pigeons. He was violent. He believed the pigeons were attracting local kids who wanted to hunt them and considered the children pests. And so decided the best remedy was to kill all the pigeons with a hatchet. A little extreme, if you ask me.
Naturally, Liz was upset. She had been caring for these pigeons and rather than releasing the birds and dismantling the coop, her father had destroyed everything in one big, bloody mess. A possible motive for Lizzie, or just a tragedy?
Lizzie and her sister, who were considered spinsters, being in their 30s and unmarried, decided to take a short vacation together after a family argument. It has been suggested that this vacation may have been part of the murderous plan, given it took place shortly before the murders.
The sisters returned home just a week before the killings. During the time they were away, Andrew had been gifting various amounts of real-estate to his wife’s family which may solidify the idea that she was just in it for the money. Though many marriages were made to secure finances, as we know, so would it really have been that scandalous?
The borden house was a busy one leading up to the murders.
Enter second suspect: John Vinnicum Morse. Andrew’s brother.
John visited the Borden home to discuss business with Andrew and was to stay for a short time. You can imagine that there may have been some tension between the two with Andrew selling off property that John may have felt some entitlement to. There is not much information about their relationship, otherwise, though we all know how mixing money and family can cause tension. And worse.
This is where things start to get weird. Or, weirder.
Only days before the murders, the entire Borden family had taken ill. Including Lizzie. It was suggested that this was due to food poisoning from old mutton but Abby was paranoid, and perhaps rightly so. She believed the family had been deliberately poisoned. This sparks the idea that the family may have had known enemies, outside or within their home.
Suspect/s three: The maids.
The maids of the Borden family were said to be disgruntled by the way they were treated by the Borden’s. Abby and Andrew were not the kindest of employers.
On Thursday 4 August, 1892, Abby and Andrew were murdered.
Abby was said to have been facing her killer when she was struck with a weapon. This caused her to fall face down on the floor where she was struck another 19 times in the back of her head, taking place between 9.00 – 10.30am.
Andrew was murdered between 10.30 – 11.10am. He was chatting with his brother in the sitting room for about an hour prior to his murder. Morse then went for an hour or so walk at 9am. When he returned (conveniently after both murders had taken place) he claimed his house key wouldn’t work in the lock, so he called for assistance. It was the housemaid who came to the door and discovered the body, saying that when she swore aloud, she believed she heard Lizzie laughing upstairs. This itself is questionable due to Lizzie’s alibi which I will come to in a moment.
What makes John suspicious is not only that he had motive, time and a convenient alibi, but also that we know from cases such as that of Jon Benet Ramsey, that people involved in a murder will often bring a “witness” to discover the body with or for them.
As for Lizzie’s alibi: Lizzie claimed that she was in the loft in the barn eating peas while this took place, police didn’t believe her though there were witnesses who confirmed that Lizzie was not in the house at the time of the murder. You would think if the alibi was fabricated, she would have come up with something that kept her further from the house.
There are multiple contradictory testimonies from witnesses about what happened and when. Not exactly unusual as we all know that eye-witness testimonies are notoriously unreliable.
Lizzie was not thoroughly investigated or checked for blood stains during the investigation as she was unwell and was confined to her room. The police were criticised for not being thorough in their investigation when they first came to the home, which may have allowed the killer time to dispose of any damning evidence.
Following the crime, and after the initial investigation, Lizzie burned a dress she owned in the fireplace that was “covered in paint”. Eating peas in a loft makes burning a dress seem less out of character. So does owning pigeons, and back then, I guess, being unmarried and over thirty. Though, it doesn’t make it any less suspicious. It wasn’t determined whether this was the dress she was wearing the day of the murders, as no one thought to inspect it when they had the chance.
Lizzie was officially a suspect.
On August 11, 1892, Lizzie was arrested and jailed.
On June 5, 1893, trial began. All evidence appeared to be nothing more than circumstantial. At trial on June 20, after only 90 minutes, Lizzie was acquitted of her charges.
The skulls of her parents were used as evidence in the trial. The autopsy had taken place in the kitchen of the family home, and the heads had been removed. It was not until after the trial concluded that they were buried at the foot of their respective graves.
Lizzie chose to live her remaining days in the same town she grew up in, facing rumours and ridicule and even a kind of cute, if not disturbing, nursery rhyme about the murders.
Lizzie Borden took an axe
She gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one
Lizzie Borden got away
For her crime she did not pay
Lizzie remains the prime suspect regardless of being acquitted, but there were multiple people in that town and in that house that could have committed the crime.
Some suggest that the maid killed the parents out of frustration at her working conditions.
Morse had a convenient alibi and at the time was also considered a suspect. He remains a suspect today as the case is still unsolved and he was never ruled out.
Morse had stayed with the Borden’s weeks before and would have known their routine. He also mentioned that he didn’t see Lizzie during his trip to the family home, she seems to be a recluse which I think is reinstated by the fact that she tended to avoid her own family, spends a lot of time alone or only at the church.
As for motive?
Andrew Borden was originally married to Morse’s sister, his first wife.
Perhaps he felt entitled to her share of the land and money which instead was now going to the new wife and her extended family. This might have been an affront to him, him being more closely related and especially related by blood to Borden’s daughters. I’ve seen people fight over less, and kill over much less.
There was the equivalent of millions at stake and Morse wasn’t getting a dime. Lizzie and Emma would have been much easier to dupe out of their inheritance or to scam money from. There’s something about all the convenient excuses he was able to make that I just don’t trust.
Call me biased, because I am, but I have a bit of a soft spot for Lizzie and something tells me that she was the scapegoat for a crime she didn’t commit. I feel her innocence is confirmed by her alibi and her acquittal by a jury of her peers who knew her best.
But I want to know – what do you think? And what is your favourite portrayal of Lizzie in pop-culture?
Source
Good Nightmare 