The Borden Murders: The Trial of Lizzie Borden
On August 4th, 1892 at around 11:10 am a shriek rang out at 92 Second Street in Fall River, Massachusetts, waking the maid Bridget “Maggie” Sullivan from a nap. The next thing she heard was the voice of 32-year-old Lizzie Borden yelling from the bottom of the stairs, “Maggie, come quick! Father’s dead. Somebody came in and killed him.”
Maggie rushed down the stairs to find her boss and Lizzie’s father slumped over the couch, his head bashed in by at least 10 strikes of a hatchet, one of which split an eyeball cleanly in two. Within a few days, Lizzie Borden was under arrest for his murder and the murder of her stepmother leading to the trial of the century that left the nation with more questions than answers.
PART 1 - The Murders of Andrew and Abby Borden
Lizzie Borden is Born
On July 19th, 1860 Sarah and Andrew Borden welcomed Lizzie Andrew Borden, their 3rd daughter into their home. After having lost their second daughter to hydrocephalus several years earlier the two were elated to bring Lizzie into the family. But just three years later Sarah Borden tragically passed away from a spinal disease. Before passing she made Emma, her first daughter, promise to watch over Lizzie.
Three years after her death Andrew Borden married Abby Gray at the detests of Lizzie who was said to believe Abby only married into the family for money. Andrew had become successful over his career amassing an estate worth over $9 million in today’s money.
Despite this, Andrew was described as frugal and a penny pincher leading to many in the neighborhood disliking him and arguments rising between him and his daughters.
For the most part, the Bordens stayed out of the limelight and apparently away from each other as Lizzie and Emma often took vacations to distance themselves from their father and stepmother. Though the live-in maid Bridget Maggie Sullivan would later testify she didn’t believe there to be any malice between the four.
On August 4th, 1892 that belief would be put to the test.
August 4th, 1892
The morning of the murders the family was getting over a case of food poisoning from several days earlier but at around 6 am Andrew, Abby, and Maggie all had breakfast together with Lizzie still asleep upstairs and Emma out of town with friends. The home had also welcomed a guest, John Morse, Lizzie’s maternal uncle who had stayed overnight and joined Andrew in the sitting room to discuss business.
Between 9 am and 10:30 am Andrew left the house for a walk, John Morse left to visit other family members, and the rest began their chores for the day. Abby was upstairs cleaning the room but told Lizzie she would be leaving shortly to visit a sick friend, Maggie went out to wash the windows, and Lizzie started ironing.
At around 10:30 am Andrew returned and decided to take a nap in the living room. Maggie who was still not feeling well went upstairs to take a nap in her room as well. Lizzie then went out to the barn to find several sinkers and lines for an upcoming fishing trip spending, according to her, at most 20 minutes in the barn.
Discovering the Bodies
While outside Lizzie heard a heavy fall and groaning causing her to rush back into the house, upon reaching the door she found the screen door now open where previously it was locked. And there in the living room, her father lay, dead, unrecognizable from the multiple hatchet strikes to his face and head.
Lizzie called to Maggie who came rushing down and saw the mutilated body of Andrew. Lizzie then asked Maggie to go across the street and fetch the family physician, Doctor Bowen.
After confirming the death of Andrew Borden, Lizzie asked Maggie to go upstairs and check for Abby as she believed she may have heard her return at some point. Maggie and a neighbor/ friend of the family Mrs. Churchill went upstairs where they found Abby lying face down in a pool of blood in the guest room.
By the time police arrived Dr. Bowen had confirmed both dead but revealed Abby had possibly been dead for almost an hour as her blood had already dried and coagulated. He also confirmed both had been struck multiple times in the head with an axe or hatchet. Both of these revelations led police to believe the killer had to be someone in the home, initiating a search.
In the basement police found a hatchet with its handle broken off, believing it to be the murder weapon they immediately suspected Lizzie of the murders. By the next day, the case garnered media attention with the public pointing the finger at Lizzie. Emma returned home to stay by Lizzie’s side believing in her innocence and invited friend Alice Russell to stay over during the trying times.
Inquest
On August 8th the district attorney held an inquest hearing where Lizzie, without an attorney, was asked multiple questions. Lizzie then gave contradictory answers, stating at various times she was upstairs and downstairs when her father arrived, stating she heard a heavy fall while outside, and later stating she heard no sound, as well as saying she helped her father remove his boots but photos showed him still wearing boots when he was murdered.
Because of this, the judge found Lizzie Borden “probably guilty of murder” and issued a warrant for her arrest several days later. On November 7th a grand jury heard evidence and were left to decide whether or not the state had enough to press charges. The grand jury did not come to a conclusion.
That is until they reconvened to hear testimony from Alice Russell who testified she witnessed Lizzie burning a blue dress just several days after the murders. On December 2nd Lizzie Borden was indicted and charged with murder.
By this time the case had garnered national attention with many articles written daily about it, many believed Lizzie to be guilty, while others were fascinated by the idea of an upper-middle-class woman killing her parents. The attention and interest caused the public to deem the upcoming trial, the trial of the century.
PART 2 - The Trial of the 19th Century
On June 5th, 1893 the trial began with the prosecution focusing on possible motives and Lizzie’s whereabouts during the time Andrew and Abby were killed.
Poison
The prosecution also questioned whether Lizzie had previously attempted to kill the family back in June of 1892 as a drugstore clerk testified Lizzie came by looking for diluted hydrogen cyanide but refused to sell it to her, believing it was going to be used for nefarious reasons. This led many to question whether the food poisoning the family experience prior to the murders was actually a poisoning attempt.
This was then shot down when a second autopsy of the bodies showed no poison in the system confirming the food poisoning was actually just food poisoning. Lizzie then stated the hydrogen cyanide in its diluted form could be used to clean some furs and dresses in her possession.
Another point of contention was Abby having been murdered at least an hour before Andrew was and, if she had been murdered, why didn’t Lizzie see her body despite having gone upstairs within that time?
But the defense was also able to poke holes in this when it was pointed out Abby’s body wasn’t easy to see from the staircase. Maggie had also gone upstairs to fetch blankets for Dr. Bowen and did not see Abby’s body until much later.
The Inquest
The prosecution then attempted to point to Lizzie’s answers during the inquest that displayed many contradictions in her story but the judges refused to allow this in the trial when it was revealed Dr. Bowen has been administering morphine to Lizzie since the day of the murders in order to calm her nerves.
Although morphine was regularly prescribed to people during that time it was also known to cause confusion and Dr. Bowen wasn’t just giving Lizzie a regular dose, he was giving her double doses daily including on the day of the inquest which explains why her story had so many contradictions.
Alice Russell
The prosecution then called Alice Russell to the stand and tell the jury about the dress burning. The prosecution believed it to be what Lizzie was wearing when she committed the murders, leading her to burn it in order to destroy evidence of any blood splatter.
In response, the defense called Emma to the stand where she told the jury the dress had paint stains on it and she was the one who told Lizzie to burn it. The burning of clothes in the home was a common thing they did and at the time they thought nothing of it.
The Hatchet
The prosecution’s final piece of evidence was the hatchet found in the basement, believing it to be the murder weapon. They also believed Lizzie had broken the handle off in order to get rid of any blood stains on it. More importantly, police found a hair on the blade and were led to believe it belonged to one of the dead.
This was also then shot down when the hatchet was sent to a Harvard Lab where they determined the hair to be from a cow and found no blood on the hatchet. The defense easily poked holes in it being a murder weapon.
The only thing the prosecution had was a possible motive, believing Lizzie killed Andrew for his money. But it was pointed out Andrew wasn’t a well-liked person as he was considered a ruthless businessman and had made many enemies. As far as money goes, because he had no will, all the money went to Emma and not Lizzie.
The trial lasted two weeks and once both sides rested the jury took less than two hours of deliberation to find Lizzie Borden not guilty of the murders.
PART 3 - Aftermath and Other Suspects
“Nothing is more unjust or capricious as public opinion”
William Hazlitt
Despite being found innocent and the evidence pointing at someone else as the murderer most of the public believed Lizzie had gotten away with murder. It didn’t matter if they had heard the evidence or not, the spectacle of the case caused many to form opinions without the evidence and led to Lizzie becoming a social pariah.
Emma and Lizzie moved to a new larger home in Fall River but people still came by trying to catch a glimpse of Lizzie. Children believed her to be a boogeyman of sorts, often daring each other on Halloween to ring her doorbell and run. Other children threw gravel and rotten eggs at her home.
Meanwhile, some papers ran headlines asking police who the actual murderer was, and the police dropped the case.
Whoever murdered the Bordens got away with it.
This led many to continue speculation that Lizzie was the killer, one paper, in an attempt to increase sales, wrote the poem:
Lizzie Borden took an axe
and gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.
With children adding various verses to it in the following years. Over the next century, people would continue to focus solely on Lizzie Borden being the murderer, often coming up with more and more convoluted scenarios.
Some of which were the murders were committed by Lizzie while in a fugue state, another says her father sexually abused her leading her to take revenge with murder, and yet another says she was in a relationship with Maggie and was caught by Abby leading them to kill Andrew and Abby together.
Suspects
But these scenarios often ignore other more credible suspects, one of which being John Morse, Lizzie’s uncle who had come by to stay the night. In 2015 Professor and Author Richard Little wrote a book titled “Cold Case to Case Closed” where he details holes in John Morse’s alibi. Morse stated he was with the doctor and a sick relative at the time of the murders but the doctor would have been Dr. Bowen who was with Lizzie at the time.
Little also believes the murder was done with a meat cleaver and not a hatchet which fits with John Morse’s profession as a butcher. As for motive, it turns out Morse and Andrew Borden had a business together that was failing which led to a falling out that morning.
Another suspect would be a stranger who came by the Borden home prior to Andrew’s walk that morning looking for money. According to testimony, a man came by asking for payment for some services but Andrew refused, saying he didn’t have money at the moment and ordered him to come by later.
Finally, often overlooked is the fact another killing in Fall River with striking similarities occurred 5 days before Lizzie Borden’s trial was set to begin. Bertha Manchester was found in her kitchen bludgeoned to death by an axe however a man named Jose Correa de Mello was convicted of this crime and determined to not have been around for the Borden murders. But there appears to be very little information about this case.
“Lizzie Borden”
Despite all the speculation and her tarnished name, Lizzie Borden lived to the age of 67 spending her last years traveling before dying of pneumonia in Fall River. Unfortunately, her sister and she had a falling out in 1905, the details of which were kept private between the two but Emma continued to give Lizzie money every month fulfilling her promise to her mother to watch over her.
Today the original Borden home has been converted into a bed and breakfast glamorizing the murders, inviting people to stay in the same rooms where Andrew and Abby Borden were found dead. Being the site of a terrible tragedy has led many to believe the home still harbors a few spirits looking for revenge.
PART 4 - The Haunted Borden Home
In 1918 the Borden home was sold to a private family who, based on research I found, did not experience any paranormal activity but did have to deal with people trying to come by to see the crime scene.
In 1948 the house was purchased by the McGinn family who after several decades decided to recreate the original Borden home, furniture and all, in order to convert it into a bed and breakfast hoping people interested in the macabre would want to stay.
Ghost Sightings
The renovated Bed and Breakfast opened in 1996 to the public but according to the owners at the time the home also invited the spirits of those who tragically died over a century ago. From the moment the renovations were complete staff and the owner began hearing footsteps and doors closing on floors above them. Lights would go on and off, voices would be heard from empty rooms, and they would see glimpses of someone walking through the home.
As the months went on they would clearly see what they described as shadow people moving around the home believing them to be the spirits of Andrew and Abby Borden. Some guests have even claimed to see the ghostly figure of Lizzie in the basement.
According to the owners, Andrew Borden’s spirit can sometimes be seen wandering the home as if he is going about his day in a normal fashion. Abby Borden can be found in the guest room where she was killed, a staff member claimed to see indents in the bed as if someone was laying on it and heard cries of a suffering woman.
Others have also claimed to see Maggie doing chores around the home as well as her cat on the second and third floors. And finally, others have claimed to see two random young children wandering around the home playing marbles.
Possible Explanations
Are these stories true? Not exactly, we see what we want to see, for every review or website I found claiming the home to be haunted, there were more with visitors writing they didn’t experience or see anything.
Those who are staying in the home are predisposed to believing everything they hear has a supernatural origin. All around the home are items and pictures reminding visitors of the gruesome murders that occurred.
Rooms contain crime scene photos of the dead placed out in the open for all to see making people more open to accepting the unexplained sights and sounds are supernatural instead of looking for the actual cause.
Pareidolia, or the tendency we humans have to see things in unrelated objects, easily explains the thinking of seeing figures in the dark, shadows down long hallways, and ghostly spirits wandering the home. The home itself is over a hundred and thirty years old, it’s going to make a lot of noise, leading those to believe the sounds of the home settling or doors creaking are that of a spirit wandering the rooms.
For now, there has been no definitive proof the home is actually haunted but what we do know for a fact is in 1892 a gruesome double homicide occurred where the killer or killers were never brought to justice. For now, the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden and the extent of involvement by Lizzie Borden will remain a mystery.
But how about you do you think Lizzie Borden killed her father and stepmother? If not, who do you think committed the heinous crime? And what about the home, could it truly be haunted? Or is it just a ploy to get those interested in ghosts to stay at a creepy bed and breakfast?
