Our local library is very active and has 1 speaker each month. I was honored to be a speaker back in October 2023 when I spoke about some of the paranormal cases I've been on. Recently, there was an historian and researcher, Christopher Daley, who spoke about the Lizzie Borden case. It was fascinating, as we never knew the whole story. His lecture was called "40 Whacks: The Lizzie Borden Case." Today's blog gives some history and highlights from the lecture.
(Photo: Christopher Daley, historian at the Berwick Library. Credit: R.G.)
WHO WAS LIZZIE BORDEN? Lizzie Andrew Borden was a woman who was tried and acquitted of the August 4, 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. No one else was charged in the murders, and, despite ostracism from other residents, Borden spent the remainder of her life in Fall River, Mass.
(Photo: Lizzie Borden in 1890. Credit: Wikimedia)
UNSOLVED - The lecturer was quick to point out that the brutal murders of her father and stepmother were never "solved."
MOTIVE AND OPPORTUNITY -
There is little doubt that Lizzie Borden committed the murders. She hated her wealthy father for penny pinching and not moving the family to the wealthy section of town, and not allowing her and her sister more than 2 new dresses a year" - so there was motive.
The Opportunity came when the Irish maid was napping, Lizzie was the only one in the house with her step mother (who was murdered first in the upstairs) and when the father came home, he was murdered in the parlor. Police shows say victims only let people they know get physically close to them, and that seems the case.
(Photo: Rob and Tom waiting for the lecture to begin. Credit: R.G.)
CORONER STATED "A LEFT-HANDED KILLER" - The lecturer said that the coroner back in 1892 (not good) said he thought the cleaver or axe strikes to their heads were done by a left-handed person. So, I asked if Lizzie was right or left-handed. The lecturer said she was right-handed. - Although, I thought, she could have used her right hand and done the other 17 blows with her left hand....
GREAT ARTICLE- Smithsonian Magazine did an article about Borden's history and summed it up in the title and subtitle of the article: "Why 19th-Century Axe Murderer Lizzie Borden Was Found Not Guilty
Nativism, gender stereotypes and wealth all played a role in letting Borden, the prime suspect in her father and stepmother’s violent deaths, go free." The lecturer was great!!
IS THE HOUSE STILL STANDING? - Yes, and it's turned into a gruesome bed and breakfast. I do know it's been investigated by paranormal investigators often, and they find ghosts. Not surprising the ghosts of the father and stepmother would be there, and I wouldn't be surprised if Lizzie herself were there, as once she died as an old woman, she would realize murder would possibly put her in a bad afterlife spot (really the lowest level of the afterlife) and stayed behind at the site of her crime.
The B&B allows people to sleep over, but you wouldn't catch me there. I also asked the lecturer, and he said he would never stay there!
For more on the house visit: https://lizzie-borden.com/
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