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Unsolved Case: Lizzie Borden


The Bordens
Lizzie Andrew Borden was born in Fall River, Massachusetts on the 19th of July 1860. The Borden family was composed of four people: Andrew Borden, head of the household, his second wife Abby Durfee Gray and Andrew’s two daughters, Emma and Lizzie, who were born from his first marriage. Emma and Lizzie’s biological mother Sarah. A. Morse died on the 26th of March 1863, and not being able to get over her premature departure it was hard for them to accept their stepmother Abby in the family, especially Lizzie.

The Borden's house
Lizzie’s father was a very wealthy man but, in spite of that, he was extremely greedy. His greed was such that he decided to cut unnecessary spending such as running water, which he considered useless. He owned a bank, as well as farms and plots of land. In order to save as much money as possible he sold his carriage and his horse leaving his stable almost empty; the only thing left in it were pigeons that were partly stolen by a group of rowdies. The theft made him so mad that in a fit of rage he killed all the remaining birds, act that bothered Lizzie a great deal, since she was very attached to them. At a later time, one more theft took place at the Borden’s house but, unusually, Mr. Borden decided not to file charges claiming to be aware of who had stolen the jewellery and the money and he was going to take care of it personally.
The murders
4th August 1892
The only people who were known to be home at the time of the murders were Lizzie and the housemaid, Bridget. In fact, Emma Borden was out of town at the time the murders took place.
10.40 a.m. Andrew Borden goes take a nap on the living room couch. Meanwhile Abby was believed to be at the doctor’s office.
10.50-10.55 a.m. Lizzie claims to be in the backyard barn at that time. Maggie claims to be taking a nap in her room upstairs.
11.15 a.m. Lizzie, in the backyard, reportedly heard a “heavy fall and a subdued groaning”.
According to Lizzie, on her approach to the house she noticed the front door was now open and goes inside. Maggie had not yet fallen asleep when she heard Lizzie Borden crying out and yelling: ”Come down quick! Father’s dead! Somebody’s come in and killed him!” Maggie ran down the stairs to witness the brutal murder scene of Andrew Borden lying across the couch. There was no sign of a struggle, as Mr. Borden was believed to be asleep when he was murdered.
Shortly after, Lizzie asked Maggie to go find the doctor across the street. At this time the whereabouts of Mrs. Borden were still unknown. Maggie claimed that when she returned to the house with one of the neighbours Lizzie said: ”Oh, Maggie! I’m almost sure I heard her come in. Go upstairs and see if she is there.” Maggie and the neighbour walked upstairs to discover, to their horror, the body of Abby Borden lying facedown on the floor of the guest bedroom. It was thought that Mrs. Borden may have been present for the murder of Mr. Borden and fled to the guest bedroom where she was also murdered. 


Andrew and Abby Borden's skulls

Both of the Bordens were struck in the head multiple times suggesting a crime of passion1.
The Suspects

SUSPECT #1 Lizzie Borden

Lizzie is undoubtedly considered guilty by many… but let’s see WHY.
At the time of his death Andrew Borden was very wealthy. His net worth at the time would be around 10 million dollars, in today’s standards. However, despite this wealth, he was a bit of a penny pincher. In trial Maggie testified that the Borden family lived frugally and ate a mutton-based diet. Lizzie was said to be smiling as this was being said.
Five years before the murders Lizzie had a falling out with her stepmother Abby, that resulted in Lizzie going from calling Abby “mother” to “Mrs. Borden”. The dispute was over Mr. Borden buying a house for Abby’s half-sister, neglecting his daughters’ needs. When asked if her father had previously mentioned a will to her, Lizzie said: “He did not.” Sure enough, after Mr. and Mrs. Borden’s murders, Lizzie and Emma inherited the estate and bought a house on the hill in a wealthy neighbourhood in Fall River.
During her inquest testimony Lizzie’s answers were sometimes very inconsistent. She also reportedly burnt a dress of hers after the murders claiming she spilled paint on it. Despite this, that was not the dress that she was seen wearing the day of the murders, which was said by the maid to be an unstained blue dress, which was handed over to the police. Lizzie could perhaps have committed the murder and then changed while Maggie was reportedly sleeping but the timeframe for that would have been extremely slim and dresses in that time period were a bit of a process to take on and off, so this seems pretty unlikely.
Another damning detail came from a pharmacist who testified as Lizzie’s trial that she had tried to buy a poison called prussic acid the day before her father and stepmother were killed. However, this testimony was dismissed. Other than a possible motive and circumstantial pieces of evidence there was no physical evidence that implicated Lizzie in the murders.

SUSPECT #2 John Vinnicum Morse

A theory, that was recently made popular by a Massachusetts math teacher named Richard Little, who wrote a book on the case, listed John Morse as the possible killer. John Morse was the brother of Mr. Borden’s first wife and Lizzie’s uncle. Interestingly, according to Lizzie, Morse was not seen from 9:00 a.m. until noon, after the murders occurred. As claimed by Little, John Morse’s alibi to the police was that he was visiting a sick relative down the road during the time of the murders along with the town doctor. However, this would be quite of a magic trick since the same town doctor was also looking over the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Borden. A bizarre contradiction in Morse’s testimony. Furthermore, Mrs. Borden was found dead in the guest bedroom that Morse had reportedly slept in the night before. Also, according to Lizzie's inquest testimony, Morse may have known about her fathers will.
Here's a transcript of that interaction:
"Did you know of your father making a will?"
"No, except I heard somebody say once that there was one several years ago. That is all I have ever heard."
"Who did you hear say so?"
"I think it was Mr. Morse"
"What Morse?"
"Uncle John V. Morse"
Little also cites a failing livestock business between Morse and Andrew Borden as a possible motive. Little, additionally believed that Morse may have used a meat cleaver to kill the Bordens as John Morse was also a butcher for his profession.

SUSPECT #3 Bridget Maggie Sullivan

The maid Maggie had gone upstairs to sleep in her bedroom, a floor above the guest room where Mrs. Borden was murdered. Although Maggie, in her own testimony, claims she may not have been fully asleep at the time of the murders, she did not hear the brutal murder only one floor below, which seems unlikely. 

Despite these last theories, some feel that it's too coincidental that a person could sneak into the house at daytime with two people inside (or around) the house at the time. This brought some people to sustain a theory according to which Lizzie and Maggie the maid conspired to kill the Bordens together. This theory has been the subject of many fan-fiction where Lizzie and Maggie were romantically involved. Some versions have Lizzie's stepmother discovering the romance to which they kill her and then kill Mr. Borden to cover it up. Fans of this theory point to the fact that Lizzie later in her life reportedly had a crush on an actress. Reason why, some feel, caused her sister Emma to move out of the house they shared. Other than that, this theory has no evidence backing it.
The following are only some of the articles published about the Bordens murders:






1 A crime of passion (French:crime passionnel), refers to a violent crime, especially homicide, in which the perpetrator commits the act against someone because of sudden strong impulse such as sudden rage rather than as a premeditated crime.




Article by Azzurra Furnari

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  1. Interesting topic within a lengthy, well-written article. This is what I call content. Craving for more!

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