November Northeast Trip

Arrived Boston yesterday afternoon.  Friends Tom and Rita picked me up at Logan and we went directly to Chinatown for dim sum before heading to their lovely home  outside of Boston.

I brought Tom and Rita a copy of Rebello’s Lizzie Borden – Past & Present which they did not have.

Today we did the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum which I hadn’t been to in about 5 years; walked around the Harvard campus, then had an early and GREAT seafood dinner at Ye Old Oyster House, sitting in the JFK booth.

Tomorrow morning we  fly into Albany, get a rental and drive over to Hyde Park.  Tom has made reservations for lunch at Escofier at the Culinary Institute of America.  I understand it’s a huge campus with several restaurants in the main “Hall”.  Their other son lives just outside Hyde Park so they’ll get to visit him before going back to Boston Monday morning.  I plan to stay and do some research at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library for a couple days digging into some letters between Grace Hartley Howe and Louis McHenry Howe.  (Thank you Julie for the box numbers!) Then, I’ll drive east to Newport and Fall River.

So far it’s been exhausting and I’m just getting started with 12 more days to go.  I’m still on Central Arizona time because I haven’t caught up on my sleep.

Hosea Knowlton at Tufts College

Recycled post.

From my Lizzie Borden collection is this Tuft’s College graduating yearbook photograph of Hosea Morrill Knowlton, also showing his signature. Knowlton of course, was the District Attorney who prosecuted Lizzie Borden in her famous 1893 Trial in New Bedford, MA.

From time to time I’ll be posting “little known tidbits” about the people, places and things that factor in the Lizzie Borden case, so I’m creating this new category. I’ve not been able to find this photograph on the internet so perhaps its shown here for the first time.

Knowlton graduated from Tuft’s College in 1867. After he died of a stroke (December 18, 1902), Charles E. Fay, a Tuft’s College graduate of 1868, wrote a 6-page tribute to Hosea in the January, 1903 issue of The Tuftonian, the college newsletter. It is here that we get an insight into Hosea’s younger days and find that he was not without experience in college pranks. (By the way, it wasn’t until July 15, 1892, the Tufts Board of Trustees voted “that the College be opened to women in the undergraduate departments on the same terms and conditions as men.”)

(Right click to view larger type)

Hosea Knowlton had three sons and they all attended Tuft’s College.

Though it is often stated that Knowlton graduated from Harvard Law School, he did not. He attended there for a year but did not graduate. I was able to verify this last summer when I went on a business conference to Raytheon in Andover and spent all my spare time doing research on Knowlton at the Boston Public Library and State House.

When Frank Warren Knowlton, Jr. donated his grandfather’s papers on the Borden case to the Fall River Historical Society, he described his grandfather as “too brash, too cocky. He had a way of standing with his hands on his hips and maybe the jury thought that he was talking down at them.” Source: -Fall River Herald News, Sept. 1, 1989. (Note: It was Frank’s father, Frank Warren Knowlton (Tufts College 1899-1902), who engaged in an 8-year correspondence with noted author Edmund Pearson who resurrected interest in the case with his long essay in Studies in Murder.)

Hosea’s grandson donated The Knowlton Papers in August (see the Fall River Herald News article of Sept 1, 1989 below).

Pictured above: The often seen image of Hosea Knowlton as he appeared in 1893. Taken from the video Hash & Rehash, is this TV screen image of his grandson, Frank Knowlton, Jr. who donated “the Knowlton Papers” to the Fall River Society.

I had the pleasure of meeting Frank, Jr. at the 1992 Centennial Conference on Lizzie Borden at the Speakers Reception and again when both he and Andrew Jennings Waring (grandson of Lizzie’s defense attorney) joined me on a tour of Maplecroft. It was very interesting, though not surprising, that one stoutly believed in her guilt while the other stoutly believed in her innocence. I’ll never forget the dialog between the two out on the sidewalk after the tour of Lizzie’s house on French Street. Both are now deceased and the few letters I have from them are read now with a special melancholy and fond rememberence.

“Gasp, gasp – I’m dying….”

Below are posting stats of probably the best chat forum on the subject of the Lizzie Borden case.

Like the Grasberg mine in West Papua, Indonesia, it’s Archives are the repository of its own gold and copper riches. 

Yes, I’m talking about Stefani Koorey’s forum – the same forum for which she has blocked me from joining and inevitably removes my party mask of contrived digital personas when I have been discovered after slipping in under the radar.

Now look at these stats:

Number of new posts by month
Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2003	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
2004	0	0	0	432	1138	832	595	710	676	611	1145	1280
2005	1110	1148	1615	1978	1457	1769	1228	1051	1328	1145	1059	1019
2006	1144	1223	1172	1402	1561	1831	1350	1961	1688	1549	1512	1595
2007	1707	1328	1264	1397	908	915	1038	1430	908	1079	1171	1052
2008	1494	1157	978	715	733	1059	829	934	643	786	430	680
2009	473	540	603	577	377	482	606	960	504	370	38	0

The steady decline of posts began in April of 2007 when the 4 digit count was less than the same month of the prior year.  And since April of 2008, all but one month has been in 3 digits.   And we just had a wallapaloosa of a Lizzie Borden month this past October and yet only 370 posts.  Wassup?

I attribute the recent reductions due to the lack of postings from sister Kat Koorey who, when not asking to “cite your source” was meticulous in assuring accurate information on the multitude of threads.  Kat deserves credit as being the chief contributor (and top poster) to the quality of information.  Now that she’s MIA, the post count and quality has subsided.

Another contributing factor to the steady decline, IMHO, is attributable to the more recent absence of Shelley Dziedzic who also was a great contributor to the Forum’s content.  Her bright and breezy posts, not to mention the glorious photos, was a delight to all.  I’m sure she is missed by the 15 or so hard core regulars.  Shelley was the #2 top poster.

The point is, no matter what lack of, er, ah, cordiality exists between Stef and me, the Lizzie Borden forum is a terrific source of Bordenia, provided you have the determined patience of a Grasberg miner.

I would encourage all eager to learn more – novice or scholar – to check out those threads and archives.  You don’t have to join unless you want to actually post, but you certainly can take advantage of the riches of that mine without joining. The rewards are plentiful and the journey exciting.

Down in Front!

Inside the Fall River theater – a movie based on historical fact is showing.   Suddenly, a man stands up and blocks the view:

“Hey, Mister!  Down in front! We’re tryna watch a movie here.”

“Thanks, Mister.”

Genesis of the “Emma Did It” Theory

Those who choose to believe Lizzie Borden was innocent cite the various theories to be found in dozens of books on the case. From the villainous “Intruder” to the illegitimate son, Billy Borden, there is none more preposterous than the “Emma did it” theory.

That Lizzie’s older sister, visiting in Fairhaven – a good 15 miles distant in horse and carriage days – committed the dastardly deed was never considered in the slightest by the Fall River police or District Attorney Hosea Knowlton. It was only many decades after the crimes and Lizzie’s acquittal that this theory took hold.  But how did it come about?  How did it start?  Was it Alfred Hitchcock’s teleplay, “The Older Sister“? Just when and from whom did this theory first appear in print or any other media?

I made a delightful discovery a couple years ago from my expanded readings of the Lizzie Borden-Franklin Roosevelt connection.  That connection has always intrigued me because had Lizzie lived six more years she might had taken tea with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, an invitation arranged by her cousin, Grace.  Imagine that.  Lizzie Borden in the White House.

I think it’s time to reveal the genesis of the “Emma did it” theory.  The source is none other than Lizzie’s own cousin’s husband, Chief political strategist and advisor, personal secretary to President Franklin D. Roosevelt – Louis McHenry Howe.

Louis McHenry Howe and President Franklin Roosevelt

Louis was, of course, married to Grace Hartley Howe. Grace was born November 9, 1874 in Fall River making her 14 years younger than Lizzie. Grace’s maternal grandfather, Cook Borden, and Lizzie’s paternal grandfather, Abraham Borden, were brothers. Grace married Louis on May 6, 1899 at age 24. Louis had been a newspaper man and he surely had read about the murders, the legal proceedings and Lizzie’s ultimate acquittal.  After his marriage to Grace, there must have been discussions with his wife about her notorious relative.

On December 11, 1931, writer Fulton Oursler went to meet Franklin Roosevelt, then Governor of New York,  at his home at 49 East 56th Street.  The meeting was a result of Oursler’s writing two recent articles for the influential Liberty Magazine, (of which he was about to become editor) one of which was entitled “Another Roosevelt in the White House?” It was a time when Governor Roosevelt was about to engage in the year long campaign for the presidency under the tireless guidance of his closest friend and chief political strategist, Louis Howe.

Upon Oursler’s  arrival he was greeted by Louis who was living in the Roosevelt home while his wife lived in Fall River.  The two men waited for FDR’s return from the dentist.  The conversation that took place – remarkable in and of itself -  can be read in the book shown below – an autobiography competed by his son, Fulton Oursler, Jr. :

Behold This Dreamer! Fulton Oursler, Little, Brown & Company, 1964, 1st Ed.

Click on images for larger view.

Now, to any serious reader of the life of Louis Howe, one would know how he often played gags on people, toying with their head so to speak.  I can imagine Louis saying all this with a straight face but with an undetected twinkle in his eye that the very straight-laced and conservative Oursler would not recognize.

Here was a man (Louis) whose wife was named as a primary legatee in Lizzie’s Will just 4 years previous (but due to the six years of probating had not yet received her cash windfall).  Perhaps Louis had Lizzie on his mind because of the fact the first Probate accounting had just been held less than two months previous on October 31, 1931 in a Fall River court.   Or perhaps he was just full of glee knowing his man, Governor Roosevelt, was on the threshold of becoming “President Roosevelt”  in a year’s time, mainly due to his own efforts.

Whatever his reasons for saying what he said, Louis was a man who surely knew at least the basic facts of the case.   But he told this story and it stuck.  Not only did he tell it to Oursler but he repeated it to that prolific writer and librarian, Edmund Pearson at a subsequent luncheon arranged by Oursler.   Now Pearson, being an expert on the case, didn’t believe a word of it.  How he must have cringed over that bit about Emma being crazy and suffered from epileptic fits, and had been out of town in “Marion” but snuck back.  Either Louis had scant knowledge of the particulars or Oursler got that wrong, but oh, how Louis much have enjoyed that luncheon!  And Louis most certainly knew beforehand that Pearson had written that long essay on the Borden case in Studies in Murder, published in 1924.   Oh yeah, Louis knew what he was doing, all right.  I would love to have been at that luncheon – invisible and silent but taking in every word of the Messrs. Oursler, Pearson and Howe.

There’s a lot more misinformation in those quoted remarks of Louis attributed by Fulton Oursler – almost comical in its ridiculous assertions – as any scholar of the case will readily recognize. Could Louis, always the visionary and strategist,  have deliberately wanted to eradicate any thought that the cousin of the wife of the chief advisor to the future President of the United States was a murderer, and by so doing,  misdirect guilt to the sister?

Oh, Louis, you dishevled, asthmatic, chain-smoking, strategizing scamp, you.  Look what you’ve done.  Your contrived tale told nearly 80 years ago continues to surface and provide an outlandish alternative theory.

So there you have it, the source and genesis of the “Emma did it” theory first appearing in print.

Lizzie Borden Live! – Halloween Night in Fall River

LIZZIE BORDEN

LIVE !!!

…Think you know her?…Think again…

“Sweet, innocent, witty and savagely murderous”

THE LEGEND COMES TO

LIFE

Written & Performed by: Jill Dalton

Directed by: Jack McCullough Music by: Larry Hochman

Lighting Design by: John P. Boomer

HALLOWEEN

NIGHT

ALL HALLOWS’

EVE

CELEBRATION

Saturday, October 31, 2009

8:00 pm

Doors open @ 7:00 pm

$ CASH BAR $

PRIZES & SURPRIZES

The Eagle Performing Arts Center

35 North Main Street, 2nd flr

Fall River, MA 02720

 

Advance Tickets ~ $25.00

Click on “SCHEDULE “

or purchase at the door

or call the Eagle @ 508-989-9207

 

Costume Contest &

Halloween Costume Parade

after the show

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rosella Howe

Note:   It was Rosella and Hartley Howe who inherited most of Lizzie’s furniture, books, etc. that Grace Hartley Howe had inherited from Lizzie’s Will. When Hartley died and Rosella went to a nursing home, her son Edward H. Howe, was given many of those items.

She was the wife of Hartley Howe, son of Louis McHenry Howe and Grace Hartley Howe.  Grace was second cousin to Lizzie Borden. Rosella R. (Senders) Howe

September 10, 2009

WESTPORT, MASS. — Rosella Senders Howe, poet, feminist, political adviser, and Lewis Carroll scholar, died at home on Thursday, September 10, after a long illness. She was 97.

Mrs. Howe was born March 28, 1912, in Exeter, N.H., and grew up in Cambridge, Mass., where she graduated from Cambridge Latin School and attended Radcliffe College for two years, majoring in psychology. In her first job after college, she put her new-found knowledge of the human psyche and her excellent command of the English language to immediate use, responding to irate letters for Macy’s complaint department.

She went on to study dance in New York’s Greenwich Village with Charles Weidman, a pioneer of modern dance, but said she gave it up after a tour stop in Providence when she found herself sharing a dressing room with a circus elephant. Despite this traumatic encounter with a pachyderm, she remained in excellent physical condition for the rest of her life.

Before World War II, she worked for the American Red Cross in Boston. During this time, she met Hartley Howe, a newspaperman who was the son of Louis McHenry Howe, President Franklin Roosevelt’s best friend and political advisor. They were married in 1941 and moved to Washington D.C. , where she worked for the Office of Indian Affairs and then for Sidney Hillman, head of the labor division of the War Production Board, writing speeches and news releases.

After their first son was born and Mr. Howe returned from the war 10 months later, the Howes moved to Queens, New York. Here Mrs. Howe concentrated on their growing family of three boys and a girl while she and Mr. Howe were active in the Democratic Party, the Americans for Democratic Action, and the American Civil Liberties Union. She later taught English as a Second Language at Queens College and befriended many of her foreign students, who adored her.

Once their children were grown, the Howes moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where Mr. Howe was a journalism professor and Mrs. Howe finished up her degree in linguistics and studied Japanese. She became active in the Wisconsin Humanities Council, where she taught poetry and writing to adult students. She was a prolific poet herself, excelling in clever puns, visual metaphors, and acid social criticism.

She was known to drive a thousand miles to sample the country’s best oysters, played a wicked game of tennis, and provided strategic advice to the campaigns of politicians such as (Congressman) Barney Frank and (former Fall River mayor) Ed Lambert, among others. With a fascination for language and a vibrant imagination, she was drawn to the works of Lewis Carroll and traveled to many meetings of the Lewis Carroll Society. Over the years, she also mentored many young adults, especially women, always urging them to follow their career dreams.

Mrs. Howe is survived by three sons, David S. Howe, of New York City, Edward H. Howe of Jamaica Plain, Mass., and Henry S. Howe of Gallup, N.M.; one daughter, Rosemary Howe Camozzi of Florence, Ore.; by two sisters, Virginia Browne of Wayland, Mass., and Henrietta Jacobsen of Austin, Texas, and a brother, John Senders of Toronto, Canada; and by 12 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Her husband Hartley died in 1996.

A memorial celebration for friends and family will be held October 24, at 3 p.m., at the Westport Friends Meeting, 930 Main Road, Westport, Mass.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Mrs. Howe’s honor may be made to Emily’s List, 1120 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20036.

Is the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Haunted?

The explosion of interest in the paranormal in today’s society has resulted in several “ghost hunting” investigative t.v. shows, cottage industry “entertainment mediums” who proliferate the ‘net with their blogs and websites, bona fide mediums and psychics whose best-sellers help launch their own talk shows, increase manufacture and sales of evp recording devices, increase demand for Ghost Hunter University applicants, and hundreds of bookings at the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast. Why is this? Why now at this time, post 9-11 in this new millenium? What is it in our culture, our society, that draws people from all professions, and all religious and educational backgrounds? I don’t know, but I do know that it’s a phenomena which continues to grow as well as those who would capitalize from it. It’s the American way.

The Lizzie Borden house from the north looking south from the space the Churchill house used to occupy. The “side door” is on the lower left.

People like to visit and occupy the same space in a different time where notable historical or notorious solved or unsolved crimes took place. Thus, the Borden house is a magnet to those seeking that experience. They come in droves for the day time tours to hear the tale and see the spots and take pictures and relish in the “I was there” experience.

Lizzie Borden, as I’ve often said, is a one dimensional persona, encapsulated in a inaccurate quatrain forever doomed to be perpetually marketed as wielding a bloody axe upon the noggins of her stepmother and father one sticky-sweaty day in early August 1892. But she is so much more than that and the story of Lizzie Andrew Borden and Fall River are so much more than that. 92 Second Street draws scholars to the case – flocking as if to Mecca to soak up the richness of the environment, impervious to the tales of the premises being haunted. They register disdain about ghostly apparitions and things that go bump in the night. “Bah! Humbug!” they say and they say it with every confidence that they shall enjoy another quiet, undisturbed slumber through the night. And they do. Repeatedly. Every visit. No paranormal activity whatsoever. For years.

So then, if we look for it will it be there? Or is it there to be felt, seen and heard by some but not by others? Well, I can tell you my experiences as one who was first inside 92 Second Street in 1977 and spoke with then owner, John McGinn, nothing was said about any paranormal activity. And I’ve stayed overnight at the B&B since 1998, often having the entire house all to myself – no one – no one but me inside. In all those years, in all those stays, I’ve only had 3 experiences, and one doesn’t really count. I’ll tell you briefly about them:

#1. November 3, 1999 – Martha McGinn gave me a key to come and go as I was the only guest and would be the only one inside the house that night. I went down to the cellar with a few clothes to wash and suddenly I saw it! Holy Pshaw!! ANDREW BORDEN LAID OUT IN HIS COFFIN AT THE FOOT OF THE STAIRS!!! My heart leaped. For a nano second. It was only Martha’s prop from her Halloween party a few nights previous. But damn, did that look real.

#2. August 4, 2006. The B&B was filled with paranormal investigators, psychics, mediums, ghost-writing authors, etc., all talking about this new entity in the house. I listened with the ear and mind of a skeptic. “If you want it, it will come.” Exhausted from the day and night’s activities, I went to lay on a cot down in the cellar, away from it all. Everyone was upstairs. I was alone. I lay on my side and in a few moments felt 3 fingers slide down my back. Distinctively 3 fingers. Medium Liz Nowicki – Boston Herald photo

Not a spider, not cobwebs, but fingers. I leaped up and yelled: “Who’s there?”. For the first time EVER, I was scared and I bolted upstairs and outside to smoke a cigarette with a shaking hand. Relating what I had just experienced, I was told that it was a new, hostile entity that came thru a portal from all the seances conducted in the house. Oh fine, thought I….after all these years now I gotta think twice about this house being active. Me. Senior Skeptic #1. (For more about this experience click this link to the podcast.  It was like I was paranormically divirginized. I could never view or feel the same about 92 Second Street again. I was deflowered. And I didn’t like  it.

#3. September 29, 2007. Ghost Hunter’s University booked the whole house. In addition, a number of psychics and mediums were in attendance. Donald Woods and I sat in on a seance conducted by local medium “Liz”. Liz is a very sweet and attractive lady who can “read” people and sense “things”. She regularly conducts seances for guests who want them at the B&B. Never having sat in on any seance and quite frankly believed them to be faked, I thought I would check this out.  Read about her HERE.

About 16-20 people in the room – 6 seated at a round table. Liz’s back was to the sealed up fireplace. My back was towards the parlor door. I had a clear unobstructed view of all at the table. Without detailing all the questions asked by Liz and the other guests, I’ll just state what happened. The table moved. The table not only moved, it lifted from the carpet, it turned several times 360 degrees, it tilted about 80 degrees, it rocked and rolled. Trickery? Knee-cap momentum? Finger grips? Wires? Well, I’ll tell you this. I bent down several times and looked underneath the table. I walked right up *to* the table and crouched down and observed everyone’s legs, feet, knees, arms and hands. I did this several times. I moved in closer and eye-balled all hands and fingers watching for pressure, grips, slides, whatever. That table moved even when everybody’s hands were completely off the table and their feet were flat on the floor and no body parts came in contact with the table! Conclusion: THE LIZZIE BORDEN HOUSE IS ACTIVE. Does that mean it’s haunted? Well, for some, things do go Boo! and Bump in the night, but no one’s ever been hurt or morphed into some axe-wielding creature creating bloody bedlam.

Lee-ann Wilber, co-owner, swears there are children in the Knowlton Room on the third floor. She kindly leaves them toys in the trunk. But I highly doubt they are the legendary drowned children of Andrew’s uncle, Ladowick Borden and his deranged wife because those kids were one and two years old and would not have the dexterity to play with the marbles so often heard. But there’s something. There’s definitely something. And prior to two months ago I would have still been saying “Bah! Humbug!”

So as we approach another Halloween – an almost sacred night for those entrenched in the occult, and for those psychics, mediums, and ghost-chasers whose antennae are at peak performance every October 31st, let all who read here that I, Faye Musselman, being of sound and skeptic mind, do hereby testify that 92 Second Street is “active” with unknown spirits and paranormal activity.

But is it haunted per se? That doorway to my mind is yet to be opened.

Lizzie Borden: A Tale of Two Cities

Gallery X in New Bedford, MA is currently showing a wide range of art focused on Lizzie Borden.  The August 4, 1892 Fall River crimes were tried in New Bedford’s Superior Court in 1893 – thus, the  “..Tale of Two Cities.”

Judging from this YouTube entry by Ric Rebello, the art is spectacular.  If you live in the area, go see it!

Visit their website.

Congratulations to Susan Hauck, curator of the event.  Fantastic job, Susan!!

Lori Kanary – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Lizzie Borden

Colorado artist Lori Kanary has a wide range of charcoal paintings  for sale that mimic actual known 19th century photographs of the notorious.  These can be viewed at her website HERE. You can also purchase framed prints.   Nice Christmas gift, eh?

Lori’s other work can be seen HERE.

Lizzie Borden Through the Looking Glass

Bit of news:   I don’t know why but my blog has been listed with George Mason University History News Network in the U.S. History category.  Anyway, it was a pleasant surprise.

**********************

From mbgrigby on Flicker

Here’s a very imaginative take on Lizzie Borden.  It took me a while to realize where the writer was going with this – but soon I was hooked and wanting more.

Below is the beginning of this piece, but you can read all of it at Rivka Jacobs contribution to the Elephant Words blog HERE.

“Lizbeth was irritated and restless. She flipped up the gold watch that hung from a pin attached to the blue satin of her bodice. It was after ten in the evening, and her husband was not yet home.

She gathered her skirt in one hand and turned away from the white front door flanked by glass sidelights. As she walked by the staircase, she put her free hand briefly on the handrail turnout that began or ended the banister that curved up to the second floor.

Lizbeth entered the sitting room and paused. Her full mouth drew together, then abruptly stretched into a grimace as she felt an overwhelming sense of hopelessness and pain. It was the same sitting room it had always been, with its cheap-looking dark carpet covered with pastel flowers. The wallpaper’s busy floral design gave her a headache. The sparse furnishings were old-fashioned and uncomfortable. She glanced at the worn plush fabric of the only sofa in the room, and the picture hanging on the wall above it. “I hate you,” she said to everyone and every thing.

Lizbeth continued into the kitchen — it was humid and gloomy. The out-of-date stove was cold.  The place smelled of fresh scrubbing and stored onions and old meat. Their housekeeper, Bridget Sullivan, had tidied up for the night and gone up the back stairs to her attic room. There was an eerie silence now, a muffling pall that sank down and spread over Lizbeth’s senses. She closed her eyes a moment, trying to steady herself, hoping her strenuous emotions wouldn’t lead to another spell. She found an oil lamp sitting on top of the pie safe, retrieved a match, adjusted her wick and lit it. A wavering glow leaped up around her, casting bent and peculiar shadows. Her husband thought it self-indulgent and wasteful to use lamps after nightfall in the summer, but he wasn’t home, and Lizbeth didn’t want to be alone in the dark.”

- continued at blogsite (click on link above)

Sneak Attack

From StumbleUpon.com – I just love this.

The Haunting of Lizzie Borden’s grave

Perhaps you’ve heard of the mysterious skulker of Oak Grove Cemetery in Fall River, Ma. On the other hand, perhaps you have not, in which case I’ll tell you.

For over a century people have seen the scurrying to and fro of a woman dressed in a black Victorian dress. She is described as neither attractive nor unattractive, neither young nor old, more short than tall and has pale blue eyes. It’s unknown how she gets into the cemetery as she has never been seen walking through the main gate off Prospect Avenue. When spotted from a distance and called out to, she will turn and look up and then quickly scurry away, disappearing between the headstones and over the little sloping hills.

Some people have claimed they saw her carrying away a bone, thought to be a femur, but at the time there was no evidence of any graves having been dug up or in any way disturbed. An Oak Grove caretaker once said he chased her for 200 yards on a vehicle similar to a golf cart but she could not be overtaken. She disappeared somewhere between Louis and Grace Howe and Philip T. Borden.

While in Boston at the Boston Public Library sifting through shelves of old film reels, I came across a short film done as an experiment with time lapse photography at Oak Grove Cemetery at night. After close scrutiny and playing it over and over, I could see this mysterious skulker captured on film! Look for yourself!

Recently spotted and captured on digital camera, I can now reveal the mysterious skulker of Oak Grove:

Scroll down slowly

Keep scrolling

Wait for it

Wait for it

You’re almost there

Trust me, you’re very close

Almost there

Almost

ta daaaa

Photos taken by Don S., a guest at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast on Saturday, August 4, 2007. How he got her to stand still I’ll never know.

That Lizzie. “She’s everywhere”.

15 days to Holloween

New Play: “After the Murders – The Quest for Lizzie Borden”

“The difficulty is she is not an ordinary woman she is a puzzle psychologic.”

-Richard Wolf

Oooooh.  Doncha just love that?    A “puzzle psychologic”.  Indeed she is, but I’ve never heard it expressed quite that way.  Kudos to Mr. Wolf for coming up with a new phrase to describe our endearing – and enduring -  Lizzie.    But then again, based on my reading of One Wild Ride and Peace at Hand,  Richard Wolf is a very good writer.

“After the Murders – The Quest for Lizzie Borden”

…is a new play by Wolf to be performed at the:

Atlantic Beach Experimental Theatre (ABET)

OCT  23-25, 30-31 and NOV 6-7 | 2009

A LIMITED ENGAGEMENT.  So if you are in the Jacksonville area, get your tickets now!

Bowen-Miller Bible – 1869 – Sold on eBay

Unless you are totally OCD on Lizzie Borden you wouldn’t spend over $360 on this family bible once owned by the Bowen-Miller family because it gives little information already known from genealogy research.  While it is beautiful and in remarkable condition – no doubt because it was put away early in the 19th century and little used – it does not have much information recorded.   This is usually the case with family bibles that are put aside and not “kept up” in recording births, marriages, and deaths.

Here’s how it was described on eBay:  (partial extract)

ANTIQUE 1869 BOWEN-MILLER FAMILY BIBLE-Dr.Seabury Bowen PHYSICIAN TO & WITNESS AT LIZZIE BORDEN TRIAL MURDERS
	–
Ended:	Sep 29, 2009 19:00:36 PDT
Bid history:	8 bids
Winning bid:	US $361.27

A WONDERFUL PIECE OF HISTORY HERE! THIS BIBLE BELONGED TO THE FAMILY OF DR. SEABURY WARREN BOWEN, FALL RIVER, MA.  DR. BOWEN WAS THE PERSONALPHYSICIAN TO THE BORDEN FAMILY AND MANY OF YOU ARE AWARE OF THE FAMOUS LIZZIE BORDEN MURDER TRIAL. DR. BOWEN LIVED ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE BORDENS.   LIZZIE’S FATHER AND STEPMOTHER WERE BOTH BLUDGEONED TO DEATH WITH AN AXE ON AUG.4, 1892 IN FALL RIVER ,MA.

DR. BOWEN WAS SUMMONED TO THE MORNING OF AUG.4 TO THE BORDEN HOUSE AND ADMINISTED MORPHINE TO LIZZIE TO CALM HER DOWN.  HE TESTIFIED AT HER MURDER TRIAL. FOR THE DEFENSE. A VERY INTERESTING STORY IF YOU HAVE NEVER READ ABOUT IT.  I KNOW THEY DO REANACTMENTS AT THE LIZZIE BORDEN HOUSE IN FALL RIVER. HOPEFULLY YOU CAN SEE THE MARRIAGES, BIRTHS AND DEATHS.  THESE ARE FANCY OLD SCRIPT SO I MAY GET A FEW OF THE INITALS WRONG.

IF YOU ARE A DESCENDANT OF THE MILLER-BOWEN FAMILY, THIS WOULD BE A REAL TREASURE AND ESPECIALLY IF YOUARE INTERESTED IN DR. BOWEN AS PART OF THE LIZZIE BORDEN TRIAL. THIS BEAUTIFUL BIBLE MEASURES A LARGE 12″ TALL X 10″ WIDE.  4″ DEEP.  THIS BIBLE WEIGHS 12 LBS.   JUST EXCELLENT.

THIS CAME FROM THE FABULOUS RAINES ESTATE IN TENNESSEE AND MRS. RAINES PASSED AWAY AT 93. I BELIEVE SHE WAS KIN TO THIS FAMILY THROUGH MARRIAGES.

Another gorgeous family bible being auctioned on eBay is THIS ONE.

It is currently going for $31.00 and is loaded with pages of content-rich information on births, marriages and deaths.

There is also this OTHER ONE – not quite as good in condition but even more rich in content.

I am reminded of our own family bible – commencing with the marriage of my step father’s great great great grandfather, who was a pallbearer at Abraham Lincoln’s funeral.  He was born in 1838.  It ends with the marriage of my stepfather to my mother and is in possession of my stepbrother.  It, too, is in remarkable condition even with many multiple pages of significant family events.

Methinks if the “OCD on Lizzie” buyer had called up finance guru  Suze Orman and explained her current financial situation, Suze would have said:

“No Sale!”   lol

Who Was “Todd Lunday”?

The Fall River Historical Society (FRHS) is to reveal who the real “Todd Lunday” was in its new book:  Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River.

Here’s a “teaser” from their site:

“Todd Lunday, the pen name for . . .

Portrait of _______ (1858-1923)

The “Mystery” will soon be “Unveiled” . . .

“Since 1893, the true identity of Todd Lunday, the author of The Mystery Unveiled:—The Truth About the Borden Tragedy, has been just that; a mystery!

Countless researchers, historians, and Borden afficionados have searched extensively, but to no avail.  Now, for the first time, the identity of Todd Lunday will be “unveiled.”

This book was first published by J. A. & R. A. Reid, Providence, Rhode Island in 1893.  It was re-printed in facsimile form in 1989 with a one page Foreward by Robert A. Flynn, King Philip Publishing Co. and limited to 1,000 copies.   In the Foreward, Mr. Flynn wrote:   (Click on image for larger view.)

In the “teaser” by the FRHS, (shown under the blank portrait frame) are what would be the birth and death years of the true author:  1858-1923. This means the author was 35 years old when the 56-page book was published,  and 65 years old when he died in 1923, four years previous to Lizzie’s own death.

By process of elimination we can now discard some of those previously thought by Bordenia scholars as the identity of “Todd Lunday”.  These are in no particular order.

1849-1930:  Albert Enoch Pillsbury, Mass. Attorney General at time of Trial.  Reluctant to personally prosecute this capital case, he was an anti-feminist undistinguished as Attorney General.

1861-1920:  Dr John William Coughlin, Mayor of Fall River at time of murders.

1864-1904:  Edwin H. Porter, police reporter for Fall River Globe, wrote The Fall River Tragedy: A History of the Borden Murders published in 1893.

1846-1923:  Leontine Lincoln, FR banker, President of Kilburn, Lincoln & Co.,  and grandfather of author Victoria Lincoln (A Private Disgrace, Lizzie Borden by Daylight).

1847-1902:  Hosea Morrill Knowlton, District Attorney who prosecuted Lizzie.

1863-Unknown:  Professor John Henry Wigmore, lifelong professor of Law at Northwestern University, he wrote critical essays on the Borden charge to the jury.

1853-1917:  William Henry Moody, assisted Knowlton;  subsequently became U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

1846-1905:  Edward Stickney Wood, Harvard medical doctor who testified as to no poison found in the stomachs, blood evidence, etc. at the Trial.

Unknown-1918:  James Dennan O’Neil, Managing Editor of the Fall River Globe (and my previous personal favorite).

1858-1922:  Dr. William Andrew Dolan, FR Medical Examiner – my second personal favorite.   (The dates are the closest and Dolan *did* have that quality of sarcasm, but unless the FRHS death year is wrong, he’s also not in the running).*

1848-1916: John Fleet, FRPD Inspector and later Chief of Police, early on suspected Lizzie.

1859-1893:  Philip Harrington, FRPD officer who also suspected her in the beginning of the investigations.

1853-1917:  William H. Medley, FRDP officer and later Chief of Police. His confusion in trial testimony did not deter him from future promotions.  (Note the same birth and death years as William Moody)

1849-1912:  Rufus Bartlett Hilliard (City Marshal 1886-1909)

1849-1923:  Andrew Jackson Jennings (Lizzie’s family attorney – no joke, I know people who believe it was him!)

I suspect the true author will turn out to be someone whose true name has not appeared in the better books on the case, i.e., The Knowlton Papers, Lizzie Borden Past & Present, but one who had a legal, medical or law enforcement background – or a combination of the three.  It will also be someone who had a firm grasp of the case and a caustic sense of humor.

*The FRHS could have gotten the date(s)  wrong, as they did with Mary Doolan, “the Kelly maid”, listed in The Knowlton Papers, p428, as being born in 1893 and died 1896.

P.S.  I have this book in digital format.  If you’d like to read it, send me an email. phaye@npgcable.com

My Beautiful New Daughter-in-Law

Presenting – Amy Musselman

Mother of the Groom & Father of the Groom

Bobbi Barth’s “Lizzie Borden House”

Bobbi Barth of Colorado Springs, Colorado is an avid Lizzie collector and Borden case enthusiast who visited the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast only one time in April of 2007.  That same spring she constructed an extraordinary model of 92 Second St.  She kept expanding on it, adding trees, carriages, little people and so forth.  It is remarkable in it’s accuracy.  One outstanding job, Bobbie!

Keep in mind this is what the house looks like today.

I know of another person who is having a model made and will be taking it to Fall River for viewing.

TMZ-ing LIZZIE BORDEN

We are streaming live at the Central Police Station Courthouse where crowds have converged and reporters with notepads and pencils scribble furiously to meet newspaper deadlines to tell the world what is happening with the prime suspect – Lizzie Andrew Borden – in this most heinous double murder of the notable Andrew Borden and his second wife, Abby Durfee Gray Borden. Public emotions haven’t been so taut since the Granite Mill Fire.

Miss Borden was accompanied yesterday by her sister, Emma Borden and friend Mary Brigham. Lizzie wore a sleek Ralph Lauren two piece suit with side-slitted skirt accentuated with pearl buttons. Her right hand clutched her pansy engraved I-Phone while her left hand held tightly to her sister, adorned as usual in her plain synthetic fabric smock of no discernable fashion. Mary Brigham was nicely groomed in a Donatello knee length summer day dress with the neckline cut appropriately for the occasion. We are told that Lizzie was upset by some press remarks yesterday as to her hair style. Her shakey but loyal assistant, Alice Russell, has reported we can be expected to see Lizzie in nut-brown hair extensions today.

All manners of conveyance have crowded the tiny square of Central Police Station and horse carts, wagons, ice trucks and inebriated Irishmen riding piggyback on the shoulders of men from the Azores jostle for position. By the hundreds they have swarmed to this area. Men vastly outnumber the women who have surged upon this scene, crushed as it were – and who can say but that the murderer may be among them?

Miss Borden will continue her testimony in this Inquest before District Attorney Hosea Knowlton but it is not known if she will be remanded to the custody of the Marshall or returned to the scene of the crime when the proceedings conclude. A reliable source (no, not John Morse) has said that Miss Borden does not intend to spend a single night in jail let alone be charged with these crimes. Her spiritual advisor, the Reverend Buck, told confidential sources that Miss Lizzie will be signing a record contract with Clive Davis’ label and is in contact with Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Phil. It is not known if such contacts are for bookings on their show or some other reason. But it has been confirmed that Ann Rule, noted Seattle, Washington author, who was spotted in the courtroom yesterday, will be making an appearance again today. As to whether or not Ms. Rule is featuring these murders as the topic of her new book, one can only speculate.

Wait, wait – we see her, the limo approaches – the throngs of people in the square are waving off to the left…..she is upon us.

“Miss Lizzie! Miss Lizzie! What have you to say?” “You look beautiful, Lizzie.”

——-to be continued

A Lizzie Borden “Too Serious” Time Out

You know, we can’t ALWAYS take this Lizzie Borden thing too seriously. She should remain a viable blip upon the larger landscape of our lives and not the driving force within our core. So, having proudly pontificated that point – let us take a little repass – albeit irreverent – and have a slight chuckle or two. I promise the next entry will be more scholarly.