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.

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

Something New About Lizzie Borden

The Fall River Herald News carried this article on the much anticipated book, “Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River” to be published by the Fall River Historical Society “before Christmas”  (3rd time we’ve heard that but this may be the year).

For example, we learn that Lizzie had a live-in travel companion named Trudy who traveled with her to Boston and Washington.    For more tidbits,  read the full article by clicking on the book title above.

Advance sales are available through the FRHS website.

Big Whoop: Lizzie Borden Sent Victorian Greeting Cards!

If I had a “BFD” category on Lizzie Borden, this post would go in it.  From the administrator of the Lizzie Borden Forum comes this statement:

“The Fall River Historical Society has once again allowed us a small glimpse into the world of Lizzie Borden from their soon-to-be-published Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River.

This one is a doozie! Not only do we see Miss Borden in all her jocularity, but we are given in insight that shatters some entrenched myths about this most enigmatic woman.

Lizzie had a soft side.”

Here’s the card.

Well, of course she did.  It was a proper thing to do, and Lizzie was all about being proper with regards to the social customs of the times.  Sending greeting cards was a common practice in Victorian times and it’s no revelation that Lizzie Borden, always adhering to proper deportment (well, almost always) would send out such cards.   The reveal of such a card signed in Lizzie’s hand is hardly a “doozie”, hardly shows us her “jocularity”, and it hardly “shatters entrenched myths” about her.  Such claims are gross exaggerations, but I consider the source.

Lizzie Letters that have been published for years in various books already tell us much about her:  She was thoughtful, kind, valued the loyalty of her friends, was meloncholy at times, and fully understood what being a Borden meant in Fall River.

David Rehak’s book, Did Lizzie Borden Axe for It? was the first to print the newest found letter in Lizzie’s hand and I think we can make a pretty fair interpretation from it that Lizzie was somewhat vane, and loved the finer things in life.  We already know her home was tastefully furnished with expensive furniture, fixtures, wallpaper, drapes, and nick nacks.  Her pride (and understanding) of being a Borden was something she did not wish to diminish or change.  While she may have altered her first name from Lizzie to “Lisbeth”, she kept her Borden name and stamped its first letter on some of her possessions and even etched it in glass on one of the doors in Maplecroft.  “B” for Borden.  Yep, Lizzie understood the respect, social cache, entitlement, and expected deportment which came with the name “Borden”.

What will be interesting from the collection of letters, cards, journals related to Lizzie in Parallel Lives will be just when and to whom she wrote them and/or just when and from whom they were written to her.  This will serve to indicate who her little circle of friends and acquaintances were.  I’m especially interested in who they were in her later years as I wrote about HERE when detailing her neighbors and speculating on whom might have visited Lizzie at Maplecroft during her last years

I suppose we will continue to get these  little “peek-a-boos” from the FRHS to spike interest in purchasing their new book, an unnecessary endeavor for Lizzie  fans, Fall River history buffs, and Borden case enthusiasts.  It’s like a little game of lifting that Victorian skirt an inch at a time – beyond the tights and petticoats, as the skirt is lifted higher and higher, we await a profound discovery – but, alas, there will be none.

The book will deal primarily with the times in which Lizzie lived, i.e., the environment, customs, mores, day to day life in Fall River’s stratified society and the elite who ran it.

3 “Wrong” But Worthy Books on Lizzie Borden

Phlash Note:  Unrelated to this post but in answer to the “Recent Comments” section below (on the right side of this page) about the “new photo of Lizzie Borden” where the writer thinks it not Lizzie but Abby Borden:  The photo was found in a family album belonging to Emma Borden.  Since the photos were of the Borden and Morse families it’s unlikely Emma had a photo of Abby as a young girl included with her beloved relatives.

Here are 3 books with chapters on Lizzie Borden worthy of reading if only to validate how authors continually get things wrong and serve to perpetuate myths about this enduring case.

Murder on Trial 1620-2002, Robert Asher, Lawrence B. Goodheart, and Alan Rogers, editors (270 pages),  State University Press of New York, 2005.  The chapter on Lizzie Borden is titled “Bodies of Evidence:  Photography in the Trial of Lizzie Borden” written by Tiffany Johnson Bidler, and its the only chapter with illustrations.  I get the sense she wrote this as a thesis to her Ph.D. or publication requirement for accreditation.   Photography was a new medium in crime scene evidence gathering (1890) and Bidler cites many theorists on photographic intepretation.  All is well and good until you get to the fifth page where she writes:  “The inquest photographs of the Borden murders were taken between 11:15 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. on August 4, 1892.”   Point in fact, Marshall Hilliard received notice that something was amiss at the Borden household via a phone call from newsdealer Cunningham at precisely 11:15 a.m., according to the wall clock at the Central Police Station.  Point in fact, the photographs were not taken until much later in the afternoon.   This is all in sworn testimony.

I personally think Bidler stretches her similarities in comparative photographs (Andrew on the couch compared to Sarah Berhardt in a swoon on a sofa) as well as drawing psychological conclusions, i.e., Lizzie holding her fan “close to her womb”.  She also elaborates on the meaning of pansies and points out the May 21, 1892 issue of Harper’s Bazar detailed an article about what pansies mean.

While I didn’t buy into the theories and felt they were not as persuasively presented as they could have been, I am impressed with the extensive sources cited in the Notes.  This is a rather rich chapter in the book and presents a new way to look at the photographic evidence, whether you agree with it or not.

Not your typical true crime compendium lightweight publication, all chapters take a fresh and new look into old and familiar cases.  I would recommend buying this book.

Stackpole Books paperback series on True Crime in various states includes a 20 page chapter on Lizzie Borden in its True Crime: Massachusetts by Eric Ethier.  This 115-page book, published in 2009 has been available thru Amazon the past couple months.  Erroneous or unproven assertations include 92 Second Street being “cramped” – which it was not; “Maplecroft” referred to as a mansion, which it was not; Lizzie being driven to tears at the Coroner’s Inquest under questioning by Knowlton – also untrue.  If anything, Lizzie was an unflappable sphinx who frustrated the District Attorney on more than one occasion during the 3 days  he attempted to get a logical explanation of her whereabouts during the murders.

The author states Andrew was a “major investor” in many of the mills, which he was not.  Although he  sat on a couple of  Boards, owned some mill stock, and his counsel on real estate matters was sought,  for the author to state Andrew was a “major player in the industrial and financial scene of Fall River” is a bit of an exaggeration.

The best part of the book is the interview with Shelley Dziedzic (“Google” her), who does a very good and comprehensive job in citing the various “who dunnit” theories.  But Ethier has her saying: “prime evidence was not allowed at the Grand Jury Trial.”  Well, the Grand Jury was a secret hearing for a jury to decide if there was enough evidence *for* a Trial.  And we really don’t know what evidence was not allowed, if any.  I know Shelley personally and I know she is very knowledgeable on the facts and nuances of this case so I gotta believe its an editing error.

Other chapters in this book include Sacco and Vanzetti, The Brink’s Job, The Boston Strangler, The Robin Benedict Murder, The “Big Dan’s” Rape Case (another Fall River crime later made into a film starring Jodie Foster), and The Stuart Murder Case.  Do I recommend this book be purchased?  If you’re into true crime and like short reads, sure.  Also the cover art is pretty good.

This last one is really fun and entertaining. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Unsolved Mysteries, Michael Kurland, Alpha Books, 2000 (378 pages).   The first “wrong” here is in the chapter title and it is an often made error:  “Did Lizzie Borden Take an Axe?” Well, crime fans, the answer is No.  She did not.  Because it was a hatchet.  HATCHET.   I wish people would get used to saying:  Lizzie Borden took a hatchet and gave her mother 19 whackets. Life for us purists would be so much simpler.

By the second paragraph we read that the daughters urged their father to “move to a nicer house in a better neighborhood, ” and that “Andrew refused.”  We don’t know that.  Also, the times given of when people awake and leave and arrive are often  incorrect, but that’s minor.   A major error is in the statement that it would be unlikely to hit a person over the head with “an axe” and not get “heavily splattered.”  Point of fact, medical testimony indicated the assailant would NOT necessarily be heavily splattered.   The writer fails to mention the Coroner’s Inquest at all.  Another “wrong” is the statement that when Emma parted with her sister she moved to Fairhaven, Ma.  That’s it.  Nothing further.  Emma lived her last years in New Hampshire.

The little factoids in this chapter, formatted in the typical “Dummie” books fashion are pretty accurate, and while we learn nothing new here, it still is a good read and the entire book is well worth having.

One of these days a book will be written that gets the facts right.  So far, the closest (IMHO) has been The Trial of Lizzie Borden, by the excellent and prolific writer (and Librarian) Edmund Lester Pearson, Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1937.   Pearson had entre to attorneys, witnesses, and other Fall River folk in the early 1920’s through introductions by the son of District Attorney Knowlton.   If Pearson is to be faulted it could only be on his failure to include some testimony in his book, but what he wrote, he got right.

The Kelly House – Lizzie’s Next Door Neighbors

Lizzie Borden’s neighbor, Caroline Cantwell Kelly, age 31, was the last person outside the family to see Andrew Borden alive.   She lived with her husband, Dr. Michael F. Kelly, age 36,  in the house just one door south of 92 Second Street – the house previously occupied by Alice Russell. It is from Mrs. Kelly’s third child, her daughter, pictured below, that we have learned some of the things said (and surely speculated upon)  about Andrew and the Borden family by those who did not refrain from discussing “that awful business.”

Eva Kelly Betz 1897-1968

Caroline, pregnant with their first child (Christopher Cantwell Kelly, 1892-1919), was heading for a doctor’s appointment when she saw Andrew coming from the east side of the house to the front door.  It would only be about 20 minutes later that the first call for help would go out – Lizzie telling Bridget she must have a doctor and sending her across the street to Dr. Bowen’s.   She knew there was a doctor living next door but she didn’t send Bridget there to fetch him.  Like Bowen, Dr. Kelly may not have been at home either.

The Kelly house has had so many changes to the exterior over the past century that it’s hardly recognizable.   However, if you look through the front door as shown above you can see the original steps and front door to the Kelly house as it was in 1892.

Part of this structure was a Bed & Breakfast even before 92 Second Street became a Bed & Breakfast!  It most recently was a dwelling and hair salon with a paint shop adjacent.  The paint shop was an add-on in an “L” configuration, must like the Leary Press.

This is a view of the rear of the Kelly house as it is today with St. Mary’s in the background.

The so-called Kelly house has been on the market by an unmotivated seller for over a year.  The owners of the LBB&B next door have been inside and concur the old Paint shop business is laid out much like the old Leary Press.  As for what will happen to it, perhaps Bristol County will buy it, tear it down and use it for in-close parking for the new Court House – accommodation for the judges and attorneys.   Wouldn’t suprise me.

Back to Eva Kelly Betz.  We first learn of her from Agnes DeMille’s highly collectible book above, published by Little, Brown & Co., 1968.   (Review of Dance of Death).  It was from Eva that Ms. DeMille obtained so much of the information she used in her book about the Borden family.  Eva remembered growing up there, and while the founding families didn’t talk about the infamous Borden case, the Irish Catholics certainly  did.

Agnes DeMille and Senator Joseph Welch ventured to Fall River in their research of the case, primarily for input for Agnes’ ballet, Fall River Legend, which still plays in New York every year.  While there, their chief hostess was Eva Kelly Betz.  They also met with the granddaughters of the Defense attorney Jennings and District Attorney Knowlton.  The first half of the book deals with the Borden case and the second half with planning and execution of the ballet.  Quite a wonderful book and another collectible.

Both Eva Kelly Betz and author Edward Radin (The Untold Story, Simon & Schuster, 1961 – he believed Bridget did the murders), were invited guests of DeMille’a at the premiere performance of the ballet.

(Click on images below for larger view).

If, as Eva states above, Andrew had some of his first wife’s jewelry “but no one in the family knew about it”, it must have been a startling surprise to Lizzie and Emma.

Although Eva Caroline Kelly Betz was born 5 years after her brother, Christopher Cantwell Kelly, she lived until 1968, nearly 50 years more after his death at the age of 27  in 1919.  Her best known book, William Gaston:  Fighter for Justice was published in 1964, and is considered a collectible.    She mentions she taught school in Fall River and while there is an Eva Kelly in the 1921 FR Directory (she would have been 24), her mother, Caroline, is not listed.  I can’t help but feel sorry for Caroline, having lost first her husband and then two years later her son.

By her own accounts, the Kelly’s were readers and writers.  (You’ll note she does not mention in this piece that growing up she lived next door to the infamous Lizzie Borden).   She characterizes her parents as “intellectual” (unlike Ellen Egan – sorry, had to slip that in).

Michael F. Kelly, M.D., 1856-1916
His wife, Caroline Cantwell, 1861-1951
Their son, Christopher Cantwell Kelly, 1892-1919
Eva Kelly Betz, 1897-1968
Joseph P. Betz, 1895-1965
Peter Betz, 1924-1959

All of the above are buried at St. Patrick’s cemetery in Fall River.

Lizzie Borden Videos…..

Image by Danny Evans

….seem to be everywhere. And they are mostly copied from one place to another, i.e., YouTube to MySpace to Hulu to Blog posts, and on and on.  Video Regurgitation.  Some are really bad and some are quite entertaining.  But consider all the cell phones with video capability out there.  And those B&B tourists who have them and do a minute video and call it their Lizzie Borden movie.  Here are some samplings.  (Just click on them).

Salem Exhibit “MySpace” Video

Excellent bio with the lovely Helen Pierce, courtesy of Hulu.

“Emma Bordon the Axe Killer’

The next one is a “legitimate” from the old t.v. series and taken from Lillian De La Torre’s play.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents The Older Sister

The following is my own personal favorite of the short, original creations:

They all have one thing in common:  The continual perpetuation of Lizzie Borden as a one-dimensional, axe-wielding persona encapsulated in an inaccurate quatrain solidifying her as a demented psychopath.   She was not.  She was a woman of taste and deportment.  She was a woman with a strong sense of her Borden roots, a strong belief in God and the hereafter, exquisite taste and a quick, intelligent mind.  She valued those friendships that demonstrated their loyalty and, likewise, unforgiving to those who had, or whom she perceived to have demonstrated betrayals.  There’s something to be said about that when it comes to her love of animals.

Lizzie Borden was not a psychopath.  But she’s endured as a pop culture icon with a false image so embedded in the minds and imaginations of those who study not closely – albeit widely – on the internet.  The content of almost all of the videos  proves the point.  It seems hardly a week goes by without someone, somewhere on the internet making reference to Lizzie Borden but most always in the context of that one dimensional persona.  “I’m gonna go Lizzie Borden”, “The committee will do a Lizzie Borden on the proposed budget”, yadda, yadda, yadda.

What is particularly sad is when the Fall River Historical Society finally publishes it’s book,  Parallel Lives, (at a retail price of nearly $50 and a limited market for heavy reading on the Borden case) it will have limited sales (we’re not talking the new Harry Potter book here) and will fail to alter her pop culture image amongst the masses.  Anyone who thinks differently can’t see the forest for the trees.  Nonetheless, this book promises to be of the same quality as the FRHS’s first book, The Knowlton Papers.  Further, its new findings and photos will ensure its worthiness as a “must have” acquisition by Bordenia collectors and scholars.

As an example of the general disregard by the masses to the facts of the case, it was pretty much proven BACK IN 1893 that the murder weapon was a hatchet, not an AXE, for one thing, and anybody who’s read even one book on the case would know that.  But it doesn’t matter, as 90% of the time she is identified with the axe, not a hatchet.  The masses like their psychopathic, pop culture icons the way they are.  That’s why they don’t bother with research by digging into available facts in books, forums, or subscribe to periodicals.

Education.  Ain’t it a bitch?

The Fall River Tragedy – Rare Book FREE Online

The first book to be published on the Lizzie Borden case was right after her Trial in 1893 by Edwin Porter, a reporter for the Fall River Globe and a chum of some of the police officers who provided some inside information.

The first edition, the original, is not easily found and when it does appear, such as on eBay, usually sells for $300 or more.  Some antique book dealers list it as high as $2,000.  The book itself is really not all that rare.  I addressed this issue in detail in a previous blog which can be found by clicking HERE.

Lizzie’s lawyer, Andrew Jennings, on behalf of the Borden sisters and John Morse,  threatened Porter and the publisher with legal action if any pictures of “the family” appeared.  Well, pictures of the “dead family” appeared and no suit followed.

When the book was first published, it was sold on subscription, and one of the “Lizzie Legends” is that Lizzie bought out the printer and had the copies burned.  Not true.  A goodly number were purchased – and to some Fall River notables at that. The one found AT THIS SITE was owned by Charlotte Brayton and she donated it to the Harvard Library.   The Braytons were one of the prominent founding families of Fall River.

By clicking to advance the pages , you will immediately see the handwritten inscription on the inside cover:  “Israel Brayton”.  This particular Israel Brayton* was born in 1874 and died in 1961.  He married Ethel Moison Chace (1880-1960), and they had three children, including Charlotte Brayton (1913 to 1994).  Charlotte never married.  For whatever reasons, Charlotte preferred to donate her father’s copy of The Fall River Tragedy to Harvard rather than the Fall River Historical Society.  Lucky thing for us she did.

The book is rich in photos of key players not found in other books and includes the old “Ferry Street” homestead, the house Andrew deeded to the girls over the Whitehead fiasco.  Well, that house was practically a prototype of the home he purchased in 1872 at 92 Second Street.  Greek revival, two-family home.  Andrew was worth a small fortune by 1872 but he didn’t exactly move “up”.   Anyway, here’s a picture of both houses:

Virtually, the same house.  Two stories and an attic built for 2 families with identical floor plans on the first and second floors.   Lizzie was 12 when they moved and she could not have been too impressed.  The only difference was after a short while they had “the whole house”.  So that was different.

Thanks to the Harvard Library, and thanks to Charlotte Brayton, you can now READ, AND PRINT OUT THE ENTIRE BOOK FOR FREE – AND AS IT WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED.   NO WORD DOCUMENT HERE.  HERE YOU CAN ENJOY IT JUST AS IT WAS LAID OUT – NOT RETYPED IN WORD FORMAT AND UPLOADED TO A FORUM SITE WITHOUT ANY IMAGES.  HERE YOU GET THE REAL DEAL.   ENJOY!  IT’S FREE!

CLICK HERE —>  FALL RIVER TRAGEDY

*Source: The Braytons of Somerset and Fall River by Roswell Brayton, page 34. (Note: Charlotte is pictured with several generations of Braytons in this book; also pictured are her father and mother.)

Book Review: “Did Lizzie Borden Axe for It?” by David Rehak

(Recycled post)

The third and revised printing of David Rehak’s 270 page softcover book, Did Lizzie Borden Axe for It?, contains a never before seen note written in Lizzie’s hand shortly after the sinking of the Titanic. This book is now available (along with Mr. Rehak’s other books) thru Lulu Press as seen by clicking HERE.

This is a different kind of Lizzie book. Traditionally, the Lizzie books have a sequential, narrative progression, spilling forth the saga of the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden against the backdrop of Fall River, Massachusetts and peppered with some new (and often outrageous) theory of who dunnit. Not this book. No long, flowing narratives here. No in-depth research filling chapter after chapter. Instead Dave takes us on a thoroughly enjoyable Mr. Toad’s wild ride weaving in and out, up and down, over and around and back again, giving us punches of “in your face” data to quickly absorb, question, and quickly move on.

In the Introduction he says he deals with the facts “as we know them”. Well, not entirely. For example, an early error is in the constricted Timeline that has John Morse visiting his niece and nephew, “the Emerys” on Weybosset street. Nonetheless, with almost bullet-point speed he whisks us through “Lizzie didn’t do it”, then rebounds with “Lizzie did it” having laid out the basics and offers conclusions – not opinionated but taken from reportings of the day.

Then we are off and flying again into the skies of “whys”. Why was Lizzie thought to be a lesbian – featuring Nance O’Neil; why does Lizzie linger; why was Lizzie a romantic being, and so on. Along the read-ride we bump into Lizzie’s alledged boyfriend (David Anthony), the alleged illegitimate son of Andrew (William S. Borden), her disloyal friend (Alice Russell), her loyal supporter (Mary Livermore). If television’s TMZ and “Access Hollywood” were turned into a book on Lizzie, this would be it. Fast flashes that move from one salacious tidbit to another, the reader learns something new, re-processes something already known, and finds points to question and challenge – depending upon the level of expertise of the reader.

While Mr. Rehak asserts he makes no claim as to her guilt or innocence, it is clear he has a real affection for the inscrutable Miss Borden and sways from an unbiased hand more than once. For this we can forgive him. Most authors attempting to maintain neutrality often write with a slight transparency allowing the reader to draw the correct conclusion.

There are two things that have never been published in any book on the Borden case before and they appear in this book only. One is revealed to the public in printed form for the first time.

First, this portrait of Andrew J. Borden as a young man – perhaps taken at the time he married Sarah Morse Borden. Neither this image or similar image has appeared in a book up to this time. Second, and more importantly, something “new” in Lizzie’s own hand: a note she wrote not long after the sinking of the Titantic wanting the initial “B” placed on toiletry items for her matching case. It gives us insight into Lizzie’s own vanity, her keen eye for quality, and maybe even tells us how much that “B” as in B O R D E N meant to her.

I have permission from author Dave Rehak to include that note in this blog so here it is as introduced in his book.

Below are images from my own digital copy of the original note.

I would recommend to any Bordenia collector to purchase Dave’s book for these images alone. However, as the reader traverses through the uneven flow of these pages, he/she will come upon many new images not published previously except in his own editions. In addition, one can’t help but chuckle at some of the fantasy in the form of poems, psychic contacts with meeting Lizzie, and particularly “Lizzie’s New Hat”, all the more solidifying the fact this is like no other Lizzie book and stands as an “Anomaly of Audacity” to put a twisted contemporary pun on it.

David Rehak has done us all a favor, regardless of the factual accuracy and lack of scholarly research and citations. He has given us a marvelous compendium representative of the orbit that spins around our Miss Lizzie, and he’s done it with originality, good humor, and a fast track ride wholly entertaining and worthy of our attention.

I wrote about this new edition coming out in a previous blog entry where I explained the facts of why a second edition was “rushed to print.” This third edition has corrected the abysmal editing errors that were an unfortunate result. You can read why this happened HERE. If you have the first edition – hold on to that baby – it’s value just soared! And having a collection of all 3 is what the true Borden collector aspires.

It was my pleasure to provide Dave with several of the images in the book, some not published before. In the 7 years I have known him, I’ve found him to be a kind man – a sensitive man, and one I’m proud to call a friend. I recommend you purchase this unique collectible and treat yourself to that wild ride!

LISA MANNETTI WINS TOP 4 BOOK AWARD

My friend Lisa Mannetti has been acknowledged for writing one of the Top Four Horror Novels of 2008 for her work, The Gentling Box.

You can read about the award here: Four Top Horror Novels of 2008.

Lisa has a wonderful gothic website – check it out at my Blogroll to the right.

Way to go, Lisa!  We are all so proud of you!

“Todd Lunday” Unveiled

Note:  The inspiration for “The Mystery Unveiled”, and certainly the foundation for its premise, lies with Edwin Porter’s The Fall River Tragedy,  beginning on page 6 which can be found by clicking HERE.

Mr. Porter was a police reporter for the Fall River Globe.  Keep that in mind.  His book, also published in 1893, was released BEFORE The Mystery Unveiled. Mr. Porter sets forth each and every particular of what the “assassin” (as he calls the killer) must encounter, confront, avoid, and/or deal with as does Todd Lunday when describing what “Villain” must encounter, confront, avoid and/or deal with.   Indeed, it is quite possible “Todd Lunday” read what Porter wrote,  and flashed upon the concept of another book to unveil the mystery in this confounding case.

Let us now examine just who “Todd Lunday” may be:

One of the many by-product mysteries in the Lizzie Borden case is the identity of “Todd Lunday”, a fictitious or non de plume for the actual writer of The Mystery Unveiled: The Truth about the Borden Tragedy: Fresh Light That Must Be Convincing to The Reader. This is a 56-page pamphlet published by J. A. & R. A. Reid immediately after the Trial in 1893. The content is rich with tongue-in-cheek satire, and ultimately concludes that since Lizzie was acquitted and no one else charged or suspected, nobody committed the murder – a conclusion meant to illustrate how preposterous that Lizzie was acquitted in the first place. He writes:

“Any revelations that would lead to correct opinions relative to the perpetrator of the crime would not fail of favor with all lovers of justice, and it is the object of this book to make such revelations in hard and fast facts.”

In other words, if not Lizzie, who? And by extended logic: No one else could have done it, ergo, she did it.

He takes us step by step through both murders and presents the obstacles “Villain” must surpass in order to complete the dastardly deeds, such as access into the house, hiding between murders, moving from upstairs to downstairs unseen, dealing with locked doors, escaping unseen, having a plan executable even without knowing whether Lizzie and Bridget would be inside or outside, what they would be doing, etc. He finely details the boatload of improbabilities an intruder would encounter, and the absurdity of an intruder being a viable suspect by any stretch of the imagination. Indeed, an absurdity which came to mind of the police within the early hours of investigation and promptly reported by the local press, particularly the biased, Catholic-owned Fall River Globe.

There is no more obvious sarcasm in The Mystery Unveiled than the last paragraph of the pamphlet, quoted here exactly as it appears:

“Now what are we to say of the case? This: At a recent court convened according to the laws of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, the first party of the only two who could have committed the deed, the Party of unhindered opportunity was declared not guilty, AND I HAVE DEMONSTRATED IN THE PAGES OF THIS VOLUME THE ABSOLUTE AND ENTIRE INNOCENCE OF THE SECOND PARTY, LEAVING NO GROUNDS FOR ANY DOUBT. IT, THEREFORE, FOLLOWS THAT NO MURDER WAS COMMITTED. O LAND OF THE FREE IN WHICH THE FOULEST OF CRIMES MAY BE COMMITTED IN THE QUIET OF THE HOME, EVEN IN THE OPEN BLAZE OF MIDDAY, AND YET NOBODY THE DOER!

So just who was “Todd Lunday”? Borden enthusiasts and scholars have been trying to figure it out for years. Some play the anagram game with the letters, i.e., “Dolan”. Others have thought it was written by Marshall Rufus Hilliard (don’t even try it – the letters won’t fit). For some years now, I have held the belief it is: (drum roll) …………………….

(from Images of America – Fall River)

………James Dennan O’Neil, Irish Catholic, managing editor of the Daily Globe. The paper was Catholic owned and the favored publication of the mill workers. It was O’Neil who wrote the editorials every year on the anniversary of the Borden murders with each article pounding the point that the murderer still walked free or that “no murders happened”. The articles usually appeared on page one of The Globe and they became progressively more assertive in pointing the finger at Lizzie. Always contraversial, often cruel.

I have all 23 of those anniversary articles and it was after years of reading and re-reading them and contrasting the phrasing, sentence structure, vocabulary, wit, and general degree of callousness that appears in The Mystery Unveiled that I reached my conclusion. I ruled out Marshall Hilliard. I don’t think he would have risked exposure. Interestingly enough and something of a coincidence, in 2006 while doing research on James O’Neil in the Fall River Room of the FR Library, a newly donated original Lunday had arrived that day. Inscribed inside was “property of Rufus B. Hilliard.”

So…… If I were an Irish Catholic, editor of the FR Globe, and I had a fairly high profile in the City of Fall River, meaning lots of people knew me….and I decided to write a book anonymously, tongue in cheek but based on facts, and I knew the facts pretty damn well because:

1. Hell, I’m a newspaper editor.

2. Lots of the cops were Irish Catholics that investigated the case throughout and gave me an earfull because we were ethnically and culturally sympatico regarding the people of Fall River above and below The Hill.

3. My key reporter, Edwin Porter, was right there on the scene every step of the way and had the inside track to the police department and officers.  Edwin wrote The Fall River Tragedy and I was inspired by it.

And further:

4. I wanted to disguise my writing style, but couldn’t quite keep it exactly disguised.

5. I wanted to pick an author’s name that sounded sooooooooooooo not Irish and sooooooooooo not Catholic….rather more English Protestant.

The anniversary editorials were very popular among The Globe readers. Each year that editiorial was looked forward to with high expectation by their readership. Indeed, O’Neil would get letters as the August 4th date approached asking “what’s the next anniversary editorial going to tell us?” People were excited and in anticipation of it so O’Neil relished in that. And sales spiked on August 4th. Did it continue so long because It was more about sales than sticking it to Lizzie? In any event, they finally ended after 23 years. According to Victoria Lincoln, it was Monsignor Cassidy who convinced The Globe to put those articles to an end. (A Private Disgrace, pg. 303). Perhaps it did take a high ranking Catholic to persuade a Catholic newspaper to “knock it off.”

Here are some samplings of those articles. At the 5 year mark take note of the last sentence in the left column. The way its worded makes me wonder if by then so many had read the “Lunday” pamphlet that it may have been rumored the true author was O’Neil and he was making a “veiled” attempt at re-directing local suspicion.

In 1906, it was back on page 1 of The Globe. The article continued with mention of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. True enough, Pinkerton Detective Hanscom, hired by Lizzie’s attorney Andrew Jennings, lasted only 2 days before whatever conclusions he drew was enough for Jennings to scurry him out of town.

August 4, 1914 was the last appearance of the anniversary articles and it appeared on page 5.

Long blog, I know. But I type fast. On a final note, the FRHS will publish Parallel Lives in December (postponed from this summer) and it should be revealed then who “Todd Lunday” really was. Meanwhile, IMHO, the real author of The Mystery Unveiled is James O’Neil.

Annette Holba – The Most “Cerebral” of Lizzie Authors

The newest book out on the Lizzie Borden case is Annette Holba’s (pictured above) Lizzie Borden Took an Axe, or Did She?- A Rhetorical Inquiry, <teneo>// press, 2008, 170 pages, softcover.

I met Annette Holba online as a result of her interest in attending the now cancelled “Lizzie Borden Conference 2008″ although I had been familiar with her writing for several years. As Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Plymouth State University, New Hampshire, she also holds a B.A. in Law & Justice Studies from Rowan University, an M.A. in Liberal Studies from Rutgers, and obtained her Ph.D. in Rhetoric from Duquesne University. Published in a number of Journals, including The Lizzie Borden Quarterly, The Hatchet, World Leisure Journal, Journal of Social and Natural Philosophy, Pennyslvania Speech Communication Annual, New Hampshire Journal of Education, and Florida Communication Journal among others, I have found her to be the most “cerebral” of all Lizzie authors. Why? Because my pea brain can hardly follow some of her writing, that’s why.

In this book, Annette employs Kenneth Burke’s rhetorical theory as a means to look “through the lens” to gain a better understanding of the Borden case – “one that might shatter the myth of Lizzie Borden’s guilt.” Actually, what Holba does is draw from several previously published writings which makes up the majority of this 170 page book.

Kenneth D. Burke, 1897-1993

The book begins “easy reading” enough in its Introduction of “The Cast, The Facts, The Story”, although the first of 17 errors in those 10 pages begins with the second sentence stating that Andrew Borden was “one of the wealthiest individuals in Fall River at that time.” He was not. Not even close to some of the Braytons, Remingtons and other Bordens, not to mention E. P. Charlton. But still its a good overview and the 17 errors in 10 pages are mostly minor and derived from the perpetual misinformation from other published books. Corrective action? Two words: Source Documents. Let me say it again, Source Documents. One more time: Source Documents. Okay, I’m done now.

There is a whole intellectual movement in the rhetoric of inquiry theory, and even spending two hours researching it, reading some essays, skimming through others….I still don’t comprehend it all. Perhaps its because I’m more pragmatic and a linear thinker. Perhaps it’s because I’m a Capricorn. Perhaps its because I’m a senior citizen and gazillions of my brain cells have already burned out. I dunno. But I know this: After all her arguments with the application of Burke’s theory and looking through that lens, Annette misses or at least fails to point out the true reason of why the police and other authorities handled Miss Borden with kid gloves. She was a Borden. And to understand the significance of that one has to understand what it meant to be a Borden in 1892 in Fall River. And to understand the significance of THAT one has to know Fall River’s history. So even if I *could* understand all of what she writes to make her point, I most likely would not agree with it. Having said that, and before I sound unfairly negative about this book, let me quickly add that any time we can have a new book on the case – good or bad – is something I’m always grateful for. In this case, Annette has given us a well written, well organized and documented book that applies something NEW and DIFFERENT to this mystifying case. And that’s no easy trick. Clearly, her scholarly erudition will appeal to a special niche audience of the higher educated than the usual market who buy Lizzie books.

I *do* recommend this book. Not only for a collectible, but for looking through a different “lens”. And even if you don’t understand all of it – what you will understand will give you new ways in which to ponder old puzzles of this continuing connundrum. That was Ms. Holba’s intent. And that alone is worth the price.

So, hats off to you, Annette.

Came across these remarks from poster “wordweaver” on Annette’s book from a Lizzie chat forum which relate to the above:

Age: 48 Zodiac: Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 2:28 am Posts: 231 Location: Silicon Valley The time here is: 7:16 am

Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 2:43 am Post subject: I’ve got mine from Amazon. From the point of view of Borden researchers, the meat of the book consists of five essays previously published in The Hatchet or the LBQ. Dr. Holba has cleverly packaged these as a college textbook designed to teach students to use critical thinking skills to analyze narratives of all kinds. Lizzie Borden’s story is a good choice for this: it has blood, mystery, murder, and hints of unsavory sex; it’s a story that almost everybody has heard about but whose facts and folklore are widely divergent; there is a great deal of written evidence from the time and a number of retellings.The Lizzie researcher who isn’t interested in critical theory is unlikely to find anything new here. The Lizzie researcher who is interested in narratives qua narratives will wonder why there isn’t a chapter explaining Lizzie’s lifelong notoriety in terms of Michel Foucault’s carceral continuum. http://unnaturalhistory.blogspot.com

Lizzie Borden “New Stuff” for 2008

(Recycled post)

Since I’ve gotten so much into Geocaching, I went out last week and purchased a Christmas gift to myself – a brand new Quadmobile. It’s a mini 110 cc EX just like this only solid dark green. Now I can easily zip around off-roading to those hard to find places for hidden treasures. This has been so much fun, have met some truly adventurous and hilarious characters as well as “middle America” type families. I just love it! Another Paysonite into this loaded both our Quads on his pickup and he and his son and myself went up to Jerome, an old mining camp town way up in the hills north of Cottonwood and did some tracking up there. Inside an actual old mine, by tracking the coordinates, we located the “cache” – an 1862 book on Arizona mining. In its place I left a mini Lizzie hatchet and a copy of Arnold Brown’s book; my friend left an assortment of agates. The weather was beautifully clear but cold. I love Jerome and the people there….and its one great period saloon. I really encourage people who like to sleuth and have great fun to go geocaching!

Also this year we will be returning to Italy in early April. People I met at Raytheon in Andover, MA. last year will be letting us use their villa in Florence for 3 days. We’ll also go back to Rome and Venice and then take the long train ride south to Naples for 5 nights. I’ve been researching geocaching groups in these 4 cities and plan to leave Lizzie treasures (tapes, booklets, buttons, magnets, CD’s, photos, etc.) at all of them!

Speaking of hidden treasures – Borden enthusiasts will be in for several “reveals” during 2008. First off, the Fall River Historical Society will be publishing the long awaited Hilliard Papers which they received in 1989.

RUFUS BARTLETT HILLIARD

1849 – 1912. Born in Pembroke, Maine, Hilliard; son of David and Elizabeth (Wilson) Hilliard. Hired by the Fall River Police in 1879; named City Marshall in 1886. In 1888 married Miss Nellie Smith Clark of Fall River. He died in 1912.

Here are some images from my newspaper collection. Right click to enlarge.

As can be discerned from the write-up, we are indebted to Donald Bradbury, husband of Marshall Hilliard’s grand-daughter. It’s likely the Hilliard Papers will contain some redundancy from the Knowlton Papers in terms of letters from quacks or those with sound ideas as to how the murders were committed. Certainly Hilliard and Knowlton shared these types of letters with each other. But Hilliard’s career also included the Bertha Manchester case and many others. He lived a rich, full life, active in many civic and fraternal organizations. I look forward to this publication. It’s been a LONG time coming since they were received just a week or so after the Knowlton Papers were donated to the FRHS.

Second offering from theFRHS supposedly being published this summer (or so they said over a year ago) will be a two volume set on Lizzie Borden and Fall River’s society….supposedly new photos of Lizzie. Also revealed will be why some of the Bordens and Morses were considered “ugly”. Remember the Morton Batchelder report on whether or not there was insanity in the family and instead he was told they were considered “ugly”? Well, that didn’t have to do with visage as much as character or personality. Also we will learn why Abraham Borden named Andrew “Andrew”. Not a big mystery to me as I’ve always felt it was because of Abraham’s youngest brother named Andrew who died at a very young age. Seems a woman who lives in Fall River has a journal from a woman who was a schoolmate of Lizzie’s, went to parties with her, and wrote about her all through her life. I kinda think it’s Augusta Tripp because Lizzie left her money, was an “old schoolmate” of Agusta’s and even visited her just a week before the murders on August 4, 1892. We can expect these books to be of high quality. I look forward to their summer release.

I’ve already mentioned about David Rehak’s book and the newly found Lizzie letter, and I know of one other new Lizzie book to be published. More on that later.

So yes, 2008, will be a much more interesting year for new reveals on Lizzie. As time goes on people die and pass things on….a newer generation gets them – and when they are about Lizzie – or any historical event or person for that matter – we can only hope they have the foresight to preserve and share.

I’m off to study some maps and plot my next treasure geo tracking. The SuperBowl is in Phoenix so the stadium is my next target location.

Victoria Lincoln Lowe

The one book on Lizzie Borden that most everyone interested in the case has read is Victoria Lincoln’s A Private Disgrace, Lizzie Borden by Daylight, published in 1967. No other book to date captures the feel and texture of that time in Fall River’s “highly stratified society” as well as in this book. Victoria had her thumb on the pulse of that society and, as proved out by her diaries and journals, a keen insight into the underbelly of what made Fall River’s Lizzie Borden.

On my recent visit to Fall River I met up with Victoria’s second daughter, Louise Lowe Kittredge for a pre-arranged luncheon at Chow Chow City restaurant (where you can get Dim-Sum at 3:00 in the morning!) in Boston’s Chinatown. Afterwards, we went to her home in Newton, MA to look through her mother’s written remembrances that had not been donated with her massive papers to the Eisenhower Library at John Hopkins University.

At the China Gate in Boston’s Chinatown with Louise Lowe Kittredge

Fantastic little bakery in Chinatown

They also had wonderful dim sum to-go!

Part of the journals, diaries and photographs Louise brought out for me to look at and read.

Victoria Endicott Lincoln Watts Lowe, known as Victoria Lincoln Lowe has been somewhat maligned by what I refer to as “Google researchers” because some content in her book is based on best guesses from her own experience and not documented fact. Other assertions, such as the petite mal epilepsy theory, i.e., that Lizzie committed her stepmother’s murder during a “brownout”, and the second to prevent her father from finding her out have also been criticized. But such conjectures and theorizing are no less apparent in many other books with hooks on this case. A Private Disgrace, however, was the work of a woman who did old fashioned research without the advent of the internet. She went to libraries, took notes, interviewed people, and acquired copies of first generation source documents. Plus she was only a generation behind Lizzie, knew her and had relations who knew her and wrote of her.

After reviewing Victoria Lincoln’s diaries and the journals of her grandfather, Leontine Lincoln, I understand her better and have acquired a much deeper meaning and insight into much of what she wrote. More importantly, I learned new information that supported what she wrote, which will be saved for my own book. Leontine Lincoln’s 1909 journal was of particular interest.

With Louise showing me what her mother wrote about Fall River society when she was a young girl during Lizzie’s time.

The following slide show includes photographs of Victoria as she grew up near “Maplecroft” on French Street where Lizzie lived. Her beloved Grandfather, Leontine, is also shown. Also included a rare photograph of Louise with Isaac Watkins, her first husband. I thank Louise Kittredge for giving me these photographs and allowing me their use.

The Rarity of Porter’s The Fall River Tragedy

I’m re-posting this blog entry from September 2007 because this evening I noted an eBay seller has an original Porter listed for a “Buy it Now” price of $6,000! (Note:  Seller dropped price to $3,000 on March 3rd) Only an idiot would pay that much given that antiquarian booksellers have a few available right now for less than a thousand bucks. An easy Google search will prove this out.

Check out the eBay Seller’s listing here.

More interesting to me, however, is that the Seller did a literal cut and paste from my words below. The whole point of my post is that the book is NOT AS RARE as it has been professed to be and thus, this may very well be the reason the eBay Seller did not cite my blog or provide the URL to this particular entry. Otherwise, the potential bidder/buyer would be well – less inclined to pay that much. “BUYER BEWARE!”. As a matter of fact, I’m going to offer up one of my four original Porters in my “Collectibles for Sale” page….so just be patient.

The more important books on the Borden case reveal an evolution of author-to-author citations as to the rarity of Edwin H. Porter’s book (the first edition), The Fall River Tragedy, Press of J. D. Munroe, 1893. It appears the legend begins in 1967 with Victoria Lincoln because even in his 1937 Trial Essay, Edmund Pearson’s “bible”, there is no mention. Since Pearson believed in Lizzie’s guilt I’d think he would have mentioned it. Edward D. Radin – who proposed that Bridget did it – made a point of NOT mentioning it.

William Masterton’s Lizzie Didn’t Do It, and Muriel Arnold’s Hands of Time had no reference to the rarity of Porter’s book. Nor did Angela Carter. (BTW, I think Muriel’s Ward 4 and Neighborhood sketches in the front of her book are far better and more encompassing than others that have been published). There are scads of reference to the “rarity”, i.e., “Lizzie bought out….” in numerous compendium books – too many to cite here. I didn’t bother with the fictional accounts of the Borden case (Hunter, Engstrom, Satterthwait) because golly gee, who the hell cares. So here are the more obvious citations to be found:

1967 – Private Disgrace – Victoria Lincoln p27 – “…bought off the printer had the books destroyed”

1967 – Private Disgrace – Lincoln p304 -”The town was further irked when Lizzie bought up The Fall River Tragedy and nobody had a chance to read it. Everyone wanted to. As I told you at the start of our story, I had to wait for the pleasure forty years before I found the first copy that I had ever seen, in the Library of Congress.”

1968 – Untold Story – Edward Radin p16 -The Fall River Tragedy, by Edwin H. Porter, a Fall River police reporter, who stoutly defended Fall River police for arresting Lizzie Borden. This book, published in Fall River, had a limited sale and circulation. “

1974 – Goodbye Lizzie Borden – Sullivan p142 -”…virtually all copies were purchased and destroyed by Lizzie.”

1984 – Lizzie – Frank Spiering p36 – His footnote:”The Fall River Tragedy by Edwin H. Porter, printed privately in 1893, was the first book published about the murders. Only four copies are known to exist. A copy which was originally in the Library of Congress has vanished, one is kept at the State House in Boston, one is in the archives of the Fall River Historical Society and one is in my possession. Lizzie bought off the printer and had all the other copies destroyed before they reached the bookshops.”

1991 – Legend of Lizzie Borden – Arnold Brown p89-90 -”It is not known how many copies of The Fall River Tragedy were printed, but it had to be several hundred if not several thousand. Fifty years ago only two copies were known to exist, and one other copy was rumored. Mrs. Brigham at the Fall River Historical Society has reported that four copies are now held by the society, and she knows of one other held privately. Even the copy that should be held by the Library of Congress is missing. The overwhelming majority of the press run simply disappeared the day it was published. Miss Lizzie, the legend says, acting on the advice of Andrew Jennings, bought up and destroyed every copy she could. If Lizzie did not do that, someone did.”

1992 – Forty Whacks – David Kent xiv -”Knowledge of what Porter had done was unwittingly obscured when Lizzie, learning of the publication, was rumored to have bought up all but about 25 subscription copies and had them destroyed. Thus, only a few ever saw what Porter had written and were unaware of his distortions. But scholars ferreted out the half-dozen copies held in public libraries and other institutions and these became the sourcebooks for all research. Fortunately for historians, Porter’s book was rescued from limbo in 1985 and reprinted by King Philip Publishing Company of Portland, Maine. “

At the 1992 Lizzie Borden Centennial Conference held at Bristol Community College in Fall River, Patterson Smith of New Jersey gave a presentation on this very topic. He stated that Porter’s book is not that “rare” after all, as many were sold on subscription – perhaps over 500. I, myself, have handled at least 20 of these first editions in the past 25 years and have 4 original Porters in my collection, but one of my collector associates actually has FIVE in his collection!

Of the four original Porters I have, one has hand-written notes from a minister who knew Lizzie and Emma and he wrote periodically about seeing them from time to time, i.e., at the Swansea farm with “the horses”, the rumors around town, when they parted, when Lizzie died, etc. His marginal notes and the two pages of typewritten notes inside the book, only enhance its value, IMHO. My fourth and most recent copy was purchased in Fall River just this past August from a private party to whom I was introduced.

In 1992, I took one of my Porters to the Conference and sold it for over $1,000 right there to an eager buyer, who I long have suspected was a shill for Patterson Smith because he was peeking around the corner of the building at the time. Too funny! Perhaps he “financed” the eager buyer?

In the last several years, I’ve noted at least 6 original Porter’s sold on eBay (not counting those I’ve sold on eBay myself). In addition, just this past year two of my close friends have obtained copies for less than $300 from booksellers, and another person I know traded several rare true crime books with a noted author for his copy of an original Porter.

Obviously, the dollar value of any book is only worth what a buyer is willing to pay. But as to the rarity of “an original Porter”, this long, literary legend of Lizzie (nice alliteration, eh?) is simply that – a legend.

The Cotton Web: Barnabas Olney & M.C.D. Borden – Fiction Based on Fact?

Back from 4 days in San Francisco where I joined the couple I met at a Raytheon conference last year. They have a little villa in Florence, Italy where I’ll be staying next month with my son, his fiance and my girlfriend who lives in Quincy, MA. They will stay in my home in Payson enroute to the Grand Canyon. We exchanged info on the houses between jaunts of site-seeing and stuffing ourselves with great seafood! San Francisco was cold, cold, cold!!!

Too lazy to create something new just yet so here’s a recycled post.

 

No, it’s not Elizabeth Taylor in this 1960 jacket cover designed by Ray Pollak, but it could have been since Liz looked like that in 1960. Rather the cover depicts the main character, Kitty McCarran, in Barbara Hunt’s 1958, 350 page fictional story centered in Fall River and based on historical fact. It’s basically the story of a poor, 20 year old Irish immigrant beauty who arrives on the steamship Priscilla the day before Christmas in 1901, to stay with relatives.

From the book jacket: “Barnabas Olney, the leading mill owner in Fall River, was a man of deep compassion with a rigid New England conscience that set him apart from the turbulent, grasping commercial world around him. But to Olney’s son, Lucian, sensual and cushioned from the realities of life by his father’s wealth and position, nothing mattered except money and his own pleasure. It was Lucian that Kitty determined to marry. Before long, she discovered that even her iron will was powerless against a code that regarded as unthinkable marriage between an Irish immigrant mill worker and the aristocratic son of a leading mill owning family.”

There are few fiction books on Fall River or the Lizzie Borden case that I would recommend, but I recommend this one. The Cotton Web is a good read because of its basis in fact and the sharp clarity with which Barbara contrasts the lives and lifestyles of these two classes. Anyone who has ever visited Fall River and gazed upon those 5-story granite or red brick mills with their towering chimineys and bell towers, or driven down Main Street, or seen the tenement houses and imagined the weary walk back from a 12 hour work day, cannot help but to relate to the accurate descriptions she so beautifully pens within its pages.

Miss Hunt goes to the heart of the difference between the mill owners/managers and the mill workers in the second and third paragraphs below.

I can’t help but be intrigued by Miss Hunt’s notation preceding the Contents page of her book: “Although the historical events used as the background of this novel are accurate and true, the characters, the plot, and the cotton mills principally concerned in the story are all fictitious. I’m deeply indebted to my Fall River friends for their long memories, their books which they lent me so freely, and their patience in answering my many questions.”

I find it intriguing because of the similarity to a true life scandal involving Matthew Chaloner Durfee Borden’s third son, Matthew S. Borden whose life ended tragically, and the fictional Barnabas Olney’s son Lucian, whose life ended…..well, you’ll have to read the book. But it occurred to me in reading that notation that perhaps Miss Hunt’s “friends”, with their long memories, told her the true story of another of Fall River’s private disgraces concerning a Borden.

MCD Borden was born July 18, 1842 in Fall River. He had one of the best pedigree’s of all Bordens. A contemporary of Andrew Borden (Lizzie’s father), MCD was the 6th of 7 children born to Colonel Richard Borden (1785-1874) and Abby W. Durfee. He married Harriet M. Durfee in 1865 and they had 7 children, including 3 sons. MCD was the driving force that set Fall River back on a path of upward expansion. He represented the Borden-Durfee interests in New York. With the Braytons he founded the BMC Durfee Trust Company, converted the Iron Works completely to textiles and built the largest textile corporation in the United States. He was a compassionate man regarding his employees and his mills were not struck by the labor unions when his relatives’ mills were. He died May 27, 1912 in Rumson, Monmouth, New Jersey.

But he had his own scandal. His son, Matthew, had fallen in love with the daughter of a Jewish tailor, one Mildred Negbauer. Not having the kind of pedigree for a Borden to marry into, this incurred MCD’s wrath. It turned into a scandal when it was found out the impetuous Matthew had actually secretly married the “low class” Mildred. MCD stepped in and persuaded her to accept payment to have the marriage dissolved. She accepted the payment, and the young Matthew went on to graduate from his father’s alma mater, Yale University. Matthew then went on to medical school and became a doctor. However, after which, he and Mildred renewed their torrid romance. About 4 years later, they re-wed, again without his father’s blessings and the angered MCD Borden actually disinherited this youngest son. In fact, it was reported that Matthew asccepted a million dollars not to contest his father’s will. In the summer of 1914, Dr. Matthew S. Borden, while driving in Cape May County, New Jersey, was racing a locomotive to a grade crossing. The train won. Matthew lost his life, taking the lives of three others with him.

So, did the parallels in The Cotton Web find some inspiration from the tragic true life events? Was MCD Borden Barbara Hunt’s inspiration for the character of Barnabas Olney? Were some of the characteristics and experiences of Lucian Olney meant to be partially based on Matthew S. Borden? Maybe. Maybe not. But the similarities are striking.

Sources:

Rumson, Shaping a Superlative Suburb (The Making of America Series), Randall Gabrielan, Arcadia Press, p41.

The Durfee-Borden Connection, Men in Business, Robert K. Lamb essay, edited by William Miller.

 

Book Review: The Lizzie Borden “Axe Murder” Trial

”Live life liberated! Better to be direct and honest than false and phoney. Image and reputation are transient perceptions of what other people think, not what they know.”

The following is from an Amazon.com book review done nearly 8 years ago.  I still haven’t changed my mind, but it is worthy of purchase for hard core collectors.

		The Lizzie Borden “Axe Murder” Trial by Joan Axelrod-Contrada
Runs the Gamut from “A-C”., Aug 26 2000 The Lizzie Borden “Axe Murder” Trial – A Headline Court Case, by Joan Axelrod-Contrada, Enslow Publishers, Inc., 2000, 106 pages, is a short, one session read. Have a snack nearby because you won’t get much of a bite out of this one.This is one of a series of famous court cases designed for the (I assume) Junior High or High School student studying famous cases. It’s just enough to provide a fairly good overview of the basics of the case, sufficient enough to write a school report – simple essays, but certainly no term paper. Joan A-C manages to convey all the primary and essential aspects of the case presented in a crisp, concise order. In almost bullet-like paragraphs it covers the Inquest, Preliminary, Grand Jury, and Trial. Those four proceedings probably account for this particular case being a good one for a class study. It ends with very brief comparisons of the OJ Simpson case and Louise Woodard cases (yawn). However, handled well, I thought, given the consistent brevity throughout, was the information on the investigation into insanity and the question of what dress did Lizzie have on between 9:00 and 11:00 that morning. The end notes indicate more research than probably was necessary considering the resultant shallow substance. The author extracted information from many websites on the subject, and for the first time in a new book on Lizzie, the Chapter Notes/Biblography citations have a generous sprinkling of the “.org” and “.html” references. “Bordenia” websurfers will recognize many of them and may even be surprised, as I was, for a couple of new and very interesting sites. The book has a handsome cover but, alas, the many photographs are all those that we’ve seen dozens of times in dozens of books. The picture of Lizzie taken in 1905,when she was 44-45 and with pinch-nez glasses, is probably the least reproduced of the lot. I’m always appreciative of anything new published on the case, even if the content is a regurgitation in synopsized format. For me, the striking disappointment is that it is so obviously “series-formulated” that it lacks any incentive or motivation to compel the uninformed reader to seek out other works on this extremely compelling and facinating case. While I give credit and due respect to Joan Axelrod-Contrada for achieving what was obviously the publishers intent with this series, as a book of substance, it ran the gamut from “A to C”. (Forgive me Dorothy Parker).

Karen Chaney’s book: A Review, Response & Reply

A reviewer who can forego the delicate sensibilities of others while rendering honest opinions and often providing constructive criticism always garners my respect. I have long enjoyed the book reviews of Bob Gutowski, and since I recently wrote of Karen Chaney, I thought I’d shine a little more light on it. You can go to Amazon’s website with a Click here or just read the posts below:

Review Written by
Robert J. Gutowski (New York, NY United States)

Lizzie Borden (New England Remembers) by Karen Elizabeth Chaney Edition: Paperback Price: $11.01

Careless or clueless?,

June 13, 2006

“The first error is on the copyright page, which states that the cover photo, the Newport, R.I. vacation shot of Lizzie taken in 1893, was taken prior to the murders – which took place in 1892! The author later identifies a three-quarter portrait of Lizzie as a “profile” view. Again and again, Ms. Chaney does not take the time that Rick Geary, for one, does (in his graphic novel of the case) to state that many of the events of the murder morning are in dispute. Rather, she forges ahead, proclaiming without any doubt that Lizzie “walked downstairs dressed in a blue Bengalese (sic – the word is “Bengaline”) silk skirt and blouse” and that “Abby told Lizzie that she had gotten a note from a sick friend that morning and was going out to visit her.” This last is, of course, one of the most questioned and speculated-upon issues of the case.

This book is, unfortunately, as inventive as Victoria Lincoln’s well-written but ultimately semi-fictional epic, A PRIVATE DISGRACE. One photo caption reads, “Lizzie as a young woman. She loved the theater, but rejected it for a higher calling to the church, primarily because she wanted to feel useful and accepted.” And your references, Ms. Chaney? In thirty-five years of researching the case I have never read anywhere that the young Miss Borden was smitten with the theater. It’s a romantic notion, and it bookends nicely with the actual older Lizzie’s embrace of the stage, but it seem entirely to be an invention on the author’s part. And where, pray tell, are Lizzie’s motives so definitely set down for all to see? Perhaps the book ought to be titled LIZZIE BORDEN, AS I IMAGINE HER.”

Review Comments
2 Comments on this Review

Charles H. Levenson

“Gee,but in 31 years of”researching”this case I NEVER ONCE SAW ANY REFERENCE TO ANYTHING THAT YOU HAVE PUBLISHED ON THIS MATTER,other than this pansey review..For a know-it-all you sure don’t do much more than make critical statements…LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU GET SOMETHING IN PRINT,ONE WAY OR THE OTHER,ABOUT LIZZIE,SO THAT Ms.CHANEY AND THE OTHERS WHO HAVE ENJOYED HER BOOK CAN TAKE A WELL-DESERVED WHACK AT YOUR”RESEARCH”AND CONCLUSIONS…but,of course,for those such as yourself ,THIS REVIEW WILL NO DOUBT BE THE ENTIRE OUTPUTdon’t do much more than make critical statements…LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU GET SOMETHING IN PRINT,ONE WAY OR THE OTHER,ABOUT LIZZIE,SO THAT Ms.CHANEY AND THE OTHERS WHO HAVE ENJOYED HER BOOK CAN TAKE A WELL-DESERVED WHACK AT YOUR”RESEARCH”AND CONCLUSIONS…but,of course,for those such as yourself ,THIS REVIEW WILL NO DOUBT BE THE ENTIRE OUTPUT OF YOUR”RESEARCH” INTO THE MATTER OF LIZZIE BORDEN,NOW WON’T IT? ON-LINE CRITICISM BY BUNGLERS IS A GROWTH-INDUSTRY,OPEN TO ALL REGARDLESS OF QUALIFICATIONS,SO YOU FIT RIGHT IN…..Just in case you get the urge to take a whack at me,I am a regular contributor to several ocean county new jersey newspapers and was both a writer and contributing editor for Kastlemusick magazine…What,then are your credentials, other than self-importantance?”

Faye Musselman

“I think I know of Robert J. Gutowski, the person who wrote that review and who posts on a Lizzie Borden forum. I can tell you he is not only extremely well informed on Lizzie Borden and this enduring murder case, but he is far more knowledgeable than Karen Chaney on the subject. I, too, have read her book. Suffice to say my endeavor to highlight in yellow all her errors was an incomplete effort. Too soon my highlighter went dry from all the citations of inaccuracies. I would be less harsh if she were not a Harvard professor, previously published. One should know better. One should at least know that when writing a book on a topic that attracts an enlightened audience one should get all their facts straight. Bordenia experts can spot the errors at 20 paces. Or at least longer than the life span of a yellow highlighter. I might add that if Karen was under constraints to finish quickly due to time-certain publishing dates relative to this “New England Remembers” series, she should have insisted with the publisher for more time or foregone the exercise. Instead, the unfortunate result ill serves the author, the publisher, and the reading public. I can state this unequivocably because I had a personal experience with another Lizzie book that was “rushed to publish” and the subsequent editing errors were abysmal. However, no errors of editing are at issue here – only the factual content. Tsk, tsk, Ms. Chaney, for tis greater the crime.”

Faye Musselman
Payson, AZ
www.phayemuss.wordpress.com”