Louis McHenry Howe – Devotion vs Love

A study of the personal correspondence between Louis McHenry Howe and Grace Hartley Howe (second cousin to Lizzie Borden) cannot help but make one wonder if this man misplaced his unwavering devotion to President Franklin Roosevelt over the love for his own wife and family.  The letters reveal a man conflicted but unwilling to remove himself from the virtual shadow of  FDR where he relished being so close and so influential to the power on the throne.

Photo by Corbis

Julie M.  Fenster’s excellent book, FDR’s Shadow, is the first to reveal these letters stored at the FDR Library in Hyde Park, New York.  I went there to read them myself and came away with a few differing insights from Julie’s, but my mission was focused more on those letters between Louis and his wife than those between Louis and Franklin.

In the letters, time and again Louis professed his love for Grace and his daughter Mary, and son Hartley, above and beyond anything else.

But very early on in the marriage there were problems -within its first year in fact.  Grace and her mother may have been shocked by the sudden  flat-lining of Louis’ financial promise from when he and Grace were first secretly married.

November 9, 1898

Grace Hartley & Louis Howe are secretly married by JOP; Grace returns to Boston same night & Louis to Saratoga.     (Rollins p75)

May 6, 1899

Grace Hartley marries Louis McHenry Howe in a formal ceremony at the Church of Ascension in Fall River.

Evidence of Louis’ doubt of Grace’s love and problems in the marriage are revealed in this letter dated 1900:   (Click on images for larger view)

Over a period of 20 years, Louis would occasionally bring up the names of “Ted” and “Willie” whom he suspected his wife involved with.  (And let me say right now that from reading all these letters the thought entered my mind if Hartley was, indeed, Louis’ biological son – more on that in another post). “Ted” was apparently a wealthy Fall River person whom Louis stated would have given Grace the kind of life she wanted.  Here he again mentions “Willie”:

Grace’s letters were far different from Louis.  They were not filled with terms of endearment or expressions of love.  As Julie stated in her book, they were written more like a sister to a brother.  But they do reveal a woman very much interested in local Fall River as well as national politics.  Grace wrote often of her civic and social service involvements and activities and of her family members, cousins Bessy and Bertha who visited often.

The letters between Grace and her mother (Mary J. Borden Hartley) reveal much about how Grace was raised, transparent of being a “Borden”.  Prior to her marriage, Grace lived her young life much the way Lizzie would have wanted for herself.   Grace’s passions extended to the love of animals, antiques and helping the poor – the same as those of  Lizzie.

In reading those letters over and over (the library allows you to take digital pictures of the letters and I captured them all) I was struck by another common bond between Grace and Lizzie:  Louis made the decision to live most of their married life with the Roosevelts rather than with his own family.  Could it be that Grace and Lizzie shared feelings of abandonment – Grace by her husband,  Lizzie by her sister?   Animals, anitiques, abandonment and concern for the poor – threads that bind.

An excellent biography on FDR which includes the importance of Louis to FDR’s political rise is FDR:  An American Experience Part 1 (1994) available thru Netflix.   Or, you can view it online at this link.

This documentary also has some terrific footage of LMcH, some where he actually looks handsome.

The more I read about Louis the more I myself am conflicted about his sincerity with regards to his profestations of love in those letters to Grace.  When you love someone you want to be with them – share your lives together.  Louis chose to live with Franklin and Eleanor.  Louis was totally devoted to FDR.  Did that devotion supercede his love for Grace?  Was he truly a man conflicted?  Was it a deeply torturing guilt that guided his hand to paper and write with false conviction?

I have found it written by Hartley Howe that he never felt close to his father, that he never felt he really knew him.

Preliminary Hearing FREE + Rebello & Knowlton Papers!!

UPDATE:

CONGRATULATIONS TO LINDA ROSE OF BUENA PARK, CA. WHO PURCHASED BOTH BOOKS FOR A TOTAL OF $500 – AT $250 EACH SHE GOT A BARGAIN!

STAY TUNED – MORE COMING!

Have you been looking for a free copy of the Preliminary Hearing in the Lizzie Borden case?  Have you been wanting affordable copies of Len Rebello’s Lizzie Borden Past & Present? And have you been on the hunt for the Fall River Historical Society’s The Knowlton Papers? Well, you’ve landed in the right place.

Central Police Station, where the Preliminary Hearing was held.

First, here’s another free and easy access to reading the entire transcript of the Preliminary Hearing.  Just click:

PRELIMINARY HEARING

EMAIL ME FOR PASSWORD.

I also have it as a separate page on this blog as you can see at the top of this page, but here you don’t have to do a cut and paste into WORD for printing.  You can print directly from this Writeboard format.  You can also export it to your hard drive!  How cool is that?!

It is, after all, the Season of Giving.

I’ll be giving lots more real soon as I’m about to trim down more of my Lizzie Collectibles at bargain basement prices.

Are you looking for these?

Well, I’ve got several of each and the prices will be the best you can get.    I’ll be posting more info about them along with lots of other collectibles soon, but if you can’t wait and want to be assured you get one (or both), email me at phaye@npgcable.com and make an offer.  (Some of the Rebello’s are autographed by the author and come with mylar covers.  All have the dust jackets.)

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?

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)

Armstrong Circle Theater & Lizzie Borden

The Armstrong Circle Theatre was an anthology drama television series which ran from 1950 to 1957 on NBC, and then until 1963 on CBS. Considered by many to be one of the best anthology series during the “Golden Age” of television, it featured original dramas by noted writers, and its guidelines specifically called for the avoidance of violence.

Their aim was “to combine fact and drama–to arouse interest, even controversy, on important and topical subjects. Using a news story or idea was not enough: the series also had to be able to present some potential solution, some hope for your citizens to consider, to think about.”

The Legend of Murder: The Untold Story of Lizzie Borden was the premiere episode of the 12th season and aired on October 11, 1961.

The cast included:

Clarice Blackburn as Lizzie

Anne Hegira as Emma, Stats Cotsworth as Knowlton,

Mary Doyle as  Bridget, and

Paul McGrath as Andrew

This episode can be downloaded HERE.

Here’s a list of all the episodes from Armstrong Circle Theater.

Many of the episodes from the Armstrong Circle Theatre can be found at the Museum of Broadcast Communications Archives.  Just log in for a free account, then click TV Drama and enter series search “Armstrong Broadcast Theatre” and the list of episodes will come up.   Select an episode and play it immediately online for free.   Click HERE.

100 Awesome Blogs for History Junkies

LINK

My blog made this list – #4 Under “People”.  Nice to be in the company of such terrific bloggers as Laura James of CLEWS.    Many thanks to those who determined and composed the list.

You can click on any of these live links:

“100 Awesome Blogs for History Junkies

If you’re a history junkie, you surely know by now that the Internet is a great tool for finding information. But did you know that blogs are some of the most useful resources out there? Here you’ll find blogs about periods in history, genealogy, war, and lots more.

Periods

Read about specific periods, like the Victorian era and the American Revolution on these history blogs.

1. Cardinal Wolsey’s Today in History: Read Cardinal Wolsey’s blog for thoughts on Tudor, medieval, and early-modern history.
2. Victorian Times: Victorian Times highlights fashion and dresses in Civil War, Dickens, and Victorian style.
3. Boston 1775: Read about the start of the American Revolution in Massachusetts on this blog.
4. The Victorian Peeper: On the Victorian Peeper blog, you’ll read about nineteenth century Britain.
5. Edwardian Promenade: This blog covers the Edwardian period, from about 1880 to 1914.
6. The Victorian Era: Here you’ll read about fun facts from the 19th century.

Art

These blogs highlight the history of fine art.

1. Dracula vs. Eisenstein: This graphic design blog takes its inspiration from art history.
2. Ponder & Dream: Ponder & Dream is all about graphic designs inspired from military history.
3. Shorpy: This “100-year-old photo blog” highlights history in high resolution.
4. The Philatelic Database: This blog offers a look at stamp archives.
5. Food History: Learn about holiday customs and classic recipes on this foodie history blog.
6. Cycling Art: This blog explores the history of cycling through art.
7. Prima la Musica: Check out this blog to get the official word from Mozart.

War

Read these blogs if you’re interested in the Civil War, soldiers, and World Wars.

1. Civil War History: Read Civil War History to learn about the Civil War, as well as new developments in Civil War history.
2. Out of battle: Read anecdotes and articles about the first World War, specifically the 8th Battalion, AIF.
3. Military History Blog: The Military History Blog blogs about the battlefield.
4. Civil War Memory: Read what a high school history teacher and Civil War historian has to say.
5. Old Virginia Blog: Richard Williams, Jr.’s blog is all about the Civil War.
6. WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier: Read Harry Lamin’s letters from the first World War, posted exactly 90 years after they were written.
7. Australian War Memorial: Learn about official records, animals in war, aircraft, and lots more in this Australian war blog.
8. World War II History Blog: In this blog you’ll find news, photographs, “today in history,” and more.
9. Frontier Battles: Frontier Battles is all about wars for and against empire in America from 1607 to 1815.
10. Blog 4 History: Read about American and Civil War history on this blog about the American experience.
11. American Civil War Stories: Revisit the stories of the American Civil War in this blog.
12. 9th Btn Y & L War Diaries: Read the official war diary of the 9th Battalion of the York and Lancaster regiment.
13. What Passing Bells: This blog follows three different families through the first World War.
14. TOCWOC: The Order of Civial War Obsessively Compulsed is a blog about the civil war written by informed amateurs.

Day in History

These blogs offer a daily look at historical events and people.

1. History’s Mysteries: This blog highlights deaths, presidencies, movies and more monuments from history.
2. Inhistoric: Inhistoric explores sports history one day at a time.
3. The Modern Historian: The Modern Historian’s blog offers a look at a day-to-day history around the world.

Religion

Read about historical churches and church history in these blogs.

1. Looking at Sussex Churches: In this blog, you’ll find photos and history of Sussex churches.
2. Church History: Read this blog to learn about the history of the Christian church.

Genealogy

These genealogy blogs share their family history and offer tips for researching your own.

1. iPentimento: Read about the family history of William Livingston Holmes, the first sheriff of Clackamas County in Oregon Territory.
2. Genea-Musings: Get tips, news, humor and more from this genealogy blog.
3. Searching for Family Branches: This blog discusses the importance of genealogy and legacy.
4. Know Your Family History: Check out this blog to get encouragement and tips for genealogy studies.
5. Irish Roots Cafe: The Irish Roots Cafe is dedicated to Irish family history, genealogy, heritage, and more.
6. A Somerset Family History: This researcher shares interesting findings from genealogy studies.
7. Lord and Lady: Visit this blog to follow the blogger’s family genealogy and get access to a large name database.

Cities, Regions, and Countries

Check out these blogs that highlight a specific area of the world.

1. The Bowery Boys: In this blog, the Bowery Boys will explore New York City history.
2. Sparkletack: Sparkletack is a history podcast that celebrates San Francisco.
3. US History Blog: Read American history thought from an independent scholar on this blog.
4. Our Great Southern Land: The blog of Our Great Southern Land follows the history of Australia.
5. History Rhymes: This blogger offers a discussion on American history.
6. My Strange New Mexico: Read about all of the weird goings-on in New Mexico here.
7. Appalachian History: Find stories, quotes, and anecdotes about Appalacia on this blog.
8. Vanishing New York: Vanishing New York looks at pieces of New York City history that are slipping away today.
9. Chicago History: This amateur historian and student shares her findings about Chicago history.
10. The Virtual Dime Museum: This blog discusses Brooklyn and New York City history, including geneaology, pop culture, Victorian news items, and ephemera.
11. Everest by climbers: Learn about Everest history from climbers and beyond on this blog.
12. Kinetic Carnival: The Kinetic Carnival blog is all about the past, present, and future of Coney Island.
13. Local History: This blog takes a look back at the local history of New York City.
14. Brockville History Album: This blog explores the development of the city of Brockville in Ontario, Canada.
15. Lost City: Lost City investigates Old New York as it’s threatened by new development.

Academic

These blogs offer an academic look at history.

1. History News Network: George Mason University’s History News Network shares breaking news about history.
2. History is Elementary: Read about this elementary school teacher’s take on teaching history.
3. Clio and Me: A teacher of European history and researcher of war and society in modern Germany, this blog’s writer has a lot to offer.
4. The Bell Rang: The Bell Rang explores education throughout history.
5. wig-wags: This blog is written by a graduate student in military history.

Antiques

These antiques blogs will show you interesting items from the past.

1. Dumpdiggers: See some of the items that history has left behind in this blog.
2. Antiquarian’s Attic: Read about “forgotten curios and delights” on this blog.
3. Modern Mechanix: On the Modern Mechanix blog, you’ll read spotlights about inventions of the past.
4. Floyd’s Ancient Wonders: Floyd shares his artifacts, archaeology and more on this blog.

Women

Learn about important female figures in history on these blogs.

1. Women of History: Women of History is full of biographies of fascinating women from history.
2. History of American Women: This blog discusses women in the colonies and beyond.
3. Famiss: Famiss is all about women making and discovering history.
4. Scandalous Women: The Scandalous Women blog highlights female figures from Boudicca to Mata Hari.
5. This Intrepid Band: Read about women who served as military nurses from the Boer war to the end of the Great War.
6. History and Women: On the History and Women blog, you’ll read about notorious women who have left their stamp on the world.
7. Civil War Women: This blog features women who made an impact on the Civil War.

Entertainment

Read about entertainment through the years on these history blogs.

1. Cartoon Brew: Cartoon Brew looks back at animations past.
2. Living With Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog: The Hotel Chelsea blog highlights events, ghosts, authors, and more from the hotel.
3. The History Movies: This blog offers a look at movies and videos from the past.

People

These blogs take an in-depth look at specific people through history.

1. The Abraham Lincoln Blog: Read this blog to learn about Abraham Lincoln’s life and legacy.
2. American Presidents Blog: The American Presidents blog is all about presidents and first ladies.
3. Beloved Eleanor: Beloved Eleanor highlights Eleanor of Castille, a medieval queen and wife of King Edward I of England.
4. Tattered Fabric: Fall River’s Lizzie Borden: In this blog, you’ll read about Lizzie Borden’s life and crimes.
5. Lincoln Studies: This blog offers a look at Lincoln and the American Civil War.
6. What would Lincoln do?: This blogger considers how Lincoln would handle today’s world.

Odd & Interesting

If you’re interested in history that’s a little offbeat, check out these blogs.

1. Damn Interesting: Damn Interesting often highlights unusual historical events.
2. Vintage UFO: Read tales of UFOs and flying saucers past on this blog.
3. What Really Happened: This blog highlights a history that is hidden from public view.
4. CLEWS: Learn about historic true crime on this blog.
5. So Soon No More: Find alternate history, sarcastic humor and more on this blog.
6. Executed Today: In this blog, you’ll see who was executed today in history, and learn about their lives and how they came to be executed.
7. Questionable History: Brittany’s blog about history highlights interesting facts and findings she’s come across in her quest for information.
8. Obscure History: The Obscure History blog presents little known facts and events in history.

Documents & Literature

You’ll find literature, writings, drawings and more in these blogs.

1. BibliOdyssey: BibliOdyssey explores historic books, writings, and drawings.
2. Strange Maps: The Strange Maps blog highlights unique and interesting maps from today and yesterday.
3. Civil War Literature: Read about books, autographs, and other writings from the Civil War in this blog.

General History

Read these blogs to see a wide variety of highlights through history.

1. The People History Blog: In The People History blog, you’ll read about stories that made the news each year.
2. Informed Comment: Juan Cole’s blog is all about the Middle East, history, and religion.
3. World History Blog: Check out the World History Blog to see lots of different aspects of world history.
4. 101 Greatest Olympic Moments: Explore some of the most exciting times in modern sports history through this blog.
5. His-Story: This blog highlights the important events in the history of the world, particularly Indian history.
6. You’re History: This blog offers a friendly look at entertainment, events, and more in history.
7. Mystic Chords of Memory: This history lover shares her photos and travels.
8. My Adventures in History: Follow this blogger around as she explores adventure in history.
9. The History Tavern: The History Tavern shares interesting stories and anecdotes from the past.
10. Branding Fire: Branding Fire discusses both history and entrepreneurship.”

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.

William H. Moody

The prosecution team in the matter of the Commonwealth vs. Lizzie Andrew Borden included the formidable William Henry Moody, whose stellar career surpassed all others associated with the case.  An extraordinarily handsome man, in my opinion, he remained a life-long bachelor.

If Lizzie continued her reading of Harper’s Weekly, she may have seen the December 29, 1906 issue below and its cartoon cover story on one of the men who played a part in a “most interesting occasion.”  Most all of the text which follows comes from that article.

William Henry Moody was born on December 23, 1853, in Newbury, Massachusetts, the son of farmers. He graduated from Phillips Andover Academy in 1872 and Harvard in 1876, leaving Harvard Law School after four months to read law under Richard Henry Dana. After admission to the state bar in 1878, Moody practiced law in Haverhill, Massachusetts, where he was elected city solicitor (1888-1889). In 1890, he was named the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Massachusetts.

In 1895, he was elected as a Republican to fill a vacant seat in Congress, and subsequently elected three more times. He impressed his congressional colleagues with his command of legislative details and debating skills, and served on the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

Theodore Roosevelt first met Moody in 1895 and quickly came to admire a man with a similar physical build, athletic interests, and a progressive Republican perspective. In 1902, Roosevelt appointed Moody as secretary of the navy.

Moody served in that capacity for two years, working to expand and improve the U.S. naval fleet, and reform the navy’s organization.

In June 1904, the president named him as the U.S. Attorney General. In his new position, Moody became a key advisor to the president and played a leading role in the prosecution of the administration’s antitrust lawsuits, successfully arguing Swift and Company v. United States (1905) before the U.S. Supreme Court. He agreed with Roosevelt’s distinction between “good” and “bad” trusts.

The Justice Department under Moody negotiated agreements with large business corporations that it deemed were working in the public interest, such as International Harvester and U.S. Steel, but prosecuted Standard Oil because its economic power and business activities were considered contrary to the public interest. As attorney general, Moody took a case concerning peonage of blacks to the Supreme Court, and ordered contempt proceedings against a sheriff who allowed a black rape suspect to be lynched.

Harper’s Weekly was concerned about the centralization of governmental power during the administration of Republican Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909), and in December 1906 criticized an address in which Secretary of State Elihu Root called for federal intervention in situations where the states failed to act. Root’s speech, which the newspaper assumed was actually written by President Roosevelt, is excerpted in the caption of the featured cartoon. The cartoon warns that William Moody, whom the president had recently named to the U.S. Supreme Court, will be a judicial tool by which Roosevelt can expand federal powers at the expense of state control through new “constructions of the Constitution.” On the right, Secretary of War William Howard Taft sits studying the “Simplified Constitution” while waiting his turn for the next appointment to the Supreme Court.

When Justice Henry Brown resigned from the U.S. Supreme Court in 1906, President Roosevelt tried unsuccessfully to convince Taft to take the position and then considered appointing a Southern Democrat. Finally, on December 12, 1906, the president announced the selection of Moody, emphasizing the attorney general’s nationalist philosophy by describing him as a follower of Alexander Hamilton and John Marshall, not states’ rights advocates Thomas Jefferson and John C. Calhoun. The Senate approved the nomination on December 17.

During Moody’s brief tenure on the Supreme Court, he wrote 67 opinions, including 5 dissents. His most famous dissent came in the Employers’ Liability Cases (1908) in which his minority opinion upheld the constitutionality of a congressional statute protecting employees involved in interstate commerce. The constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce, he argued, included the authority to legislate labor-management relations. Despite his general support of enhanced federal powers, Moody’s most important majority opinion (later overturned) ruled that the federal constitutional provision in the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination did not apply in state courts (Twining v. State of New Jersey, 1908). Moody’s judicial career was cut short when he developed debilitating rheumatism in early 1909 and was increasingly forced to neglect his judicial responsibilities. In 1910, Congress passed legislation that permitted Moody to qualify for federal retirement benefits, and he retired from the Supreme Court.

A saddened President Roosevelt remarked, “there is not a public servant, at this particular time, that the public could so ill afford to lose.” Eventually incapable of moving his arms and legs, Moody lived seven more years with the painful disease, cared for by his sister until his death on July 2, 1917.

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.)

Lizzie Borden Live! in Fall River June 20th

This is not to be missed.  I saw it 3 times when she played in Sedona, Arizona.  Wrote a review which can be seen by clicking HERE.

PRESS RELEASE

Lizzie Borden Returns

Lizzie Borden is coming back home to Fall River on the 116^th anniversary of her acquittal in New Bedford Superior Court this June 20th.    New York writer and actress, Jill  Dalton,  resurrects the spirit of Fall River’s most infamous character in a chilling, solo performance entitled, Lizzie Borden Live.

“I wanted to give Lizzie a voice to tell her own story following

her day in court,” stated Ms. Dalton.  “That’s something she was not able to do

when she was doped up on morphine during her famous murder trial.”

Lizzie Andrew Borden was found innocent in a court of law, but judged guilty in the court of public opinion.  She was condemned by society and shunned in her hometown.  Ms. Dalton powerfully evokes Lizzie’s emotional turmoil and psychic trauma. She wrote the play from Lizzie’s point of view so that “the audience can hear her side of the story for the first time.”

The legend comes to life with humor, empathy and insight when Lizzie steps on stage at the Eagle Performing Arts Center on 35 North Main Street at 8 PM on Saturday, June 20^th.   This production, sponsored by the Luso American Gallery of Antiquities, is funded in part by grants from the John and Abigail Adams Program of the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Four Cities Collaborative of the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism.

“In addition to this state support, the Mayor’s Office and the Arts Uniting Fall River collaborative have participated in the planning and promotion of this community event and fundraiser,” noted LAGOA curator, Stephen L. Cabral. “Our organization is committed to promoting the arts, preserving our cultural history and providing scholarship funds for promising students. Lizzie Borden Live will help support these goals.”

Jill Dalton is an award winning New York actress with a long list of television and theatre credits.  She has appeared in Law and Order, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, As the World Turns, All my Children, One Life to Live and Saturday Night Live.   The East Lynne Theater Company in Cape May, New Jersey commissioned this play, which opened to standing ovations from the audience and critics alike.  Ms. Dalton won the 2007 Jacoby Award for her portrayal in Lizzie Borden Live.

-2-

This dramatic crime thriller is set 13 years after the double murder at Maplecroft, the Highlands mansion Lizzie bought with money inherited from her father.  According to the Red Rock News of Sedona, Arizona:

“Dalton gives a compelling performance capturing the

humanity, humor, irony and sadness of a woman who had time

to reflect on horrific events.  She enacts a Lizzie that has never

been portrayed anywhere in stage, screen or literature. ”

Fall River native son, Jack McCullough, is the director of the show, which has toured New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Arizona.  Mr. McCullough, a graduate of the Trinity Repertory Conservatory in Providence, RI, has also made his mark on stage and screen, but prefers to work behind the scenes of Lizizie Borden Live.  Jack has envisioned this homecoming since the play first opened.  He insists that this production will make the audience think twice.

“We are very excited about performing on stage in the heart

of Lizzie’s old neighborhood.  Jill and Lizzie have a compelling

story to tell.  People come to see Lizzie expecting to find a monster

and instead they discover themselves.”

Check your calendar and order your $40 tickets from LAGOA, Inc. by calling 508-673-6624.   Seating is limited to 160 so make your reservations now.  The doors of the Eagle Performing Arts Center will open at 6:30 PM.  Harpist, Judy Mitchell will set the musical tone for the night, and members of the Mutton Eaters, dressed in period garb, will greet and engage the guests at the light buffet and cash bar prior to the show.

Lizzie Borden Live challenges the audience to rethink the legend that is Lizzie Borden.  Think you know her?  Think again!

Stephen L. Cabral, Ph.D.

Curator/President

Luso American Gallery of Antiquities, Inc. (LAGOA)

484 Highland Avenue, Fall River, MA  02720

Tel.  508-673-6624

www.lagoagallery.org

Lizzie Borden: The Rock Musical

Well, it was only a matter of time.  After dozens of books, a t.v. movie, an opera, ballet, several plays, two slasher flicks, numerous documentaries, YouTube videos, and hand crafted collectibles, now comes a New York Broadway production of Lizzie Borden – this time out as a rock musical.

Perhaps you know someone with the chops and a little acting ability to fit the character types described in this “Took An Axe Productions” audition notice.

You’ll find the Audition notice by clicking HERE.

Oh, Lizzie

if you only knew

What became of you

Post 1927,

Surely you’d fret

at how bad it did get

Whether you went to Hell

or to Heaven.

-faye musselman 1/21/09

Jill Dalton and Lizzie Borden Live

LIZZIE BORDEN LIVE plays only two days at the Columbus Theatre this weekend, November 14th and 15th. It will be shown on the smaller Cinematheque theater stage, much smaller than the stage when I saw this performance twice in Sedona. As there are only 200 seats for this brief 2-day run, only 400 people in the New England area will get the opportunity to see this wonderful one-woman play. If you live in the area, be one of the 400!

Below is my original review of Jill Dalton’s outstanding performance:

Spent a long weekend in Sedona, AZ with three of my geocaching, quad-riding friends for the purpose of seeing Jill Dalton’s original one-woman play, LIZZIE BORDEN LIVE at the Canyon Moon Theater.

The theater is nestled in the back of a gallery store-front in an outlet stores shopping mall in the Village of Oak Creek, just on the outskirts of Sedona.

Right click for bigger image

It is a considerably long run as can be seen by this schedule.

Click HERE for a history of its runs and info on other’s responsible for this wonderful production.

Jill Dalton has done a few t.v. stints per her IMBd profile but one would not know from that what an incredible actress she is nor of this brilliant script which she herself wrote.  Jill is distinguished by having won the 2007 Jacoby Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress for her portrayal of Lizzie Borden in this play.

The lovely Jill Dalton

Lizzie Borden Live is a one-woman play in one act-one scene set in Fall River in 1905 at Lizzie’s home “Maplecroft”, and runs approximately 90 minutes.  There are no other actors and no musical interludes.  Dalton is on the stage the entire time.  Though looking nothing like Lizzie Borden in 1905, Jill Dalton quickly has you in suspended belief that she is Lizzie.

From the Cape May (NJ) County Herald

The more familiar one is with the principals and nuances of the Borden murder case, the more appreciative one is of Dalton’s research and the brilliance of her script.  The dialog she has written when speaking in the “voice” of others is taken from the legal proceedings or newspapers of the time.  She exposes those principals as Lizzie views them in her mind, be they friend or foe, and gracefully sways in and out of moods using her hands and arms and general movement and expressions on stage to accentuate her shifting emotions.  She has us mesmerized.

From Lizzie Borden Live website

Jill gives us a performance that compels us to see this woman as a 3-dimensional human being beyond the one dimensional persona from that inaccurate quatrain so repeatedly quoted and serving to cement the caricature of this enigmatic woman.  She puts us inside Lizzie’s head and Lizzie’s heart, but more than that there is a multi-layered texture to the portrayal she maintains and upon which she builds  when transitioning to the child Lizzie, to the young Lizzie, to the Lizzie accused, and to Lizzie alone.  And while we feel for this woman we can fear her as well, for Dalton’s acting talent portrays a Lizzie that is raging within herself but asks us to question our own selves about that same rage.  It is frightening and forceful.

East Lynn Theatre Company

There is also much light-heartedness to this Lizzie within the play, and at times we chuckle and laugh out loud at her words (again the cleverness of the script).  But nothing impressed me more than when Lizzie tells us of her Grand Tour to England, Italy and France in 1890.   With a sudden switch in stage lighting we are transported to Paris and we are in an almost dreamlike state as Dalton depicts Lizzie’s passionate emotions at the height of her life’s happiness in enchanting Paris.  She twirls and spins and laughs as a young girl and tells of her travels and we are so happy for her – for these 19  weeks of blissful joy before suddenly being back in Fall River.  This was one of my favorite parts of the entire play and Dalton’s acting was absolutely incredible in pulling off this transition and heightening our suspended belief.

From the Canyon Moon theater website.

When Dalton interjects Nance O’Neil into the play those who are familiar with the facts will get more out of the dialogue than those who have little to no knowledge of this component to the Borden saga.  But here again the script does not lead us to a definitive conclusion as to whether they were lovers or just friends.  And her one-way dialogue with Nance on the phone is spot on to those familiar about Lizzie Borden’s history with the manipulative Nance O’Neil.

What is extraordinarily powerful, however, is Dalton’s performance by word, tone, and expression regarding the abandonment of her life-long surrogate mother and confidant – her sister Emma.  And just on the heels of that – the abandonment of her friend, Nance.  Dalton’s performance at this point in the play stirred my heart, put an absolute hush in the audience and kept the entire audience riveted to every single word and movement.  It was an acting tour de force the likes of which we seldom see on stage.

From the East Lynn Theater Company

I can’t say enough about the brilliance of this script and how Jill Dalton gives us many Lizzies throughout the play and yet ultimately only one emerges:  A multi-faceted woman of real flesh and blood with all the same feelings and foibles we all have.  What Dalton has accomplished is given us a Lizzie we can hold on to.  She’s made her less allusive by allowing us to see through Lizzie’s eyes, laugh with Lizzie’s own spirited humor, and feel sorrow at Lizzie’s torment and depression.  But Dalton goes to just the edge and no further – sculpting a Lizzie so finely that her portrayal neither erodes the mystery of the woman herself nor diminishes the variables and allure within this most facinating case.   Indeed, Jill Dalton’s absolutely stunning performance in this play – so aptly titled – truly gives us: Lzzie Borden Live.

I so loved the experience because of Jill’s performance I’m going back before it closes.  If this play comes to your area, do not miss it!!

Two One-Woman Lizzie Borden Plays Worthy of Mention

There are two one-woman plays centered on Lizzie Borden’s post-trial life at Maplecroft. One is the more contemporary Lizzie Borden Live and the other, Miss Lizzie Borden Invites You to Tea. The former stars the lovely Jill Dalton and the latter, playwrite and author Marjorie Conn. Both convey to the audience a Lizzie of conjectured character and substance based on case facts and what we know from newspaper reporting and court documents of her later life.

LIZZIE BORDEN LIVE

Jill Dalton gives an entertaining, humorous and insightful performance as a post-Trial Lizzie Borden in “Lizzie Borden Live”. Here’s a 6 minute excerpt from this engaging play. This video was shot by Richard Behrens of Gardenbay Films and is of exceptional quality.

“Spend an intimate afternoon with Lizzie as she speaks out for the first time about: the bad mutton, prussic acid, handleless hatchet, burned dress, betrayed confidences, morphine injections, confused inquest testimony, newspaper lies, dead reporter, bungled investigation, double murder reenactment, to her grand parties, European tour, and the relationships with her miserly father, overbearing stepmother, mouse of a sister and the stunning beauty and great Shakespearean actress, Nance O’Neil.”

The website for this play can be found here.

MISS LIZZIE A. BORDEN INVITES YOU TO TEA

For over 15 years Marjorie Conn has been performing her play, Miss Lizzie A. Borden Invites You to Tea. It continues to be been performed at various venues around the country by different actresses.

“In “Miss Lizzie A. Borden Invites You To Tea” by Marjorie Conn, Lizzie is an aging, lonely spinster in 1913. Twenty one years after the murders of her parents, the notoriety of her trial has waned and her status as ’social celebrity’ has faded. She’s been forgotten by all but a handful of hungry local journalists, and a bitter, taunting few. In this one-woman tour-de-force, starring Karen Asconi and directed by Frank Avellino, we witness Lizzie’s powerful lust for freedom and learn how such a yearning can drive one to acts of unimaginable desperation.” -website

I first saw Marjorie’s performance at the 1992 Lizzie Borden Centennial Conference at Bristol Community College in Fall River. I thought she captured the essence of Lizzie’s loneliness at Maplecroft and how much she valued her few visitors.  She still performs and was, in fact, slated to appear in this play at the now defunct Lizzie Borden Conference 2008.

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

Arthur Sherman Phillips – Lizzie Didn’t Do It

Arthur Sherman Phillips wrote the impressive 3-Volume History of Fall River and was a junior attorney assisting on Lizzie’s defense team. The case haunted him all his life and he never gave up on the belief that she was innocent.

As late as June 3, 1939, he wrote to Homans Robinson (1894-1973) of the Robinson-Donovan law firm. He was the son of 3-times Governor George Robinson, Lizzie’s lead attorney at her Trial.   In his 3-page letter shown below, Phillips cites so many of the sources of speculative theories surrounding this case and ones that surface repeatedly in books, articles, and arguments towards her innocence.

It is not known if Homans Robinson, a 1916 graduate of Amherst college, replied to this letter. Surely if he had complied with Phillips request for a copy of the questions Attorney George Robinson presented to Lizzie, along with her answers, something would have been published in that regard by now.

Clearly, that document still resides in the private files on the case with this law firm, still in existence in Springfield, MA.

Note that in the second paragraph of the third page, Phillips tells of someone speaking to Uncle John Morse the morning of the murder as he was walking up Pleasant Street towards Flint Village. Morse did, in fact, visit his relatives at the Emerys on Weybosset Street in Flint Village, about a mile from the Borden home.

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.

A NARROW NITCH: WHAT DRAWS US TO LIZZIE BORDEN? WHY DO WE CARE?

Update: Even recent discoveries of new photos of Lizzie Borden, her father and her mother have not injected an increase in interest into this case. In fact, the number of posts on the best chat forum have consistently decreased for the past 13 months. Yet, she continues to “play” in schools, libraries, community and legit theaters, as well as frequent mentions in the countless blogs. The nitch remains narrow.

Original post follows:

Well, first off we have to define “We” because on one end of the spectrum “We” are the hard core scholars, a relatively tiny group grounded at the epicenter of “all things Lizzie”. At the other end is a moderate percentage of the public who have some degree of awareness of a certain poem and a bloody hatchet, but rarely an interest to pursue it further and a total lack of understanding as to why anyone else in their right mind would want to.

In between are the minions of people who who love a good, classic unsolved crime; people who grew up in Fall River or environs; people who would like or think they can solve the crime; people who are attracted to the dark side of the bloody and bizarre; people who see Lizzie as a victim; people who dabble in or chase mysteries and the occult; people who saw the Elizabeth Montgomery movie and scratch an itching curiosity; people who study the case solely for its historical and societal implications; and people who are drawn to any story, film, book, reality t.v. show, or real life disaster that injects a jolt of excitement into their own otherwise mundane and uneventful life.

Now, think of ALL THE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD – literate people with computers or access to computers – with an interest in Lizzie Borden – that can easily find forums on which to chat and exhange information. Even the best forum, running for over 4 years, has only 30-35 regulars who log on in any 24 hour period. And of those 30-35, only 10 or 12 who actually post regularly.

The 1992 Lizzie Borden Centennial held at Bristol Community College in Fall River, drew only 400 people. Not even a third as many as the 1992 Assassination Symposium on President John F. Kennedy held the same year in Dallas, Texas, which I also attended.

Free, public lectures on Lizzie Borden in Fall River, draws only around 40 people. And this IN Fall River, the city where the murders happened 115 years ago. I’m told the quality, content and delivery of these lectures are excellent, yet attendance is a barometer to the local interest. Usually most of the attendees are friends of the speaker, staff from the B&B and a few local forum members. Attendance by Fall Riverites interested in Lizzie has been sadly lacking. In fact, my intrepid reporter tells me the lecture held on August 15, 2007 at 6:30 pm drew 52 people – and this with print media advertising!

Ground Zero, or “Mecca” is at 92 Second Street, Fall River, MA. (phone 508-675-7333). Bookings do not fall in the 90-100% capacity except in the first week of August and a few other dates throughout the year. The Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast offers the best “bang for the buck” of any B&B anywhere. It’s uniqueness is unparelelled anywhere in the country not only because of the complete freedom it gives its guests to roam and explore, but the hospitality is absolutely exceptional for B&B’s.

Now do you get what a narrow, narrow market of interest there is for Lizzie Borden IN ALL THE WORLD? More people would buy a good book with a clever twist on the Lizzie Borden case than log on to a forum touting the same subject. Tens of thousands more would watch a Lizzie documentary on TV than log on to a forum….but hardly any of those people would have an interest enough to buy a slick and well edited magazine publication be it $20, $10, or even $2.00. Of those 30-35 hard core members of the forum I mentioned (the administrator is the editor of the magazine) – a recent poll showed only 15 members even subscribe! If those who find themselves seductively stuck in a daily ritual of Bordenia online exchange don’t even subscribe, certainly that middle group of minions aren’t buying it either. In short, nobody’s reading it. That’s unfortunate. Sherlock, something is amiss.

Another example of the narrow nitch is eBay. ALL THE WORLD barters on eBay. Do a word search on “Lizzie Borden”. (Heck, if you’re reading this you probably already have!). Scan the number of bidders per listings – bidders from ALL THE WORLD. Not much. Certainly not nearly as much as anything on Lindsay Lohan (Insert audible “arrrgghhh”), or (name-your-team) sport tickets. Because “WE” are at the epicenter, some of “US” see all things Lizzie larger than it really is.

Now, you may ask yourself, why is this such a narrow nitch? I’ll tell why I think it is: Because Lizzie has most always been presented as a one dimensional persona based on an inaccurate quatrain. She’s rarely presented in the context of a richly textured and layered backdrop that is the history of Fall River and the Bordens themelves. Tis a pity, it tis.

I hope to give some illustrations of just how and why this case is so richly textured in upcoming entries. Stay tuned.

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).

Lysistrata – “Lizzie” to You

Lizzie Borden, five years deceased, would have been appalled by the 1932 Carthay Circle Theater advertisement below.

Aristophane’s comedy Lysistrata (written in 411 BC) was performed at the Carthay Circle Theater in New York with Nance O’Neil in the lead role. The program ad below has “LIZZIE TO YOU” written below the title. One would think that a diminutive or nickname of Lysistrata was “Lizzie”, but Lysistrata really means “releaser of war” or “she who disbands armies”.

Lizzie might have even have found the play itself distasteful, classical Greek literature notwithstanding.

Anyway, 75+ years later, perhaps only those of us absorbed in all things Lizzie find the double entendre humor in this reference.

Here’s a brief synopsis of the play – hardly our “Lizzie” at all. Then again, in another life – she could have been. I can see that. Can you?

“The women of Athens, led by Lysistrata and supported by female delegates from the other states of Hellas, determine to take matters into their own hands and force the men to stop the War. They meet in solemn conclave, and Lysistrata expounds her scheme, the rigorous application to husbands and lovers of a self-denying ordinance–”we must refrain from the male altogether.” Every wife and mistress is to refuse all sexual favours whatsoever, till the men have come to terms of peace. In cases where the women must yield ‘par force majeure,’ then it is to be with an ill grace and in such a way as to afford the minimum of gratification to their partner; they are to be passive and take no more part in the amorous game than they are absolutely obliged to. By these means Lysistrata assures them they will very soon gain their end. “If we sit indoors prettily dressed out in our best transparent silks and prettiest gewgaws, and all nicely depilated, they will be able to deny us nothing.” Such is the burden of her advice.

After no little demure, this plan of campaign is adopted, and the assembled women take a solemn oath to observe the compact faithfully. Meantime as a precautionary measure they seize the Acropolis, where the State treasure is kept; the old men of the city assault the doors, but are repulsed by “the terrible regiment” of women. Before long the device of the bold Lysistrata proves entirely effective, Peace is concluded, and the play ends with the hilarious festivities of the Athenian and Spartan plenipotentiaries in celebration of the event.” -Theater Database

New Lizzie Borden Letter Discovered

Note: Click “Comments” below this entry for comment by  Justin Bridges.  If you have especially clear images of Lizzie he can use, please email me.  Thanks!

The next best thing to finding a new photo of Lizzie is finding letters she had written. Well, readers, you are all in for a treat in the very near future.

Some months ago, my friend and author David Rehak brought to my attention a letter never before seen or published written by Lizzie. Since he was working on a re-write of his book Did Lizzie Borden Axe For It?, I encouraged him to include the letter in his new edition. The provenance has been established and I myself have been in contact with those who factor in the “trail of possession”. I have also carefully scrutinized my copy of this letter and there is no doubt in my mind it is written by Lizzie. Additionally, two other Lizzie experts have confirmed that it is, indeed, written by Lizzie. Not wanting to spoil it for Dave and its premiere appearance, I will only say it was written by Lizzie three months after the sinking of the Titanic.

Rehak’s book was initially published and distributed twice. The first release was subsequently withdrawn due to the paranoic and elitist posturing of a certain Lizzie scholar who threatened suit to the publisher and author because her name and website had been mentioned without her approval – something clearly misunderstood by Dave. The threat of litigation came after the book had been purchased by book dealers all over the country (and outside the U.S.) and sold to Lizzie buffs. So those that do have the first release have a very valuable book indeed. Quite rare.

The second release was issued with a number of editing disasters due to the rush to get it back in print. Dave has worked hard to correct those mistakes, eliminating gratuitous and unnecessary content, and adding more images and information in this new edition with the Lizzie letter. So be watching for Dave’s new edition in the early part of 2008.