The Most Factual Telling on the Lizzie Borden Case Has Not Yet Been Produced

• 

  Frank Warren Knowlton
  

One specific letter in The Knowlton-Pearson Correspondence pretty well sums up where we are today relevant to the most interesting book on this case.  Written 35 years after the murders by the son of the prosecuting attorney to the prolific true crime writer who published the first widely read book on the murders we have this:

                         Knowlton to Pearson October 28, 1930

It was only six years after Studies in Murder was published but over three and a half decades since the Superior Court Trial when Frank Knowlton wrote to Edmund Pearson that: 

         “The really interesting book About the Borden case has not yet been     written,”

He could be saying that today, 128 years later.   Knowlton says most of what has been written relates to the circumstances and tries to reason back to find the cause.  He posits that it should be a psychological study of Lizzie imagining her life, comprehensive and in depth.  (We get a shadow image of that through Parallel Lives – Fall River Historical Society – but even that was limited to her society and not the psychology or dynamics of Lizzie and her household).  If a book did deal precisely as Knowlton suggests, we would have a completely different image of this most enigmatic character of American unsolved crime  – now evolved into a bloody icon of almost epic status in the occult pop culture.

What we have today is represented by the very latest of Lizzie Borden t.v. docudramas with an emphasis on the paranormal.  It’s the “Curse of Lizzie Borden” premiering this date but I do not recommend it nor provide any information to promote it.  But like so many that have come before it, it has a “hook”.


“Demons” is the hook with this one. When renewed interest in the paranormal exploded in the early 1990’s, the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast became a recurring focal point for “investigations”. As books, documentaries, films, and t.v. programming grew, so did the need for program content. Productions metastasized and distribution poured into various entertainment programming channels. The caveat is always “entertainment” but the minions of those interested in the occult usually accept the productions as fact. Lizzie Borden, due to her mystique as a person and the case being a classic unsolved crime, was a natural for exploitation. Regurgitation of misinformation has necessitated “hooks” to sustain an audience eager to be thrilled and shriek  with things that go bump in the night.

Spin-off websites and podcasts are part of the metastasizing process. Lizzie Andrew Borden’s evolution from the virginal, church-going middle class daughter of a well-to-do banker and real estate investor, has morphed into a crazed axe-wielding psychopath who haunts 92 Second Street. Thus, the parade of paranormal investigators and their followers continue. “If you build it, they will come.” Alas, we live in an America where half believe in the falsities media presents to them. The subject of Lizzie Borden is a simple case in point to this cancer among us.

 

“What Is That Thing?” A Lizzie Borden Querry

Who knows what this is?

It is still inside the closet in “Bridget Sullivan’s bedroom” at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum.

Tim Weisberg‘s  Spooky Southcoast podcast episode entitled: “The Real Lizzie Borden” was broadcast shortly after the publishing of  Parallel Lives.  The featured guests on that episode were Michael Martins and Dennis Binette (curator and assistant curator of the Fall River Historical Society).  They help identify just what this is.

Advance to 46.10 to the relevant call in.

Here’s the link.

 

 

Inside Lizzie Borden’s Renovated Maplecroft

UPDATE:  “MAPLECROFT” FOR SALE AGAIN.

http://www.heraldnews.com/news/20170906/lizzie-bordens-maplecroft-on-market-again

 

Created by author Rebecca Pittman – The History & Haunting of Lizzie Borden.  Enjoy.

BTW, while I think Kristee Bates has done a very good job in renovating “Maplecroft”, I still do not think this is how Lizzie had it furnished and decorated in her day.  Lizzie selected only the very best of furnishings, fixtures and equipment because she could well afford it.  Her home, which she nurtured and lovingly maintained as if it were her child, had the very best appointments.  She bought only “the very best”.   Kristee worked on a budget and it does not escape the discerning eye.  Nonetheless, it is still beautiful and representative of Victorian homes of the 1890’s.  However, one only has to go to the Fall River Historical Society  or the Easton Tea Room (1870 Alexander Dorrance Easton residence also owned by the FRHS) to see the high quality wallpaper and exceptional quality furniture donated over the years.  The difference is remarkable and unmistakable.  There one will find furniture and fixtures inside these two establishments closer to what “Miss Lizbeth” would have had in her own home.

While the precise decade (1893 to 1927)  Maplecroft’s renovated interior  is reflecting is unclear, the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum is furnished exactly as it would have been on August 4, 1892.  Aspiring and inspired detectives can play out what they know or suspect of the crimes with a full and thoroughly captivating  “stage”.   Kudos to the original “set decorators” and Kudos to General Manager Lee-ann Wilber  (since 2004)  and owner, Donald Woods,  who have not altered  its base authenticity.

And a special Kudo to Rebecca Pittman for providing us with the first ever video showing the interiors of both the Second Street and French Street homes in which Lizzie lived the entire first half and entire second half of her life, respectively.   Well done!

 

Lizzie Borden in Hawaii

I decided to take Lizzie Borden with me to Hawaii this year.  Aside from bringing the most inappropriate clothing and a few surprising missteps in behavior, she was a most agreeable travel companion.

I usually stay on the more touristy side of the Big Island, Kona, but this year opted for Hilo – the only place in the entire State that is still representative of old time Hawaii.

From the balcony of our hotel room we had a view of the cruise ships harbored in the distance.

Lizzie so enjoyed watching them sailing in and out and told me of her voyage on the Grand Tour in 1890.

 

  I was surprised at her exploratory nature at my friend’s 5 acre estate just north of Hilo.

“Lizzie get down from there, you’ll hurt yourself.”

“That’s better.”

One day we drove straight across the middle of the island on the new between the two volcanoes.

Lizzie was in awe of its beautiful terrain.

We lunched in Kailua Kona.

We visited the old stone church across from the Queen’s Palace…….

….where Lizzie suddenly became distressed that no one was in the pews.  I had to remind her it was Thursday.

At one point she even climbed aboard the display of the ship on which the missionaries sailed from Boston in the 1870’s.

Lizzie loved the many beaches and when she asked “Will we see more up the roadway?” , I answered “Since we’re on an island, I’d be saying Yes.”

At the famous Rainbow Falls.

 

“Lizzie, you’re too far out…..come in closer to shore.”

“Thank you.”

Sunrise.

Moonrise.

Always conscious of her deportment, I was surprised on one occasion having to say:  “Lizzie, get up off the table, you’re embarrassing yourself.”

 

But in all fairness, this is what occurred a little earlier.

 

Aside from that misstep, the trip was amazing for both Lizzie and myself.   I may even take her next year.

Aloha and Mahalo.

 

 

The Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast – Boston Herald Article

The Borden home on Second Street in Fall River, Mass., where the murders of Lizzie Borden’s parents occurred, is now a bed and breakfast. (Donna Hageman/Chicago Tribune/TNS)

HERE is a very good article on the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast from the Boston Herald. The lack of current info on Maplecroft is what happens when reporters can’t get in touch with Kristee Bates. I’ve told her she needs to embrace those relationships because their reportings are all free publicity. I’ve had reporters contact me asking for her phone # to do interviews. I pass on the info to Kristee, but she is always too busy. Hope that changes.

The B&B is self-promoting and gets repeat business because of what happened there and the total experience for the guests. Maplecroft’s marketability is more a one time visit without an appeal to see again – because Lizzie only lived there the second half of her life – nothing significant really happened compared to 92 Second Street. Experiences from the two different structures are like going to Disneyland versus going to Walt Disney World.

Anyway, the more references now on the internet about Maplecroft opening up in the near future to the public will pay dividends later.

 

Interactive Aerials of Where Lizzie Borden Lived 1st & 2nd Halves of Her Life

Here’s some fun stuff to play around with via Bing Aerial Maps.  Be sure to note other Fall River locations to the left.

This is 230 Second Street, Fall River, Ma.; otherwise known as 92 Second Street, otherwise known as The Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast Museum. This aerial image was taken in around 2001-2002,  My Fall River Lizzie friends and Lizzie Borden case experts will be able to name everything shown here in a two block radius – and maybe more. Lizzie lived here from the time she was 12 in 1872 until after her Acquittal in July, 1893.

Built by Southard Miller in 1845, the house has remained in the same location and virtually unchanged for nearly 170 years.  Since this aerial was taken, however, the house has changed ownership, been painted green, the L-shape Leary Press has been demolished, the bus terminal directly across the street has been relocated and an architectural monstrosity known as the Superior Court towers in its place,  Subtle symmetry?  Perhaps.

http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/lizzie-borden-axe-murder-home/view/?service=1

Shown here is the French Street home, (otherwise known as “Maplecroft”)  that Lizzie and her sister moved into several weeks after her acquittal in 1893. This aerial was taken around 2001-2002. The house in the bottom of the frame, partially cut off, was also owned by Lizzie and is now owned by Michael Brimbau (author of Girl With the Pansy Pin). Stefani Koorey, Mr. Brimbau’s girlfriend, moved in to this house in 2006, Interestingly, neither one have ever been inside “Maplecroft”, which has been owned by Robert Dube’ since 1980.

Lizzie lived here the entire second half of her life until she died in 1927.

.http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/lizzie-bordens-house-former/view/?service=1

 

Lifetime Movie Channel on Lizzie Borden Got The Most Obscure Thing Right!

While the poor reviews and commentary on the gawd-awful Lifetime Movie Channel’s Lizzie Borden Took An Axe (see my earlier post) starring Christina Ricci continue, I have to report on a most singular and obscure thing they DID get right:  The picture above the sofa where Andrew Borden met his fate.

(Image above of the crime scene taken late afternoon of August 4, 1892, from my personal collection of second generation photos.)

You can see the picture here, actually a black and white print of a steel engraving. Here are a couple more images:

This image was also taken on August 4rh, 1892, after the sofa had been removed.

There never was any mention of this picture in any of the source documents, newspapers or subsequent books written on the case.  Apparently, never worthy of citing, it wasn’t nearly as notable as the sofa – which has been referred to as a “horsehair sofa of the Civil War era”.  But the picture has never raised an eyebrow nor an inkling of curiosity.  What that picture was remained unknown for 108 years.

In early 2000, Lizzie Borden expert Leonard Rebello, a Fall River native and author of Lizzie Borden Past & Present (1999) conducted some in-depth research and discovered it was a steel engraving called “The Village Elms – Sunday Morning in New England” by a rather prolific painter, Albert Fitch Bellows (1829-1883).  For the first time ever, EVER, the “picture above the sofa” was identified in print with the publication of the April 2000 issue (Vol. VII, #2) of the most excellent The Lizzie Borden Quarterly published by Martin F. Bertolet.  Lizzie Borden enthusiasts who subscribed to this august publication, were the first to learn of this discovery.   To my knowledge, there has never been any other feature article or any reference to this engraving – in context with the Lizzie Borden case – ever written about since.  A print of this engraving has hung above the sofa at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast since Mr. Rebello’s discovery.

Albert Fitch Bellows

Here it is below:

One can readily see this exact picture hanging above the sofa in the Lifetime Movie Channel’s film which first aired on January 25, 2014, nearly 14 years after the identification of the what and who first came to light.

So who, I ponder, in the production of this pitiful portrayal of the case was responsible for bringing that piece of historical accuracy to the film?  Who did the research?  How did they learn of the picture?  (Perhaps it was Lee-ann Wilber, manager of the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast, who had been contacted about “borrowing” the sofa).  Nonetheless, they got the sofa wrong but the picture is correct.  They got most everything wrong but they got the picture right.  A most obscure inclusion with absolutely no relevancy to the case itself.  If they troubled to research that and incorporate it into the film, why leave out so much that WAS relevant?

While it can now be said they got something right, that singular and obscure find still lacks sufficiency for redemption of all they got wrong.  Albert Fitch Bellows.  The Village Elms  And now you know.

Colored version of “The Village Elms – Sunday Morning in New England”

Final note:  I’d be willing to bet it never hung at “Maplecroft”.  😉

 

LEGEND OF LIZZIE BORDEN ON DVD & OTHER COLLECTIBLES

If you’re looking for this I have it on DVD – $25.00 plus $3.50 shipping.

Some other items for sale:

The above CD is a researchers dream, just read the label to see what all it includes!  $25.00 plus $3..50 shipping.

The much coveted Lizzie Borden – A Study in Conjecture – WITH hard to find dust jacket.  $125.00.  Usually sells for several hundred.

Three Lizzie Borden plays = $20 plus $5.00 shipping.

Look me up on eBay – user name: promedimi888. or just enter Lizzie Borden at the eBay search line.

IF YOU WISH TO PURCHASE, EMAIL ME AT:  phaye@outlook.com.

 

Lifetime Movie Channel Presents Christina Ricci as Lizzie Borden

If you get Google Alerts on Lizzie Borden, you’ve known for a long time that the Lifetime Movie Channel is doing a movie of our endearing Lizzie and the most mystifying, classic unsolved murder case.  You would also know that filming and post production has concluded and it is scheduled to be broadcast on January 25th, 2014.  But I post this here for those of you who may NOT know.

I predict the airing, and undoubtedly repeat airings, of this production will serve to perpetuate so many myths and untruths about Miss Borden and the case in general. I’ll tell you why:

1.  In the first place, Lizzie was 32 at the time, not a “young girl”.

2.  The murder weapon was a hatchet, not an axe.

3.  The production company and research people did little to no in-depth research, as is usually the case with these formulated productions.

4.  None of the cast members, ( including Christina Ricci), production crew, or director even bothered to visit the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast to get a sense of what was then a territorial layout between the sisters on the one hand and the father and stepmother on the other.

5.  The LMC’s productions appeal to a target market that has an interest in “love gone wrong” kind of shows and have become noteworthy in cable news and social networking sites when trending.   They have a pool of production companies and directors, none of whom are “A”-listers.

6.  Budgets are tight,  on “short shoot” schedules, and often sacrifice authenticity for cost effectiveness.

7.  Christina Ricci playing Lizzie would be a good fit if Justin Bieber were playing Andrew Borden.

Nope, I’ll say it here and now:  This will NOT be a movie that captures the depth and texture of the case, Fall River, and Lizzie herself.  Just as Elizabeth Montgomery’s looks and performance is burned into the minds of a viewers from a generation ago, Ricci and the LMC will permanently embed its story into the minds of a newer – and younger – generation.

The mass of viewers (who are not Borden case afficionados) will forever believe Lizzie Borden was a young, psychopathic girl who wielded a bloody axe to do her daddy and stepmother in.   Thus, the iconic one dimensional Lizzie Borden will remain.

Sad.

 

Vampire Indy Filmed at Lizzie Borden B&B

 

I just can’t make the mental leap, but I’m glad The House gets the publicity!   🙂

Location, Location, Location.

 

Fund-raising Attempt for New Lizzie Borden “Provoked” Indy Film

Here’s another Kickstarter fund-raiser associated with Lizzie Borden.  This time it’s a paranormal film with a little twist.   It’s titled  PROVOKED.   Clearly, $3,500 is a paltry amount to raise for any Independent film, but I take note at the almost throw-away line of “mostly for craft services”.

Personally, I think they should go in a different direction:  a comedy.   Barring that, they should seriously consider hiring Tim Weisberg,  Matt Moniz, and Matt Costa of Spooky Southcoast.   These gentlemen are long-standing, credible paranormal investigators whose consulting services would lend a certain cache to the production that is seemingly lacking.

I’m reminded of another Kickstarter fund-raiser – you’ll recall here where a $5,000 donation got you “dinner with the editor”.    <nyack, nyack>

 

Ed Thibault Has Passed Away

So many times we hear from those saying good things about the dead…..

You may know him as “Andrew Borden” in several Lizzie Borden features and documentaries.  You may know him as being your tour guide at the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast.   You may know him as a featured speaker on the case.  Those of us who knew him, bid a sad farewell.

There was so much more about Ed than just his interest in Lizzie Borden, but those who came to know him because of Lizzie will always remember him as an expert on the case and an impressive “Andrew Borden”. He was one of those who searched thru all the secret places and crevices of “92 Second Street” during its renovation into a B&B and helped make its opening a reality; a great contributor to Leonard Rebello’s book; a warm and gentle soul. He will be missed.

http://www.hathawayfunerals.com/obits/obituaries.php/obitID/213671/obit/Edward–R-Thibault-Jr\

I’m so glad I paid public tribute to Ed while he was still living and able to read the following post  originally written August 19, 2007.  I will cherish the heartfelt “thank you” letter he wrote me soon afterwards.

https://phayemuss.wordpress.com/2007/08/19/tribute-to-ed-thibault-andrew-borden/

 

Shelley Dziedzic’s Oak Grove Cemetery Walking Tours

UPDATE: Here’s info on a wonderful picture book of several Fall River cemeteries. 

Jack Foley – Fall River Herald News

1. Notre Dame Cemetery

   1540 Stafford Rd
   Fall River

   (508) 673-1561

2. 2233 Robeson St Fall River (508) 679-2535

   St Patrick’s Cemetery
3. Amity St Fall River (508) 679-2535

   St Mary’s Cemetery
4. 462 N Main St Fall River (617) 244-6509

   Temple Beth El Cemetery
5. 440 Newhall St Fall River (617) 244-6509

   Agudas Achim Cemetery

The Fall River Historical Society is having a big sale on all their items.  Check it out!
(Recycled)

Shelley Dziedzic can usually be found doing her once weekly Friday night tour for the overnight guests at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum.  She makes sure the guests get their money’s worth because she knows both the case and the House at 92 Second Street better than most.   Shelley has several passions she pursues, least of which is her attraction to old cemeteries foremost being Fall River’s Oak Grove Cemetery.   She has spent years amassing gorgeous photos of the grounds, seeking out headstones of those related to the case and beyond.

“A History of Oak Grove Cemetery & Walking Tour of Borden Related Graves and Buildings” is a 65-page booklet chock-full of information about the history, regulations, symbolisms, and Victorian Celebrations of Death, in addition to featuring Borden related burial sites.

She includes the standard map of Oak Grove and places numbers with identifying personages as to their location of burial.  Alas, the cemetery’s map does not have the street nor walking paths identified which can make locating the exact spot sometimes problematic.  But part of the journey’s enjoyment is in the discovery and if it were too easy we would not be as joyful upon shouting: “Eureka!”

There is also good information about Undertaker Winward, Oak Groves’ “undertaker to the stars” as I like to call him.  He is just one of the many people she highlights.

Shelley has included a sleeved CD affixed to to the inside back cover of the booklet with some stunning images she has taken over the years.  I would have liked to have seen captions and a cross-reference on some but here again, it makes you want to seek out those you are not familiar with.  Additionally, by looking at the images and reading about the symbolism on the stone markings helps educate us to obtain a greater insight into what surviving family members treasured about their departed love ones.

This is truly a wonderful piece of work and I highly recommend its purchase to those who have a love of old cemeteries in general, an interest in the Borden case, or even just a student of headstones and monuments.

You can purchase this booklet at Shelley’s Friends of Oak Grove Cemetery site.  If you reside in or near Fall River, it can also be purchased at the Fall River History Society and the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum for a good value price of $20.

(Note: Shelley has performed in a series of mini films by Richard Behrens, Garden Bay Films, and those can be viewed HERE.)

Many of us have given thought as to what other era we would have liked to have been born in.  Myself, for example, would have liked to have lived in Deadwood, South Dakota in the 1880’s, or in Paris in the 1920’s when I was IN my twenties.  Shelley, on the other hand, would most probably have preferred the Victorian era.  I see her as the Elsa Maxwell of Fall River’s Victorian and Edwardian era.

If she had been born into a family residing in one of those great Victorian houses in the Highlands neighborhood of Fall River, she would have grown into quite the society lady.  She would have had wonderful, chatty teas with her lady friends, organized and been President of the Victorian Home Gardens Society of Fall River, invited the “Hill people’ to her fabulous costumed parties and soirees, been active in a number of charities, and a formidable member of the Central Congregational Church.  Her tireless pursuits of grand special events throughout the Victorian and Edwardian eras would have made her a local legend with several mentions in Philip T. Sylvia, Jr.’s Victorian Vistas.  Yes, she definitely would have been the Elsa Maxwell of that time.  I think she even resembles her a bit, yes?

   

        Shelley Dziedzic                                   Elsa Maxwell

So a big shout-out to Shelley and all she does to enrich the experience of B&B guests, the August 4th re-enactments (which probably wouldn’t happen without her – or at least not nearly as well produced), and going about her successful endeavors quietly, creatively, and without regard for personal notoriety and/or media exposure..  Thank you, Shelley!

Check out Shelly’s websites:

Website	http://lizziebordenwarpsandwefts.com/ http://rhodeislandaltars.com/ http://yankeestones.wordpress.com/ http://fallrivereats.wordpress.com/ http://fallriverpaintedladies.com http://friendsofoakgrovecemetery.org

 

“I’m Still Here” – The House at 92 Second Street

Click the link below.

“I’m Still Here” – The House at 92 Second Street.

 

Chloe Sevigny to play Lizzie Borden in TV mini-series26

UPDATE: From the Fall River Herald News  <—Click

So a friend of mine in NYC called me the other day.  He has a friend who is a close friend of actress Chloe Sevigny (“Big Love”).   He said  his friend told him Chloe had just told her that she would be playing Lizzie Borden in a two-part mini-series to finish filming the end of this year.

Anyway, this is the first I’ve heard of any such mini-series.  And there’s nothing that turns up any information by Googling.   So maybe this is Chloe’s next project when Big Love wraps this month.  Maybe contracts have been signed but the project is still in pre-production.

Well,  I always pictured Chloe as the perfect Bridget Sullivan:

Chloe Sevigny, (whom I think bears a striking resemblance to Lee-ann Wilber, General Manager of the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum -and I’ve told Lee-ann that many times) has actually stayed

as an overnight guest at the B&B on at least two separate occasions.  Apparently, she loves the place and has so commented.

(Click on images for better view).

I’m hopeful there WILL be such a production.  It’s something to monitor anyway.  🙂

ADDED:  Found THIS on Warps & Wefts blog.

 

Ghost Lab – Coming in TWO Days to a Channel Near You!

Lizzie kicks the butt of loud, abrasive, rude, arrogant and oh-so-wrong-with-his-facts Ghost Lab investigator:

Conversation edited out of the video:

Investigator:

LIZZIE!  LISTEN UP, BITCH!  YOU ARE A MURDERER.  LOOK AGAIN AT THIS PICTURE OF YOUR FATHER!  SEE WHAT YOU DID?!

Lizzie:

My dear man, are you referring to me?

Investigator:

YES, I AM!

Lizzie:

No need to shout.  I’m standing right behind you.

Investigator (turning):

HUH?  WHERE?  I DON’T SEE YOU.

Lizzie:

That’s because I’m a ghost, you ninny.  Fine investigator you are.

Investigator:

LIZZIE BORDEN!  WHY DID YOU KILL YOUR FATHER!  ANSWER ME.  WE HAVE ANOTHER SEGMENT TO FILM AND I DON’T HAVE ALL DAY.

Lizzie:

I was acquitted, sir.  I was found Not Guilty.

Investigator:

THAT WAS A TECHNICALITY AND YOU KNOW IT!  OUCH!  DID YOU JUST HIT ME OVER THE HEAD?!!!

Lizzie:

I might have.  And then again I might not have.  (hee, hee, hee)

Investigator:

LIZZIE BORDEN!  I HAVE ONE MORE QUESTION BEFORE WE LEAVE!

Lizzie:

And that would be?

Investigator:

WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THE AXE OR HATCHET YOU USED TO MURDER YOUR FATHER AND STEPMOTHER?

Lizzie:

Why it’s right here.  (Whack! Whack! Whack)

Investigator suddenly falls to the floor with a hatchet imbedded in his skull.  Screen goes blank.

Voice Over:

Due to technical difficulties (not to mention annoying over acting, poor writing, and lack of credibility),  Ghost Lab has been cancelled.  We now return you to your regular programming.

 

 

OWNERSHIP OF 92 SECOND ST., FALL RIVER, MA

IT’S BEEN 22 YEARS NOW!

Here is the history of ownership of the “Lizzie Borden” House in Fall River, Ma. now a famous Bed & Breakfast hosted by Lee-ann Wilber and Donald Woods.

Built in the year Borden & Almy formed their partnership in the furniture business (and just before that year passed Andrew would marry Sarah Anthony Morse) this structure has remained virtually unchanged for 162 years. Borden scholars refer to it as “Mecca”. Standing resolute, almost stoic, this iconic edifice defies the many who have made the pilgrimage to unlock the secrets of what occurred on August 4, 1892.

(Images are progressive representations but not included with all citations.)

 

Southard Miller builds the house for Charles Trafton in 1845.

1845 to 1872: Charles C. Trafton, the original owner.

April 26, 1872: Trafton sold the home to Andrew J. Borden. Lizzie was 14pt old & Emma, 20.

1892 to 1918: Emma and Lizzie inherited the property
and through the management of Charles Cook,
derived rental income for over 25 years.

  

 

June 15, 1918: Emma and Lizzie sold to John W. Dunn three months previous to the Great 1918 Pandemic.

 

 

1918 to 1920: John W. Dunn

February 2, 1920: Dunn sold the Second Street home to Mandel Mark.

Fall River’s population was 127,000
 

 

1920 to 1940: Mandel Mark

 

In 1940, the Leary Press was built on the
south side of 92 Second Street.

March 27, 1940: Mandel sold the property to The Fall River Trust Company.

 

1940 to 1943: The Fall River Trust Company (TFRTC).
 

In 1941, Alice Russell died in January;
the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December.

September 3, 1943: TFRTC sells to Wilfred J. and Alice A. Gingras.

Two months previous, William M. Emery’s article appeared in the
New Bedford Sunday Times recalling the Trial reporting of 1893.

1943 to 1948: Wilfred and Alice Gingras

December 7, 1948: Wilfred and Alice Gingras sell to Smart Advertising, Inc. (John McGinn was a partner in this printing business).

 

1948 to 1995: Smart Advertising, Inc.

 

1996 – Upon the deaths of John and Josephine McGinn,
Smart Advertising was inherited by grand- daughter Martha McGinn
and long time employee Ron Evans (later his wife, Simone Evans),
and converted to the “Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum”,
opening up to “outsiders” for the first time in almost 105 years.

 

In September of 1996, President Bill Clinton visited Fall River.

June 18, 2004: Smart Advertising, Inc. (Martha McGinn, President & Treasurer and co-owner Simone Evans) sold the property to Donald Woods of Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

2004 – Donald Woods and partner Lee-ann Wilber
continue operating property as Bed & Breakfast.

 

April 27, 2005, Demolition of abutting structure, Leary Press.

2006 – “Barn” built and house is painted “drab” green

1845 to 2007 = 165 years since it was first built

 

Residents of 92 Second Street (not all inclusive of renters):
1850 to 1871 Charles Trafton, overseer of carding
1872 to 1893 Andrew J. Borden, businessman; (1892), Emma and Lizzie
1895 to 1897 Asa Gifford, janitor, Music Hall
1899 to 1920 Marcus A. Townsend, carpenter 1916-1917 Hyman Lubinsky
1920 to 1948 Mandel Mark, manufacturing / stationary
1948 to 1995 John R. and Josephine McGinn, Smart Advertising (printing business)
1996 to 2004 Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast / Museum
2004 to —- Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast

Fall River City Directories are helpful in identifying the many tenants that boarded at 92 Second Street, and one in particular will be noted because of his role on August 4, 1892: Hyman Lubinsky, the 19 year old ice cream peddler (also cited in Rebello).

Sources:

• Rebello, Leonard, Lizzie Borden Past & Present, 1999. p 24, 34+
• Land transactions, Registry of Deeds, Fall River, MA.
  
• Fall River City Directories

Tags: donald woods, faye musselman, lee-ann wilber

 

In Lizzie’s Time….a key to Understanding

Image ©Faye Musselman 2010

Lizzie Borden lived as many years before her Trial as she did after her Trial.  She was born the year the Pony Express started, Elizabeth Cady Stanton addressed the state’s legislature on the subject of women’s suffrage, and Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities was published.   There were only 33 states in the Union, and public conveyance was mostly by steamship and horse-drawn wagon.  She died the year two-way television was first demonstrated, “The Jazz Singer” premiered, and when the whole world was celebrating Lindberg’s solo flight across the Atlantic to Paris.

At the time of the murders Lizzie Borden was just on the cusp of the inner circle she so much wanted to penetrate. She longed to be accepted and a part of what author Victoria Lincoln referred to as “that highly stratified society.” She was a Borden with impeccable lineage and was acutely aware of what that meant in terms of heritage, reputation, social cache, and perceived entitlement.   She was already well established in the Central Congregational Church and actively partook in all its various departments.  She had gone on the 1890 Grand Tour with the ladies who lived “on the Hill” (and that 19 week tour was a life changing event for her).  After their return in November of 1890, she had continued her good works with the Church, even teaching Sunday school classes.  She had just recently been appointed Secretary to the Women’s Board of the Fall River Hospital.  But in 1893, she was just past the cusp of being considered an eligible “young lady” and was now more suited for chaperoning the dances and parties of the younger set.

Not long after the Trial, and particularly after the Tilden-Thurber shoplifting incident which splashed on the pages of The Providence Journal on February 16, 1897, friends and relations began to withdraw their associations with her.  The loyalty of friends withered but she remained in Fall River and through her travels, passion for animals and the theater developed new friendships which she cherished.  Nonetheless, she still had periods of nervousness and depression.

Her lifelong surrogate mother and loyal supporter, her sister Emma, packed up and left her for good in June of 1905.  Shortly thereafter, actress Nance O’Neil abandoned her (and debts owed) and set sail for a prolonged tour in Australia. Double abandonment.  Double betrayal.  It could be said that when it came to her personally, Lizzie Borden never forgot a kindness nor forgave a betrayal.

For the next twenty two years, Lizzie was left with her servants in her 14- room home “on the Hill”, but she was far from a recluse. Various travel companions made trips abroad with her, and she quietly contributed financially to various organizations and individuals.

Throughout the years after her Trial from her stately perch at “Maplecroft”on French Street,  she read of the appointments to Police Chief of several officers who questioned and testified against her.  She survived so many of those involved in the 1892 investigation of her father and stepmother’s murders and the subsequent Trial in 1893.  Those that died before she did included:  Officers John Minnehan and Philip Harrington (1893);  her chief defense counsel Governor Robinson (1896); Justice Dewey and Judge Blaisdell (1900); District Attorney Hosea Knowlton (1902); Reverend Buck (1904); Chief Justice Mason (1905); Marshal Rufus Hilliard (1912); Eli Bence (1915); Chief Inspector John Fleet (1916); prosecutor William H. Moody, Officers William Medley and Martin Feeney (1917); Dr. Seabury Bowen (1918); defense attorney Melvin O. Adams (1920); Dr. William Dolan (1922); defense attorney Andrew Jennings (1923); police matron Hannah B. Reagan (1924); and neighbor Adelaide Churchill (1926).

She read of the rise and subsequent failures of Fall River mills. She read and lived through calamities both local and national, i.e., the 1905 fire to the A.J. Borden Building, the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. fire in New York in 1911, the 1916 fire in downtown Fall River, and World War I, to name a few.  The post World War I “flappers” and onslaught of the roaring twenties must have seemed distressful to her. The erosion of proper deportment from her day to the explosion of the Jazz Age must have seemed too much change occurring too fast for Lizzie who had said at her Inquest: “I do not do things in a hurry.”  Although said to have been a “brilliant conversationalist”, a more than cursory study of Lizzie renders no surprise to learn she favored Anthony Trollup over F. Scott Fitzgerald.

It has been 118 years since the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden.  It has been 83 years since Lizzie Borden’s death.  Time has not faded this case from memory, appeal or pursuit.  For over a century, theories old and new have surfaced in books, a Centennial Conference, lectures, documentaries, and – in this digital age – blogs and websites.  Literature, the arts and the media combined have left a legacy of this most compelling and baffling crime with the following:

• 38 full length non-fiction books
• 12 fiction books
• Hundreds of Essays & articles in journals & magazines
• Chapters or mentions in over 80 compendium books
• 9  Made for Television documentaries
• Featured episodes in at least two ghost hunting programs
• Featured episode in The Travel Channel’s “Most Creepy” destinations
• One feature length film made for T.V.
• One ballet (Agnes DeMille: Fall River Legend)
• 3 Musicals
• 7 Stage Plays & 4 Radio Plays
• Countless blogs and websites featuring or highlighting Lizzie Borden and the case

Each new generation discovers Lizzie Borden and with each new generation the real Lizzie Andrew Borden fades in substance and texture as the flesh and blood woman of the Victorian era, Edwardian era, and the Jazz Age.  She has morphed into a one-dimensional persona based on an inaccurate quatrain, and depicted as a maniacal murderer wielding a bloody axe.  Almost every caricature drawing or folk art depiction has her portrayed this way.  This is as far away from the truth as was the pear tree and barn to Maplecroft’s piazza.

The site of the crimes is a three-story Greek revival clapboard house on a granite foundation that sits directly behind a newly constructed Superior Court house. The court house is colossal and grotesque in both design and proportion to the remaining structures of “Lizzie’s day”. For nearly one hundred years locals and visitors to Fall River would gawk at where a brutal and notorious crime took place – one of America’s most classic unsolved crimes.  Since 1996, it has operated as the “Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum”, and while great for business but disconcerting to Borden case “purists”, the structure’s historical significance has yielded to the explosive interest in the paranormal.  Since opening up to the public – and often a public who buys into that inaccurate quatrain – 92 Second Street is gaining reputation as a haunted house with things that go bump in the night.

The house is so much more than that because it is iconic to Fall River’s history.  It is where this classic unsolved crime took place, and its interior and exterior structure has remained virtually unchanged.  Furnished as it was in 1892, one can sit, study and learn what it was like for Lizzie living there – the daughter of Andrew Jackson Borden – living there, in that house, on that street, instead of up on “the Hill”.

Each and every one us are the embodiment of our genetic heritage and life’s experiences. Events that occurred affecting our ancestors have a residual affect on us and our families though we don’t often recognize it.  Where we live, how we live, what occurred locally, nationally and world wide, contribute to who we are and how we think and feel.

By studying Lizzie in the context of the world she lived in, where and how she lived and her heritage, we see her through a different lens.  If we look through the lens closely we discover a flesh and blood Lizzie Andrew Borden of 92 Second Street.  Looking closer still we let ourselves be introduced to Miss Lizbeth Borden of Maplecroft.  It is only then that we come to know and  understand her – and sometimes – even embrace her.

 

“A Visit With Lizzie” Seance

Seance’s and paranormal investigations have been going on for years at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast in Fall River, MA.   I happened to be a guest on the night the “show” below was performed.  What I admired about these guys is that they made it very plain up front that this was entertainment, a “show”, and indeed it was.

Larry White and Bruce Kalver were smart enough to “package” the on-site program and have made a lot of money with it.  You can still buy their script, trick reveals and much more.  Clicks the links below the image.

The whole thing can be purchased HERE.   Credit should be given to their marketing skills and ability to capitalize on the interest in the occult, as evidenced HERE. Or just get the envelope and skeleton key trick HERE.

 

CASE SETTLED! Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast/Museum vs. Salem’s “True Story” of Lizzie Borden Exhibit

For those who have been following the litigation between Donald Woods, co-owner of the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast/Museum in Fall River, MA, and Leonard Pickel, operator of the recently opened “True Story of Lizzie Borden” exhibit in Salem, MA, – the case is expected to be settled out of court today. This result was what a few of us knew would be the probable outcome.

However, this AP first reporting was actually premature as the ink has not yet been applied to the Agreement papers as of noon Eastern time.  Mr. Pickel, no doubt in his excited relief, rushed to speak to the AP Reporter.  You can read the AP’s first and premature reporting of the settlement HERE.

At issue was Mr. Pickel’s use of the word “museum” in both his website URL and contact email address wherein Mr. Woods claimed copyright to the word when attached to “Lizzie Borden” as that was cause for confusion and adversarial to his (Woods) business.

For the next several days there will be the usual flurry of newspaper and t.v. reporting following up on the AP wire story.  All of which is good for both businesses.  We wish them well.  🙂

And – unrelated to the case but for anyone interested, this next article associates Sarah Palin with Lizzie Borden.  Read it HERE.