Saturday, August 04, 2012

120 Years Ago Today: Lizzie Borden Took an Ax....

120 years ago today, in a small town called Fall River, Massachusetts, Lizzie Borden decided she was tired of being a member of the 99% and decided to off the 1% and take his money.  Ah, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

On August 4, 1892, Lizzie Borden "found" her father hacked to death as he reclined, sleeping, on the living room sofa.  The maid went upstairs, and, voila!  The stepmother had been hacked to death too.  What a mess to clean up.  The maid should have asked for a raise at this point, but for some reason she left instead.

It would have been very difficult for an outsider to enter the house undetected and murder first the stepmother, then the father, without detection.  However, the maid was outside washing windows and Lizzie was in the backyard eating peaches off the family's tree.  Or so they claimed.

In any case, Lizzie was acquitted in a murder trial and lived out her life in luxury, spending dad's dough.  The case is still unsolved, though most people believe Lizzie did the deed.

Read about it here.

Always on Watch is practically an expert on the case, having even visited the scene of the crime, the Borden house in Fall River.  She got me interested in the case and I subsequently read three books on it.  Fascinating stuff.  I am not sure of Lizzie's guilt, and I would have voted to acquit for lack of evidence.

August 4 is also Barack Obama's birthday.  Last year AOW and I conspired to create a graphic that commemorated the two events, since they share so much in common.  See it here.



1 comment:

Always On Watch said...

Yeah, it's Lizzie Borden Day, all right. I see that some media are taking notice of the 120th anniversary of this day in history.