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.

Lizzie Borden Reconsidered

Always on Watch is a Lizzie Borden buff.  She has studied the case for years.

Lizzie Borden was accused of killing her parents with a hatchet in 1892, in Fall River, Massachusetts.  She was indicted and made to stand trial for murder.  If she had been found guilty, she would have been hanged.

She was found "not guilty" by the jurors after only ten minutes of deliberation.  (They sat in the jury room for another hour to avoid embarrassing the prosecution before announcing the verdict.)

The murders happened with only two other people in the house, Lizzie Borden and her maid, Bridget Sullivan.  Borden's step mother was hacked to death on the top floor of the house about 90 minutes before her father met a similar fate, after he came home and dozed on the couch.  In spite of the "not guilty" verdict, many people still believe Lizzie Borden did the deed and got away with it.  Until today, I was one of them.  Now I'm not so sure.

I just read a book "Forty Whacks" by David Kent.  This is a book with a detailed story line about what happened, what is fact and what is rumor about the case.

Kent makes it clear that Lizzie's guilt was by no means proved and the jury did the right thing.  While Mr. Borden's body was still warm and oozing blood, Lizzie yelled for help and a doctor from across the street came over to the house and examined Mr. Borden's body.  Others from the neighborhood soon showed up as well to comfort Lizzie, and Lizzie's clothing, hair and shoes were completely bereft of any blood.  All evidence against her was circumstantial and unpersuasive.  The jury acquitted, and I agree with the verdict.

However being found "not guilty" is not the same as "absolutely innocent."  There was not enough evidence to convict.  No murder weapon was ever tied to the crime, no motivation apparent.  Lizzie's life both before and after the crime was completely inconsistent with such an evil act.  Still, she could have done it, and it seems unlikely that anyone else could have done it without being detected by Lizzie or Bridget when they entered the house.  However, what is unlikely is not impossible, and the killer's identity may never be known.

If Lizzie did it, how did she escape being splattered with blood?  Where did she hide the murder weapon, which was never reliably identified?

Perhaps Lizzie hired someone to kill her parents so she could inherit their fortune without having to wait years for their natural deaths.  Lizzie could have hid the assassin in the house and helped him escape detection.  This would explain the 90 minutes between the murders.   However, this is speculation and not supported by any evidence.  We will probably never know the why, the who and the how of these murders.

Lizzie does indeed deserve the benefit of a doubt, and the jury gave her that.  RIP, Lizzie Borden.

The Link Between Barack Obama and Accused Ax Murderer Lizzie Borden

Always On Watch informed me that Obama's birthday, August 4, falls on the anniversary of the famous Lizzie Borden murders.  On August 4, 1892, in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts, someone hacked Lizzie's parents to death with an ax.  Her step-mom was found dead in an upstairs bedroom and her father was hacked beyond recognition as he napped on his living room couch.  Most people think Lizzie did it, but she was acquitted of the crime at trial, and lived in luxury for the rest of her days, spending mom and dad's fortune.  Oh well.

Children liked to chant a rhyme in front of Lizzie's door and then run.  The rhyme was:
Lizzie Borden took an ax,
Gave her mother forty whacks;
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.

Obama has some things in common with Lizzie Borden, and here's a cartoon to prove it.  (AOW deserves credit for the idea and is also running this cartoon):

Read more about the Lizzie Bordern murders here (with gruesome photos) and at Wikipedia here.