of the Borden house. Six people took part: Marshal Hilliard, Assistant Marshal Fleet and Captain Desmond of the Fall River police department, Detective Seaver of the state police, Medical Examiner Dolan and Andrew Jennings, the Borden family lawyer. They had the complete cooperation of Lizzie and Emma Borden, who made it clear that they wanted the search to be as thorough as possible.
Indeed it was thorough. The Providence Journal reported, "Stoves, mattresses, bureau drawers, clothes, cupboards and shelves were examined. No place big enough to conceal a weapon as large as a table knife or clothing of the dimensions of a glove finger escaped the eyes of the officers."
One of the rooms searched was a second floor closet called a "clothes press" which contained dresses belonging to Lizzie and Emma. Detective Seaver took each dress off its hanger and examined it carefully. In a few cases, Assistant Marshal Fleet took a dress to a window to look at it in stronger light. They were looking for blood stains; they didn't find any.
The search started at 3 P.M. in Bridget's attic bedroom and ended at about 6:30 P.M. in the cellar. A further examination took place on Monday morning, starting in the cellar where a stone mason took a brick out of the chimney to make sure nothing was hidden there. The handleless hatchet was rediscovered; this time it got to the police station. The officers then went out into the yard where they probed an abandoned well and took apart a pile of lumber piece by piece. The search ended in the barn, where all the hay was moved and some of the floor boards torn up. Afterwards it was reported that, "Absolutely nothing was discovered which would lead to a clue or assist in any way in clearing up the mystery."
Suspects du Jour
To this point, we've concentrated upon what happened at 92 Second Street on August 4, 1892, and successive days. This account is based largely on contemporary newspaper reports corroborated later by court testimony. Actually the newspapers dealt mostly with speculations as to who committed the crime and how he or she did it. Public opinion on this subject changed from day to day.
Initially it was assumed that the murderer came in off the street to wield his hatchet. He could have hated or feared one or both of the victims, probably Andrew. Then again, considering the excess violence involved, he could have been a homicidal maniac striking at random. This is what people in Fall River feared. As a newspaper reporter put it, "It is not exactly reassuring to reflect that a maniac with an insatiable thirst for human blood may be at large, emboldened by his success and looking for additional victims."
There were several reports of suspects who behaved weirdly. A farmer named Joseph Lemay said that while walking through the woods near his house he heard someone say, "Poor Mrs. Borden." Looking around, Lemay saw a rough looking, unshaven man dressed in black sitting on a stone. The man had blood stains on his shirt. He picked up a small hatchet, shook it at Lemay, and began to grind his teeth (his own, not Lemay's). Then he got up, jumped a wall, and disappeared. Small wonder that the police were never able to locate this truly unique individual. Within a day or two of the murders the police became convinced that Abby Borden died first, a considerable time before Andrew. Their conclusion was apparently based mostly on the fact that no one saw Abby after about 9 A.M. on Thursday morning. In contrast, Andrew Borden was seen as late as 10:45 A.M. The assumption of a time lapse between the murders virtually ruled out the possibility of an "outside job". A person coming in off the street to kill Abby Borden would have to conceal himself for an hour or two waiting for Andrew to show up. That, at least, was the way the police looked at it. Very early on they began to look within the Borden house for likely suspects.
The first insider to be suspected was John Morse. The police and the public were inclined to doubt that it was just a coincidence that the Bordens were killed less than twenty four hours after Morse came to visit them. Moreover, as we have pointed out, his behavior when he returned to 92 Second Street after the murders was peculiar to say the least. However, the police soon lost interest in Morse. His alibi, that he had been visiting his niece at the time of the murders, seemed solid.
FIGURE 1.4
John Morse
under suspicion
From New Bedford
Evening Standard,
Aug. 5, 1892
Bridget Sullivan seems never to have been seriously considered as a suspect, although there was one inconsistency in her story. She originally told the police that she had been washing windows on the third floor at the time of Andrew's murder. Later she admitted that she had actually been resting in her third floor bedroom. One can well understand the motivation behind her original statement; for anyone, and especially a servant, to lie down during the day was considered downright immoral in 1892. One newspaper article stated primly, "The servant in the average Fall River family is much more likely to be found washing windows or making bread than in bed at 11 o'clock in the forenoon."
Within forty eight hours the police settled upon Lizzie Borden as the likely murderer; they never changed their mind. There seem to have been three principal reasons for suspecting Lizzie. First, Fleet and Harrington became suspicious of Lizzie when they interviewed her after the murders. She seemed altogether too calm and unconcerned, showing no signs of grief for her father and stepmother. Second, Lizzie's story about the note Abby Borden received was hard to believe. The note was never found and no one ever acknowledged sending it. Finally, Lizzie's attempt to buy prussic acid, a deadly poison, seemed incriminating.
On Saturday evening, Marshal Hilliard and Mayor Coughlin drove through crowds of curious onlookers to 92 Second Street to talk to Lizzie, Emma and John Morse. Coughlin started the conversation by saying, "I have a request to make and that is that [all of] you remain in the house for a few days, as I believe it would be better for all concerned if you do so." Lizzie asked, "Is there anybody in this house suspected?" After some hesitation, Mayor Coughlin replied, "Miss Borden, I must answer yes; you are suspected." A court later ruled that from that point on Lizzie Borden was, in effect, under arrest.
Chapter 2: PEOPLE AND PLACES
In this chapter, we will look at the principal characters in the Borden murders: Andrew Jackson Borden (aged 69), Abby Gray Borden (64), Lizzie Andrew Borden (32), John Vinnicum Morse (59), Emma Lenora Borden (41) and Bridget Sullivan (25?). Their lives prior to August 4, 1892, and their personalities may help us understand what happened that day. We'll also look at the place where the murders occurred, 92 Second Street in Fall River, Massachusetts.
The Victims: Andrew and Abby Borden
In 1892 Borden was a common name in Fall River, shared by about 400 people. There were at least four Andrew Bordens and two Andrew J. Bordens (the other one was a janitor). The family played a major role in the development of Fall River; distant relatives of "our" Andrew were instrumental in founding the cotton mills that became the city's largest industry.
Abraham Borden, Andrew's father, was a fish peddler who cried his wares from a pushcart in the streets. Andrew, growing up in impoverished circumstances in a shabby house on Ferry Street, vowed never to be poor again. In that respect he succeeded spectacularly, leaving an estate of $350,000, equivalent to perhaps five million dollars today.
Andrew Borden spent more than thirty years as an undertaker, where he prospered handsomely. Perhaps it was his money-back guarantee that attracted so many customers. Andrew promised that his caskets would preserve the remains of a loved one longer than those of his competitors. There is no record of anyone asking for his money back.
In 1878 Andrew retired from the undertaking business to pursue other financial interests. He became a stockholder in just about every profitable bank and cotton mill in Fall River. At the time of his death, he was president of the Union Savings Bank and a director of a host of institutions, including the First National Bank of Fall River, the B. M. C. Durfee Safe Deposit Trust Co., Globe Yarn Mills, Troy Cotton and Woolen Manufacturing and the Merchants Manufacturing Company. Most of his energy was devoted to protecting the interests of these institutions and others in which he had a financial interest.