After so thorough a search of the house it was expected that some startling developments would be made, but the public was doomed to disappointment. Contrary to the expectations of all it was announced that absolutely nothing had been discovered which
would lead to a clue or assist in any way in clearing up the great mystery.
There was one thing of importance which the police did accomplish on the second day after the murder. The time of the taking off of Mr. Borden was fixed at between 10:50 and 11:03 o’clock, and it was assumed that Mrs. Borden was killed before that time.
BRIDGET SULLIVAN.
They arrive at their decision regarding the old gentleman by the following facts:
It was known that Mr. Borden was talking to Mr. Charles M. Horton at 10:30 o’clock, as they were seen together by persons on the Chace Mill car that leaves City Hall for Bedford and Quarry streets at 10:30. The car was standing in front of the building. After leaving Mr. Horton Mr. Borden walked up South Main street, stopping for a minute or two at this block and then going through Borden street to Second and to his home. Bridget Sullivan was positive that she admitted him at the front door between 10:45 and 10:50; it was before 11 and after 10:45. Marshal Hilliard made special inquiries of the persons in the office with him concerning the time that he received the telephone message, and it has been fixed at within a minute of 11:15. Officer Allen was sent to investigate, and positively asserts that he was at the house at 10:20. A man who heard the alarm on the street says that at the time there was no one in sight except the person who informed him. He was able to fix the time to within a minute of 10:45 by attending circumstances that he can recall clearly. The clock at Dr. Bowen’s had struck 11 just before Miss Lizzie came to
the door for the doctor, and Dr. Bowen reached Mr. Borden’s house at 11:30.
The murder was reported within fifteen minutes from the time that Mr. Borden is known to have been alive.
With this detail were involved many issues. It practically broke down any theories that a mysterious assassin slyly entered the house, sneaked into the rooms and then killed his victims. The intervening space of time was too brief. It became perfectly apparent to the police that the body of Mrs. Borden lay for an hour or more, in the room where Mr. Morse slept, brutally hacked, the work of a murderer, showing beyond all question and cavil that the blows were administered, not in a frenzy at the sight of blood, but with one all absorbing purpose—immediate death. There was evidence of fiendish brutality in the work, shown not alone in the manner in which it was done, but in the apparent sole desire of the guilty one to complete the crime so that the victim could not by any chance escape from the fate intended. They became more and more convinced that the body of Mrs. Borden could not have lain in the room for one or two hours, without having been discovered by some one in the house. In the minds of the police the proposition resolved itself into this form. Could there have been a dead body and an assassin in the house for nearly two hours unknown to and undiscovered by Miss Lizzie or the servant?