Mr. Jennings continued as follows: “Blow after blow was showered upon them, cutting through blood, bone and flesh into the very brain. Not one, not two, but in the case of the woman, eighteen. I know it will be said that the person who did this wanted to make sure. There is an unnecessary brutality about this that suggests nothing but insanity or brutal hatred. There is another thing. Every blow showed that the person who wielded that hatchet was a person of experience with the instrument. Every blow shows its own line of demarcation and, taking with this the fact that all the blows were parallel, I venture to say that no hand could strike those blows that had not a powerful wrist and experience in handling a hatchet. But now, Your Honor, it is a maxim of law that better one hundred guilty persons should escape than one innocent man perish. But more of these wounds. Prof. Wood told you it was almost impossible for a person to commit these crimes without being almost covered with blood, from the waist upward in the case of Mr. Borden, and from the feet upward in the case of Mrs. Borden. Now, what takes place? It becomes the duty of the Commonwealth to investigate an atrocious crime like this with the greatest care. It is of the utmost importance that the guilty party should be found and not someone accused of it. The Commonwealth seems to have made up its mind that the crime was committed by some one in that house. All their labors have been directed with that view. It is perfectly evident to lawyers that this was one of the views the Commonwealth was taking in presenting its case. They say no one could get out on the south because Mrs. Kelly is there, Crowe’s yard is there, men are working there and there is the Chagnon house. You have Mrs. Churchill on the
north and others on the west. The first thing they’ve got to do in order to draw the line around the people in the house is to isolate that house. Now, what is the fact? They know that the house has been burglarized and the barn broken into within a few months. Whether they know it or not, a person would say they ought to think that there was someone who knew that there was money in Mr. Borden’s room. You know that Mrs. Manley saw a man standing at that gate. The police have had I don’t know how many men in this case, but they never found this woman. They never found the man Dr. Handy saw. They can find the axes Lizzie Borden killed her father with, but they can not find this man. I don’t say they haven’t tried to, but the fact is they haven’t. Certain men got over that back fence that day and Mrs. Churchill didn’t see them, nor did Miss Collette. Miss Collette didn’t see Frank Wixon get over that fence and walk on it before 12 o’clock that day. John Crowe’s man didn’t see him either. The District Attorney will tell you that Mrs. Chagnon and her daughter heard pounding. They described it as of some one getting over a fence. If Your Honor will think a minute, you will see that it was not pounding which was in their minds, but the thought of a man getting over a fence. We claim, Your Honor, that this shows an idea that nobody else could have got into that house and escaped. Mr. John Morse appears to have satisfactorily accounted for his time, and that brings us to two parties, Bridget Sullivan and Lizzie Borden. In the natural course of things who would be the party to be suspected? Whose clothing would be examined, and who would have to account for every movement of her time? Would it be the stranger, or would it be the one bound to the murdered man by ties of love? And right here, what does it mean when we say the youngest daughter? The last one whose baby fingers have been lovingly entwined about her father’s head. Is there nothing in the ties of love and affection?” The words of Mr. Jennings about the youngest daughter caused the prisoner strong feelings. She bit her lips and then the tears began to shine in her eyes. She raised her hand to her eyes and then placed her handkerchief there. She did not cry, however, and as soon as Mr. Jennings left this line of talk she wiped her eyes and was as before, except that her eyes were now red as any woman’s who lets tears get the best of her. “And I do not wish to be misunderstood. I do not believe that Bridget Sullivan committed that murder any more than I believe Lizzie Borden did. Why don’t the District Attorney make Bridget Sullivan explain what she was doing during the twenty minutes which elapsed
while she is supposed to be washing the upper sitting room windows? Does it take her twenty minutes to wash the upper part of one window? Why isn’t she questioned regarding every second as Lizzie Borden was? Yet, according to her story, it was three-quarters of an hour. She didn’t wash in all but three windows and a half. Yet the prosecution thinks nothing of this. If Miss Lizzie cannot escape being tripped up by one officer and another, she must be guilty. Now, to commit a crime there must be opportunity. I submit that unless she alone had an opportunity to commit the crime there is no ground for holding her. Bridget Sullivan was out washing windows. Nobody saw her but Mrs. Churchill. Bridget was three-quarters of an hour washing windows. Mind you, I don’t say Bridget Sullivan did it. I distinctly state she did not, but I call attention to these points, which the State haven’t considered yet. Now in regard to the length of time which those two people had been dead. Prof. Wood testified under cross-examination that, providing the digestion had been normal, Mrs. Borden was killed an hour and a half or two hours before Mr. Borden. If she was killed at 9:30 or 10 o’clock, Mr. Borden was there in the house. He goes to the Union Savings Bank a few minutes before 9:30. Surely Lizzie never killed her mother while her father was in the house. Surely she did not get her father out of the house to kill the mother. Now, in regard to this, it is perfectly clear to me why the answers to the questions of her whereabouts at the time of the killing of her mother and later that morning should be inconsistent. I have stated before that I considered the inquisition of the girl an outrage. Here was a girl they had been suspecting for days. She was virtually under arrest, and yet for the purpose of extracting a confession from her to support their theory, they brought her here and put her upon the rack, a thing they knew they would have no right to do if they placed her under arrest. As in the days of the rack and thumb screws, so she was racked mentally again and again. Day after day the same questions were repeated to her in the hope to elicit some information that would criminate her. Is it a wonder there are conflicting statements? Here is an intelligent lady, Mrs. Churchill, who went into the house with Bridget Sullivan and can’t tell what became of the servant. Bridget Sullivan could not melt into thin air, but this intelligent lady can’t tell whether she went upstairs or down. Here is Lizzie Borden, who has been under surveillance for days, who has been compelled to take preparations to induce sleep. She is brought here, and because she couldn’t remember the minutest details, that is
a sign of guilt. Now she tells that she got up that morning, goes down stairs about 9 o’clock, not feeling very well. Bridget Sullivan saw her, but can’t say if she was reading an old magazine. She goes upstairs and then comes down again. She irons some handkerchiefs. I don’t know but the State is going to say those handkerchiefs were being cleaned of blood. It wouldn’t be more presumptuous than several other ideas they have tried. How about that fire? I am surprised the State hasn’t taken up that. Perhaps he has not found out that it is hard to start a fire. Now about her whereabouts at the time her father came in. She first says she is upstairs. Then she says she is down stairs, and sticks to that. I submit that, if she was on the stairs when Bridget opened the door to let Mr. Borden in and laughed, as Bridget says she did, she must have been insane, and was insane at the time of the commission of the crime. No human being could do a deed like that and then stand and laugh at a remark like that made by Bridget Sullivan. It is beyond the bounds of human belief. Then she says she went out in the yard and stayed there, and then went into the barn. I don’t believe she can tell how long she was in the barn. Look at the testimony in this case and see if you ascribe guilt to Lizzie Borden because she couldn’t tell whether she was in the barn twenty minutes or half an hour. She goes into the barn and looks for this lead. Is there anything improbable or unreasonable in this? If one theory is correct, she couldn’t have been there twenty minutes or half an hour. It is simply a guess. Then she comes in and finds her father. It is said that she is guilty because she didn’t call for her mother. She knew Bridget was in the house, and she hollered and called her down. Is she the calm, collected being who hasn’t been moved by this? Mrs. Churchill looks over and sees a sign of distress. She says ‘What’s the matter?’ and Lizzie says, ‘Come over quick, my father is killed.’ Then her emotion is such that she requires the attention of her two friends. The testimony of everybody else in the case is that this girl had received a terrible shock. She asks her friends to search for her mother. She tells them her mother had said that she was going out to see a sick friend and that she thought she had heard her come in. Was it unnatural that, being unable to find Mrs. Borden, she should think she had been killed. Now Lizzie’s story conflicts with Bridget’s.
Lizzie says she thinks her mother went out. Bridget says no. Bridget don’t see Mr. Borden go out. Why should she see Mr. Borden? Now the Government is bound to show that there is a motive for this crime. In the absence of it, unless there is direct evidence, their case has got to fall. What was the motive? The papers all over the country have published it as it was given out to them. Has there been a motive shown here? No, only that five years ago something happened. It was as a result of Mr. Borden’s giving his wife’s stepsister a residence, and the girls said they thought their father ought to have done as much as that for them. After that Lizzie called her Mrs. Borden. But now what kind of a motive would it have required to commit this crime. A man sometimes when pressed for money will commit crime, and in the case of Mrs. Robinson we know there was murder to get insurance money. I beg you to remember if crimes of this sort are committed unless there is a pressing want of money. And yet to get the motive they’ve got to say that without hatred, bitterness or previous quarrel, she murders him to get possession of the money which, in the natural course of events would be hers within a few years. I say that this is beyond the bounds of human credibility. They say the attempted purchase of prussic acid by Lizzie Borden shows she was going to do some deadly deed. If there is one thing which is weakest in criminal cases it is the matter of mistaken identity. The books are full of such references. These three persons say it was Lizzie Borden who went into that store and attempted to buy prussic acid. Neither of them knows her, but all three assert it is she. One of them, Bence, is taken to her house and he says he recognized her by her voice. He says he recognized it because it was tremulous. Kilroy says her voice was clear and distinct, yet Bence, with the life and liberty of this girl hanging upon his words, says he identified her by her voice. If it pleases Your Honor, Lizzie Borden did not attempt to purchase prussic acid, and she has asked to have her testimony taken upon this point. She declares that she never left her home Wednesday morning, and by a special providence, which seems to have watched over us in parts of this case, her words are corroborated by the dead woman who told John Morse that Lizzie had been sick in her room all day and had not left the house, and later, when Mrs. Bowen comes to the house and asks for Lizzie, Mr. Borden says: she was in the house all day and only went out at night, when she called on Miss Russell. I ask you, Your Honor, taking the testimony of Prof. Wood that no prussic acid was found in the stomachs of the murdered
couple, who told the truth? I don’t mean to say that these young men meant to tell anything untrue, but in the light of these facts was it Lizzie Borden who entered that drug store and attempted to purchase prussic acid, or was it some person who looked like her? Now, if they had proved a motive, if the motive they have given satisfies you, let us look at other evidence in the case. This girl has got at the most ten to fifteen minutes to commit the crime and conceal the weapon. Why didn’t she wait before she called Bridget Sullivan downstairs? What is her condition just afterwards? Is there anything on her when the neighbors come to show that she committed the crime? If she did have time to kill her mother and clear the blood stains from her garments, she did not have time to clear up the evidence of her work down stairs. If she had on an apron, where is the apron? Officer Doherty attempted to describe the dress he saw her have on. Mrs. Churchill thinks it was of another color. The lighter the dress the better to find out if she did it, and, if she did it with the white skirt on, where are the blood spots? Where did she get rid of the weapons? The dress, the shoes she had on that morning. Are there any shoe buttons found in the fire? Is there any smell of burnt clothing? No. Why, at the time of the arrest of this girl we were enveloped in an atmosphere of poison, gore, hatchets and bloody hairs. Why, until Prof. Wood stepped on the stand, it had been given out, whether by the police I do not know, that the hatchet Prof. Wood had was the weapon with which the crime was committed, and that it bore signs of having been used to commit it. I confess that until Prof. Wood went upon the stand my heart almost stood still with anxiety. The Government is in this position. The more closely they hold Lizzie Borden in that house, the more they show she couldn’t get out, they shut that bloody hatchet up there with her. Day after day, hour after hour they have searched and examined, and the only thing they produced was the hatchet, which Prof. Wood says contained no blood. I don’t believe Dr. Dolan would willingly harm a hair of this defendant’s head, and yet his description of this hatchet was one of the most terrible things of this trial. It would be such a hatchet as would commit this deed, he said, and it appeared to have upon it what seemed to him was a blood spot. The end he said was such as to cause the crushing wound in the head. But then comes Prof. Draper, who says there was no such crushing wound. You can imagine, Your Honor, the feelings of the counsel, who sat here almost heart sick day after day, waiting for that report and guarding the interests of a client whom they believe to be innocent, and who insist she is
innocent. I have no doubt that every person with a feeling of sympathy for that girl felt their hearts leap with joy as Prof. Wood gave his testimony. If I could have had my way I would have shouted for joy. That was the deliverance of Lizzie Borden. If that hatchet had been lost on the way by a railroad accident, Lizzie Borden would have been a condemned woman upon the testimony of Dr. Dolan, regarding the description of that hatchet. Lizzie Borden’s life was in Dr. Dolan’s hands and by the goodness of God’s providence Prof. Wood came, and, like that shot at Concord, which rang round the world, his story went like a song of joy from Maine to Mexico and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They haven’t proved that this girl had anything to do with the murder. They can’t find any blood on her dress, on her hair, on her shoes. They can’t find any motive. They can’t find the axes, and couldn’t clean the axe, and so I say I demand the woman’s release. The grand jury, if they meet more evidence, can indict her. She is here—she can’t flee. She isn’t going to flee. The great public is going to take your decision as they took the arrest upon the strength of Mr. Knowlton’s experience. They can’t find a motive, no blood, no poison, and so I say that this woman shan’t be sent to prison on such evidence as this, shan’t be sent to jail for three months, shan’t be deprived of her liberty and her good name. Don’t, Your Honor, when they don’t show an incriminating circumstance, don’t put the stigma of guilt upon this woman, reared as she has been and with a past character beyond reproach. Don’t let it go out in the world as the decision of a just judge that she is probably guilty. God grant Your Honor wisdom to decide, and, while you do your duty, do it as God tells you to do it, giving to the accused the benefit of the doubt.”
As Mr. Jennings concluded, there were tears in the eyes of a majority of those present. Col. Adams, the associate counsel, was deeply affected, and Mr. Phillips, Mr. Jennings’ assistant, was weeping. The prisoner’s lips were trembling, and the tears in her eyes were hidden from view by her hands, which were placed there. As Mayor Coughlin, Dr. Dolan and other prominent persons stepped forward to grasp the hand of the attorney, a ripple of applause started, which rapidly swelled into a loud expression of admiration and sympathy, and with the echo of this applause, which there was no attempt to suppress, the Court was adjourned till the afternoon.