The Fall River Tragedy: A History of the Borden Murders

by Edwin H. Porter

found the door open and found my father.” Bridget was then sent to Dr. Bowen. She came down, found the prisoner somewhat agitated standing by the screen door and inside. There had been no screech, no alarm of any kind, and there was an attempt simply to secure the presence of Dr. Bowen. She came back unsuccessful from the search for Dr. Bowen. As she came back she was seen by Mrs. Churchill, who, looking out of her kitchen window, saw the prisoner standing inside the door, and something in her appearance attracted her and she called out to her. In the meantime the prisoner had said to Bridget, “You go down to Miss Russell’s house.” And gentlemen, it will in this connection occur to you that Miss Russell, though she lived a long distance away from this house, was the person to whom this prisoner was predicting disaster the very night before. Mrs. Churchill came there by accident, and she will testify in detail as to what had occurred after she came there. She, too, said, “Lizzie, where were you?” “I was out in the barn. I was going for a piece of iron when I heard a distressed noise, came in and found the door open, and found my father dead.” Bridget returns from Miss Russell’s, and, returning says: “Shall I not go down to Mrs. Whitehead’s for Mrs. Borden?” “No,” said the prisoner, “I am almost sure I heard her come in.” Up to that time, by alarm, by screaming or by any attempt had there not been an effort on the part of the prisoner to communicate with Mrs. Borden. “I wish you would look,” she said, “and see if you can’t find Mrs. Borden.” Mrs. Churchill and Bridget together went up this front stairway, turned, as they do turn, to their left, and as they turned Mrs. Churchill turned her head above the level of the floor. She looked in and saw Mrs. Borden’s dead body as she looked under the bed. It is to be regretted that Dr. Bowen, a witness accustomed to observation, was the family physician and friend, and, therefore, affected, naturally, by this dreadful series of murders, for we might expect from him something of accurate observation, but Dr. Bowen thought Mrs. Borden had died of fright, and so expressed himself at the time. I do not and shall not attempt in detail to tell you all that occurred for an hour or two after the discovery of these homicides. Soon after people came in. The prisoner, who had never been in the room where her father lay dead, passed from the dining room diagonally through the corner of the sitting room, without stopping to look at her dead father, upstairs by the room where her step-mother lay dead, without an inquiry, without a thought; went into her own room, lay down; soon, without a suggestion from any one,

changed her dress and put on a loose pink wrapper. There are one or two things, however, in what she said that I ought to call your attention to at the present time. She told Dr. Bowen at that time that she was out in the barn for a piece of iron; she told Miss Russell that she went into the barn for a piece of iron or tin to fix a screen; she told Officer Mullaly that she went out into the barn, and upon being asked whether she heard anything or not, she said she heard a peculiar noise, something like a scraping noise, and came in and found the door open. There is, therefore, Bridget Sullivan, to whom she said she heard a groan, rushed in and found her father; Mrs. Churchill, to whom she said she heard a distressed noise, came in and found her father; Officer Mullaly, to whom she said she heard a peculiar noise like scraping, came in and found her father dead; and all these, gentlemen, you see in substance are stories which include the fact that while she was outside she heard some alarming noise which caused her to rush in and discover the homicide. Well, gentlemen, as inquiry begins to multiply upon her as to her whereabouts, another story comes into view, and she repeats it again and again, and finally repeats it under oath, that at the time Bridget went upstairs she went out into the barn, and into the loft of the barn to get lead to make sinkers. Now, gentlemen, having in view the character of her statements, that she heard the noise, you will find that when she gave a later and detailed account, she said that she went into the loft of the barn, opened the window, ate some pears up there, and looked over some lead for sinkers, came down, looked in the stove to see if the fire was hot enough that she might go on with her ironing, found it was not, put her hat down, started to go upstairs to await the fire which Bridget was to build for the noonday, and discovered her father. It is not, gentlemen, and I pray your attention to it, a difference of words here. In the one case the statement is that she was alarmed by the noise of the homicide. In the other side the statement is that she came coolly, deliberately about her business, looking after her ironing, putting down her hat, and accidentally discovered the homicide as she went upstairs. Gentlemen, upon this point it is my duty to point out to you a piece of testimony which will be for your consideration. This day, August 4, 1892, was one of the hottest days of the last summer in this vicinity. The loft of the barn was stifling in the intensity of its heat. Officer Medley, who came there quite early after the alarm, went to the barn and went up the stairs of the barn. He had, at that time heard of her going up into the loft, and as his head came up on a level with the

floor of the barn he saw that it was thickly covered with dust. He stopped, put his hands upon the floor and drew them across, and saw the marks of them. He looked again, stepped up, counting his footsteps upon a part of the barn floor, came down into his position again and saw plainly every footstep which he made. I have said to you, gentlemen, that Mrs. Borden died some time before her husband, and it is my duty to open to you the proof upon that question. There will be many here who observed the two bodies as they lay. I shall not attempt to state their evidence in detail. It will tend to show that Mr. Borden’s body showed freshly flowing blood; was warm and was not rigid in death; that Mrs. Borden’s body showed blood that was coagulated and hardened and dry; that her body was cold, and that she was stiffened in death. There will be the judgments of some professional men who observed the two bodies soon after the discovery of the homicides. There will be other important testimony in this case. The stomachs of the two victims were taken to Prof. Edward S. Wood, who examined them and is prepared to state their exact contents. The stomach of Mrs. Borden contained eleven ounces of food in progress of digestion. One-fifth of that eleven ounces was water and four-fifths of it was this partially digested food. Mr. Borden’s stomach—and you will remember that they ate breakfast at the same time—contained only six ounces of matter, and nine-tenths of that was water, and only one-tenth solid food; so you will see there was a very marked difference in the contents of their stomachs. Upon the autopsy it appeared that the upper intestines, leading directly from the stomach—the intestine into which the contents of the stomach first pass—in Mrs. Borden’s case was empty of food. Now, gentlemen, you will have the opinion of many who are competent to give an opinion upon all these facts, and they will say to you that upon those facts alone they are able to give a judgment that Mrs. Borden must have died at least an hour before her husband. And that, gentlemen, you will remember and take into view with the fact that anywhere between nine and half-past nine o’clock she went upstairs for a mere temporary purpose, and apparently never left the room that she went to.

Now, gentlemen, it will appear that about the two rooms in which the homicides were committed there was blood spattered in various directions, so that it would make it probable that one or more spatters of blood would be upon the person or upon the clothing of the assailant. And there has been produced for the inspection of the Commonwealth—it was produced a good many days after the

homicide—the clothing said to have been worn by the prisoner on the morning of August 4—the shoes, stockings, dress, skirt. At this point the articles of clothing mentioned were produced and placed on the table, after which Mr. Moody continued as follows: The most rigid examination by the most competent expert in this country fails to disclose any marks of blood upon the dress which is produced as the one she wore on the morning of the homicide, and upon the skirt which she is said to have worn upon that morning is one minute spot of blood, which I do not think it worth while to call to your attention at the present time. I must go back a moment in this story. You have in mind, of course, the interval which elapsed between the two homicides. The prisoner has said—and it is important to consider, and we shall prove that she has said—that the reason she left her ironing was because she found the fire was low; that she took a stick of wood, put it on top of the embers of the fire and went out to the barn to await its kindling; that when she went out it was smoking and smoldering, as if it was going to catch; that when she came back the stick of wood was there and the fire had all gone out. It will appear—and it was pure accident that this observation was made—that soon after the alarm an officer of Fall River was attracted by something that Dr. Bowen was doing to the stove—I do not mean to suggest anything—but the fact that he was tearing up a note and was going to put it into the stove, and he looked in and saw what was there, and found a large roll of what appeared to be burnt paper. The prisoner had a calico, or cotton dress, perhaps I ought to say, which she was in the habit of wearing mornings. It was a light blue dress, with a fixed figure, a geometrical figure of some sort, and the figure was not white, but navy-blue—a darker blue. Dr. Bowen has said, and I have no doubt will say here now, that she had on a cheap calico dress, a sort of drab colored dress. Mrs. Churchill says she had on, that morning, a light blue ground with white in it—that is, white in the blue, not a white figure, but white in the blue, to make it lighter blue, I suppose, and a mixed figure of navy blue, without a white spot in it at all, a diamond figure of navy blue, as she will describe it. And upon being shown that dress (showing dress to the jury), she will say that it is not the dress that the prisoner at the bar had on when she came in upon the morning of the homicide. You will recall that soon after the homicide Miss Russell and the prisoner went to the bed room of the prisoner. While they were there the prisoner said, “I think I had better have Winwood for undertaker,” and Miss Russell went away upon the errand of getting Dr.

Bowen to see about the undertaker. And as Miss Russell came back she found the prisoner coming from Emma’s room with the pink wrapper on that I have described to you before—the loose wrapper. Upon Saturday night the chief executive officer of the city of Fall River, Mayor Coughlin, informed Lizzie Andrew Borden that she was under suspicion for these murders. Saturday night Bridget Sullivan left the house. Alice Russell was staying with her friend, and of course Miss Emma was at home at that time.

On the morning of Sunday Miss Russell came into the kitchen. There were officers about on the outside of the house, but none in, and there was the prisoner with the skirt of her dress upon her arm, and what appeared to be its waist lying upon some shelf, and we will describe that dress. It was a dress which the prisoner had purchased in the spring of that year, a cotton dress and not a silk dress like this (holding a dark blue silk dress up to view). It was a light blue dress. You will recall Mrs. Churchill’s description of that in this connection. It was a light blue dress with a fixed navy blue spot on it. The dress ordinarily worn in the morning corresponds to that description, and was also bought in the spring. As she saw the prisoner standing by the stove and as she approached her, Miss Emma turned round and said, “Lizzie, what are you going to do?” The prisoner replied, “I am going to burn this dress, it is all covered with paint.” Miss Russell turned away. She came again into the room and she found the prisoner standing with the waist of the light blue dress, apparently tearing it in parts, and said, “Lizzie, I would not do that where people can see you.” The only response which the prisoner made was to take a step or two further out of observation. Miss Russell turned again and went away. Upon the following day, in consequence of some talk with Mr. Hanscom, a Pinkerton detective not in the employ of the Government, Miss Russell went into the room where the prisoner and her sister Emma were sitting and said: “Lizzie, I am afraid the burning of that dress was the worst thing that you could have done.” She said: “Oh, why did you let me do it then?” A considerable search had been made by the officers for clothing and for weapons, and they will say that no clothing unconcealed covered with paint could have escaped their observation. You have noticed, Mr. Foreman and gentlemen, this indictment, a more particular description of which is to the jurors unknown. It is the duty of the Government to bring forward all its information upon this subject, and I propose to open it all to you at the present time. Upon the premises that day were found two

hatchets and two axes. Upon one of those hatchets spots were discovered, which, upon view, were thought to be blood. It is extremely difficult, impossible, in fact, Dr. Wood, the highest authority on this subject in this country, if not in the world, will say, to distinguish between blood and some other substances. Attention upon the view then was directed to one of these hatchets, it is not important which (holding both hatchets in hand before the jury.) It is said to be the one I hold in my right hand. These axes, gentlemen, are so far out of the question that I need not waste any time on them. They could not have been the weapons with which these homicides were committed. Upon careful examination neither of these hatchets is seen to contain the slightest evidence of blood stain. The appearances which were thought to be blood turned out to be something else. You will observe, gentlemen, that there are ragged pieces near and about the entrance of the handle to the blade of this hatchet, that the same appearances exist there in that weapon, also on the outside of the handle, and Dr. Wood will say to you that those weapons could not in all probability have been used for these homicides, and have been washed so as to have prevented the traces of blood from being caught on those ragged surfaces. In that view of the fact we may well lay those weapons aside as entirely innocent. Upon the day of the homicide another weapon, or part of a weapon, that was thought to be a bloody hatchet, had been discovered and attracted little attention. It was seen by one officer, and left where it was. At that time this fragment of the handle was in its appropriate place in the helve, if that is the proper name, of the hatchet, in the place fitted in the head. It was covered with an adhesion of ashes, not the fine dust which floats about the room where ashes are emptied, but a coarse dust of ashes adhering more or less to all sides of the hatchet. Upon the Monday morning this hatchet was taken away, and its custody from that time to the present will be traced.

You will observe, gentlemen, that both hatchets are rusty, the hatchet which is innocent, the handless hatchet now under discussion, but the rust in the case of the handless hatchet is uniform upon both sides and upon all parts of its surface, such rust, for instance, as might be the result of exposure upon wet grass to the night’s dew, such rust as must result from an exposure uniform in its extent upon all parts of the hatchet. Prof. Wood will say to you—he saw this hatchet soon after it was found—that while there were ragged fragments of wood which would detain absolutely no indications of

the blood in these weapons, that if that weapon had had upon it the remainder of the hatchet, and was as smooth as he saw, by the application of water soon after the homicide, blood could be readily, effectually and completely removed. Dr. Wood will also tell you that that break which had not the color then which it has now—it has been subjected to some acid process—was a new break and was a fresh break. By that I do not mean to be understood as a break which had necessarily occurred within twenty-four hours, within forty-eight hours, or within a week, but perhaps a break which might have been a day or might have been a month old. It was a fresh break. In accordance, Mr. Foreman and gentlemen, with the unbroken practice of the authorities in this Commonwealth, such parts of the mortal remains of the victims as would tend to throw light either in the protection of innocence or the detection of guilt, have been preserved and must be presented here before you for your consideration. I do not think it is necessary for me to allude to them at this time. There is one story that is unmistakably told by those skulls and by the chipping blows that are upon them, and that is that the weapon which produced them was a sharp weapon. There is another thing that is unmistakably told by one of the skulls—I think that of Mr. Borden—and that is that the weapon which brought him to his death was just three and one half inches on its blade, no more, no less. That is the exact measurement of the blade of that hatchet. Let there be no mistake, Mr. Foreman and gentlemen, about my meaning. The Government does not insist that these homicides were committed by this handleless hatchet. It may have been the weapon. It may well have been the weapon. The one significant fact which in this respect is emphasized is that the bloody weapon was not found by the sides of the victims, upon the premises, or near them. Doubtless you will consider that fact well when you come to consider whether these homicides were the acts of an intruder or stranger flying from his crimes with the bloody weapon in his possession, through the streets of Fall River at noonday, or the acts of an inmate of the house, familiar with its resources for destruction, obliteration and concealment. When these bodies were found it was discovered that not a thing in the house had been disturbed. No property had been taken. No drawers had been ransacked. Mr. Borden had upon his person a considerable sum of money as well as his watch and chain. We almost might hope that it was not necessary to exclude another motive, but sad experience tells us that age of a woman is no protection from an assault from lustful purpose,