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00:04It's a modest house in a New England town, opposite the bus station, but once it was the scene of
00:10a brutal murder.
00:11This was the home of Lizzie Borden.
00:14What happened here in 1892 would attract national attention and enter the realm of folklore.
00:30Today, the Borden house is a bed and breakfast, a museum, and a place for tourists and Lizzie Borden fans.
00:37The house is owned by Martha McGinn, whose grandparents bought it in the 1940s.
00:43I first heard about Lizzie Borden from my parents and grandparents when I was about six or seven years old.
00:49When we were really young, they didn't tell us there had been a double homicide in the house.
00:54We had a little kids' detective club. We used to go there every Saturday and try to solve the crime.
01:01The crime took place on the morning of August the 4th, 1892, in Fall River, Massachusetts.
01:10First, the wife, Abby, aged 63, was hacked to death.
01:17Then her husband, 70-year-old Andrew Borden, was butchered while he rested on the sofa.
01:24Within days, an unlikely suspect was arrested, the victim's own daughter, Lizzie.
01:29It was a thoroughly modern murder case, an intensive police investigation complete with forensic detective work,
01:37and a news-hungry public teased by the media with rumours.
01:43After months, there was a sensational trial.
01:54Lizzie Borden went down in history as a murderer, but few people today realise that she was acquitted.
02:01Her story became legend.
02:11It has all the elements of great drama.
02:14It has parasite, that is the killing of one's parents.
02:18It has a relatively beautiful young woman.
02:21It has money.
02:22It just completely fulfils all the requirements of a great story.
02:27And then it has psychological mystery.
02:30If she did it, how would she have done it?
02:32Why would someone do that?
02:33像oumy Jarzi is a god-make.
02:40Fall River, Massachusetts was a prosperous place in the 1890s,
02:45a textile manufacturing town with grand houses and pretty residential streets
02:51but it was a town divided between mill owners and mill workers, rich and poor, native-born and immigrants.
03:03the workers lived down near the river close to the mills and the wealthy lived on the hill
03:10living on the hill at that time it was a very glamorous sort of life for the wealthiest
03:15families there were fine homes there were servants there were governesses for the children they were
03:20well-read extensive libraries and ballrooms and they traveled extensively so their life was a very
03:26fine one there were seven families who controlled the town among them the borden family but not all
03:35of its branches were equally wealthy the fall river city directory lists 126 including Andrew
03:45Jackson Borden in 1892 he was a bank president with substantial property but he wasn't born rich
03:53Andrew Borden was a Borden who didn't inherit money like so many of the Bordens had he had to work
04:00for
04:00it and he never forgot that as long as he lived that every penny he had he earned he began
04:09his
04:09career making furniture and coffins after his rise to prominence he continued to live in a modest house
04:16on 2nd Street a middle-class neighborhood mostly Irish Catholic there's even a Chinese laundry nearby not
04:24the sort of thing you'd find in the better parts of town Andrew's first wife died when his two daughters
04:32were children as adults Emma and Lizzie still lived at home sharing the house with their father and their
04:38stepmother Abby I guess he remarried just to have a housekeeper and someone to care for the children I
04:47don't know that that she was almost like a maid in the household but certainly it appears that the Borden
04:51sisters thought they were better than mrs. Borden now whether they looked upon her as an intruder because
04:57she was the second wife it's difficult to say the house is narrow just 20 feet wide it was an
05:05odd layout with
05:06no hallways each room opens directly into the next there was no privacy and little comfort no gas
05:14lighting or indoor plumbing the Bordens made do with cold running water and a privy in the basement
05:24Andrew Borden was a notorious miser and the Bordens by living on 2nd Street in the business district
05:31lived literally below their means and Lizzie felt that because she was a Borden she should live up on the
05:38hill she should have a very nice home to live in and horse and carriages and the accouterments of wealth
05:45and therein was where the trouble began in that family the Borden daughters were cut off from genteel
05:54society they had no suitors and well-born women in this period didn't work for Lizzie the only social
06:02outlet was the church she taught Sunday school at the mission chapel and was a member of a local
06:07chapter of the women's Christian temperance Union I think that was to keep her from being bored out of
06:14her mind you know a young woman of 30 in the Victorian times usually had a husband and children and
06:22had a
06:22household to manage and had the children's upbringing to deal with she had none of that so where else
06:29could she go for her social life but in church in 1887 family tensions erupted Andrew bought a house
06:37for Abby's younger sister to save her from eviction Emma and Lizzie resented this generosity toward their
06:43stepmother's family duplicate his daughters Borden gave them their grandfather's house and the income
06:49it generated but the money didn't make up for the hard feelings around this time the family stopped
06:56taking their meals together and Lizzie no longer calls Abby mother it was a big point and considering
07:03that Abby became her quote stepmother unquote when she was a young child one would assume that this was the
07:10mother she knew and yet one does not have that sense of the relationship being a mother daughter relationship
07:17there was a treatment of Abby that was bordering on contempt
07:24perhaps to appease Lizzie her father gave her a taste of the high life
07:28in 1890 he sent her on a grand tour of Europe with some of the wealthier Borden cousins
07:34the trip seemed to leave her more frustrated than before once Lizzie returned strange things began to
07:44occur at the Borden house in June 1891 while Andrew and Abby Borden were out of town a mysterious daylight
07:51robbery occurred whoever made it into the house was able to enter the house very quietly they went up
07:59into mrs. Borden's bedroom and got into her desk and some jewelry was taken about fifty dollars in
08:04cash and some streetcar tickets Lizzie Emma and their servant Bridget Sullivan were all at home and no one
08:12reported seeing an intruder but Lizzie attracted suspicion the police came to investigate Lizzie Borden
08:19took the police on an excited tour of the home pointed out a place where a screen door had been
08:24apparently forced by a small nail there was really no way for someone to have gained access to the room
08:30where this jewelry was kept so the finger pointed at Lizzie as being the obvious person from that point
08:35on all of the doors in the Borden house were kept locked and every day Andrew Borden locked his own
08:40bedroom door and he took the key into the sitting room and put it on the mantelpiece a very strange
08:44thing to do it was in plain sight and many people feel that it was a warning to one of
08:48his own besides
08:55the robbery story it said that Lizzie was a kleptomaniac that she decapitated her stepmother's
09:00cat and that Andrew slaughtered Lizzie's pet pigeons but there's little evidence to support these other
09:06stories we know very little about the Borden's personal lives their private lives there's no way of
09:13knowing what life was like in that household before 1892 there were no rumors there was nothing
09:21the day of the murders Thursday August the fourth was pretty much like any other day in the Borden
09:27household except that Emma was out of town visiting friends and the Bordens had an overnight guest John
09:33Morse the brother of Andrew's first wife Morse stayed in the upstairs guest room ate breakfast with
09:41Andrew and Abby and left around 8 45 to visit other relatives Andrew soon headed out himself to attend
09:48to business but not feeling well he returned earlier than usual shortly before 11 what happened next ended
09:57his life and changed Lizzie's forever
10:13on Thursday August the fourth at 11 10 a.m. the Borden family servant Bridget Sullivan was resting in her
10:21attic room when she heard Lizzie call out from downstairs her father's been killed
10:28his bloody body lay on the sitting room sofa she sent Bridget across the street to fetch Dr Bowen by
10:35the time Bowen arrived other neighbors were already on the scene
10:41he gave the body a cursory examination Andrew's face was almost unrecognizable the blood seeping from his wounds was still
10:50fresh he must have died only minutes before Lizzie found him
10:54it was an extremely violent crime there were a huge number of blows and the blows obliterated the father's face
11:03on one side
11:04that is a pretty dramatic amount of rage and violence they found mrs. Borden upstairs in the guest bedroom she'd
11:15been murdered in the same gruesome way
11:23the first police officer who arrived really didn't know what to make of it I mean things like this did
11:28not happen in fall river
11:29we could call them the keystone cops of fall river but they didn't really have much going for them serious
11:35police investigation of murder was relatively novel all over the english-speaking world
11:41the fall river police generally kept themselves busy dealing with drunks and prostitutes and the occasional robbery
11:47nonetheless they began their investigation
11:52the county medical examiner Dr William Dolan performed autopsies on the bodies of the scene
11:58with his help and after questioning everyone in the house the police constructed a timeline of the events of the
12:04morning
12:05they surmised that around 9 30 a.m. Abby was cleaning the guest bedroom where John Morse spent the night
12:11when the killer struck
12:24she'd been hit 19 times in the neck and head
12:29Andrew arrived home around 10 40 feeling ill he settled down for a nap before lunch
12:41he never awoke
12:54he received eleven blows in all but was probably killed by the second or third
13:01photographers were called in which was important and was one of the very few contemporary investigative tools technical tools
13:10photographers were called in to take those still famous photographs of Abby and Andrew Borden
13:24and then they searched the house
13:26they searched the house fairly thoroughly
13:30but at the beginning the very idea of a police officer entering the Borden house
13:34and going through a woman's things there were certain things that weren't done
13:40meanwhile Emma, Lizzie and their uncle John Morse continued to stay in the house
13:45friends came and went
13:46by modern standards the crime scene was hopelessly compromised
13:50but the police did find something that might have been the murder weapon
13:57in the basement behind the chimney was a small area where they found a box
14:02and in the box with three hatchets one of the hatchets had a hilt that had been freshly broken
14:06it appeared that it had been used quite recently
14:08it was covered in ash
14:11and they felt that perhaps it had been washed and put into the ash to dry it off
14:14the police never turned up any other significant clues
14:18maybe they did overlook things
14:20maybe evidence was removed from the house
14:24so many people came and went that morning
14:26and I think some of the first people to arrive on the scene
14:29if they saw anything that they thought shouldn't be there
14:32they would have taken it away
14:34that's how things worked in Fall River at that time
14:36I think there's something to be said for it too
14:38as word spread through town
14:40people began to gather outside the Borden house
14:44once news of this murder got out in Fall River
14:47everyone stopped work
14:48I mean the whole city began to congregate around the house
14:52there were something like 2,000 people who showed up at Lizzie's house
14:56after the murders
14:572,000 people
14:59this was one of the most exciting events in these people's lives
15:04reporters converged on the scene
15:07afternoon editions of the local papers trumpeted the shocking news
15:11and the wire carried the story to the rest of the world
15:16sex and violence have always sold newspapers
15:18they want hot news
15:19they want police court news
15:20they want blood
15:21and there's a lot of blood here
15:23under those circumstances
15:25the cops have got to find somebody quickly
15:28less hysteria rain
15:31the citizens of Fall River were terrified
15:33that the murderer was still on the loose
15:35they demanded action
15:37and the police obliged by rounding up the usual suspects
15:41speculation about the identity of the murderer
15:43was consistent with people's view of who were likely criminals
15:47the first thought was that perhaps some entirely insane person
15:51had done this
15:51you know some human fiend
15:53but barring that
15:55it was likely that it
15:56in fact it was a member of the immigrant population
15:58rather than someone they might meet about town
16:01at the same time
16:03the police investigated the possibility
16:05that the crime was an inside job
16:08John Morse who stayed with the family the night before
16:11was questioned
16:12but his alibi was airtight
16:14his relatives confirmed he was visiting them
16:18Emma was out of town on the day of the murders
16:21Bridget Sullivan was briefly considered but there was no motive
16:31that left Lizzie
16:32she was in and around the house all morning
16:35and stood to gain financially from her parents death
16:40what raised the most suspicion among people who knew the Bordens
16:44was the fact that Lizzie and her stepmother were far from close
16:50in his courtroom testimony Deputy Marshal John Fleet
16:53later recalled her odd response to a simple question
16:58I asked her if she had any idea who could have killed her father and mother
17:02then she said
17:03she's not my mother sir
17:04she is my stepmother
17:05my mother died when I was a child
17:08it just had a strange quality to it of communicating to the world
17:14that this was not a warm connected mother-daughter relationship
17:19on Friday August the fifth the day after the Borden murders
17:23Lizzie and Emma Borden placed a prominent notice in the Fall River Herald
17:27was it a sincere offer or was it intended to deflect suspicion
17:34the same day a story appeared in the Fall River Globe
17:37a local druggist named Eli Bents maintained that Lizzie entered his shop the day before the murder
17:44and asked to buy 10 cents worth of Prusic acid
17:47a deadly poison to clean a seal skin cape or so she said
17:52he refused to sell it to her without a prescription
17:55a web of suspicion was beginning to close in around Lizzie
18:01on Saturday evening Fall River's mayor John Coughlin paid a social call on the Borden sisters
18:07he told Lizzie that she was the prime suspect
18:10for the citizens of Fall River this was an even greater shock than the murders themselves
18:16to their Victorian minds it was almost inconceivable that a woman could commit such a crime
18:25poison was the woman's weapon
18:28and murder by means that involved physical contact with the victim
18:32whether it would be strangulation or for example butchering someone with an axe
18:37was seen as distinctly unfeminine and required a masculine brutality
18:43on Tuesday the 9th of August an inquest was convened at the Fall River polling station
18:49Lizzie herself was asked to provide an account of what happened on the day of the murders
18:53and to explain her own actions
18:56Emma was by her side as she would be throughout her sister's ordeal
19:02but Lizzie gave conflicting testimony
19:04first she said she was ironing handkerchiefs
19:08then she recalled she was reading a magazine in the kitchen
19:12when her father came home she was on the upstairs landing
19:15or was she in the kitchen again?
19:20she spent 20 minutes eating pears
19:22and searching the barn for lead sinkers for a fishing trip
19:25though she admitted she hadn't been fishing in five years
19:32her evasiveness her inability or her refusal at times to answer questions in the way that they were being asked
19:39certainly could be construed as a criminal who knows they committed a crime
19:44and who is clever enough to turn the information into a different direction
19:51maybe there was another explanation for Lizzie's rambling testimony
19:55she'd been given medication by Dr. Bowen
19:59morphine sulfate to calm her nerves
20:02in doubt when she gave her inquest testimony she had been sedated
20:06so it may well be that during that inquest she didn't know what she was saying
20:09and certainly no one today would be allowed to testify after they'd been given some form of drug
20:13it just wouldn't happen
20:15after Lizzie testified the presiding judge Josiah Blaisdell decided he'd heard enough
20:21she was arrested and charged with murder
20:24there were no facilities for women in the Fall River jail
20:27so Lizzie was taken to Taunton 20 miles away
20:32surprisingly many in Fall River society rose to Lizzie's defense
20:36she lives in Fall River so therefore she can't be guilty
20:40her name is Borden and so therefore she can't be guilty
20:43they rallied around her
20:46even beyond Fall River women's groups began to take up her cause
20:50they sent telegrams published articles in the newspapers
20:54wrote letters to the authorities
20:56some feminist groups use Lizzie Borden to argue in support of causes that they particularly favored
21:01for example Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell argued for women to be jurors
21:07so that a woman like Lizzie Borden could be tried by a jury of her peers
21:10in November 1892 a grand jury was convened and the evidence against Lizzie was reviewed
21:17the testimony of the final witness seems to clinch the case
21:21Alice Russell Lizzie's closest friend
21:24recalled seeing Lizzie burn a dress at the kitchen stove just three days after the murders
21:30Lizzie told her the dress was stained with paint but perhaps it was blood
21:36it's certainly possible that there was paint on that dress
21:38many people choose to believe that there was blood on that dress and that Lizzie was destroying the evidence
21:42the question of course is where was the dress when the police searched the house
21:47but the police weren't being investigated
21:50Lizzie was and the grand jury handed down its indictment
21:54three counts of murder
21:56one for the death of Abby
21:57one for the death of Andrew
21:59and just for good measure one for both deaths
22:05as District Attorney Hosea Knowlton prepared his case
22:08he received plenty of unsolicited help from the public
22:12in my own opinion
22:13the woman wore a dress
22:15or a wrap for the occasion
22:17which would require but a few moments to destroy
22:19did it not occur to you that this young woman
22:21might have stripped herself entirely nude
22:23to avoid bloodstains upon her clothing
22:25there were tips from psychics
22:27and readings from Ouija boards
22:30her object was money alone
22:31I get this from a dream I had something
22:33in my vision I see the bloodstained effects of the murderer
22:36under a floorboard covered by a carpet
22:39as my visions are inspirational
22:41and there were unsolicited confessions from local cranks
22:46she is not guilty
22:48I had a motive and I swore that I should kill the Bordens
22:51and kill I have
22:52whiskey done the deed
22:54not me
23:02the Bristol County Courthouse in New Bedford, Massachusetts
23:06looks much as it did on June the 5th, 1893
23:12but on that day
23:13the courtroom was packed with spectators and reporters
23:16and the stage was set for the trial of the century
23:21the prosecutor, District Attorney Knowlton
23:24was assisted by William H. Moody
23:26the talented young D.A. of neighboring Essex County
23:29this was Moody's first murder case
23:32but Lizzie Borden's defense was good
23:35her father's attorney Andrew Jennings
23:37and former Governor George D. Robinson
23:40it's rumored that Governor Robinson
23:42was being paid $25,000
23:44a huge sum of money at the time
23:46but he proved to be worth every penny
23:50but he proved to be worth every penny
23:53but he proved to be worth every penny
23:59presiding over the trial were three judges
24:02standard procedure in a Massachusetts capital case
24:05one of them, Justice Justin Dewey
24:08was appointed to the bench seven years earlier
24:10by former Governor Robinson, Lizzie's defense attorney
24:16in contrast to most murder cases today
24:19the selection of the jury took only four hours
24:22but the jury may be partial to the defense
24:26you would look at your daughter
24:28if you're a juror and say
24:29I can't imagine my daughter ever perpetrating such a violent act
24:35as it had since the day of the murders
24:37the intense press coverage continued unabated throughout the trial
24:41the case was on everyone's mind
24:43and was already entering popular culture
24:48even advertising made reference to it
24:50the journalists covered more than the legal proceedings
24:55for example, they commented on what the audience was wearing
24:59there was a lot of reference to the Valentines and the Daisies
25:02who were the women spectators
25:04lots of comments on what Lizzie Borden was wearing
25:06they're sort of the Dominic Dunns of their day
25:10papers employed artists to convey the spectacle of the proceedings
25:13and to provide the audience at home a front row seat
25:18Lizzie herself was the star of the show
25:20and she seemed to have been coached to project an aura of innocence
25:25after Governor Robinson became one of her attorneys
25:29he was an image maker
25:32and he told her that she must wear all black
25:37stylish black, mind you, with gloves and hats that tilted
25:41and sometimes she would carry a bunch of flowers
25:45the jury in the courtroom saw a fairly well choreographed woman
25:49who, despite her notorious coldness, learned during the course of the trial
25:53to hide her face in her fan during particularly gruesome medical testimony
25:58at one point, prosecutor Moody introduced a dress in evidence
26:02tossing it onto a nearby table
26:04whether by accident or design
26:07he knocked over the bag containing the skulls of the two murder victims
26:11Lizzie fainted
26:13the event was duly reported to a breathless public
26:16Lizzie's displays of femininity
26:19were an important tool for the defense
26:25the prosecution's case relied solely on circumstantial evidence
26:29there were no eyewitnesses
26:31and perhaps most importantly
26:33no blood on Lizzie
26:35these were extraordinarily bloody crimes
26:38extraordinary amounts of blood
26:41surely gushed forth
26:43and where was the blood
26:46there was Lizzie Borden
26:47all testimony indicates
26:50spotless
26:52the prosecutors introduced a murder weapon into the evidence
26:56the hatchet with the broken handle found in the Borden house
27:00expert witnesses confirmed that the hatchet fitted the wounds on the victim's skulls
27:05but they can't say whether this tool was actually used to kill the Bordens
27:09and the traces of blood and hair on the hatchet weren't even human
27:14Knowlton had one trump card
27:17Lizzie's incriminating testimony at the inquest
27:20but there was a problem
27:23Lizzie wasn't represented by an attorney at the time
27:25and because she was the prime suspect
27:27the judges decided that she was in effect already under arrest
27:32this was like the Miranda warnings
27:34it was not absolutely required under Massachusetts law
27:37but it was customary
27:39to warn a suspect
27:41that anything they said might be used against them
27:43Miss Lizzie had not been so warned
27:46as a result
27:48her testimony was thrown out
27:50and could not be used at the trial
27:53for the defense it was a major victory
27:55it wouldn't be their last
27:58the testimony of the druggist was also ruled inadmissible
28:01he had claimed that Lizzie tried to buy prusic acid the day before the murders
28:06one of the reasons that it was never used was because it was felt it was too remote in nature
28:12and too remote in time
28:14the Bordens obviously weren't poisoned and this happened before August 4th 1892
28:19the prosecution case was getting weaker and weaker
28:22the dress burning incident reported once again by Alice Russell
28:26was easily disposed of when Lizzie's seamstress and Emma Borden both testified that the dress was indeed stained with paint
28:34even the house painter came forward to corroborate the story
28:40but the greatest weakness in the prosecution case and the greatest weapon in the defense arsenal
28:45was the simple fact that Lizzie Borden was a woman
28:52Lizzie herself never testified at the trial
28:55as the proceedings drew to a close
28:57she made her only statement
28:59I am innocent
29:01I leave it to my counsel to speak for me
29:04by modern standards
29:06it was a short trial 13 days
29:09by 1892 standards in which many homicides were disposed of in a single morning
29:13it was a long trial
29:15but it was also theater
29:21but before the jurors could decide Lizzie's fate
29:24they received their instructions from the bench
29:27Justice Dewey was given this task
29:29it would become one of the most controversial events in the trial
29:33as Dewey essentially restated the defense case
29:36citing Lizzie's character and her church activities
29:39and even questioning the state's expert witnesses
29:44Judge Dewey's charge that the jury was viewed as very favorable to the defense
29:47viewed as really nothing more than a direction to the jury to acquit
29:52and that's exactly what they did
29:54the jurors were out of the courtroom for only an hour
29:57before returning to deliver their verdict of not guilty
30:03the courtroom erupted in cheers and applause
30:05and Lizzie broke down in tears
30:08even prosecutor Knowlton congratulated her
30:11she went back to Fall River a free woman
30:24after 10 months in jail
30:25Lizzie Borden cleared of the charge of murder
30:28returned home at last
30:30but the town of Fall River showed her no mercy
30:33a jury of 12 had decided her fate
30:36she was free
30:38it was left to her contemporaries in Fall River to sentence her
30:42and they did sentence her and the sentence they inflicted
30:44was the harshest they could possibly muster
30:46she was ostracized completely for the rest of her life
30:49the elite that had rallied to her support during the trial
30:52pretty much cooled in their enthusiasm as soon as she was acquitted
30:55simply because they didn't want to see her convicted of murder
30:57doesn't necessarily mean they wanted to invite her to tea
31:02even at church she's isolated
31:04taking her customary seat in the Borden family pew
31:07she found all the pews around hers empty
31:10I think it's really curious that she stayed on in Fall River
31:14and my only explanation is that by being in town
31:19she proves her dignity
31:22we know that people sometimes dream on
31:25for lifetimes impossible dreams
31:28and she may have been one of those types
31:31Lizzie seemed determined to achieve her dream of living among Fall River's elite
31:36with her father's money she and Emma were now wealthy
31:39they remained in the house on 2nd street
31:42only a few months before they moved into a new home on the hill
31:46it was luxurious
31:48she had a summer bedroom and bath
31:51she had a winter bedroom and bath
31:52she had a library
31:55it was 14 rooms and then she had a housekeeper and servants
32:00it had indoor plumbing with hand painted porcelain fixtures
32:03and canvas ceilings and Tiffany lights
32:06carved woodwork and beautiful crystal
32:07and it was a beautiful house
32:08however Lizzie did some things that weren't quite done in Fall River
32:14she named her new home Maplecroft
32:17and had the name carved in granite on the top step
32:20an ostentatious display by local standards
32:24and then she changed her name from Lizzie Andrew Borden
32:28to Lizbeth
32:29L-I-Z-B-E-T-H
32:31Lizbeth Borden
32:33good Christian girls didn't change their names unless they were married
32:36and Fall River didn't like it
32:40but Lizzie did acquire new friends in other cities
32:43including a young stage actress named Nance O'Neill
32:52later Nance would become a film star
32:55but Lizzie, who loved the theatre, probably met her backstage in Boston
33:00and on occasion she entertained Nance O'Neill in her theatre troupe
33:04up at Maplecroft
33:06it was okay to go to the theatre
33:08but in a city like Fall River
33:09you certainly never received people like that into your homes
33:12actresses in the 19th century socially would have been on the same level as prostitutes
33:16certainly in a city like Fall River
33:18and the idea that Lizzie received people like that was shocking
33:22even more shocking was a rumour that the two women were lovers
33:26but as with so many stories about Lizzie there's no evidence
33:30still the friendship of Nance O'Neill may have driven a wedge between Lizzie and her sister Emma
33:36Emma Borden and her sister had a falling out sometime about 1904
33:40whether that falling out was over Nance O'Neill is questionable
33:43but I think Emma certainly began to realise that if she wanted a very quiet life away from all of
33:49the notoriety
33:50she certainly wasn't going to have it at Maplecroft
33:52and so she chose to leave
33:54Emma moved in with friends in Fall River
33:57and later settled in New Hampshire
33:59the sisters never met again
34:02but strangely they died within nine days of each other in 1927
34:09the Borden murders remain unsolved but there's no shortage of theories
34:14one story came to light nearly 60 years after Lizzie's death
34:18it's related by a retired nurse named Ruby Cameron
34:24Ruby Cameron was Lizzie's nurse for a week or so
34:28and the time following her gallbiter operation
34:34and she said that Lizzie told her that she'd had a boyfriend who did it
34:40Andrew hated this young man
34:43According to Lizzie, her boyfriend dispatched Abby
34:46and hid in a closet until Andrew came home
34:49then he sent Lizzie out to the barn while he killed her father
34:54you may wonder did I think that was a true story
34:57I can only say that she was a dignified older person who was not senile
35:04and that very possibly Lizzie had told her that
35:09now whether it was the truth or not I don't know
35:13there's no evidence to support the story
35:15but it's just one of many explanations for the events of August the 4th 1892
35:21there's been theories that in my opinion are kind of way out there
35:25Lizzie was having an affair with her maid
35:26Lizzie was a victim of incest
35:29Lizzie was having an affair with Dr. Bowen across the street
35:32I mean listen to all these Lizzie was really promiscuous
35:35in recent years the incest theory has received increased attention
35:39for evidence some psychologists point to the viciousness of the attack on Andrew
35:44and the fact that it was focused on his face
35:49there are very few crimes that are committed with that kind of violence that are committed by strangers
35:55and police instinctively look at a family member
35:58I mean the eye was destroyed
36:01if you imagine that Andrew Borden had seen his daughter in ways that were inappropriate
36:07that were horrendously disgusting for her
36:11well wiping out the eyes might be a way of destroying that part of him that made her feel so
36:17much shame
36:21In Fort River today the Borden case is a cottage industry
36:24attracting thousands to the city and to the Fall River Historical Society
36:30the bulk of our visitors do come because of an interest in the Borden case
36:34we have many letters, people doing research
36:36and then you have people come who
36:40are very involved in the case in a very personal way
36:43people who feel they were Lizzie in a past life
36:46we've actually had people come to our front door dressed as Lizzie Borden
36:50strange
36:52many come to see one artifact in particular
36:55this is the infamous hatchet
36:57the hatchet brought into court as the murder weapon
37:00but never proven to be the murder weapon
37:01people come from all over the world to see the hatchet
37:04I mean this is the holy relic of the Borden case
37:06she has somehow entered into the
37:08into the minds of the public from the minute this crime took place
37:14those murders were so dramatic
37:16I mean Shakespeare would have loved it
37:20it's no surprise the Borden case has inspired both historical studies and fictionalized accounts
37:25and they all propose explanations for what happened
37:28but in the end they're just speculation
37:32I really don't want it solved
37:36because that would take all the fun out of it
37:38no one ever will know who murdered the Bordens
37:40that's the fascinating thing about this case
37:41they might think they know but the truth of the matter very simply stated is that they never will
37:46but of course every American child knows that Lizzie Borden took an axe
37:52Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks
37:55Lizzie gave her father 40 whacks when she saw what she said she gave her mother 41 I believe
38:02this is very complicated stuff
38:04Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks
38:07when she saw what she had done she gave her father 41
38:10apparently that ditty was around from even before the trial actually took place
38:17so she became a very important piece of the culture of the day
38:23her story has the same power as the OJ story
38:27some people see other parallels between Lizzie Borden and OJ Simpson
38:31both were accused of a double murder
38:34both endured sensational trials
38:36media hysteria and the widespread assumption of their guilt
38:41it is also the case I think in both OJ and Lizzie's case
38:45that Lizzie was never able to enjoy any peace
38:50this crime haunted her and it appears that it will haunt OJ for the rest of his life as well
38:58no matter what the trial jurors said at the time
39:00there are those parallels
39:03maybe Lizzie Borden was unfairly condemned for a crime that she didn't commit
39:08but maybe she was a murderer who fooled her