European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 28, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Did she or did t she 100 years later the Lizzie Borden a murder Case still fascinates the Public by Anne Stuart associated press Lizzie Borden of fall River mass., Rose Early on the morning of aug. 4,1892, one of the hottest Days on record nearly 100 degrees in that old Mill town by the sea. Before noon the 32-year-old spinster ate three pears ironed some handkerchiefs flipped through a Magazine and then a depending on whom you believe a either did or did no to take a Hatchet to her father and Stepmother in one of history s most publicized murders. At the time the Case riveted the world. Since then generations More have Learned about Lizzie Borden through a grim skipping rope rhyme Quot Lizzie Borden took an a Quot and gave her Mother 40 whacks. Quot when she saw what she had done Quot she gave her father 41.&Quot despite what this ubiquitous Doggerel says Lizzie was acquitted after a sensational trial and no one else was Ever charged. But a Century later As Borden buffs plan a Centennial conference on the Case Lizzie lore abounds. And not just in fall River Quot there Are people All Over the world who Are just fascinated with this crime Quot says Michael Martins director of the fall River historical society. Every year up to 9,000 tourists visit the society s Lizzie Borden exhibit to gape at gory police photographs a bloodstained Pillowcase and a broken Hatchet. Orders for the society s sepia toned Centennial sweat shirts Are rolling in from As far away As Alaska puerto Rico and Japan. Recently a forensic expert scanned the Bordensr Graves with radar hoping High technology would provide new clues to unlocking the mystery a we Klong Observance marking the 100th anniversary of the crime that put the textile City on the map will include three Days of academic presentations a partial reenactment of Lizzie s trial in new Bedford Superior court bus Tours to key settings in the Saga and of course souvenir sales. And although the double homicide has already inspired More than 30 books several More Are under Way undoubtedly raising new theories about what really happened at 92 second Street on that sweltering thursday morning. What la known is that four people were in the House at 9 . By 11 ., two were dead. The principal players a Andrew Jackson Borden 70, a self made businessman who despite assets of about $500,000, lived in a cramped Shoebox of a Home in an unfashionable neighbourhood. Borden was in the furniture business. He also was an Active investor in several textile Mills and a Board member of several local Banks. A Abby Durfee Borden 64, his second wife whose relations with her two stepdaughters were strained. A Lizzie Borden Andrew s daughter by his first wife Sarah who died when Lizzie was about 5. Moon faced with red hair and Gray eyes Lizzie was Active in the congregational Church. A Bridget Sullivan about 26, an Irish immigrant and the family s live in maid for three years. A Lizzie s sister Emma 41, who also lived there was visiting friends 15 Miles away. A Lizzie s Uncle John Vinni Curn Morse 69, of nearby South Dartmouth had stayed overnight but left after breakfast. Later Lizzie and Bridget would both testify that they spent much of the morning outside the House Lizzie in the barn and Bridget following Abby s instructions to Wash the outside windows. Between 9 and 9 30 ., according to medical estimates somebody smashed in Abby s Skull As she made up a bed in a second floor guest room. Neither Lizzie nor Bridget heard a struggle or a cry according to the testimony. Nor did they hear Abby who weighed More than 200 pounds hit the floor. She would lie undiscovered for two hours. Andrew Borden who had left for work after breakfast arrived Home unexpectedly Between 10 30 and 10 35 . Bridget unbolted the triple locked door to admit him. Within 30 minutes he too was dead his head hacked to pieces As he napped in a first floor sitting room. Again no one claimed to have heard a thing. Lizzie found Andrew s bloody body shortly after 11 . As she returned from the barn where she said she had snacked on some pears and looked for weights for a fishing line she shouted to Bridget and both ran next door for help. They returned a few minutes later with neighbors and or Seabury Bowen the family physician whose office was across the Street As they clustered around Andrewes body waiting for the police someone asked about Abby. Earlier Lizzie had told Bridget that Abby had gone out visiting after receiving a note from a sick Friend. But now Lizzie said she was certain she d heard her Stepmother return. She told the maid to look for Abby upstairs. Bridget and a neighbor climbed the stairs. They started to enter the guest room then stopped. Quot is there another Quot someone called up. Quot there a another Quot the neighbor replied. Over the next week during an intensive police investigation the Case captivated an International audience under headlines such As a double horror on second Street Quot Quot tragic affair Quot and Quot murder most  Lizzie was a suspect from the Start. With no witnesses the evidence against her was circumstantial and those first on the scene saw no blood on her skin or clothes. But Lizzie was unable to produce the note Abby supposedly received before going visiting the note was never found a by some accounts Lizzie said she had burned it a and the Friend never identified despite newspaper ads asking the sender or messenger to step Forward. During an inquest Lizzie made vague and contradictory statements and then there was the dress. Three Days after the murder Lizzie burned a garment in the Kitchen stove she an undated photograph of Lizzie Borden whose 1893 murder trial has inspired More than 30 books Uzzle Borden and her Slater bought this fail River maas., Home with their inheritance. Did so in front of Emma and a Friend Alice Russell saying that a despite the oppressive heat a she wanted to get rid of an old frock stained by paint the Odd timing raised questions even among Lizzie a supporters. Quot i am afraid Lizzie the worst thing you could have done was Burn that dress Quot Russell would later testify that she told her Friend. Investigators also Learned the Borden household was t a Happy one several years earlier upset because Andrew had deeded property Worth $1,500 to his wife Lizzie stopped addressing Abby As a Mother Quot and began calling her Quot mrs.  the daughters dined apart a from their parents. And the family members who already triple locked the House s outside doors began Locking their bedrooms bureaus and closets against each other. A week after the murders Lizzie was arrested. She remained in jail until her trial the following june. Through detailed newspaper accounts the Case captivated the world for 13 Days. While murders weren to of course unknown in the 19th Century a double murder was still highly unusual one charging the victims daughters rarer still and one involving a socially prominent family practically unprecedented. Evidence included Andrew Borden s Skull. Prosecutors tried to match the Hatchet wounds to an a head found in the House Lizzie did not testify. Her inquest testimony which contained some statements that strained credulity was excluded from evidence. Lizzie had said for instance that she spent about 20 minutes in the Stuffy barn loft eating pears on the hottest Day of the year she spoke Only two sentences during the proceedings Quot i am innocent. I leave it to my counsel to speak for Meshe said As the trial closed. Quot it is not your business to unravel the mystery but simply to say whether this woman is guilty a that s All Lizzie a attorney former Massachusetts gov. George d. Robinson told the jury. Quot not who did it How could it have been done but did she do it a the jury decided there was t enough evidence to prove that she had. Quot Lizzie Borden acquitted Quot read the next Day s headlines. Quot it took the jury but an hour and the crowd in the court cheered wildly. The poor Young woman overcome with Joy hastens to her  another paper reported that 2,000 people gathered outside the Borden Home where a band played Quot Auld Lang  but after initially celebrating Lizzie a acquittal fall River society shunned her for the rest of her life. With their parents estate Lizzie and Emma bought a stately 14-room mansion on Quot the Hill Quot still a showplace of grand Homes. Lizzie changed her name to Lizbeth and travelled frequently but still made local headlines. One local newspaper annually marked the Case s anniversary in one Case reminding readers that Quot no Man a or woman Quot had Ever been convicted of the crime. In 1897, Lizzie was accused of stealing two paintings from a store in Providence . The allegations weren t unprecedented. Historians say that before the murders Lizzie lifted items from local jewellers who quietly billed her father and Quot the Bills were always paid Quot said Martins of the fall River historical society. In the later Case newspapers reported that an arrest warrant was issued but the Case apparently was not pursued. In 1905, Emma abruptly left the Home they called Maple Croft. She moved to new Hampshire and the Sisters never spoke again. Emma never explained her departure though some chalked it up to Lizzie s frequent entertaining of socially unacceptable Quot theater people Quot pan ulary her close Friendship with an actress named Nance o Neil. Years later in a rare interview Emma said she still believed her Siste innocent. In her later years Lizzie was often seen feeding Birds and squirrels at Maple Croft. The late Russell Lake who lived near Maple Croft when he was a child told Martins and others that Lizzie was Quot the nicest Little old lady i Ever knew Quot the kind who always bought a Glass of lemonade when neighbourhood kids set up their stands. Emma and Lizzie died 10 Days apart in 1927, and Are buried Side by Side in the family s cemetery plot. Lizzie s Headstone reads  Lizzie left the bulk of her estate to the animal Rescue league of fall River with a smaller bequest to a similar organization in Washington d c., because her will said Quot i have been fond of animals and their need is great and there Are so few who care for them a a Century later lots of people still think Lizzie got Lucky especially because Abby told or. Bowen the Day before the murder that she believed her stepdaughter had been poisoning her food. Others cite the 100-degree heat a and Lack of a refrigeration a and say the meals were simply rancid if Lizzie did do the Hatchet Job Money was most Likely the motive. Perhaps she resented the miserly ways of her father who despite his six figure estate sold eggs from his farm on the Way to work and refused to equip his House with electricity indoor plumbing or a Telephone. Or she May have feared Andrew would leave his estate solely to Abby leaving his spinster daughters destitute. Some suggest that she intercepted draft documents that Day outlining just such a transaction. As a Borden a Well known name in fall River even before the killings Lizzie Likely yearned for a More comfortable life. She was known to favor Fine clothes and jewelry and it is indisputable that she lived More lavishly after the murders than before. Not surprisingly some theorists suggest an illicit affair. Under one theory Abby discovers Lizzie and Bridget in an embrace. Under another Andrew and Lizzie learn they Are in love with the same woman. In both scenarios Lizzie panics fearing she might be forced out of the House. This was after All the sexually repressed victorian Era. Some social historians suggest Lizzie was acquitted either because the All male jury simply  accept that an upper crust Young woman could commit such a heinous act a or that they could t condemn her to death even if she had. It had been More than 100 years since a woman had been executed in Massachusetts. Inevitably some suggest the maid did it. But Why by All accounts Bridget was Loyal to Abby Borden. And Why at a time of strict class consciousness and anti Irish sentiment did t police target Bridget instead of her mistress Paul Fletcher a professor at Bristol Community College in fall River who has extensively studied the Case puts it this Way Quot if there was any Way to pin it on the Irish maid they would  others suggest that Lizzie s Uncle or her sister sneaked Back to do the Job. The most recent theory targets an illegitimate half brother William who supposedly hanged himself nine years after the murders. There Are those who blame an outsider. Lizzie herself told investigators Andrew recently had been threatened by a disgruntled tenant. Several neighbors reported seeing strange men around that Day. One newspaper headline blamed Quot a Drunken  in any Case plenty of others took credit. According to newspaper accounts More than 50 people wrote to Lizzie a attorney to claim that they had committed the murders. Perhaps Lizzie left her own clue in a poem by an obscure scottish poet Allan Cunningham. Lizzie had the poem carved into the fireplace mantel at Maple Croft and requested it Sung at her funeral Quot the Green Leaf of loyalty s beginning to fall. Quot the Bennie White Rose it is withering an All. Quot but i la water it with the blood of usurping tyranny and Green it will grow in my am  Page 14 a the stars and stripes saturday March 29, 1992more on Lizzie crime reporter Edwin Porter won the race to publish the first Book on the Lizzie Borden Case. His fait River tragedy appeared in 1893, just months after Lizzie was acquitted of murdering tier father and Stepmother. Porter Laid out a Case for Lizzie s guilt rattling the 32-year-old spinster so much that she bought up All the copies and burned them. But a dozen or so survived and the Book was republished in 1985. In the 99 years since Porter s account the unsolved mystery has inspired at least 30 other books Short stories plays poems songs films movies an Alfred Hitchcock episode an opera a Ballet and countless newspaper Magazine and Legal articles. Mystery fans can expect to see More Lizzie lore before August when the City Marks the 100th anniversary of the double homicide with a conference performances and exhibits. Here is a sampling of existing works on the Case books trial of Lizzie Borden by Edmund l. Pearson. This 1937 Book dedicated to prosecutor Hosea Knowlton blames Lizzie. Lizzie Borden the untold Story by Edward Radin 1961, shows How Lizzie or the family maid Bridget Sullivan could have committed the crime a private disgrace Lizzie Borden by Daylight by Victoria Lincoln 1967, claims Lizzie had an epileptic like disorder that triggered the tragedy. Lizzie Borden a dance of death 1968, by choreographer Agnes de Mille. Goodbye Lizzie Borden by Robert Sullivan 1974. Sullivan a state supreme court Justice argued that if the trial judge had allowed inadmissible evidence Lizzie would have been hanged. Lizzie Borden a Case Book of family and crime in the 1890s, by Joyce g. Williams j. Eric Smithburn and m. Jeanne Peterson 1979. Without naming a suspect the Book analyses the social environment and reproduces newspaper reports transcripts and even Lizzie s will. Lizzie by Evan Hunter 1984 this novel suggests that Lizzie killed her parents alter being caught embracing the maid. Lizzie by Frank Spiering 1984, argues that Lizzie s sister Emma committed the murders. Lizzie Borden the legend the truth the untold chapter by Arnold r. Brown. 1991 Brown a fall River native blames he murders on Andrew Borden s illegitimate son William. Performances fall River legend a Battel 1948, choreographed by Agnes de Mille first presented at the metropolitan opera House in new York. A family portrait in three acts 1965. An opera by Jack Beeson. Fall River legend a 1974 television docudrama starring Elizabeth Montgomery blood relations 1981, by Sharon Pollock. Slaughter on second Street a new play by David Kent to be produced m fall River during the Centennial conference the stars and stripes a