The Life Of Lizzie Borden
November 25, 2016 6th Autumn Bentley
“Born on July 19, 1860, in Fall River, Massachusetts, Lizzie Borden and her sister, Emma, lived with their father, Andrew Borden, and stepmother, Abby (Durfee Gray) Borden, into adulthood. On August 4, 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were found murdered in their home. Lizzie was arrested and tried for the axe murders. She was acquitted in 1893 and continued to live in Fall River until her death, on June 1, 1927. The case was never solved.
The relationship between the Borden sisters and their stepmother, Abby Borden, was not close. They greeted her as "Mrs. Borden" and worried that Abby Borden's family sought to gain access to their father's money. Emma was protective of her younger
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Like her husband, Abby Borden was the victim of a brutal hatchet attack.
Policemen called to the scene suspected Lizzie immediately, although she was not taken into custody at that time. Her sister, Emma, was out of town at the time and was never a suspect. During the week between the murders and her arrest, Lizzie burned a dress that she claimed was stained with paint. Prosecutors would later allege that the dress was stained with blood, and that Lizzie had burned the dress in order to cover up her crime.
Lizzie Borden was indicted on December 2, 1892. Her widely publicized trial began the following June in New Bedford. Borden did not take the stand in her own defense and her inquest testimony was not admitted into evidence. The testimony provided by others proved inconclusive. On June 20, 1893, Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the murders. No one else was ever charged with the crimes.
Lizzie and Emma Borden inherited a significant portion of their father's estate, which allowed them to purchase a new home together. The Borden sisters lived together for the following decade. Although free, Lizzie was considered guilty by many of her neighbors, and thusly never enjoyed acceptance in
“Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one.” The grisly murders of Andrew and Abby Durfee Gray Borden remain to be one of the most sensational double murders in American history, rivaling even the likes of the O.J. Simpson trials. The “Lizzie Borden took an axe” rhyme is supposed to chronicle the macabre accounts of the murders. However, the rhyme possesses several historical inaccuracies. Lizzie’s “mother” in this rhyme was actually Lizzie’s stepmother and was “only” struck nineteen times with a hatchet not with an axe. Lizzie’s father, Andrew, received about ten blows to the head ( ). Though the children's rhyme is not quite historically accurate the
Borden died in Borden, Texas on January 11 1874. His body was transported to New York for burial. Two years later, Borden County was formed and named in his
Whenever he came to get the wages that were due to him, Andrew Borden told him that he was broke. Lizzie had stolen from her father before the laborer came to the home. Her and her father were no longer had a close relationship. For example, once the murders had occurred, she was seen burning her dress. She claimed that there was paint on her dress
The doctors also had her on medicine and she was all doped up. And it couldn’t have been Emma because she was out of town at the time during which the murders took place. But they also only tried Lizzie but there were other people with motive, and no
Twenty-six-year-old Bridget Sullivan, testified that Lizzie was the only person she saw in the home at the time her parents were murdered, though she provided some consolation to the defense when she said that she had not witnessed, during her over two years of service to the family, signs of the rumored ugly relationship between Lizzie and her stepmother. "Everything was pleasant," she said. "Lizzie and her mother always spoke to each other. Sullivan also testified that Andrew and Abby Borden experienced stomach pains on the day before the murder and told jurors that at the presumed time of Abby's murder, Lizzie claimed she was washing outside windows. Sullivan testified that she opened the door for Andrew Borden after he returned home from his walk about town, and then described hearing Lizzie's cry for help a few minutes after eleven o'clock.
The double murder of Andrew and Abby Borden still remains unsolved. The police could have done a better job investigating and the evidence showing Lizzie being linked should have been enough to charge her but this is a period of time when forensics was at its infancy and if there was no weapon there was no crime. The money involved could have brought rise to Lizzie to plot the death for inheritance. We will never
Lizzie Borden might have slaughtered Abby and Andrew Borden. To point out, detectives have more evidence of her than anyone else. There was no evidence to support Lizzie’s alibi. So, Lizzie Borden lied about what she was doing during the assassinations of her parents. For instance, Lizzie Borden could have slaughtered her parents and hid the murder weapon. Lizzie and her stepmother (Abby) not once got along. She continuously assumed Abby Borden was after her father’s (Andrew) money.; Lizzie Borden hated Abby Borden.
Lizzie was born and grew up in Fall River, Massachusetts. She was the youngest daughter of Andrew Jackson Borden, who was a very successful Banker
Because they thought she was burning it because there was blood on it. Later in her jail time she was let go. Because of this she had gone to trial with 12 men. During the trial she had shown no emotions to her parents death witch had concerned the 12 men. In the trial Lizzie never took stand for the 12 men. For this reason I think Lizzie did try to kill her parents with the poison but someone else killed them, that’s why she had shown no emotions. That someone who problem killed Abby and Andrew Borden could have been the person who Andrew was having trouble with. As saying that Andrews employers has rumors that a customer did not like him and that Andrew owed him something but never gave it to him. June 20th , 1893 Lizzie was found not guilty and acuanted. Lizzie commited the crime she had done to avoid the evidence. For this reason Lizzie was found not guilty on June 20th 1893. Lizzie and Emma inhareted their fathers estate. Thry had bought a house for themselves. Emma had died 10 days later from the flu then Lizzie died 3 days later. The case had then been set for a mystery formany years, and many people has many different opinions on who killed Abby and Andrew
“Women cannot be murderers.” Even though this was not explicitly stated in the newspapers, The Boston Herald in its article “Lizzie Borden” conveys the perception that the feminine ways associated with women would make it impractical for women to commit murder. Lizzie Borden, a young lady accused of brutally killing her stepmother and father with multiple blows to their heads with a hatchet was described as a religious, sincere, and modest human being in The Boston Herald’s article covering Lizzie’s life before and after the murders. During Lizzie’s youth, she suffered from isolation because of her reserved personality and belief that nobody appreciated her presence, but in womanhood turned her life around and attain friendships who vouched for her good character during the time of the investigation. The Boston Herald’s article “Lizzie Borden: Her School and Later Life - A Noble Woman, Though Retiring”, successfully persuades the reader of Lizzie Borden’s innocence with the focus on her femininity through diction and logic.
You may think that the dress was burnt because of blood stains, not paint stains. There is no way to figure that out. One reason why I believe Lizzie Borden was innocent is because there was no physical evidence that Lizzie Borden was guilty. There are only assumptions and theories. In the article, “Lizzie Borden: Murderess or Media Sensation?,” it states, “There was no physical evidence linking her to the murders. A hatchet had been discovered in the basement of the Borden home, but its blade was clean and the handle had been broken off.” There are theories about the prussic acid, the burnt dress stained by paint stains, and how there were no footprints in the dirt by the barn, but there is could be an explanation for each of those. The prussic acid could have actually been for the sealskin coat, the dress could have actually been stained by paint, and the wind could have picked up dirt and swept the footprints away. People just took everything and made it seem like evidence, but nobody actually took a second to think; maybe Lizzie Borden was actually telling the truth about the stuff she did. One person made an assumption and all of a sudden, they had the entire world thinking the same thing.
It is best described by the closing arguments for Lizzie Borden's defense, made by her attorney, George D. Robinson:
Purposeful death in the United States is a common thing, sadly, but how many are actually murder? According to Statista.com, in 2014 there were 5.1 deaths per 100,000 residents in the US. Not many of these murders were familicides, but they still happen, and in the case of Lizzie Borden, she killed her parents. It is crystal clear that Lizzie Borden killed her parents, and there is plenty of evidence to prove it.
“Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks, when she saw what she had done she gave her father forty-one.” Jack the Ripper and the Lizzie Borden Murders were both violent crimes that impacted the world during the late 1800s. Jack the Ripper was a serial killer who was never found. Lizzie Borden had her parents murdered and most people believe she did it but was never accused of the murders. They both are unsolved cases that people still talk about today.
Have you ever been so angry you thought about killing your parents with an axe? Well many people think Lizzie Borden did this exact thing. Lizzie Borden was accused of murdering her step mother and father with a hatchet on August 4, 1892. While on trial, the jury found her innocent, but many other people think her to be guilty. I think that Lizzie Borden is innocent of the murder of Andrew and Abby Borden because she loved her father, didn’t have a problem with her stepmother, and there was no physical evidence found at the crime scene. Lizzie Borden was found innocent by law, so why should it be questioned?