Lizzie Borden Took an Axe & Then... A case that shook the World

Hello folks, I am back with another unsolved crime mystery. Today's topic is a bit dark as it involves the mixture of family drama and a cold-blooded murder mystery.

Just to be clear, this is not something about a serial killer. However, if you like to read stuff about serial killer then you can visit my piece of work on Jack The Ripper here, which is the most notorious killer of all time. Today's topic is something we call "Rage Killings". So I would suggest to people who don't like this kind of stuff, should stop reading right away because this topic involves brutality.

Family Background

Andrew Borden was a wealthy and influential property developer from Fall's River, Massachusetts born in 1822. Andrew was married to Sarah Morse, born in 1823, and had two children, Emma Borden, and Lizzie Borden. Emma was born in 1851 and Lizzie was born in 1860. Both of the sisters had religious fostering as children. Both were deeply involved in church activities. In fact, Lizzie was also serving organizations like the Christian Endeavor Society as a secretary-treasurer.

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In 1863, Lizzie's mother Sarah died. Three years later her father got married to another woman named Abby Durfee Gray, born in 1828. But Lizzie always believed that she got married to her father for the "wealth". However, it was very well-known that Mr. Borden was fond of living frugally. Lizzie wanted her family to move out to the area of their class, to The Hill. But her father would rather like to live here only.

What & When Happened

On 4th August 1892, something happened that shook away the Borden family and almost the whole United States of America. In the morning, around 9 A.M. Mr. Borden went for his routine morning walk. At that time, at Borden's only Lizzie, her stepmother Abby and their maid, Bridget Sullivan, or as they used to call "Maggie" was present. Maggie was the Borden's previous maid's name, but to fill out her space they named Bridget after Maggie. Emma was out of town as she went to meet one of her friends. John Morse, the maternal uncle of Lizzie and Emma, had arrived at Borden's on 3rd August, just a day before to discuss some business with Mr. Borden. He stayed over in a guest room. 

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Around 10.30 A.M. when Mr. Borden returned from the morning walk, he slept away on the living room couch. Suddenly Lizzie heard a voice of thud or groan, as she said in her testimony, while she was in a backyard barn. She went into the house and found her father dead, in fact, murdered. She immediately summoned Bridget. At that time, Bridget was taking a nap in her room on the 3rd floor, allegedly. Mr. Borden was hit on his head multiple times, 11 times to be specific, according to the forensic investigation. When the police found out Andrew's body, one of his eyeballs had been split in two as he was sleeping while being murdered. 

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After a while, Maggie and Lizzie went upstairs to tell Mrs. Borden about this tragedy. Surprisingly, Abby was already dead, let's say murdered. Her body was laid down in the guest room where John Morse was staying for the night. She had been struck 18 times in her head with a hatchet, just like Andrew. First one to the head and then 17 more to the back of her head. It's pretty much clear that Mrs. Andrew was murdered sometime between 9 A.M. to 10.30 A.M. This is the timeline of the murders as per the suspects' testimonies.

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Suspects

Lizzie Borden

First of all, according to the investigation, Mr. Borden was very strict when it came to his daughters. Even though he was wealthy, he lived frugally, which Lizzie never liked. Lizzie had a fall out with her step-mother when Mr. Borden bought a house for Abby's half-sister. They both had a dispute over some other things also.

Lizzie kept changing her statements during testimonies. Her answers were inconsistent. On the day of the murders, when Andrew came back from the morning walk, the door was locked so he summoned Maggie to open the door for him, at that moment Maggie heard Lizzie laughing from the upstairs. That was the same floor where Abby's body was found. However, Lizzie denied it when asked about this. She said that she wasn't upstairs, she was in a backyard barn. Maggie told that when she went downstairs, where Mr. Borden's body was found, Lizzie was wearing an unstained blue dress i.e. her clothes did not have any bloodstains. 

In defense of Lizzie changing her statements, Borden's family doctor said that he had to prescribe a double dose of morphine to help Lizzie sleep after the murders which might be the reason behind her confusion. Big sister Emma claimed that they did not have any anger and rage for their stepmother. During the investigation, the fact that Lizzie tried to buy a poison called Prussic acid just a day before the murders, revealed. Also, she didn't cry at all at the funeral, which gave a reason to believe that she hated her parents.

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Alice Russel, a 40-year-old, spinster religious member of Central Congregational, was Lizzie's best friend. After Lizzie found out about the murders, she sent Maggie to summon Alice. Alice had to sleepover at the Borden's for a few nights after the murders. Alice had testified many times before for this case, but on 1st December 1892, she went to the jury to confess something that she hadn't before. She told them that on Sunday morning after the murders, Lizzie burnt a dress in a cast-iron coal stove that was hidden in a shelf in a backyard barn. Hmm, interesting!!! In my opinion, there are only three possible scenarios here,

• Lizzie wore this same dress during the murders, then changed the dress before calling Maggie downstairs, where Maggie saw her wearing unstained clothes.
• Lizzie and Maggie were in this together, so Maggie lied about unstained clothes. That's a complete another theory that I'll discuss later.
• According to Lizzie, this dress had paint all over it so it was worthless and she had to burn it, but still why would she hide it???

John Morse

As I mentioned earlier, John Morse was the brother of Sarah Morse, Andrew Borden's first wife. Andrew and John ran a business together. Apparently, John had come to Borden's to discuss business with Andrew just a day before the murders. Investigators thought that failing livestock business could be a motive for John. 

In fact, during Lizzie's testimony, when asked if her father had mentioned a will, she denied and added that she heard John talking about the will one day i.e. John knew about Andrew's will. Maybe greed could be a motive as if Andrew and Abby would die then all the wealth and property would belong to two daughters. But what if we frame them in the murders of their parents? Sounds interesting? Maybe John would have thought of the same, MAYBE. 

There's more to it. Since the murders were so cruel that the police and media were not ready to accept that a woman could kill like this. So, the police were in search of a Male and a foreigner. Another interesting angle is that, if there is a dead body that has been killed in the same way, there would be blood all over the place which was not the case with Andrew and Abby's dead bodies. So forensic officers suggested that whoever killed them, must be very good at cleaning the blood. So either it could be a doctor or a butcher or something like that. Surprisingly, John Morse used to be a butcher.

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John claimed that he was visiting a relative who was sick, with a town doctor. However, the same town doctor was looking at the bodies at the same time. Strange!!! But because of no physical evidence against him, he couldn't be proved guilty.

Bridget Sullivan (Maggie)

When Lizzie testified, she said, Maggie went to take a nap when Andrew left for the morning walk. She was resting just above the guest room where Abby's body was found. 

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There weren't any signs of stress or dragging someone on the crime scene i.e. both were killed at the same spot where their bodies were found i.e. Abby was murdered in the guest room only. Maggie claimed that she was not fully asleep, then how come she didn't hear anything? Especially, when someone is using a hatchet, that too 18 times!!!

Most convincing theory

All the fans and investigators of this case like this theory a lot as it explains a lot with reasons. It was Lizzie and Maggie together that carried out the whole act. This theory involves Lizzie falling for Maggie. They both were romantically involved in each other. Somehow Mrs. Borden found out. So to cover this whole thing up they had to kill Abby and Andrew. Some of the fans of this theory claim that in later life, Lizzie had a crush on an actress, as result her sister had to move out from the home where she and Lizzie were living together, as I mentioned earlier.

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If this was the case, then it explains why Maggie didn't "hear" anything, why Lizzie's clothes were "unstained". But again this theory has no proof backing it, so let it be a theory only. During the investigation, as evidence, a handle-less hatchet was found from the basement of the house till the date clean of blood.

Why Trials Ended Without A Single Conviction

Borden's double murder case was a sensation all over the nation. As people couldn't imagine such gruesome crime carried out by victims' daughter, which was religious and belonged to the upper class. Basically, this case challenged classism, nativism & wealthy people which are the same reasons that helped Lizzie go free. The media was also polarized in this case. 

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A large part of the United States was not believing that a female possibly could have murdered in such a cruel way, at a time when poison was a method of choice for female killers. People couldn't expect such an act from a woman of Lizzie's class that too serving in a church. Even there is a nursery rhyme that lies around Lizzie's story,

"Lizzie took an ax, and gave her mother forty-whacks,

When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one."

After Life

All the suspicious actions of Lizzie and all other suspects were turned out not enough to convict them. After the trial, they returned to the Fall River. Two months after the innocent verdict Lizzie and her sister Emma purchased a posh house on The Hill called "Maplecroft". Lizzie developed her interest in theatres and plays. She and Emma had a fall out in 1904, Emma moved out in 1905. Lizzie died on 1st June 1927. She was buried by the graves of her parents in Fall River's Oak Grove Cemetery.

In conclusion, the whole investigation was based on circumstantial evidence which is not enough for conviction. Mystery seekers and fans of this case can easily visit Borden's house. Often, paranormal activists, rent a room in the house and try talking to spirits, if they can get any answers related to the case or not. That's it for now. If you have any suggestions then let me know in the comment section. :D