Was lizzie Borden guilty?

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Kelesie Cotner

Dr. Anne Acker

Engl111

Jukly 24,2019

Was Lizzie Borden Guilt

The infamous murders of Andrew Borden and her step mother Abby Borden as well as the 1892 trial of the primary suspect Lizzie Borden, have been the subject of reimagination more than 125 years later. Andrew Borden the father of Lizzie Borden was a prosperous real estate owner and Abby Borden was his second wife. Despite the mystery surrounding the gruesome deaths of both Mr. and Ms. Borden in their home in complete daylight. Amidst the town's activities by a rogue human agency, the evidence against Lizzie Borden is strong enough to warrant speculation that she was responsible for the murders. This paper will be an attempt at proving the guilt of Lizzie Borden while taking into consideration of the local history and circumstantial e evidence related to the gruesome crime. The extreme violence of the crime was at odds with the Victorian motion of “true womanhood” which Lizzie embodied by her class, race, and faith. Whoever killed Mrs. Borden knocked her down at the first blow before hacking her back eighteen times with a hatchet (Tho 19/1033). Mr. Borden was attacked approximately ninety minutes later as he was sleeping. He was brutally chopped beyond recognition. The police were initially looking for a suspect outside the home, someone who was maybe Portuguese, Irish, or French Canadian who had moved into the mill town. They even began to look for someone that Mr. Borden could have patiently made upset and they wanted revenge on him. Lizzie was an upright, native born, church going woman from a wealthy family. Member of her church and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTCU) even attested to her incorruptibly (McC15/1 1033).

The Borden’s were not a close-knit family and little affection passed between any of its members. In fact, the family decisions had grown so deep that by the time Mr. And Mrs. Borden were murdered, the family rarely ate together at the family dinner table. However, Lizzie was very close to her father. She gave him a gold ring after graduating from high school and he always wore it, he was murdered wearing it (sch93/1 1033). The killing if an couple in an quiet home, especially in such a gruesome manner, was unheard of in their small town and any family member would have been the last suspect to the killing of a family member.

Lizzie was unable to maintain a consistent story about her whereabouts. Her initial report was about a violent confrontation her father had with a mysterious man the morning of the murder was invalidated when all the circumstance surrounding possible suspects were found to be unlikely. The investigation began at the home when it was discovered that only someone familiar with the home could have murdered the Border’s without being detected since every door of the hose had been locked. The only people resent in the house at the time of the murders were Lizzie and Bridget Sullivan, the house keeper. Lizzie became a primary suspect when she was discovered to have been untruthful about where she was in-between the two murders during the first interview. She stated that she was in the barn loft looking for iron to make sinkers after which she stayed to eat pears although investigations showed no footprints in or out of the barn and the heat made it unlikely that any woman would be in the loft for an reason (Caj14/1 1033). She also said that she did not have any idea about the whereabouts of her stepmother. She claims not seeing or hearing anything during the time of the murders were suspicious as well since her step mother was murdered un an upstairs guest room while Lizzie was downstairs. Whereas the first part is contentious, modern investigators disbelieve the claim that she did not hear the sound of Abby Borden’s body falling to the ground after the violent attack given the proximity of the murder scene. (Tho 19.1 1033)

Lizzie’s relationship with her step-mother were not the best and there was always tention between the two of them. Lizzie Borden was comfortably provided for and lived in her father's house. However, the maid stated that Lizzie frequently initiated disputes about money and the family’s residence. Despite the position and the affluence of Mr. Borden, the family had moved to the house on Second Street which lacked many of the amenities that other families of similar would have demanded. Lizzie thought that the modest house in a middle-class neighborhood was not fitting and that they should move to the The Hills, a more affluent part of the town (Caj 14/1 10033). After her acquittal, Borden returned to the fall River and promptly bought a house in the where she had wanted to be.