The Portland daily press., 1892-09-01
THE HoRDEN MURDER CASE.

The BURDEN MOhDLh SfACA1s
The evidence for the prosecution in |
the Borden case is closed. This does |
not necessarily mean that all the evil |
dence the government has against Lizzie
Borden has been put in, for in this pre-
liminary hearing all that the government
is required to do is to make out a case OF
probable cause, in other words show
enough suspicious circumstances to con-
vince the presiding justice that Miss Bor-
den should be held to await the action of
the grand jury. Yet inasmuch as every
body who was likely to have any knowl-
edge of the facts and circumstances sur
the tragedy has been put on the
stand by the government, the probability
is that abont all the evidence the prose-
cution has against the suspected party
has been given. There are three things
brought out in the evidence that have
some tendency to point to Miss Borden
as the guilty party. One is that she is
the only person excepting the servant
girl, who is known to have been in the
house near the time of the murder. A
second is her attempted purchase OF
prussic acid. A third is her contradic-
tory statements as to her whereabouts at
the time of the murder. OF these three
pieces of evidence by far the most sig
nificant is the second, relating to her at
tempted purchase of prussic acid. The
fact that she was the only person known
to have had the opportunity to commit
the murder is very slight evidence unless
it can be shown that nobody else could
have had the opportunity. This is not
shown and cannot be. Her contradic-
tory statements are of some significance,
yet the contradictions, assuming that the
witnesses have remembered accurately
what she said and repeated it exactly,
are not of very serious character. But
her attempted purchase of prussic acid,
if it be conclusively established, is very
serious matter, because it is diff
cult to explain it except upon the
theory that she intended to use the
poison to destroy human life. Prus-
sic acid is not poison which is used to
destroy vermin with like arsenic, nor to
kill cats and dogs, like strychnine. If
she had wanted apoison for either of
these purposes, it is extremely improb-
BILE that a person of Miss Borden's intel
ligence would have selected prussic acid
But on account of its exceeding viru-
lence, the smallness of the dose required
to produce death and it's rapidity of ac-
tion, it would quite naturally be selected
as the best of the poisons for homicidal
purposes. Therefore if it were estab-
lished beyond all reasonable doubt that
Miss Borden attempted to purchase prus-
sic acid it would go very far to prove
that she was meditating murder near the
time of the tragedy. This alleged pur-
chase of prussic acid is, it seems to us,
by far the strongest piece of evidence the
government has presented against the
accused. Indeed it is about the only
piece which standing alone is worth any
thing as showing guilt.
On the other hand the government has
brought out many facts strongly tending
to prove the innocence on the part OF the
accused. The fact that no blood has
been found on any of her clothing except
a spot on an underskirt no larger than
the head of pin is very strong evidence
in her favor. Prof. Wood, the expert,
does not hesitate to say that the person
| who committed the murder must have
been profusely spattered with blood. But
| it is proved that Miss Borden was seen
| by several people a few minutes after
| the murder and none of them detected
any sign of blood spots upon her clothes,
Furthermore frequent and thorough
| searches of the house have revealed nc
womanly garment with "a spot of blood
upon it, except the white underskirt, and
| the spot on that only as large as the head
of pin and not necessarily human blood
| Furthermore most persistent search has
failed to reveal any weapon with blooo
on it, though the weapon with which the
deed was done must have been thorough
| ly covered WIFI IL. IL rs Idiuly JUL
ceivable that within the short time which
elapsed between the murder and its dis
covery Miss Borden could have 81
thoroughly destroyed all the spatteree
clothing and bloody weapons that no evi
dence of that sort could be found.
The truth is the more this tragedy ii
examined into the deeper the myster.
becomes. There are some circumstances
which tend to implicate Miss Borden
the prussic acid incident if conclusiyel.
established being by far the stronges
one, and there are some circumstance
which seem to very strongly negative an.
assumption of guilt on her part. Will
possibly the government have evidence
enough to secure her committal to avail
the action of the grand jury, it is perfect
ly obvious that they have come very ia
short of making out conclusive cas-
against her.