Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1892-08-31
THE BORDEN MURDER
AN IMPORTANT WITNESS TURNS UP
IN PROFESSOR WOOD.
Lizzie with Her Mother and Father About
the Time the Grimes We're Committed
The Prisoners Inquest Evidence.
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| of the stomachs of Mr.. and Mrs. Borden;
| that boths stomachs appeared TO be per-
fectly natural. Mrs. Borden's con-
tanned about eleven ounces Of solid
food. partially digested, and showed
wheat, starch. and meat. The stomach
of MIR. Borden contained only SIX
ounces, chiefly water. On the 1Oth
| OF August he received from Dr. Dolan
Hatcher two axes and blue dress skirt
| tho dress waist, a white starched shirt, a
| lounge-coYer, and three small envelopes:
| in which were hair taken from blr. and
Mrs. Borden and hair from the hatchet. on
August 10th. The witness received q pair
of shoes and pair of black stockings.
| The hatchet contained number OF sus-
picious-looking spots. but q careful ex-
animation showed no traces OF blood.
NO TRACE OF BLOOD.
Every spot which looked like blood was
examined. but no traces of blood
were seen. The smooch on the blue
skirt looked like blood. but was found not
| to be blood. The white skirt had one spot
which looked like blood. and was found 70
be one. and il was directly in front about
six inches from the bottom. The carpet
was blood-stained-th was the sitting.
room carpet--and there was blood, OF
course, on that. There was no blood on
the lounge-cover. An envelope marked
Hair from A. }. Borden" was simply
white hair. Mrs. Bordens was dark. The
hair on the batchet was not human hair.
ISensation.l 1t was more like that taken
| from an animal. The spot on the right
shoe was not blood. and there was no
blood on either shoes or stockings: 1here
was nothing on the two axes. Near the
edge of the hatcbet were spots which
seemed to be blood, but were found not 70
be. There was a spatter on the blade, but
| IL was not blood, and there were spots on
the side of the head of the Ratchet, which
looked TO me like blood, and thought
they were, said the witness, but they were
not
(Hatchet produced, and Lizzie ex-
counsel.)
LIzzIE's WHEREABOUTS.
Two things were demonstrated by the
| evidence in the mornlng-one that Lizzie
was in her stepmothers room a. y;3O. ana
that was about the time of the murder, and
| that she was in her fathers room about the
! time of his death. 1t IS understood that
while to the general public the testimony
of Professor Wood was favorable TO Lizzie
because 1t appeared 10 demonstrate that
there were no blood-stans on the clothes
or hatchet, il was really against her
because of his evidence in regard TO the
time of death.
COOL AND COLLECTED.
Of1cer Harrigan testified that IN one
room he found Miss Lizzie and Miss Alice
Russell. Lizzie was cool and collected,
but would not tell witness any thing about
the matter. Said she was in the barn
twenty minutes at the time the murder
was committed. Witness asked her II II
might not be half an hour and then fifteen
minutes, but each time was told IT was
twenty minutes. Witness asked what, II
anything, she had heard. and Lizzie an
swered that she had heard nothing at all,
nor had she seen anybody around.
THE PRISONERS EVIDENCE.
The examination of Lizzie Borden at
the coroner's inquest was put in evidence.
Miss Borden SAID her father gave the girls
the house on Ferry street, and Few
weeks ago he bought 1t back again. pay;
ing Emma and her separately. Lizzie had
heard hIr. Morse say several years ago
that her father had made q will. Her
father never said anything about will.
Her father, once about two weeks ago,
had trouble with q man whom she did not
know; they had some talk and she heard
the man say: Il thought a man with
reputation for getting money like you
would accept my Offer" Her father SAID
he had STAYED long enough and requested
him to get out, and he went away, saying
TROUBLE WITH HER sTEPMoTHER.
Lizzie had bad some trouble with her step
mother about five years ago, but II was
trivial. In some way her relations with
her stepmother we're not as between mo-
ther and daughter changed from calling
her mother TO Mrs. Borden" when there
we're some words over her stepslster, now
Mrs. George Whitehead. Emma had stood
as a mother to her. She made two state
ments about her whereabouts on the day
of the murders, when her father came
home. At first she said she was up
stairs, then she said she was in the kitchen
and to this last story she stuck. When
she found her father she ran at once TO
call her servant, never thinking OF calling
her stepmotheE because she supposed
she was out, and she said TO Mrs.
Churchill that she wished somebody
would see if she was in the house: She
thought it was not more than five minutes
after her father came in when she went to
the barn and was there twenty minutes.
THE HOMESTEAD SOLD.
Lizzie said further that Mrs. Borden's
homestead was for sale and it was bought
in by MIR. Borden for her. Lizzie stated
that she said that what he did for her be
ought to do for them. meaning herself and
Emma. About that time she commenced
to feel sorely towards her stepmother.
She said she never went into any drug
store for prusslc acid. She said that about
two weeks before the tragedy she heard or
saw somebody run down the steps and away.
See saw something similar about the house
last winter. When she first saw the form
recently il was on the back steps and ran
towards the barn. Last winter she saw
person run away on sunday night when
she was coming home from church ana
told her father of the occurrence. but said
nothing to him about the second ahair.
This closed the governments case.
MANY SURPRISES.
There were many surprises in the BOr-
den hearing to-day, not the least among
them being Professor Il. 5: Woods testi-
mony. 1t was the popular belief tnat ne
would show some traces OF poison IN the
| stomachs of the murdered people, ana
would produce a muTderous-looklng ship
carpenters axe. having blade from D TO
Z inches long. On the contrary, he pulled
out an inDocent-looking batchet from a
medium-sized travelling valise, and quick
| ly, but firmly, told the court he could not
find the slightest trace OF blood on II, nor
was it allowed that such an instrument, IN
the hands of woman, could lnflct ghastly
wounds. He also demolished the prussic
acid and other poisoning theories. and the
crowds in the courtroom wondered what
was coming next.
TIE HATCHET Episode
OF the hatchet episode the Ne'os says To-
night: 1T needed no testimony to make
il apparent that the hatchet was not the
terrible weapon used in the murders. The
wonder now is that the police attached
such importance 10 it except from the sup
position that 1t was the only weapon to be
found that approached even the possi-
bility OF having been used. Professor
Wood looked for traces of all kinds OF
common polsons. His failure TO hnd them
added much weight to Miss Lizzie's strong
denials that she was ever in Smiths drug
store US testified to by Bence and Others,
who did not know her personally"
A FACT ESTABLISHED.
The government officials assert that they
did not depend upon the poison theory.
1t was given out semi-otficially some days
ago that all the District Attorney hoped
to prove by Professor Woods testimony
was that Mrs Borden was killed some time
before her husband. This tact was well es-
tablshed. Professor Wood said the mate
-. A. L. ko1