The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1893-06-13
sTRANeE MURDER CASE.
Story Ofthc Crime for which u Young
Lady 10 now ON Trial.

~ VI 1l1El0 oOT0Oh iOE tuO
murder of her father and stepmother,
now In progress in New Bedford,
Mass, Is one of the most remarkable
Of the age.
Mr.. Borden and his wife werem murder
ed on the morning of August 4, 1892,
in their house, No. 90 Second street,
Fall River. The crime was committed,
1t is supposed, between half-past ten
and q quarter-past eleven o'clock.
There were that morning in the house,
which is In the heart OF the city, Ave
Lizzie Borden, the servant, Bridget
Sullivan, and John ". Morse, Lizzie's
uncle.
Morse, who was the guest of the
Bordens, left the house early and did
not return until after the murders
we're discovered. Emma Borden,
Lizzie's sister, vas away on q visit to
New Bedford. Thus it is known that
at the time the murder was committed
there were four persons in the house.
Lizzie Borden and Bridget Sullivan
having been Mr.. Borden and his wife.
H SERVANT GIRLS STORY.
Mr. Borden, according to Bridget
Sullivan's story, was in the house at
, half-past ten. He went to the dining
room, sat down and took q key and
went upstairs by the back way. He
returned in a few minutes, placed the
key on q shelf and sat down in the
sitting room. Bridget says she re-
manned down stairs until five minutes
to eleven o'clock, when she went up
stairs to lie down.
Bridget saw Lizzie Borden pass
through the sitting oom into the
dining room carrying an ironing board
q few minutes after Mr.. Borden went
into the sitting room. Bridget de-
clares that all this time she did not know
where Mrs. Borden was. Lizzie had
told her Mrs. Borden had gone out or
was preparing to go out.
The servant says she had been lying
down only ten or fifteen minutes whom
Lizzie called her. Lizzie's voice told
She sprang from the he'd and hurried
down stairs. She says she found
Lizzie leaning with her back against
the backo door. Lizzie, according to
Bridget, said her father was dead.
There il considerable dispute as to
whether Bridget meant that Lizzie
had said her father was hurt and not
dead.
Lizzie hurried Bridget after DIR.
Bowen, who lives diagonally across
the street. DR.. Bowen vas away from
uoiue, anu WITCH Vic iflSuJeHeuS erVanu
came back Lizzie sent her after Mrs.
Russell, who lives in Borden street.
When Bridget came back with Mrs.
Russell, DR.. Bowen and Mrs. Churchill
were in the house.
Mrs. Churchill and Bridget went up
stairs to look for Mrs. Borden, who
they believed had come in while they
were down stairs. On the floor of the
bedroom, between the bed and the bu-
reau, they found Mrs. Borden's body.
They rushed downstairs, and Mrs.
Churchill told DR.. Bowen that Mrs.
Borden had been murdered.
According to Bridget's testimony.
when she went up stairs to lie down
Mr. Bowden was in the sitting room
alive and well. From fifteen to twenty
minutes lator, that is, at from five
minutes before eleven to fifteen
minutes after eleven, he was lying
dead, with about q dozen cuts, made
by an axe or Ratchet, on his head and
face.
THE ACCUSED GIRLS STORY.
When Lizzie Borden was called upon
to testify she said her father complain
She adjusted the pillows for him. She
was preparing to do some ironing, and
as her fiatirOns were not hot enough
she went into the barnyard to pass the
time she would have to wait before she
could use them.
In the yard she picked up some
pears hat had fallen from the trees.
Then she went into the barn for
sinkers for her fish line, as she in
tended to go to Marion the next day to
fish.
She knew there were sinkers in a
little o up stairs in the barn and
| Shn wont fhapn IN nnf fhor, TN6of
was the first time in three months she
had been in the barn. Up stairs in
the barn she ate four pears, and after
looking for the sinkers returned to
the house When she got there she
found her father murdered and sum-
moned Bridget.
The heads md faces of Mr.. and Mrs.
Borden were so chopped and hacked
that they were beaten almost out of
human resemblance. If Lizzie is guilty
she must have killed her father within
twenty minutes and then appeared be.
fore her neighbors without a spot of
blood on her clothing and without any
sign that she had hastily adjusted her
dress. In that time also she must have
concealed so effectively that it has
never been found the bloody weapon
with which the deed was committed,
and she also disposed of every scrap of
direct evidence that would connect her
with the crime.
Lizzie Borden wore o blue dress when
the neighbOrs entered the house and
found her father and her stepmother
murdered. She wore a blue dress
about the house in the morning. In
two rooms blood from the murdered
ones had spattered and spurted over
everything for many feet around the
dead bodies.
= In the minds of the authorities there
nST e was doubt that the murderer of
Mr.. and Mrs. Borden was smeared and
splashed with blood. With the excep-
ton of a single drop of blood the size
of a pin head on her white underskirt,
not a speck of blood was found on the
clothing Lizzie wore before or after the
murder.
THEORIES OF II CRIME.
A lot of ~theorizing has been done to
try to justify the suspicion that Lizzie
killed her parents. One suggestion is
that she stripped herself, and another
that she covered herself with a long
rubber garment that protected her
clothing. Rumors have been heard in
Fall River that witnesses have been
found who will testify ut the trial that
from the street they saw Lizzie at the
window of the room where Mrs. Bor-
den's body was found and that she wore
what looked like u hooded waterproof.
1t Is regarded, however, as almost
impossible for Lizzie to have complete
ly destroyed such a garment in so short