St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1893-03-16
LIZZIE BORDEN AT TAUN TON
A Fall River Journalist Gives the Latest
News In This Interesting Case.

learned some things not generally known
in regard to Lizzie A. Borden, her case,
and the probabilities Of its being tried
this spring. | found, first of all, that
Miss Borden was as well as ever, cheer
full and contented, and having more
privileges than those of her friends in
other places who appeal often to the
press for a public remonstrance against
the manner in which she is being treated
think. She carries on, within limitations,
of course, the same life that she would at
home, and, while conscious that she is
not her own mistress, is on the whole
almost as happily situated as if she
were in Fall River; and | fancy that with
the incessant strain Of curiosity and
speculation which is going on here
about her she must feel as if life here
unless restricted to her own rooms
would now be very uncomfortable.
noticed that she had light in her cell,
and there were flowers on the window
ledge Mrs. Wright, the sheriff's wife,
who has known the prisoner all her life,
off and on, is the same gentle, grand
motherly woman to her that she has long
been known to be to young persons, and
makes the feminine associations of the
place agreeable enough.
There are no callers at the Jail now,
to see Lizzie Borden, except Emma, her
sister, Rev. E. A. Buck and Rev. w.
Walker Jubb, of the Central church,
Miss Mary L. Holme, and few Others.
The "veiled lady" who was proved to be
Miss Elizabeth A. Stockwell of Worces-
ter, makes no more attempts to get in,
and so Miss Borden is without her
bouquets.
The prisoner has no idea when she will
be tried, and indeed has not yet been
arraigned on the charge embodied in the
report OF the grand jury. She wishes to
be tried in Taunton, rather than Fall
River, but she does not appear to be
anxious as to the time of the trial. She
has now been imprisoned more than
six months, and | should not predict
that she will come out for trial before
the middle of May. 1t has been stated
that the judges have fixed the time for
the trial, and one progressive newspaper
has automatically (?) announced that it
will begin June 10th. How untrust-
worthy such statements are may be in
ferred from three facts: |. Neither the
encouragement, nor the district at
torney, norcounsel for the defence has re-
ceived any such announcement. II.
Neither of these parties has been consult
ed as all three undoubtedly would be by
the judges of the superior court, as to
their convenience in the matter. Ill.
Neither of these parties has received
notice of the intention of the court to
meet with reference to fixing the time. :
Meanwhile there is widespread specu-
lation both about the identity of
the murderer and the manner OF the
murders. The number in Fall River who
cling to the theory of Lizzie A. Borden's
innocence, even though they have no
clearly defined theory of the sort OF per-
son who committed the murders, is of
respectable size; but the great body of
those both here and in Taunton who
talk with any intelligence on the subject
are on the other side. When detectives
and other men familiar with criminal
characters tell you what they think,
they come to the same conclusion that
the 81 men came to, who found Lizzie A.
Borden guilty and brought in true bill
against her. 1t is clear to such that she
murdered or procured the murder of her
parents.
Deputy Sheriff Falvey, of Taunton
traces her course throughout that his
toric 18th of August, and finds perfect
chain of conviction in the acts and
words of Miss Borden on that day. In
the very act of standing at the door after
her alleged discovery, on returning from |
the barn, that her father was killed,
instead of rushing into the street and |
alarming everybody with the CHASTITY an
nouncement, he finds a convcting cir
cumstance; for, he says, she was prob
ably so far overcome by her crime that |
she had to go to the door to get air. 4
She was neither bood-spattered nor
frantic to inform the world of what had /
happened,
He thinks she wore gossamer water
proof and put it in the fire as soon as
she killed her father, He takes as signih- |
cant Lizzie A. Borden's differing versions
of why she went to the barn, her speedy |
intimation to Adelaide B. Churchill that |
perhaps Mrs. Borden, too, had been kill
ed, and her inability to show an abb |
against the accusation of Eli Bence and |
his associates in the drug store that she |
applied to him for prussic acid the day
before the murders.
There is a theory that the old people
were murdered by a Chinaman, the |
manner in which their heads were hack
ed being like the manner Of the Chinese
in cutting human beings Some who
cannot conceive how Lizzie A. Borden
could have had the strength to kill two
persons in that way hold that she
employed a Chinaman to commit the
deeds, and that the weapon and stained
clothes, if there were any such clothes,
were spirited away in the ample time
which passed before the house was
searched and guarded, and the China