Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1893-06-19
|DRAW|NG TO A CLOSE
Battle For Human Life
Now Going On.
SUMMING UP THE EVIDENCE.
Governments Side Con sidered Weaker
Than That Of the Defense.

NEW BEDFORD, Mass, June l9.-The de-
fense relies largely upon the failure of the
prosecution to prove several points which
1t set up to substantiate Certainly, the
| state has been much more unfortunate In
this respect than the prisoners counsel,
for during the second week Of the trial
three great props for the commonwealth
have been knocked down.
Messrs. Knowlton and Moody were not
| greatly disturbed by the exclusion OF the
| testimony Of Anna II. Borden regarding
Lizzie's admission Of an unhappy home
life, although coming on the heels of the
| exclusion Of the important inquest evil
dence only intensified its disappointment
But the ruling out of the prussic acid
testimony
Was the Last Straw.
That the fact that the prisoners attempt
| to buy deadly poison at more than one
place and to clean furs on hot August
morning could not be admitted In spite OF
| positive identification by several people
was staggering blow that could not be
made light.
Had the defense suffered In anything
like such degree, the prosecution could
have been consoied, but AS IL was, the only
witnesses on the other side whose testi-
mony was rejected were Joseph LeMay,
who had seen wild man In the woods,
and Mrs Mary A. Durfee, who saw a
stranger angrlly disputing with Andrew
Borden fully 10 months before the MUIR
ders. Even IL this had beon admitted, it
would have been somewhat difficult to ex-
plain how II was that a man who had-
quarrelled with the husband should kill
| the wife first.
LIT us see what the prosecution at
uptei TO prove along the lines Of mo-
tive and exclusive testimony adopted.
Mr.. Moody asserted that unpleasant feel
ings existed between Lizzie and her stem
mother; that Lizzie had Just previously
Expressed Forebodings
of impending danger; that Lizzie had at
tempted to buy prussic acid without OBJ
tanning physioian's order, alleging that
Il was to be used In cleaning furs; that
Lizzie stated prior to her discovery Of her
fathers death she had been In the barn
loft, where an officer found no footprints
In the heavy dust; that Mrs. Borden was
killed at least an hour before her husbands;
that Lizzie asserted Mrs. Borden had just
before the hour of the tragedies been
Called Away by q Note.
had been discovered on the promises
hatchet with a broken handle and a blad
fitting the wounds In Andrew Bordens
skull, and that Lizzie on Aug. burned q
dress which she said was soiled with
paint.
The points left uncovered by the de-
fense were the question of priority of death
and the purported note calling the woman
81 speedily murdered to the bedside of an
Ill friend
rhe state did not with absolute posi-
tiveness establish the fact that the state of
digestion shown by the condition of the
contents Of the stonlachs Is always to be
relied upon as an accurate indicator of the
time Of death. There have been excep-
tions, according to the testimony of the
eminent physicians.
That Puxxling Note.
But the defense was even willing to & n
cede that Mrs. Borden died an hour before
her husband. for the assertion that Lizzie
must have seen the body of her stepmother
as she stood at the head of the stairs when
her father entered the house. was an
swered In another way-by the experiment
tried by Uncle John and Mrs. Brigham.
AS to the note. althogh the
Writer and Messenger
were advertised for vainly, barring such
of the other points, the evidence on which
was not excluded, all were met either by
absolute denial of several witnesses or
their equally absolute affirmation OF facts
which Mr.. Jennings promised In his OPEN
ng argument to PROVE The defense ex-
pected to show by Uundertaker Renwick's
story that ring which had been on Mr..
Borden's finger bad disappeared but Mr..
Renwick could remember nothing about it.
The story Of the quarrel between the
sisters, aud Lzzie's charge that Emma
had "peached," which Mrs. Reagan had
insisted upon so firmly. was met with
such an avalanche Of denial that IL was re-
solved to call the police matron's testi-
mony I'm rebuttal, and she was driven i'm n
carriage from Fall River I'm great haste.
only to find on her arrival that there had
been change Of opinion as to the wisdom
of the action.
II was shown by more than half dozen
people thu . 'eral strangers, and possibly
suspicious looking personages, had been
seen around the Borden house within the
"a hours preceding the murders, facts
which apparently took the Fall River po-
lice by surprise.
or course of all the testimony for the O.
fense none approaches that OF Hyman Lu-
binsky in importance. Fortunately for
the prisoner, the Hebrew r,dler is able to
clinch his story by the testimony ofa livery
stable keeper, with whom he put up his
horse. But there is even yet another
more auspicious circumstance In this con-
nection. II seems that on a day shortly
before the murders, Lubinsky had sold
Bridget Sullivan ice cream, and therefore
was able to say positively that the woman
hesaw in the Borden yard Aug. was not
the Irish servant girl.
Officer Medley's testimony Of undis-
turbed dust on the barn loft floor was met
by several denials, including thay of a re-
porter whose habit Of observation made
his findings as reliable as those of q de-
tective.
Only one drop Of blood was found ON
any of the prisoners clothing, that smaller
In size than the head OF an ordinary pin,
and, strange 70 say, on the back of an un.
derskirt -
Two Poins.
of which the government will make use
are Lizzie's remark TO Mrs. Churchill aud
Bridget Sullivan that she thought she
heard her mother come In, her request that
they 90 IN search Of Mrs. Borden and the
49,