The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-06-21
THE CRIME AND IT'S MYSTERY.
If Lizzie Borden Did Not Commit the
Murder, Who Did:

3 tb1 1AEOc3c4s GCEU4e cEEG5e WIKI sl4cG SUE
Z stood charged. there is sboas the case Jet =
mystery that has never been unrayeied.
try the moss asiute analytical minds 20 IN
+ TsTeI il as they may, ard that /. now seems
viii never BE- solved. II Lizzie Borden did
not kin her parents. who did? Andrew
E d. Borden, man whose wealth vas estl-
mated az from SJ05.GC0 70 500. go. was
found murdered and with his head almost
+ CIT 70 pieces on the lounge in the sitting
room Of his house. On Second street. Fall
River, az Il - o'clock on the morning Of
( Thursday, August /, 1892. When the
startled friends and neIghbors regainsd
/ their senses sufficiently 10 Intend TO &C
/ quaint his wife. with the occurrence they
( found her murdered 10 an almost exaeriy
sirai a. manner, On the floor Of the seco nd
! story spare ROOM" wnithec she had gone
70 prepare il for the rec= pti6n IF guest.
Il appeared. though this point was
never fully investigated By the police.
that only two people we're in or about the
| house al the time, namely, LIZZIE Borden,
the dead mans daughter, and Briiget Sui
Ivan, serTant Osing TO the facts that
superior intelligence was requisite for the
eoncealment Of the crime and that the
daughter had not warmly loved, though il
could not be sho sn that she even di-iked
her stepmother, and also that she had been
in patient Of her fathers parsimGny. sus-
piciOu fell upon Lizzie Borden, and Ci,y
Marshal HiillaEd and District Attorney
Knowton prosecuted the case on the the
ory Of her guilt. In secret cross-exzmin-
sti8u three days long, when she was &C.
pTived Of counsel and made 70 tell he
same story over and over again for ihe
purpose Of creating discrepancies. the Dis
trict Attorney succeeded ia n.aki1g the
accused contradict herself in several par
ticuIars and undoubtedly convicted her Of
one falseh God.
This was when she said that she had be-
IieVed that her stepmDther was ont tina;
morning, because she had got note ask
ing her 70 cali On sick friend. There is
no evidence that such a note was ever re-
e~iyed, and the contention is hat she first
told he story to prevent her father from
going upstairs and af;erwzrd stuck 10 il.
TIE contradictions were IN more or less
important points, such as when she &C.
counted for her own temporary absence
from the room where she had been and
where her father was murdered, by say
ing once that she had been out TO the barn
10 cut SINGERS for fishing excursion to
Marion, and again that she had been
there TO get a piece of iron 10 fix window.
Again she "a d she had given her father
his slippers when he came in at 0:45 from
his morning visit to the two banks In
which be was interested, while the fact was
( that be lay down in his boots TO take the nap
/ from which he never woke. Again. che
! said. in response 70 one question, that the
fat f6rx ab rad nc ipH er
/ were at Marion, and, being pressed. said
| that she had intended to buy new lines
I II she did cut sinkers in the barn she never
produced them nor the piece Of lead from
which they were taken. though had she
/ doue so the District Attorney would have
( denounced them as manufactured evidence
I and argued against their admissibility In
court. But 1t was on this barn story. its
/ improbability and contradictions. that the
/ prosecution bore most heavily 10 arguing
/ for a eommitUe Htau 1t was In fact Lizzie
1 Borden's alibi. II she was OF 10 the barn
/ she must have been in the house. in the
very room or the kitchen adjoining it
| where her father was murdered, or in the
yard, where she would have seen his muir
! derer escape.
! On the point Of intent the prosecution
! had ore material fact. namely, that On the
! day before the murders Lizzie Borden had
tried to buy prussic acid in drugstore at
/ South Maine street and Columbia avenue.
/ Fall River, saying that she wanted it for
| the purpose Of packing furs. The fact
was that her furs had been packed for
months. Identifications are things in
which witnesses make many plumbers. but
even If Eli Bence, the drug clerk, had
been mistaken in his. IL is probable tina!
the woman who asked for the prussic acid
would have come forward and corrected
the error-probable, that is TO say, except
on the hypothesis that another murder
was meditated in FAN River that day and
never carried out
AS to motive the prosecution was very
weak. District Attorney knowlton dwelt
much on Andrew Borden's niggardliness,
which had prevented him from even put
ting stationary bathtub in his house.
But murders for money are almost in.
| varably committed for ready N oney and
Lizzie Borden had plenty of that-one
thousand dollars in bank. house yielding
rent, some corporation stock and very
moderate allowance for pocket money Of
SO a week. She was but 80 years old, and
before she was 30 her father, who was &c
years old and not robust WAS pretty sure
to leave her fortune, while in few years
more her stepmother's life. then 81 years
in being, would end and with it the last
barrier between her and her sister Emma
and the whole Borden estate. The only
evidence that there had been any trouble
in the family about money matters was
that Lizzie and Emma some years before,
on the occasion or handsome gift from
their father 10 their stepmother, prevailed
upon him to make over to them real estate
worth $4,000, which at the time OF the
murders stood in their names.
Two blood-stained hatchets were found
on the Borden premises. and it was shown
on the trial also that shortly after the muir.
der Lizzie had burned dress which, she
claimed, had been stained by paint. Fur.
Their, it was in evidence that after she ad
been held to answer for the crime. Lizzie
Borden received visit from her sister
and the two had engaged In an alteration
during which the accused girl, seemingly
in anger. had used the words: you have
given me away, but I will not yield an
inch"
The matron of the Jail, who told thl:
story, denied it 20 several Witnesses
though She subsequently swore to it on
the stand. and both the denials and the
affirmatIons were in evidence.
On<the other hand, Lizzie Borden W as q