The morning call., 1893-06-16
DID LIZZIE BORDEN KILL HER
FATHER?

The evidence of the drug clerk who tes-
tilted that Lizzie Borden tried to buy prus-
sic acid of him before the murder of her
father and her mother is the most damag-
ing testimony yet adduced against the
prisoner. Thus far the case for the COM
mon wealth has been weak. LizzIe's ami
mostly against her stepmother IS not m ore
intense than is manifested in many fami-
lies. There has been no direct evidence to
connect her with the assault. 1t is ute
possible 10 account for the stains on her
dress without assuming that they must be
blood stains. II the case had closed on
Tuesday it would have been difficult to
justify a verdict of guilty. But If 1t is
shown by incontrovertible evidence that
she tried TO buy prussic acid, and was only
prevented from doing so by the Massa-
chuSetts law, which forbids the sale Of
posons except on physicians prescrip-
tion, suspicious which are now feeble will
become strong. Neither hydrocyanic acid
nor cyanide of potassium has any domestic
use. In large quantities the latter is con-
verted into prussian blue for dying. But
young woman could put neither of the
two compounds TO any innocent purpose.
a girl who goes to a druggist to buy prus-
be only of dog or a cat.
In forming passing judgments on the
case as it progresses it must be remembered
that thus far the public have only heard
the peoples side. Nothing has been heard
from the prisoner. She cannot of course,
be expected to prove a negative. But she
may account for her time at the moment of
the murders in such manner as to demon
60 t,a o,,A pHa, Il 4
a body of circumstantial evidence going to
show that the crime may have been the
work of an outsider. In the absence of
positive evidence bringing the deed home
to her. the jury will not find her guilty if
the double homicide can by any chance
have been done by some one else.
In some respects this is one of the most
remarkable murder trials on record. At
10 80 o'clock in the morning, in dwelling
house fronting on one of the main streets
of prosperous city, in rooms in that house
looking out upon the street, two persons. in
the full possession of their faculties. able
to struggle and able to cry out, are done TO
death within a few minutes of each other,
and no one can form an idea who killed
them. Murders are generally committed
in darkness and solitude and the silence of
the night; these murders were done in
broad day. almost in view of passers-by, in
a place aud at time when the assassin
ian imminent risk of being interrupted at
his work. And yet no one can feel posi-
tive who committed the deed.
In other murder cases which have been,
at least for time, inScrutable mysteries,
the deed was done under circums tances
which assis ted concealment. In the Ber-
dell case the man was found dead in his
dentists Office, stabbed in many places with
long, sharp knife. The doctor was killed
at night, when he and his assassin were
the only persons present in the house. In
the Colt murder the deed was done In the
DAYTIME, in an office in house which was
full of people passing to and fro, but
there were so many noises in the corridor
into which the office opened that the noise
of q struggle would not attract atten tiOn.
In the Webster -Parkman murder, also,
the crime was committed in the daytime,
but it was done ia the seclusion of a labor
atOry, which was kept securely locked,
and in which bammering constantly took
place. Il will be noted that these differ
from the Borden case, in that the assassin
had plenty OF time to deal with the corpse
after the deed, whereas the murderer of
the Bordens had only a few minutes to
prepare for discovery.
If Lizzie Borden is parricide, it must
be assumed that she is one of those phe-
nomenal monsters whose nerves and
muscles are under absolute control She
must have brooded over the prospect of
being dsinherited until her mind became
unbalanced and her consciousness Of right
and wrong destroyed. We are told that
she WIS devout church member; If she
killed her father she must have become a
religious enthusiast shaped in the type If
the cast-iron devotees o. the old days who
! thought that the killing oil hereto would
be grateful 70 God. If, on the other hand,
the Bordens were killed by wandering
! burglar who took life in order to capture
property, the murderer's flight, without
leaving any trace, is one of the most re-
| rnarkabe escapes on record.