Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-06-12
CASE OF LIZZIE BORDEN
Seventh Day of Her Trial at
New Bedford.
LEGAL LuMINARIEs wRANeLINe

the CaSe-1S 1her0 u conspiracy
New BEDFORD, June 12.-Promptly at
o'clock this morning the judges, the OPP
posing counsel and the prisoner were in
their places. and the seventh day OF the
Borden trial commenced. The court room
was packed as usual, large proportion of
the spectators being women.
Argument at once began with regard to
the admissibility of the report of the pris-
oner's testimony at the inquest.
1t is becoming more evident every day
that the Commonwealth is gradually
knocking the underpinning from the struc
ture it began to erect, be it prison or glib
bet, with such skill and celebrity in the
trial of Lizzie Borden, and, what is more
astonishing still, this work of demolition
is being accomplished by the very me-
chanics who helped lay the foundation.
The conflicting testimony regarding the
handle of the Ratchet with which it is said
quality and quantity of the dust with
which the handle was covered; the color
and style of the dress Miss Borden wore on
the morning of the urder; the alternately
proven and denied identity of the dress
with one she is said to have burned or the
one now in posse. sion of the State-all
this is becoming more of muddle as the
case progresses.
If Miss Borden, or some one for her, can
sal isfactOrly explain the alleged burning
of the waist, it is difficult to see unless it
has some much better cards in reserve
than a ny so far played, how the prosecu-
ton can convince the jury or the commun-
ICY that this young woman is guilty of the
atrocious crime with which she is charged.
In fact, the prosecution is gradually and
materially giving tangibility to the belief
which has existed in many minds that the
prisoner is the victim, Incredible as this
may seem, of a conspiracy on the part of
the Fall River police, who, it is limited,
being baffled at every turn, felt that they
had to distort facts in order to make a case
and, it is further intimated, earn the pro-
molten with which, as was disclosed, they
have since been rewarded.
A review of the case, viewed from the
standpoint of the prosecution, then from
that OF the defense, may be of interest.
The Governments case, as it stands. is
that Miss Lizzie Borden is guilty because
of the following facts: She lived a dull
routine in an uncongenial household where
life was monotonous, the fare was
wretched, her father was a parsimonious
man, and she hated her stepmother. So
odious to right-minded persons was the
manner OF living that the old people kept
their bedroom door locked, and bolted the
doors that led from their end of the house
| to that occupied by the daughters.
On the day before the murder she tried
to buy prussic acid, and on that night she
| went to visit her closest friend, Miss Rus
| SELL and talked to her Of her strange feel
| ing that something dreadful was going to
| happen She talked of poison, saying that
all her people had been sick, and she
| feared that the food was poisoned. She
| feared for her father because of his quar-
| relsomeness; in fact, she said she expected
| nothing less than her home would be
burned over her head. She said she had
been oppressed by this feeling for some
days, and while her sister and the servant
were merry, she was depressed. She chose
| for time for the murder a period when
| her sister was off on a visit, and the only
person at home besides her victims was
| the servant. She meant at first to poison
| her people with prussic acid but could not.
| While the servant was out of doors at
| work at the lower windows and her
mother was upstairs at the chamber work
she murdered her. An hour or two after
ward her father came in and she induced
him to lie down and sleep on a sofa where
| his head would be near a doorway, in
which she stood while she chopped his
| head the wall protecting her from the fly
/ ing blood. During all the bloody forenoon
| she saw to it that the house was locked on
| all sides against intrusion. How she pro-
| tected herself from blood stains while
| numbering her mother is not yet outlined.
i She might have been naked, though AS
she burned one of her dresses afterward,
| it is possible that that was what she wore.
| 1t will be admitted that during the second
| killing she need not have got any
| blood upon her When all was over she
called the servant down. She did not
scream or shrek, nor did she weep at any
time that anyone can testify to. She in
vented lie to the effect that Mrs. Borden
had got note and gone out, and to
this she adhered all day, until at the last
she said, "She thought she heard her come
in" well knowing that the only door at
| which the old lady could have come in
| was that of the kitchen, and yet to do sc
she must have passed the neighbors who
were then around her. That lie was told
to keep the people from looking for the
old lady and discovering her body
No note was discovered, as it would be
likely to be on the woman's body or about
the house She lied with still less system
| about her own movements. To no two per
| SONS did she describe them alike. To every
| one she said she was in the yard or barn, but
| beyond that no two of her stories agreed.
| Upon the very discovery of the murders,
when a police officer happened to ask a
question about her mother, she turned
| upon MIN Sharply ana SAID: one not
my mother; my mother died when 1 was
| a child" At the same time she showed by
a remark she made that she had picked
out the undertaken she meant to employ.
On the day of the funeral this Yankee
| girl, brought up in a house where every
| penny was squeezed till it was denied,
committed the astonishing act of burning
| up dress because it had little paint on
| it-a good dress made new that spring.
As for the motive that prompted the crime,
it seems ny-sided. The step mother HAD
led the father to give property to her rela-
tives, The murderer hated her, and said
| SO. She wanted money, ease and luxury.
| Had she killed h er father first the es; at
| would have benefited his wife's people.
Therefore, the mother was killed first
and the father afterward. The Common
wealth argues that only an inmate of the
house, familiar with the habits of the 9th
( ers, could have committed the murders
Miss Borden's defenders assert that the
| angry state of affairs in the Borden house
Is exaggerated that they will prove that
| In two years and nine months in that
house Bridget Sullivan never heard a
| quarrel or a cross word there, that her talk
| about forebodings to Miss Russell was