Infamous America - LIZZIE BORDEN Ep. 1 | “Axe Murders”

Episode Date: September 23, 2020

August 4, 1892 is a hot day in Fall River, Massachusetts. The Borden house is quiet until 30-year-old Lizzie screams that her father has been killed. Shortly thereafter, the body of her stepmother is discovered. The murders are gruesome. There are no witnesses; no clues; and within days, suspicion falls squarely on Lizzie Borden. Lizzie Borden rhyme performed by Anita Mansfield anitamansfield.com Join Black Barrel+ for bingeable seasons with no commercials : blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Listener discretion is advised. Lizzie Borden took an axe. It's often hard to remember when one first heard the rhyme that starts with those four words. Children all over the country seem to learn the poem about murder through some sort of cultural osmosis. Like Ring Around the Rosie or Three Blind Mice, it's a rhyme based in a history that is unknown to most who recite it. But unlike those other poems, the story of Lizzie Borden isn't obscured by forgotten references or metaphor.

The story told by this rhyme is pretty clear. Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother 40 wax. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41. But who exactly is Lizzie Borden? And what is it about her story that keeps people interested almost 130 years later? It has a thread that runs through other notorious crimes, that of the wealthy, relatively young murderer. 30 years after Lizzie Borden came Leopold and Loeb. 60 years after Leopold and Loeb came the Menendez brothers.

The press and the public were fascinated by all of them. And Lizzie Borden's case was one of the first media spectacles in the country. It was almost impossible to fathom that a wealthy young woman could commit such brutal murders. But there's still enough mystery around the case that true crime fans can continue to question and debate the events forever. The events of August 4, 1892, when Lizzie Borden took an axe. From Black Barrel Media, this is Infamous America. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this is a three-part miniseries about one of the most infamous crimes in American history. The Lizzie Borden Ax murders.

This is Chapter 1, Ax murders. Fall River, Massachusetts sits on a river with magnificent waterfalls. The Wampanog tribe named the river Quikashan, as the locals call it, which means falling river. The town traces its history back to the 16th. to some of the earliest colonial settlements. And for almost as long as there have been Anglo settlers in the area, there have been members of the Borden family. The waterfalls in the Quicachan River made the town an ideal spot for textile manufacturing.

The first cotton mill was built in 1811. After the War of 1812 made it difficult to import foreign cloth, the need for domestic textiles exploded. The mill was joined by so many others that they saw that they saw that they saw. others that they soon covered most of the river. As technology advanced, productivity increased, as did the need for skilled labor. The town of Fall River grew exponentially. It transformed from a small farming community into a burgeoning city of industry, and the Borden family had been there from nearly the beginning. Some Bordons got very wealthy through the growth of the textile

industry, while others did not. Andrew Borden was born in Fall River in 1822 to one of the less wealthy branches of the family. His father was a fish peddler. Andrew trained as a carpenter and started a business with another man to build furniture and coffins for funerals. Andrew wasn't a mortician and didn't work directly with the bodies, but there were few people in Fall River who were not buried in one of his company's coffins. With practically no competition, he and his partner grew rich. At age 23, Andrew married Sarah Morse, a seamstress. They had two daughters, Emma and Alice.

Unfortunately, Alice died before she turned two. In 1860, Sarah gave birth to a third daughter, Elizabeth, known as Lizzie. But just three years later, Sarah passed away. Emma was 12 and Lizzie was almost three. Two years after Sarah's death, Andrew Borden married a woman named Abby Gray. In the aftermath of the Civil War, over a dozen more mills were built in Fall River. The city's population grew from 17,000 residents to over 43,000 in less than a decade. The infrastructure of the city hurried to keep pace.

It became more advanced, with better roads, public buildings, and a new sewer system. When Andrew Borden retired, he acquired some land in town and invested in the mills, as well as in bank stock. He would often stroll around town, dressed in a double-breasted frock coat, considered the most formal of daywear and a string tie. In spite of his well-dressed appearance, his frugality was well-known. He pinched pennies both in business and in life. Most of Fall River's upper class lived in their own area of town. known as the Hill, but the Bordons did not. As the years passed and technology advanced,

Andrew Borden's family did not keep up. Although he was regarded as one of the wealthiest men in town, he lived in a modest home with no telephones or electricity. Though most sources claimed the house had no indoor plumbing, it did contain a running toilet in the cellar. In any case, it was not as lavish as those on the hill. One newspaper estimated that Andrew Borden's estate was valued at more than $300,000, which would be over $8.5 million in today's money.

But his house was more suited to a worker making $2 a day. The Fall River Globe described Andrew Borden as a peculiar man in many respects. While his tall, neatly clothed figure was familiar to all the older citizens, he had few intimates and was reticent to a marked degree. He was described as dignified and fair, with a strong will that sometimes appeared to lack sympathy. He was also described as courteous and kindly, with the manners of a gentleman of the old school. When he was murdered, he was a month and a half shy of his 70th birthday. Sarah Borden's death was not a sudden passing.

She had time to speak to her two daughters, Emma and baby Lizzie, as Elizabeth was called at the time. Sarah made her eldest daughter Emma promised to look after Lizzie when Sarah was gone. Andrew Borden married Abby two years later, and though they were married for more than 30 years, Abby was never able to overcome her status as the stepmother in the eyes of Andrew's daughters. Emma refused to call Abby mother, instead addressing her by her first name. As a child, Lizzie did call Abby mother, but in all things important, she sought comfort and counsel from Emma. As Lizzie got older, she started calling her stepmother, Mrs. Borden. Abby was barely over five feet tall. After marrying, she became a compulsive overeater, growing to

over 200 pounds. Standing next to her tall, thin husband made for quite the physical contrast. Her role as woman of the household did not come with the expected status or authority. Mrs. Borden did not control the house, a neighbor said. Andrew didn't wear a wedding ring, but did wear a ring given to him by Lizzie. And it was Lizzie who chose the color when the house was painted and overruled her father's choice. Andrew tightly controlled the finances, presenting Abby the same allowance as her two stepdaughters, $4 a week. But while their money could be spent at their discretion, most of Abby's was spent on everyday expenses for the house.

When Abby's father died, he left his home. to Abby's stepmother and Abby's half-sister. When the stepmother wanted to sell it, the half-sister couldn't afford to buy it. Abby convinced Andrew to buy the stepmother's half of the home and put it in her name so the half-sister and her husband could live in it rent-free. Emma and Lizzie did not react well. Andrew needed to balance the scales, so he put a house in his daughter's names that they could rent out. It was worth more than the house he'd bought half of for Abby. Unfortunately, this did nothing to ease tensions in the Borden home. Lizzie became more open in her dislike of her stepmother. According to a friend and former

schoolmate, Lizzie thought her stepmother was deceitful being one thing to her face and another one to her back. But Lizzie Borden was also a woman of charity. Though she rarely helped around the house, she played the part of a generous woman in town. She attended the central congregational church, and many of her charitable deeds were church-related. On Sundays, she taught Bible school for the children of Chinese workers in Fall River. On Christmas, she helped prepare the church's annual dinner for local newsboys. She was also an active participant in the Lady's Fruit and Flower Mission, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and the Good Samaritan Church. Charity Hospital.

The Borden household was cared for by a single domestic servant, Bridget Sullivan. Bridget was a young woman from Ireland. She came to work for the Bordons in 1889. Even though she served them for years, only Abby called her by her name. Her predecessor had been named Maggie, and that's what Andrew, Emma, and Lizzie called her. She claimed not to mind, later telling an attorney that she did not find a derogatory. So there were five people living in the house at 92 Second Street in Fall River, Massachusetts. Andrew Borden, his second wife, Abby, Andrew's two daughters by his first marriage, Emma and Lizzie, and Bridget Sullivan.

Those were the central characters in what became one of the most notorious murders in American history. In the summer of 1890, shortly before Lizzie's 30th birthday, she got out of the house for the first time in any real capacity. Andrew sent her on a tour of Europe for 11 weeks. One of the young women in her group would later recall that Lizzie was very vocal in her unwillingness to return home. The following June, the Borden home was hit by a stunning daylight robbery. The thief managed to avoid detection of all the women in the house and stole jewelry, cash, and gold from Andrew and Abby's bedroom. There were no central hallways upstairs. the bedrooms opened into each other.

When Andrew realized the thief could only have entered through Lizzie's bedroom, he called off the police. He began to suspect his youngest daughter was the robber. From then on, Andrew locked the bedroom door every day. But he left the key in the sitting room, on the mantel, out in the open, as if he were telling the thief he knew her identity. Everyone in the house seemed confident Lizzie had done it, but it was never spoken out loud.

August of 1892 brought a heat wave to Fall River. Some said it was the hottest ever, although that may be hyperbolic. Emma was 16 miles away in Fairhaven staying with friends. She'd been away for nearly two weeks. On Tuesday, August 2nd, in spite of the heat, the Bordons had a dinner of leftover swordfish. Andrew and Abby became very sick. They barely slept that night due to nausea.

Bridget and Lizzie also reported queasy stomachs, though less serious than the heads of the household. The next morning, Abby hurried across the street to see Dr. Seaberry Bowen. This kind of sickness was not uncommon in the summer, and Dr. Bowen was sure the malady was nothing to be concerned about. Abby was not so convinced. She suspected they had been poisoned. Dr. Bowen agreed to walk the woman.

back across the street with her to examine her husband. Andrew Borden was not a fan of doctors. He often avoided them due to what he considered their excessive expense. Andrew refused to allow Dr. Bowen into the house. Andrew stood at the front door and shouted that he had no intention of paying the doctor for his uninvited visit. Later that day, Andrew's only real friend, John Morse, arrived for a visit. John was the brother of Andrew. Drew's first wife. And Lizzie was not a fan of her uncle. To avoid him, she skipped dinner, which was mutton stew. She stayed in her room instead. Later that evening, Lizzie visited her friend Alice Russell. Lizzie complained about her father's general irascibility. In particular,

she noted the awful way he treated Dr. Bowen that morning. She said she thought her father had lots of enemies. This idea, she said, informed her belief that the illness of the previous night had perhaps been caused by someone poisoning the family's milk. Something bad was going to happen, she told Alice. And while Alice attempted to reassure her friend, she said later Lizzie remained uneasy. When Lizzie went back home, she headed straight to her bedroom. She bypassed the sitting room and once again avoided her uncle, who sat talking to Andrew and Abby. That night, everyone in the Borden house got sick again, except Lizzie. Bridget Sullivan rose early on August 4, 1892.

She suffered from a dull headache. She felt sick from the previous night's dinner, but she managed to compose herself and she began to prepare breakfast. Around 7 a.m., John Morse, Lizzie's uncle, joined Andrew and Abby Borden for a meal that consisted of coffee, bananas, Johnny Cake, bread, cookies, and mutton broth. According to Morse, he and Andrew read the newspaper and chatted. As John Morse left the house to go visit more relatives, Lizzie Borden was just rising from bed. Lizzie made her way downstairs a little after 8.30 a.m. She didn't eat much of the breakfast.

She chose only coffee and cookies. Bridget suddenly felt sick again, and she slipped outside to the backyard to throw up. At 9.15, Andrew Borden headed into town, as was his usual routine. His wife Abby was dusting in the dining room when Bridget came back inside. Abby Borden told Bridget to wash the downstairs windows, inside and out. The maid went to the cellar for a bucket and a brush. Abby Borden went upstairs to the guest room to change the pillow slips and generally tidy up after John Morse's stay.

When Bridget stepped out of the back door to begin washing the outside of the windows, she ran into Lizzie. Although every door in the house was usually locked at all times, Lizzie told Bridget that she didn't need to lock the back door. Lizzie was planning to be around outside. Meanwhile, Andrew Borden was attending to his business affairs in town. He stopped at the Union Savings Bank, where he was the president. Then he went next door to his barber for a shave.

He returned to the bank to meet the treasurer, but the man had stepped out, so Andrew headed home. At the Borden house, Bridgett finished cleaning the windows outside and headed inside to continue her work. She was washing the windows in the sitting room when she heard Andrew's key in the front door. Andrew Borden struggled with his keys. He exchanged greetings with a passing neighbor who were remarked on the continued heat. Bridget went to the door and found it bolted, which caused her to utter a low curse. Lizzie stood on the landing at the top of the staircase at the front of the house. She laughed at Bridget's laps in decorum.

Then Bridget unbolted the door and led Andrew in. He headed into the dining room to sit down. Lizzie came downstairs to speak to her father. She asked if there were any male. Then she told Andrew that her stepmother had gone out. Lizzie said a note had arrived from a sick friend who requested a visit, and Abby Borden had gone to the friend's house. Andrew grabbed his bedroom key from the sitting room and headed up the back staircase. When he came down, he was dressed in a house coat instead of his usual fancy frock coat.

He made a comment about feeling sick again, and he stretched out on the sofa in the sitting room to rest. Lizzie adjusted the windows for him, then she stepped out of the room. the room and closed the door behind her. Andrew Borden fell asleep in the sitting room. Lizzie took an ironing board into the dining room. She ironed handkerchiefs while chatting with Bridget. She repeated the news to Bridget that Abby Borden had left to visit a friend, and that she, Lizzie, might also go out.

If Bridget was planning to leave that afternoon, Lizzie said she should lock the door. Lizzie recommended a good deal on dress goods at a nearby shop. But Bridget still felt sick. With her work done for now, the young woman retired upstairs to take a nap. A short time later, she was awakened with news of murder. Lizzie Borden shouted from downstairs. Father's dead. Somebody came in and killed him.

Bridget Sullivan hurried down from her bedroom to find Lizzie at the screen door on the side of the house. Lizzie told her not to go into the sitting room. Lizzie sent Bridget to get Dr. Bowen across the street. Bridget ran to the doctor's house, but the doctor's wife said he wasn't home. Mrs. Bowen promised he would come as soon as possible. Bridget ran back to the Borden house. Lizzie told Bridget that she'd been outside and she'd heard a groan. First she saw that the screen door was open.

Then, when she went in to investigate, she found Andrew dead. Now Lizzie didn't want to be alone. She sent Bridget to get her friend Alice Russell. As Bridget hurried off to collect Alice, a neighbor woman called out to Lizzie from next door. The neighbor, Mrs. Churchill, had seen Bridget run across the street to the doctor's house. Mrs. Churchill was concerned. She hollered to Lizzie, what's the matter?

Lizzie replied that someone had killed her father. She urged Mrs. Churchill to come over. As Lizzie sat at the bottom of the back steps, Mrs. Churchill asked Lizzie what she was doing when the attack happened. Lizzie said she'd been in a barn looking for a piece of iron to make a wait for a fishing line. Her father's body was in the sitting room. Her stepmother, Abby, had gone out. Mrs. Churchill decided someone should contact the authorities.

She hurried to a nearby stable and asked a man to telephone the police. Most of the police force was at an annual picnic near Providence, Rhode Island. Violent crime was rare in Fall River. Chief Marshal Rufus Hilliard received news of, quote, trouble at the Borden House, and he only sent one officer to the scene. When Bridget returned to the house with Alice Russell, she found Dr. Bowen had recently arrived.

He entered the sitting room while Alice and Mrs. Churchill attended to Lizzie in the kitchen. Dr. Bowen found a surreal scene. Nothing in the room appeared to be disturbed. Everything was as you would expect, except for the dead body on the sofa. Fresh blood was dripping from Andrew's wounds. His body was still warm. Andrew had been struck on the head ten or eleven times. One of the blows cut all the way to his brain.

Another sliced through his eyelid, splitting his left eye in half and cutting through his cheekbone. By his left ear, part of his skull had been crushed. In spite of the brutal condition of the body, there was no evidence of a struggle. When Dr. Bowen emerged from the sitting room, he confirmed the obvious. Andrew Borden had been murdered. After the grisly discovery, Dr. Bowen rushed away to send a wire to Lizzie's older sister Emma. Emma was still staying with friends, and Lizzie didn't want to alarm them. Lizzie told the doctor not to reveal the extent of the situation in the telegram.

It was around that time that someone finally thought about the stepmother, Abby Borden. Bridget was the first to express concern for Abby. In contrast to Lizzie's calm demeanor, Bridget was agitated and worried. She asked if they should reach out to Abby's half-sister to figure out where Abby was. Then Lizzie surprised everyone with new information. Lizzie said she was almost certain that she'd heard Abby return home and go up the front stairs. This was the first anyone had heard that Abby Borden might be in the house. They agreed that someone should check upstairs for her, but Bridget refused to go alone.

She really didn't want to go at all, but she was also the one who seemed the most anxious to locate Abby Borden. The neighbor, Mrs. Churchill, agreed to go with Bridget on her search. They slowly ascended the front stairs. Before they reached the top, Mrs. Churchill saw the body of Abby Borden lying in the guest room. She hurried back downstairs. When Lizzie's friend Alice asked if there was another body, Mrs. Churchill said yes. No one went back upstairs. Lizzie, Alice, Bridget, and Mrs. Churchill waited for Dr. Bowen to return.

When the doctor came back from sending the telegram to Emma, the women told him of their discovery. He made the journey up the front stairs alone. He found Abby lying face down. He initially suspected she had died of fright despite the obvious carnage. Abby Borden was surrounded by blood. She'd been dead for much longer than Andrew. Her body was cold and the blood had congealed. Her bloody hair was matted and almost dry.

There was a bloody handkerchief on the floor by her body. Dr. Bowen didn't want to turn her. over. It was only later when police officers performed the task that Bowen saw the severity of her injuries. Abby Borden had been struck 19 times, 18 times on the head and once at the base of her neck. Her skull had been shattered. The next morning, the Fall River Globe reported, the criminal annals of the state furnish few parallels to the atrocious crime committed here yesterday. It was a murder most foul. One is almost forced to the belief if he would not have his faith in mankind badly shaken that it must have been the work of a maniac. It didn't take long

for the suspected maniac to be Lizzie Borden. Next time on infamous America, the Fall River Police investigate the shocking double homicide. Andrew and Abby Borden are laid to rest, and suspicion falls on Lizzie when it's discovered that you. she attempted to buy poison the day before the murder. That's next week on Infamous America. And if you're a member of our Black Barrel Plus program, you already have access to the full season. If you're not a member, you can sign up now

through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Members receive access to each new season in its entirety one week before the season begins for the general public. And members receive exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up today for just $5 per month. This season was researched and written by Sean Paglisi. The Lizzie Borden Rhyme was performed by Anita Mansfield.

Audio editing and sound design by Dave Harrison. Original music by Rob Valier. I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer. Find us at our website, blackbarrelmedia.com or on our social media channels. We're BlackBarrel Media on Facebook and Instagram and B-Barrell Media on Twitter. and you can stream all our episodes on YouTube. Just search for Infamous America Podcast. Thanks for listening.