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| Fall River, Massachusetts, United States |
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City with an Infamous Past
Fall River, MA is the site of the infamous Borden murders and the home of Lizzie Borden. Andrew Borden was a wealthy man with his fingers in a number of businesses in the Fall River area including banking and undertaking. The family's worth by today's standards would be roughly equivalent to 12 million dollars. Despite this wealth, Andrew maintained a frugal existence with his family. They did not live in the wealthy section of town. They did not have indoor plumbing. Rumor has it that the man even saved money by chopping the feet off of corpses in his undertaking business, so that he could stuff bodies into caskets that were smaller and therefore less costly to his business.
Abby Borden was Andrew's second wife. His first wife had died, leaving him with two daughters, Emma and Lizbeth. The four of them lived with their maid, Bridgette in their home at 92 Second Street.
In early August of 1892, Emma was away visiting friends in Fairhaven and wasn't present at the time of the murders. John Morse, the brother of Emma and Lizzie's biological Mother was staying as a guest in the house. On the morning of the murders John Morse and Andrew left the house. Andrew went to work and John went to pay visits. Bridgette and Abby went about their business at the house. Lizzie went out to the barn to eat pears and look for lead to be used for fishing sinkers.
Andrew returned home and took a nap in a downstairs sitting room. At some point he was murdered with an axe or hatchet.
His corpse was found by Lizzie upon her return to the house. Lizzie asked a neighbor to get the police. A short while later the body of Abby Borden was discovered upstairs in the guest room being used by John Morse. Andrew had suffered eleven wounds and Abby nineteen. Not quite the 81 blows the rhyme claims Lizzie to have inflicted, but still quite brutal.
After a police investigation, Lizzie was arrested as the main suspect. The trial that ensued was equivalent to the O.J. Simpson trial that took place a little over one hundred years later. The case was highly publicized and the wealthy suspect also had herself a "dream team" of lawyers, including the former governor of the state--a man who had appointed most of the judges overseeing the case while he had been governor.
Ultimately, Lizzie was acquitted of the crime and went free. The crime remains unsolved. |
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O.T.I.S.(Odd Things I've Seen): Fall River, MA - From: O.T.I.S. (03/15/09, 06:06 PM UTC)
Article excerpt from O.T.I.S. (Odd Things I've Seen):
"We arrived in Fall River on a pleasantly dreary overcast Autumn day. The town’s located abou...More
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| Related Sites |
Official Fall River Website
The official site of the city of Fall River, MA. Home of Lizzie Borden. |
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| Similar Destinations |
| The Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast |
| Fall River Historical Society |
| Maplecroft |
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| See Also on TheCabinet.com |
| Track of the Day - 10/23/07 |
| Blog: Lizzie Borden & The Terminator (08/04/08) |
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| Available from Amazon.com |
Lizzie Borden: Past & Present |
The Lizzie Borden Sourcebook |
Forty Whacks: New Evidence in the Life and Legend of Lizzie Borden |
The Borden Tragedy: A Memoir of the Infamous Double Murder at Fall River, Mass., 1892 (Treasury of Victorian Murder (Graphic Novels)) |
A Private Disgrace: Lizzie Borden by Daylight |
Trial Of Lizzie Borden, with a History of the Case |
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