Coroner's statement 16
15.1 Jurors behind the fence in front of the Borden house 1
15.2 A sale at Sargent's department store 1
15.3 Newspaper article on Crowe's hatchet 17
SOURCES
1.The Lizzie Borden Sourcebook, David Kent and Robert Flynn, Branden Publishing Co., 1992
2.Lizzie Borden, Did She: Or Didn't She? Historical Briefs Inc., 1992. (This is a compilation of articles that appeared in the New Bedford Evening Standard between August 1892 and June 1893, dealing with the Borden case)
3.Fall River Globe, August 5, 1892
4.Goodbye, Lizzie Borden, Robert Sullivan, The Stephen Greene Press, 1974
5.Forty Whacks, David Kent, Yankee Press, 1992
6.Drawn by the author from a map supplied by Michael Martins, curator, Fall River Historical Society Museum
7.Boston Globe, August 31, 1892
8.Lizzie Borden Quarterly, Maynard Bertolet, Editor
9.Emery scrapbook
10.Lizzie Borden, Arnold Brown, Rutledge Hill Press, 1991
11.Lizzie Borden, the Untold Story, Edward Radin, Simon and Schuster, 1961
12.Fall River Historical Society, (Many of the photographs in references 1, 4, 5 and 8 came originally from this source.)
13.Lizzie Borden, Joyce Williams et al, 1980
14.Forensic Medicine, I Gordon and H. A. Shapiro, 1975
15.Horowitz, Clin. Soc. 67 216 (1984)
16.Los Angeles Times, June 15, 1995
17.Fall River News, June 15, 1893
PREFACE
Unravelling the Borden mystery is a project that has fascinated me throughout much of my life. A great many people have helped me with this project. The list starts with my great-aunt, Minnie Masterton, who lived in Fall River in 1892 when Andrew and Abby Borden were murdered. Conversations with her when I was a child convinced me, emotionally at least, of Lizzie's innocence. Sixty years ago Aunt Minnie argued that if her sister Emma knew Lizzie to be guilty she could never have lived with her for more than a decade after the crime. Could you?
In 1973, my older son Fred R. Masterton, then a college freshman, presented me with the most memorable Christmas gift I have ever received: a syllabus for a course on the Borden case offered at the University of Massachusetts. The readings recommended for that course convinced me that many of the commonly accepted "facts" of the case were flat-out wrong. For example, even though legend has it that the murder date, August 4, 1892, was the hottest day in the history of Fall River, newspaper weather reports proved otherwise. The temperature that day topped out at about 80NF.
When I retired from teaching chemistry at the University of Connecticut in 1987, I began searching in earnest for the solution to the Borden case. Among other things, I accumulated microfilm reels of several New England newspapers covering the events between August 4, 1892 and June 20, 1893, when Lizzie's trial ended in her acquittal. Among these was the Boston Globe, which gave the verbatim trial testimony. Though the courtesy of Dan Lavering, head librarian at the J.A.G. school at Charlottesville, VA, I was able to study these materials at my leisure using the Cadillac of all microfilm readers.
In the summer of 1996, after another edition of my general chemistry text with Cecile Hurley had been put to bed, I began the final line of research that led to this book. Here I was helped greatly by several Fall River residents including:
The staff of the Fall River Public Library, in particular Patricia Redfearn and Dan Lelievre, who generously allowed me to read microfilm copies of several Fall River publications of the 1890s, sometimes breaking the rules to do so.
The staff of the Fall River Historical Society Museum, specifically Michael Martins (curator), Dennis Binette and Jamelle Lyons, who promptly and enthusiastically fulfilled my every request. Beyond that, they put out a series of publications which are invaluable to anyone studying the Borden mystery. Included among these is the testimony at the inquest and preliminary hearing and, most recently, the Knowlton Papers.
Len Rebello, who perhaps knows more about the Borden case than anyone alive today. I was fortunate enough to have access to the first draft of his book, "Lizzie Borden, Past and Present."
The first draft of this book was reviewed, perhaps too kindly, by:
My younger son, Lt. Colonel R. Peter Masterton of the J.A.G. Corps. He convinced me to make this less of a textbook and more of a "whodunit".
A friend, Gunnar Wengel, whose enthusiasm for the manuscript convinced me I was on the right track.
A fellow chemist, Laddie Berka, who knows far more about forensics than I do.
Many people have inspired me as I struggled with this book. I am particularly grateful to:
My friend, Maynard Bertolet, editor of the Lizzie Borden Quarterly, who encouraged me to write about the Borden case.
My publisher, Adolph Caso, who has the old-fashioned idea that quality is the bottom line in publishing. I hope he breaks even with this book, in which case I will too.
My wife, Loris Masterton, who married me on the 60th anniversary of Lizzie's acquittal. (That's one way to remember your wedding date.) Loris loyally praised everything I wrote.
One person more than any other helped me turn a life-long dream into reality, Bob Flynn made available to me his collection of "Bordeniana," unquestionably the most extensive in the world. More important, he has been a sounding board, a counselor and a friend, sharing my moments of disappointment and exhilaration.
As you may have guessed by now, this is not your conventional true-crime book. If you anticipated blood and gore, perhaps you can still get your money back. I have concentrated, not on the horror of the Borden murders, but on the mystery that surrounds them. That is the feature of the Borden case that explains its enduring fascination.
The first half of this book presents what I hope is an unbiased account of the crime and the judicial proceedings that followed. The last half (Chapters 9-16) present my "solution" to the Borden mystery. Of course, I'm convinced that my analysis of what really happened in Fall River on August 4, 1892 is correct. It's just possible, though, that I might be wrong; that's happened before. For that reason, among others, I've gone to a great deal of trouble throughout the book to encourage you, the reader, to come to your own conclusions.
I sincerely hope that you have half as much fun reading this book as I did writing it. Enjoy!
William L. Masterton
Storrs, Connecticut
Chapter 1: DAY OF HORROR
August 4, 1892, was a pleasant midsummer day in Fall River, Massachusetts and indeed throughout most of New England. The sun was shining and the temperature was slightly below 80NF
