de Mille, who choreographed the ballet Fall River Tragedy and believed Lizzie to be guilty, told a quite different story.
"A workman once witnessed a curious scene in connection with the laying of some bricks. Miss Borden returned from shopping to find them cemented contrary to her instructions. She wheeled on the laborer and without a moment's warning flew into such a white fury that she seemed almost out of her mind. Her language and the violence of her physical demeanor were horrifying. The workman left and refused to return."
On the evening before the murders, Lizzie had a long and lugubrious conversation with Alice Russell. She described her parents' illness and Abby's fears, which Lizzie apparently shared, that they had been poisoned. She told of Dr. Bowen's visit and the rude reception Andrew gave him. As Lizzie put it, "I was so mortified." Lizzie went on to tell Alice about the trouble her father had with a man who came to the house to rent a store from Andrew. Her father turned him down, at which point they argued angrily. Finally, Andrew loudly ordered the man out of the house.
Throughout their conversation, Alice tried to persuade Lizzie that she was "making a mountain out of a molehill". However, Lizzie persisted, telling Alice that, "They have broken into the house in broad daylight, with Emma, Maggie and me there. Mrs. Borden's things were ransacked and they [broke into father's desk and] took a watch, money and streetcar tickets. Father reported it to the police but they didn't find anything." (The robbery occurred in June of 1891; Andrew told the police he was afraid they would not be able to find the real thief.)
Lizzie summarized her foreboding by saying, "I am afraid somebody will do something." Indeed within twenty four hours someone did do something awful. Perhaps Lizzie had a premonition; then again, perhaps her prophecy was self-fulfilled.
Significant Others: John, Emma and Bridget
John Vinnicum Morse, a bachelor, was the brother of Andrew's first wife. Born in Somerset, a town bordering Fall River, he migrated to the midwest at age twenty two. There he accumulated a tiny fortune raising cattle and horses, first in Illinois and later in Hastings, Iowa. Two years before the murders, he came back to New England. In August of 1892 he was living in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts with a butcher named Isaac Davis. He made frequent visits to the Borden house fifteen miles away, showing up in late June and again in mid July of 1892.
On Wednesday, August 3, after shaving his friend Davis (who was blind), Morse came to Fall River, arriving at the Borden house shortly after noon. The senior Bordens, who had just finished dinner, greeted him heartily. Abby invited him to sit down and eat, saying, "Everything is hot on the stove. It won't cost us a mite of trouble."
Later that afternoon, Morse rented a team of horses and drove to Andrew's farms in Swansea. There he arranged to take delivery of some cattle that Isaac Davis had bought from Andrew. Shortly before 9 P.M., Morse arrived back at 92 Second Street, carrying a basket of eggs that Andrew had requested. The two men talked in the darkness for about an hour and then went their separate ways to bed. Curiously, Lizzie didn't say hello to her uncle when she came back from Alice Russell's; indeed she didn't even see him on this visit until after the murders.
John Morse was six feet tall and weighed about two hundred pounds. According to the Fall River Globe, "His full beard of iron grey partially concealed a well tanned face, which is enlivened by two small, restless grey eyes, deeply set behind shaggy eyebrows. His appearance certainly is not inviting or prepossessing, and his mannerisms and habits are peculiar." (The Globe didn't much like any of the Borden family except Abby.)
FIGURE 2.5 John Morse
Clearly John Morse was a frugal, taciturn Yankee who did not make friends readily. Beyond that, opinions differed. Isaac Davis spoke up for him, saying, "No, sir, John V. Morse never committed that crime. Why, I would have trusted him with everything in the world and would as soon think of my own son doing the deed." Morse's Iowa neighbors were less complimentary. One person described him as, "selfish, close, hardfisted, but scrupulously honest." Another was sure that the suit Morse was wearing on the morning of murders was the same one in which he left Iowa two years before. No wonder Andrew Borden and John Morse got along so well; they were "cut out of the same cloth".
Emma Borden, by general consensus, was a pale mirror image of her younger sister Lizzie. Emma was "plain" in appearance; Lizzie was "attractive". Emma had a weak jaw, Lizzie a strong one. The Fall River Globe was particularly cruel, referring to Emma's, "listless, expressionless face, indicating a person who is accustomed to obey the persuasion of a stronger mind." A reporter for the Boston Globe must have really hurt poor Emma when he said, "Lizzie looks six years younger than she is, Emma six years older." No wonder Emma seldom if ever posed for a portrait.
The contrast between Lizzie and Emma carried over to their personalities. Lizzie was "aggressive", Emma "submissive". Lizzie had a sense of humor; Emma never laughed (perhaps because she had very little to laugh about). Unlike Lizzie, Emma seldom strayed very far from 92 Second Street. Her two week visit to friends in Fairhaven, cut short by the murders, was highly unusual.
From Lizzie Borden Sourcebook p. 38
There is evidence, though, that Emma was not as meek and mild as legend has it. Lizzie referred to her stepmother first as "mother" and later as "Mrs. Borden". Emma called her "Abby" from day one, even though she was only a teenager when her father remarried. Perhaps Emma's disdain for Abby came from her own mother, Sarah Borden, who was brought up by a stepmother she intensely disliked.
Bridget Sullivan emigrated from Ireland in May of 1886. She worked in Newport, Rhode Island and South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, before settling down in Fall River. In November of 1889 she went to work as a maid for the Bordens. She gave her age as twenty five at the time of the murders, but recent studies indicate she was born in March of 1864, which would make her twenty eight in August, 1892.
Regardless of how old she was, there is general agreement that Bridget Sullivan was a very good looking young woman. Newspaper sketches of Bridget suggest that she may have been a tad overweight by today's standards, but never mind. Joe Howard, a well-known reporter who covered the Borden case, said she was, "tall and spare, with an intelligent face, a good eye, a prominent nose, and a mouth indicating a love for the good things of life." The Fall River Globe was practically ecstatic about Bridget. After calling her "comely", the paper went on to say that she, "has a handsome complexion and always dresses neatly and tastily. In fact she appears to be the bestdressed member of the whole Borden family." Lizzie must have been infuriated by that comment.
FIGURE 2.6 Bridget (Maggie) Sullivan
To describe Bridget's personality, the word "excitable" comes to mind. Certainly she showed more emotion than Lizzie on the day of the murders. Charles Sawyer, the guard at the door, put it well. "The servant girl appeared to be somewhat frightened. I thought she acted as though she was considerably excited, although she talked intelligently." That night, Bridget refused to stay in the Borden house, even though all the doors were locked and police were standing guard outside. A few days later, when a policeman asked her what she thought about the murders, Bridget replied, "I'd be afraid to say anything at all. If I did, that terrible man that killed poor Mrs. Borden might come back and kill me too."
One of Bridget's duties at the Borden house was cooking. The meals she cooked shortly before the murders are listed below. (Several of the menus must be incomplete; otherwise the whole family would have suffered from malnutrition.) Notice the preponderance of mutton, served three times in a row.
LE MENU, CHEZ BORDEN, AUGUST 1892
