were speaking at the same time.
The other interesting bit of data caught by my equipment was a strange, flickering ball of light. I had placed a video camera recorder on infrared in the small room above the Tap Room. This was where the tavern would have stored spirits for the bar. The museum uses it to display period-piece toys and dolls. More than an hour into the recording, a small, almost shimmering light came out of the wall, moved slowly through the air, and went into an antique doll on a shelf. All who have seen the footage agree that it is not dust, nor is it a bug. It is just plain weird. Whenever I consider this pixie-like light I can’t help thinking about one of the startling class A (meaning absolutely clear) EVPs recorded by Mike Markowicz that night. It is the voice of a young girl asking, “Wanna play dress up?”
Some believe the building’s confusing architecture, created over the years by the several additions to the original house, was used to hide escaping slaves on the Underground Railroad. There is even a tale of a British soldier who hid in the house from the local militia by taking advantage of a space found on the second floor, between the first and second structures. It has also been said there was a tunnel which led from the tavern’s cellar to the Tremont Nail Company. In 1977 the founder of the Wareham Historical Society, the late Raymond A. Rider, recorded his doubts about the Fearing Tavern being used as a station on the Underground Railroad. He also stated that he and the builders found no evidence of a tunnel during the restoration. However, another EVP recorded by Mike makes us wonder if the tales are really true after all. It is a male voice with a slight southern accent saying, “We got’em mouse holes in here.” The term “mouse hole” can sometimes mean a place of hiding.
Towards the end of the night, Tim, Mike, and I were in the attic using a “ghost box,” which is nothing more than a digital radio, altered to constantly scan the AM band. The theory behind this device is that it lets one hear EVPs live as they are captured, instead of waiting later to listen to an audio recording. I am skeptical about this method of catching spirit voices, but what we heard come out of the radio’s speaker made our jaws drop. While getting some intriguing responses to Tim’s questions, I stepped in and asked, “Are we talking to a red man or a white man?” and the almost immediate response was, “Black woman.” As ghosthunters and New Englanders, the team and I all agree that the haunted Fearing Tavern is one of our favorite locations.
CHAPTER 3
The Lizzie Borden Bed-and-Breakfast/Museum
FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS
ON AUGUST 4, 1892, the city of Fall River, Massachusetts, became the center of media attention when the bodies of Andrew Borden and his wife, Abby, were found brutally murdered in their home at 92 Second Street. It is believed that the killer used a hatchet to mutilate the heads of both victims. Investigators concluded that Mrs. Borden was attacked from behind in an upstairs bedroom, and Andrew was assaulted a short time later while he was taking an afternoon nap on a sofa downstairs. Mr. Borden’s youngest daughter from a previous marriage, Lizzie, told the authorities she had discovered the ghastly crime scene after returning from the barn, which was located in back of the house. The police found discrepancies in her story and arrested Lizzie for the murders. Even though a large majority in the community felt that she was guilty, Miss Borden was acquitted a year later by a jury of twelve men. The Borden case has since become the second-most-infamous, unsolved murder mystery of the Victorian era, next to London’s notorious Jack the Ripper.
The Borden home stands today as the only witness to the horrible crimes perpetrated within its walls. For more than one hundred years, theories and allegations about the Bordens and their way of life have led many researchers to reexamine the case in a nearly obsessive attempt to solve these murders. A myriad of books, magazines, newspaper articles, and documentaries have presented a number of different theories as to the identity and motives of the person, or persons, responsible for the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Borden. It seems more than likely the world will never really know exactly what happened on that warm summer day and why.
Lizzie Borden and her sister, Emma, left their family home after the trial and moved into a new, modern house on French Street, which they named Maplecroft. Lizzie lived the life of a spinster and died from pneumonia at the age of sixty-seven. She was buried in the family plot in the city’s Oak Grove Cemetery. The house on Second Street changed ownership a few times after the Borden sisters’ departure. In 1948 the property was purchased by the McGinn family. It remained their private home until 1994, when Mrs. McGinn passed away. Her granddaughter, Martha McGinn, bought the house with her partner, Ron Evans, and they had the place converted into a bed-and-breakfast, which opened for business in 1996. The McGinn family had experienced paranormal activity in the old house throughout the time it was their family home, but Martha’s and Ron’s intent was to let the story of Lizzie Borden be the draw for their novel B&B. However, over the eight years in which they ran the place, the ghosts did make themselves known to the staff and guests. The word got out; the old Borden place is haunted.
Lee-Ann Wilbur and her partner, Donald Woods, bought the Lizzie Borden Bed-and-Breakfast/Museum in June, 2004. Lee-Ann had heard stories about the place being haunted, but didn’t let it bother her. It only took about a week in the house before she had her first unnerving encounter. Lee-Ann went downstairs to the basement and as she stepped off the bottom step, she walked into an intense cold spot. The rest of the cellar felt as warm as the June day, but that one spot was horribly cold. As Lee-Ann stood there trying to make sense of the isolated patch of cold air, she felt the sensation of someone running a finger down her back. That was enough to make her leave the basement for the rest of the day.
The basement does have its share of creepy stories. The dry sink in which Lizzie may have washed off the blood evidence is located in a niche below the kitchen. Long before Andrew and Abby were murdered, Lizzie is said to have chopped off the head of her stepmother’s cat on a wooden table that the Bordens’ kept in the basement as a butcher’s block. Abby’s cat is believed to haunt the house. Some guests of the B&B have made comments at breakfast about a cat that jumped up on their bed in the middle of the night. A photograph taken in the kitchen appears to have captured the cat’s ghost, peering around the side of the stove. A shadowy figure has also been seen in the basement, darting quickly out of sight. One witness said it had a female form.
The most impressive tale from the basement has to be the night that four of my friends and colleagues, Chris Balzano, Matt Moniz, Jeff Belanger, and Tim Weisberg, all heard the unmistakable sound of children running and laughing on the first floor above them. The doors were locked, and they were the only people in the house that night. When the four of them went to investigate, they could find no one. Three children were drowned by their mother years ago on the property next door. Perhaps their ghosts visit the house from time to time. Lee-Ann told me that she has caught glimpses of shadow figures all throughout the house. One night in particular, she had fallen asleep on the couch in the front parlor.
Lizzie Borden
There were no guests in the house that night, so she slept soundly until about three o’clock in the morning when she awoke to the sound of taxicab drivers talking outside on the street. As she became aware of her surroundings and the time, she noticed that the light bulbs on the chandelier were glowing dimmer and dimmer. The bulbs then went out completely. At that very moment, she noticed a female figure in a long dress, standing at the foot of the front hall stairs. Before Lee-Ann could react, the figure moved quickly up the stairs to the second floor without making a sound. “I grabbed my blanket and went outside to sleep in my car,” said Lee-Ann. As she went out the back door she told the ghost, “You win, I’m out of here!”
