The Infamous Legend Of Lizzie Borden Part 2: Trial And Error

As Lizzie burned the dress, Alice told her not to let anyone see her doing that because it looked suspicious. 

When Alice was questioned by police, she claimed that as far as she knew all of Lizzie's dresses were accounted for. Later, Alice went to Lizzie and Emma and told them that she was uncomfortable lying to police. Lizzie and Emma told Alice that she was right and to go ahead and tell the police, because Lizzie was innocent of the murders. So, Alice went and told the police about Lizzie burning the dress. 

🪓Inquest🪓

Beginning on August 8th, Lizzie appeared at a inquest hearing to see if there was enough reason to go to trial. Before criminal magistrate Josiah Blaisdell, District Attorney Hosea Knowlton questioned Lizzie Borden, Bridget Sullivan, household guest John Morse, among others. 

Lizzie was under the influence of prescription morphine, which possibly affected her testimony. She behaved erratically, and often refused to answer a question even if the answer would be beneficial to her. She often contradicted herself and provided alternating accounts of what she did the morning of the murders and where she was at the time of the occurrence. 

Shortly after Andrew came home, he asked where Abby was and Lizzie replied that she had received a note to visit a sick friend. Neither a sick friend nor a note to Abby was ever located.

She also said she removed her father's boots and put slippers on him, while police photographs clearly showed him wearing his boots.

Maggie on the other hand, never wavered from her accounts of that day and the court found her depictions trust worthy. On the morning of the murders, Maggie said that when Andrew returned from his walk at about 10:30 a.m., the lock was jammed and she had to let him in. She testified that she had heard Lizzie laugh from the top of the stairs, which Lizzie adamantly denied.

John Morse gave a very constant and detailed alibi as well. Some people thought it sounded to perfect, like it was concocted a head of time.

During the inquest was when it came out about Lizzie trying to buy the poison from the drugstore the day before the murders took place. This testimony was suppressed during the trial.

If the only possible way to get into the Borden home was through the kitchen door, how come Lizzie and Maggie didn't see the killer? They were in and around that area all day.

What happened to Andrew and Abby's wills? Andrew’s will likely would have left much of his estate to his wife, who would leave little or nothing to Andrew’s daughters. Alternatively, if Abby died first Andrew’s estate would automatically be left to his daughters.

When the inquest adjourned Police Chief Hilliard arrested Lizzie. Lizzie entered a plea of "Not Guilty" to the charges of murder and was transported by rail car to jail.

On August 22, at Lizzie's preliminary hearing Judge Josiah Blaisdell pronounced her "probably guilty" and ordered her to face a grand jury and possible charges for the murder of her parents. 

On November 7th, the grand jury met. After first refusing to issue an indictment, the jury reconvened and heard new evidence from Alice Russell, a family friend who stayed with the two Borden sisters in the days following the murders. Russell told grand jurors that she had witnessed Lizzie Borden burning a blue dress in a kitchen fire allegedly because Lizzie said that it was covered with "old paint." Coupled with the earlier testimony from Bridget Sullivan that Lizzie was wearing a blue dress on the morning of the murders, the evidence was enough to convince grand jurors to indict Lizzie for the murders of her parents. Lizzie was indicted on December 2nd.

The inquest testimony was later ruled inadmissible at her trial in June 1893. It was also reported that the testimony provided in the inquest had "caused a change of opinion among her friends who have heretofore strongly maintained her innocence."  

🪓Trial🪓

On June 5th, 1893, Lizzie Borden's trial began in the New Bedford Courthouse before a jury of twelve men and three judges. Lizzie and Emma had used some of their inheritance and hired a "dream team" of lawyers. The high-powered defense team, included Andrew Jennings and George Robinson (the former governor of Massachusetts). 

The District Attorney Hosea M. Knowlton and Thomas Moody argued the case for the prosecution. 

Moody opened carelessly throwing Lizzie's blue frock on the prosecution table during his speech. The skulls of Abby and Andrew were also brought in. The sight of the skulls caused Lizzie to faint. Moody described Lizzie as the only person having both the motive and opportunity to commit the double murders, and then pulled from a bag the head of the axe that he claimed Lizzie used to kill her parents.

One of the most important witnesses that testified for the state was Maggie. She testified that Lizzie was the only person she saw in the home at the time Abby and Andrew were murdered. However, she did say that she had never witnessed signs of the rumored ugly relationship between Lizzie and her stepmother. Another prosecution witness, Hannah H. Gifford, disputed Maggie's assertion that all was fine between Lizzie and her stepmother.  Gifford made a garment for Lizzie a few months before the murders. She described a conversation in which Lizzie called her stepmother "a mean good-for nothing thing" and said "I don't have much to do with her; I stay in my room most of the time."  

Hannah Reagan also testified. She was the matron of at the police station when Lizzie was there. Reagan stated that Emma visited Lizzie while in jail. "Emma was talking to her and bending right over her, and Lizzie says, 'Emma, you have gave me away, haven't you?' She says, 'No, Lizzie, I have not.' 'You have,' she says, 'and I will let you see I won't give in one inch,' and she sat right up and put up her finger, and I stood in the doorway looking at both of them."

The defense argued that between eight to thirteen after Andrew's murder, when Lizzie's called to Maggie, that she wouldn't have had time to washing the blood off her, clothes and murder weapon and then hide the murder weapon.

There was also no murder weapon found and a witness that saw Lizzie come out of the barn at 11:03 a.m.

The presiding Associate Justice, Justin Dewey (who had been appointed by Robinson when he was governor), delivered a lengthy summary that supported the defense as his charge to the jury before it was sent to deliberate on June 20th, 1893. After an hour and a half of deliberation by the jury, Lizzie was acquitted of the murders. 

After the Trial

Lizzie and Emma, briefly returned to the house, but soon purchased a 14-room home on The Hill, which they named Maplecroft. They both finally got to live a lavish lifestyle with many servants and all the modern conveniences one could have asked for.

They had a monument and placed at the site of Andrew and Abby’s graves. 

Lizzie changed her name to Lizbeth, but that didn't help distance herself from the past. Maplecroft became a target for school children, who threw objects at the house and regularly pranked and taunted her. She was abandoned by friends and church members. Newspapers basically accused her of getting away with murder. 

In 1897, Lizzie was accused (but not charged) of shoplifting while visiting Rhode Island.

Lizzie began traveling frequently to New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere to shop and attend the theater. She also began throwing lavish parties at Maplecroft for her new friends like actress Nance O’Neill. Lizzie met Nance in Boston around 1904, and the two quickly became close. Lizzie doted on her. Soon rumors had began to swirl around that they were lovers, rumors that neither Lizzie or Nance acknowledged. Some accused Nance of taking advantage of Lizzie’s generosity and financial support.

During this time, Emma grew increasingly frustrated with Lizzie causing her to move out in 1905.

Nance’s friendship with Lizzie ended after just a few years. Lizzie would remain alone for the rest of her life. Both Lizzie and Emma died "spinsters." Lizzie died in June 1927, at age 66, from pneumonia after she had an operation to remove her gallbladder. Emma died a little more than a week later from chronic nephritis (liver disease) at the age of 76 in a nursing home in Newmarket, New Hampshire. 

They were buried side by side in the family plot in Oak Grove Cemetery.

Lizzie left $30,000 ($581,000 in 2018) to the Fall River Animal Rescue League and $500 ($10,000 in 2018) in trust for perpetual care of her father's grave. Her closest friend and a cousin each received $6,000 ($116,000) and numerous friends and family members each received between $1,000 ($19,000 in 2018) and $5,000 ($97,000 in 2018).