SATURDAY DIGEST: World's Most Infamous Murders (Day 3)

The suspect Lizzie Borden

Good morning lovelies, It's another beautiful Saturday morning and it's time for another edition of our SATURDAY DIGEST. Today 'The Fall River Axe Murders' joins the list of World's Most Infamous Murders at number 3.

Thursday, August 4, 1892....

Uneasy silence fell over one happy household at 92 second street in the Massachusetts cotton spinning town of Fall River, after a 32-year-old spinster was accused to killing her father Andrew J. Borden and her step mother Abby Durfee Gray Borden with an axe.

The Suspect Lizzie Borden, who was tried and acquitted for the 1892 axe murders of her father and her stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. The courtroom rang with applause after the verdict. Ever since, the World has wondered why?

The case was a cause célèbre throughout the United States. Following her release from the prison in which she had been held during the trial, Borden chose to remain a resident of Fall River, Massachusetts, for the rest of her life, despite facing significant ostracism. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts elected to charge no one else with the murder of Andrew and Abby Borden; speculation about the crimes still continues more than 100 years later.

Murders:

According to the forensic investigation, Abby was facing her killer at the time of the attack. She was struck on the side of the head with a hatchet which cut her just above the ear, causing her to turn and fall facedown on the floor, which created contusions on her nose and forehead. Her killer is then assumed to have sat on her back and delivered 19 direct hits to the back of her head, while Andrew was found slumped on a couch in the downstairs sitting room, struck 10 or 11 times with a hatchet-like weapon. One of his eyeballs had been split cleanly in two, suggesting that he had been asleep when attacked. His still-bleeding wounds, when he was found suggesting a quite recent attack.

Abby Borden (L) Andrew Borden (R)

Investigation:
 Police found two hatchets, two axes and a hatchet-head with a broken handle.The hatchet-head was suspected of being the murder weapon as the handle looked like a fresh break and the ash and dust on the head, unlike that on the other bladed tools, appeared to have been deliberately applied to make it look as if it had been in the basement for some time. However, none of these tools were removed from the house.

The suspect Lizzie's answers to the police officers' questions were at times strange and contradictory. Initially she reported hearing a groan, or a scraping noise, or a distress call, before entering the house, but two hours later she said she had heard nothing and entered the house not realizing that anything was wrong. When asked where her stepmother was, she recounted Abby receiving a note asking her to visit a sick friend. She also stated that she thought Abby had returned and asked if someone could go upstairs and look for her.

Lizzie walked free and moved into a large, modern house in the neighbourhood with her sister and began using the name Lizbeth A. Borden, she died of pneumonia on June 1, 1927 in Fall River.