Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings

Life and Trial of Lizzie Borden (Part II)

Theories

Although acquitted at trial, Borden remains the prime suspect in her father and stepmother's murders. Writer Victoria Lincoln proposed in 1967 that Borden might have committed the murders while in a fugue state. Another prominent theory suggests that she was physically and sexually abused by her father, which drove her to commit parricide. There is little evidence to support this, but incest is not a topic that would have been discussed at the time, and the methods for collecting physical evidence would have been quite different in 1892. This theory was intimated in local papers at the time of the murders, and was revisited by scholar Marcia Carlisle in a 1992 essay.

Mystery author Ed McBain, in his 1984 novel Lizzie, suggested that Borden committed the murders after being caught in a lesbian tryst with Sullivan. McBain elaborated on his theory in a 1999 interview, speculating that Abby had caught Lizzie and Sullivan together and had reacted with horror and disgust, and that Lizzie had killed Abby with a candlestick. When Andrew returned she had confessed to him, but killed him in a rage with a hatchet when he reacted exactly as Abby had. McBain further speculates that Sullivan disposed of the hatchet somewhere afterwards. In her later years, Borden was rumored to be a lesbian, but there was no such speculation about Sullivan, who found other employment after the murders and later married a man she met while working as a maid in Butte, Montana. She died in Butte in 1948, where she allegedly gave a deathbed confession to her sister, stating that she had changed her testimony on the stand in order to protect Borden.

Another significant suspect is John Morse, Lizzie's maternal uncle, who rarely met with the family after his sister died, but had slept in the house the night before the murders; according to law enforcement, Morse had provided an "absurdly perfect and overdetailed alibi for the death of Abby Borden". He was considered a suspect by police for a period.

Others noted as potential suspects in the crimes include Sullivan, possibly in retaliation for being ordered to clean the windows on a hot day; the day of the murders was unusually hot—and at the time she was still recovering from the mystery illness that had struck the household. A "William Borden", suspected to be Andrew's illegitimate son, was noted as a possible suspect by writer Arnold Brown, who surmised in his book Lizzie Borden: The Legend, the Truth, the Final Chapter that William had tried and failed to extort money from his father. However, author Leonard Rebello did extensive research on the William Borden in Brown's book and he was able to prove he was not Andrew Borden's son. Although Emma had an alibi at Fairhaven, (about 15 miles (24 km) from Fall River), crime writer Frank Spiering proposed in his 1984 book Lizzie that she might have secretly visited the residence to kill her parents before returning to Fairhaven to receive the telegram informing her of the murders.

Later life

After the trial, the Borden sisters moved into a large, modern house in The Hill neighborhood in Fall River. Around this time, Lizzie began using the name Lizbeth A. Borden. At their new house, which Lizbeth dubbed "Maplecroft", they had a staff that included live-in maids, a housekeeper, and a coachman. Because Abby was ruled to have died before Andrew, her estate went first to Andrew and then, at his death, passed to his daughters as part of his estate; a considerable settlement, however, was paid to settle claims by Abby's family.

Despite the acquittal, Borden was ostracized by Fall River society. Her name was again brought into the public eye when she was accused of shoplifting in 1897 in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1905, shortly after an argument over a party that Lizbeth had given for actress Nance O'Neil, Emma moved out of the house. She never saw her sister again.

Death

Borden was ill in her last year following the removal of her gallbladder; she died of pneumonia on June 1, 1927, in Fall River. Funeral details were not published and few attended. Nine days later, Emma died from chronic nephritis at the age of 76 in a nursing home in Newmarket, New Hampshire having moved to this location in 1923 both for health reasons and to avoid renewed publicity following the publication of another book about the murders. The sisters, neither of whom had ever married, were buried side by side in the family plot in Oak Grove Cemetery.