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The Borden Tragedy: A Memoir of the Infamous Double Murder at Fall River, Mass., 1892 (Treasury of... |
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Sales Rank: 38802
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$8.95 |
³Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks, when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one!² In this third volume of Geary¹s Treasury, the famous Lizzie Borden double murder is explored with as much attention to well -researched detail as in his Jack the Ripper.
Detailed introduction to a baffling case
I'll bet that most Americans have heard of Lizzy Borden, and know something about her reputation of having killed her parents with a hatchet. Beyond that, not so much.
"The Borden Tragedy" tries to cover all bases in the case, introducing the reader to the major actors and the theories behind the murders, which occurred (I'm embarrassed to admit) in my own backyard -- Fall River, MA, barely half-morning's drive from my home. In the sweltering, mid-morning hours of August 4, 1892, someone brutally murdered Andrew and Abby Borden inside their cozy home with multiple blows from a weapon. A maid, a grown child, a border and neighbors scurried about, seemingly oblivious to the grisly drama unfolding inside. Suspicion fell, naturally, on those closest to the tragedy. But hard evidence was equally hard to find. Were the Bordens done in by those of their own household? Was this s revenge crime related to Mr. Borden's business ventures? Or was a madman on the loose?
The book reconstructs in fascinating detail the movements of the many individuals on that fated day, but also in the days preceding. The Bordens were odd, in their way, but not seemingly bizarre. Father Andrew was a quite stern and forbidding man, though not unsentimental. He wore a ring Lizzie gave him as a gift years before. Stepmother Abby was hardly beloved, but seems not to have been detested. Daughters Emma and Lizzie, in their 40s and 30s respectively, were unmarried and still lived at home with their parents. If there were resentments, they were kept carefully in check. But was there more to the family drama than met the eye? While the speculation of moderns minds may tend toward the lurid (weird dad + 2 single women = ?) , the author follows the lead of his 19th century subjects and leaves this promising territory unexplored.
The book does a nice job of laying out the rather confusing facts of the murders the subsequent trial, and the aftermath for the involved parties. Though the murders were brutal, involving extensive injury to faces and heads, the wounds are always hidden by shadows, except for a display of the skulls in the trial scene. This minor mercy makes the book appropriate for kids about 10-12 and up who have an interest in the story.
The author's only stumble was in what must have been a marketing gimmick on the back cover -- a comparison of the Borden case with the more recent OJ Simpson case. Oh well. At the back of the book, the author does include a few newspaper clippings of the day, giving the interested reader the chance to get a feel for journalistic styles of the late 19th century.
"The Borden Tragedy" gave me a good grounding in the case. Next time I swing (!) through Fall River, I'll have to pop by their home (still standing) and their family grave.
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