writing two: Lizzie Borden

Michelle Snavely
Lit/Comp 11
Mr. Siegmund
Block 1
Writing 2

Lizzie Borden

Most people know the nursery rhyme that is dedicated to the horrible killing of Lizzie Borden's parents. It goes: "Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks; when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty one." Not many people know the story behind this tale, but I am going to show what the rhyme means.
Lizzie Borden was born on July 19th, 1860. She was born in Fall River, Massachusetts to Andrew and Sarah Borden. Lizzie's mother, Sarah, died of uterine congestion when Lizzie was three. After two hard years, when Lizzie was five, Andrew Borden remarried to a woman named Abby Durfee. According to the girls, Abby and Andrew's children did not get along at all. Records state that “Lizzie and Emma saw their stepmother as an infringement on their inheritance. Once, annoyed by Abby's cat, Lizzie allegedly decapitated the animal.”
This should have shown right off the bat that Lizzie was a violent child. However, the marriage went on and time went by. Andrew grew very wealthy through his job, but the family still lived in a very small house close to Lizzie's father’s job. Times grew harder and the family was only growing farther apart. The documents don't really tell why things got so much harder but I think it was because Lizzie's dad was working more often. Because of this the children were left at home alone with Abby. An example that things were getting worse was that one day in 1892 there was a break-in at the Borden household, and all fingers pointed to Lizzie. As a sign of punishment, Lizzie's father went into the barn and decapitated all of the pigeons that Lizzie had been keeping as pets.
Then on August fourth, 1892 at 11:10 a.m., Lizzie claims to have discovered her father's body covered in blood on the living room couch. The maid then called the doctor and the police. Abby's body was found soon after the police arrived. She was found dead upstairs in the guest bedroom. The doctor found Andrew with eleven blows to the head, four of which crushed the skull. His eye and nose were reportable severed.
Abby had been hit from behind. According to detectives she had been cleaning and had no idea of the attack. She reportably had 18 blows to the head. Reporters said that 13 of these blows had crushed her skull. Police discovered that the only people in the house were the maid and Lizzie. Lizzie's sister Emma was away visiting a friend.
Investigators think Abby was killed around 9:30 a.m. and Andrew was killed two hours later at 11:00 a.m. This is only ten minutes before Lizzie supposedly found the body. When questioned, Lizzie told the police that she was out in the barn during the time of the murder. When the police went out to the barn to investigate, they found a thick layer of dust on the floor, proving that nobody had been in the barn that morning.
Lizzie was arrested for the murder of her parents. When the December 2nd court date came, Lizzie pleaded not guilty to the three counts of murder that she was being charged for. The counts of murder were the murder of Andrew, the murder of Abby and the murder of both. The police discovered that there were four hatchets in the basement. One of these hatchets however, had no handle and was covered in ashes. This is the hatchet that they took in as evidence of the murder weapon.
A neighbor also claimed that she saw Lizzie burning a dress three days after the murder. Lizzie claims that the dress had paint on it and was ruined, that was why she was burning it. Another witness claims that Lizzie was at the store trying to buy prussic acid, a harmful poison. The court ruled this piece of evidence out, saying that it was irrelevant. Another apparent motive is that Andrew had set a date to change his will, leaving half of everything to his beloved wife Abby.
On June 20th, 1893 the jury ruled that Lizzie was innocent. Lizzie and Emma then went and bought a house in a rich neighborhood in Fall River. Lizzie died on June first, 1927 of complications from a Gall Bladder surgery. Emma died nine days later form falling down the stairs. The Borden murder is still a mystery to this day. But who do you think committed the murder?
I got this information form two sources: http://www.lizzieborden.com/ and http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/historys_wild_women/76060/2