Sharop
02-08-2010, 08:44 PM
I've been doing some reading about the Lizzie Borden case over the last few days (for those who don't know about it, here's a Wikipedia link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizzie_Borden.) Those of you with knowledge of the case, what do you make of it, and who do you think was the murderer? Lizzie? The maid Bridget? An intruder? Somebody else?
I've always believed that Lizzie was most likely the person behind the murders of her stepmother and father. They were both murdered with a hatchet at their home, during the day, during which time the only two people at the house were Bridget the maid and Lizzie herself. Bridget had opportunity but no apparent motive - she had nothing to gain from the deaths of her employers and there did not appear to be any bad blood between them. Lizzie, on the other hand (along with her sister Emma) hated her stepmother and both sisters stood to inherit a sizable fortune once both their stepmother and father had passed on.
So yes, I think that Lizzie is the most likely culprit. I've been reading theories at a forum dedicated to the case. People have surmised that the killings may have been a spur of the moment thing - perhaps the idea had been festering in her mind, but that she just snapped that day and decided to kill them there and then. They figure that attacking someone with a hatchet is more the action of a person who murders someone in a fit of rage, rather than the action of someone who has made a careful plot. I think it's possible that Lizzie may have had some plan in mind to at least kill her stepmother but that she may not have intended the murders to occur right then and there, at that time, and in the way that they happened.
People have also been surmising that Lizzie may have originally intended to only kill her stepmother (Abby) and that it may have been only after her father (Andrew) returned home that she realised she would have to kill him as well. It's been suggested by some members of the forum that Lizzie may have been planning to slip out into town after murdering Abby, in order to establish an alibi for herself, but that that plan was spoiled by her father coming home before she had a chance to leave. Since he was well aware of his daughter's hatred of his wife, he would surely have realised what had happened, and therefore, she had to kill him as well.
I've always believed that Lizzie was most likely the person behind the murders of her stepmother and father. They were both murdered with a hatchet at their home, during the day, during which time the only two people at the house were Bridget the maid and Lizzie herself. Bridget had opportunity but no apparent motive - she had nothing to gain from the deaths of her employers and there did not appear to be any bad blood between them. Lizzie, on the other hand (along with her sister Emma) hated her stepmother and both sisters stood to inherit a sizable fortune once both their stepmother and father had passed on.
So yes, I think that Lizzie is the most likely culprit. I've been reading theories at a forum dedicated to the case. People have surmised that the killings may have been a spur of the moment thing - perhaps the idea had been festering in her mind, but that she just snapped that day and decided to kill them there and then. They figure that attacking someone with a hatchet is more the action of a person who murders someone in a fit of rage, rather than the action of someone who has made a careful plot. I think it's possible that Lizzie may have had some plan in mind to at least kill her stepmother but that she may not have intended the murders to occur right then and there, at that time, and in the way that they happened.
People have also been surmising that Lizzie may have originally intended to only kill her stepmother (Abby) and that it may have been only after her father (Andrew) returned home that she realised she would have to kill him as well. It's been suggested by some members of the forum that Lizzie may have been planning to slip out into town after murdering Abby, in order to establish an alibi for herself, but that that plan was spoiled by her father coming home before she had a chance to leave. Since he was well aware of his daughter's hatred of his wife, he would surely have realised what had happened, and therefore, she had to kill him as well.