CRIME LIBRARY
Key Players
Cast of Characters
Key Players
Cast
of Characters
Suspects
Gone Too Soon
Chronologies
Chronology,
1789-1892
Legal Chronology
Prosecutor's Timeline
John Morse's Timeline
Bridget Sullivan's
Timeline
Lizzie Borden's
Timeline
Probable Sequence
of Events
Evidence
Evidence
List
Autopsy
of A. J. Borden
Autopsy
of Abby Borden
Blood Evidence
Crime Scene Photos
House Charts
Possible
Murder Weapons
Trial
Closing Argument
Knowlton
Closing
Argument Robinson
Testimonies
— Individual
Testimonies
— Comparative
Key
Documents
Police
Witness Statements
Lizzie's Inquest Testimony
Inquest Testimony
Trial
Transcript
Lizzie
Borden's Last Will
Emma
Borden's Last Will
John
Morse's Last Will
ABBY DURFEE (GRAY) BORDEN, 1828 - 1892. She was the daughter of Oliver and Sarah (Sawyer) Gray. 37-years-old at the time of her marriage, she wed Andrew Jackson Borden on June 6, 1865. She became stepmother to Andrew's children when Emma was 14 and Lizzie was almost five, she being the youngest of three (one having died). Half-sister to Mrs. Sarah B. Whitehead, Abby was murdered in her home in Fall River, Mass., on August 4, 1892. Her body was discovered in the upstairs guest bedroom, between a large bureau and the bed.
LIZZIE ANDREW BORDEN, 1860 - 1927. Born in Fall River, Mass, the daughter of Andrew Jackson and Sarah Anthony (Morse) Borden. Present at the Borden home at 92 Second Street the morning of the murders of her father and stepmother, Lizzie was considered a suspect in the crimes early on and was arrested on August 11, 1892. She was tried for those crimes but was acquitted on June 20, 1893. A mere 20 days after the trial, the Borden sisters purchased a house at 7 French Street in Fall River (later named Maplecroft). Early in June 1905, Emma left Fall River, never to return. Following her sister's departure, she began referring to herself as "Miss Lizbeth A. Borden." She was remembered by some who knew her in later life as a lady of great kindness and generosity, with a fondness for children and animals.
JOHN VINNICUM MORSE,
1833 - 1912. Born in Fall River, Mass., the son of Anthony and Rhody (Morrison) Morse. Morse left Massachusetts when he was about twenty, going first to Minnesota and eventually settling in Iowa. It was his custom to travel east each summer and visit Fall River and New Bedford, Mass. A younger brother to the deceased mother of Emma. and Lizzie Borden, he had arrived for an overnight visit the day before the murders. A witness at the inquest, preliminary trial and final trial of his niece, he provided testimony of his intimate knowledge of events within the Borden household.
SARAH ANTHONY (MORSE) BORDEN, 1823 - 1863. Born in Somerset, Mass., the daughter of Anthony and Rhody (Morrison) Morse. She married Andrew Jackson Borden on Christmas day in 1845. She was the mother of three children: Emma Lenora, Alice Esther (3 May 1856-10 March 1858), and Lizzie Andrew Borden. She was the sister of John Vinnicum Morse. She died in Fall River, Mass. The cause of her death was recorded as uterine congestion and spinal disease.
CHARLES JARVIS HOLMES, 1834 - 1906. Holmes was born in Rochester, Mass., the son of Charles Jarvis and Louisa (Haskell) Holmes. He was appointed treasurer of the Fall River Five Cents Savings Bank at the age of 21, a position he held the rest of his life. In 1858, he married Miss Mary Anna Remington of Fall River. He testified at Lizzie's trial. After her acquittal, Lizzie spent her first night at his home on Pine street in Fall River. The next day Lizzie and the younger Holmes' daughter, Anna, went to Newport, RI for a week -- at the home of William King Covell (whose wife Sara was Mrs. Holmes' sister).
HOSEA MORRILL KNOWLTON, 1847 - 1902. Born in Durham, Maine, son of Rev. Isaac Case and Mary Smith (Wellington) Knowlton. In 1873, he married Miss Sylvia Bassett Almy of New Bedford. In June of 1893, in his capacity as District Attorney for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, he headed the prosecution against Miss Lizzie A. Borden.
MELVIN OHIO ADAMS, 1850-1920. He was born in Ashburnham, Mass., son of Joseph and Dolly (Whiting) Adams. Shortly after finishing law school in 1875, he married Mary Colony in Fitchburg and was appointed assistant district attorney for Suffolk County. About eight years before Lizzie's trial, he returned to private practice. Associate counsel in the defense of Lizzie, he cross-examined all 22 prosecution witnesses during the preliminary hearing, and played an important role throughout the trial.
ELI BENCE, 1865 - 1915. Born in Braintree, Mass., Eli was the son of William and Sarah J. (Hudson) Bence. He began his career as a clerk at several drugstores in Fall River, Mass., and was employed by D. R. Smith from 1890 to 1895. He became proprietor of his first store in Pittsfield, Mass. in 1905. His first wife was Miss Sarah J. Mayhurst of Fall River and his second Miss Annie C. Maxfield of Fairhaven, Mass. Bence testified at both the inquest and preliminary trial and was summoned as a witness at the trial. His testimony that Lizzie had attempted to purchase prussic acid the day before the murders was ruled as inadmissible by the three judge panel at Lizzie's trial.
JOHN FLEET, 1848 - 1916. Born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, England, Fleet was the son of Richard and Charlotte (Brown) Fleet. He emigrated to the United States as a youth and was employed at the American Linen Company in Fall River, Mass. In 1877, he became a policeman and rose from patrolman to city marshall, retiring in 1915. He died in 1916 in Fall River. As assistant city marshall in 1892 Fleet arrested Miss Lizzie Borden for the double murder. His testimony at the preliminary hearing and trial centered on the police searches at the Borden residence. He also provided detailed information about the various hatchets that were found there.
Narrative Source: Commonwealth of Massachusetts VS. Lizzie A. Borden; The Knowlton Papers, 1892-1893. Eds. Michael Martins and Dennis A. Binette. Fall River, MA: Fall River Historical Society, 1994.
ANDREW JACKSON BORDEN, 1822 - 1892. He was born in Fall River, Mass., the son of Abraham Borden and Phebe (Davenport) Borden. His wealth included substantial holdings in several local textile mills and banking houses. He also served as president of the Union Savings Bank and was director of several Fall River corporations. His first wife was Miss Sarah Anthony Morse (who died in 1863); his second wife was Miss Abby Durfee Gray. They wed in 1865. He was murdered in his home in Fall River, Mass., on August 4, 1892. His body was discovered in the sitting room.
EMMA LENORA BORDEN,
1851 - 1927. Born in Fall River, Mass., the daughter of Andrew Jackson and Sarah Anthony (Morse) Borden. She was away from Fall River the day of the murders in Fairhaven, Mass. After the trial, Emma and Lizzie purchased and lived in a home on French Street, in Fall River, later named by Lizzie as Maplecroft. Following a falling-out in 1905, Emma left Fall River and relocated first to Fairhaven, then to Providence, RI, and continued to maintain her residence in Providence after she began spending part of each of her last years in Newmarket, NH. She lived under an assumed name until her death, which was only nine days following the death of her sister Lizzie.
BRIDGET SULLIVAN, 1866 - 1948. Born in the Townland of Billerough, Parish of Allihies, Beara Peninsula, County Cork, Ireland, the daughter of Eugene and Margaret (Leary) Sullivan. Bridget arrived in New York City from Ireland on the S.S. Republic on May 24, 1886. In November of 1889 she was hired as servant to the family of Andrew J. Borden. Lizzie and Emma referred to Bridget as "Maggie." Her responsibilities there included cooking, cleaning and ironing. While cleaning the windows on the morning of August 4, 1892, Bridget was one of the last to see her employers alive. She provided key testimony at the inquest, preliminary hearing and final trial. Legend suggests that after the trial she returned to Ireland prior to settling in Montana, but there is no proof as to this. She was residing in Anaconda, Montana, by 1897, employed as a domestic. She married John M. Sullivan, a smeltman, in Montana in1905.
ADELAIDE (BUFFINTON) CHURCHILL, 1849 - 1926. Born in Fall River, Mass., the daughter of Hon. Edward P. and Comfort (Taber) Buffinton. She married Charles H. Churchill, an employee of the water department in Fall River, and was widowed in 1879.
She resided with her only son, Charles, at 90 Second Street in the Buffinton family home. Summoned by Lizzie to the Borden house following the murders, she provided considerable testimony at the inquest as well as the preliminary and final trials.
DR. SEABURY BOWEN, 1840-1918, family physician to the Borden family, he was a witness at the inquest and the preliminary as well as final trial. His extensive testimony pertained to several aspects of the Borden murder investigation.
ANDREW JACKSON JENNINGS, 1849 - 1923. Born in Fall River, Mass., the son of Andrew M. and Olive B. (Chace) Jennings. He married Miss Marion G. Saunders of Warren, Rhode Island, on Christmas Day in 1879. He acted as Miss Lizzie A. Borden's attorney from the time of her arrest. As a member of the legal team which represented her at the trial, he delivered the opening statement for the defense.
GEORGE DEXTER ROBINSON, 1834 - 1896. Born in Lexington, Mass., the son of Charles and Mary (Davis) Robinson. He was married twice, first to Miss Hannah E. Stevens in 1859 and then to Miss Susan E. Simonds in 1867. Active politically, he served the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a member of the House of Representatives, a senator, a congressman and from 1883 to 1886 as governor. He was principal attorney for the defense in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Lizzie A. Borden.
EDWIN D. MCHENRY. A private detective by profession, McHenry lived in Providence, RI, in 1889, employed as general manager of the Rhode Island Detective Bureau Company. Renamed McHenry and Company Detective Bureau in 1891, the firm dissolved the following year. In 1892, he was associated with the Boston Globe reporter, Henry G. Trickey, in a scandal which became known as the Trickey-McHenry affair. He was last known to have resided in Buffalo in 1899.
HENRY G. TRICKEY, 1868 - 1892. Trickey was born in Dover, New Hampshire, the son of John W. and Betsey E. Trickey. He was hired as a reporter for the Tribune in Cambridge, Mass. at the age of 17. Later, he worked at the Boston Globe. He married Miss Gertrude Melzar of Wakefield, Mass., in 1890. In October of 1892, he was the author of an article which contained information allegedly provided by Detective Edwin D. McHenry, exposing new evidence in the case against Miss Lizzie Borden. When the story was found to be a fabrication, it was retracted by the Boston Globe. Shortly following this episode, he left his home in Dorchester, Mass., going first to the home of relatives in Evanston, Illinois, and later to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where he registered in a hotel under the name of Henry Melzar. On December 3, 1892, while attempting to board a moving westbound train in a Canadian depot, Trickey fell to his death.
<<< previous | next >>>
PearTree Press, P.O. Box 9585, Fall River, MA 02720
Page updated 5 February, 2007
