StevenB @ Sun Nov 26, 2006 11:48 am wrote:There was HUGE flaw in Brown's book/theory that I am surprised no one picked up on it. At least in all my readings I haven't seen it pointed out. Brown claimed William Borden reeked of horse urine and that the smell was so bad that allegedly it made a woman sick when she passed by him while he was standing in the Bordens yard. (I'm not saying this is true, just quoting Brown's book). If he smelled that bad he could not have hidden in the Borden house for any length of time undetected, because he'd be noticed from the smell. AND If he hid in the house for over an hour between the murders not only would someone notice, but the smell, being that strong, according to Brown, it would have lingered esp. on a hot August day............ For me, that killed Brown's theory the minute I read his book! I'm really surprised no one picked that up and I've read dozens of book reviews on Brown's book trying to see if anyone caught that.
Steven
Steven, you are
not the only one who has picked up on the 'stench of horse urine' blooper in Brown's book. I, too, picked up on this and a couple of other flaws as well. I read Brown's book when it was first published; at the time, I didn't put a lot of stock in his theory because he claimed that his book was written from the memoirs of Henry Hawthorne, yet, when you read his book it is written as if from the memoirs of Ellan Eagan, not Henry Hawthorne. At that time, I basically chalked his book up as
a very questionable theory, and didn't think much about it. I felt it was an OK story, but nothing to split hairs over. However, since the topic's of "Proof of Arnold Brown's Theory - Part 1 of 2" and "Proof of Arnold Brown's Theory - Part 2 of 2" came out on the forum, I decided to re-read and pick-apart Brown's book to see if I may have been mistaken in my initial impression of his book. Following are the discrepancies I found regarding the stench of a dead horse's urine... (Please note: I am only going to type up the parts of Brown's text that deal with the issue of a dead horse's urine; my personal comments and questions will be typed using a
blue font).
On page 7 of Brown's book, Brown tells us that Ellan Eagan had gone to Sargent's for some yard goods. Heading home she took Second Street. On pages 8-9 of Brown's book, titled Thursday, August 4, 1892. Brown wrote:
As she neared the Borden house on her way up the hill, she wondered if that silly girl was still washing the windows.
No, the maid was not in sight, but Ellan saw a man in the Borden yard, just standing there. There was something about this man that was wrong! He was about halfway between the gate and the back stoop, and he was facing her. He turned as if to go back. His clothes were dirty and course, but what had caught her eye was that he was wearing an overcoat - and on one of the hottest days of the year! He stopped and turned his face toward her. His eyes looked into hers.
She sucked in her breath, gasping. Feeling faint, she shivered and almost cried out in terror. Speak of the Devil and he will appear roared in her ears. I am seeing the Devil!
When he took a step toward her, she ran. She had to get away, and somehow she did, feeling the fire from his eyes burning right through her. Even though she was confused and filled with terror, she knew something else was wrong, too. As she sped away her senses finally told her what it was. It was his odor - one that she had never smelled before. It was not sour, not sweet, not a manure smell, not sweat... not anything she could even imagine! Intent on getting help, she ducked into the first yard she came to, gasping and sobbing. Then she was sick.
When her wits returned, Ellan was on the ground under a shade-giving elm tree on cool, comforting grass. She wasn't sure whether she had fainted, but she realized she must have done so. Even if she had fainted, she had no idea how long she had been there.
Suddenly she remembered what had frightened her and looked around. There was nothing but the usual traffic.
This man, whom Brown claims was Bill Borden, had come face to face with an eye witness who saw him standing in the Borden's yard. Why in the world would this man, who had, supposedly, just killed two people, allow an eye witness to go free? Why didn't he kill her, too? Granted someone would have, most likely, seen him do the deed, if he attempted to do her in there, but, he could have gotten to her and killed her at a later time, before she had a chance to go to the police. I just cannot see a killer letting an eye witness go without tracking her down and doing away with her. This just does not make sense to me. Furthermore, why was Ellan Eagan the only person to see this man standing in the Borden's yard on the very busy Second Street?
On pages 4-5 of Brown's book, titled Summer of 1911. Brown wrote:
Ellan's whole family had come to the parade together. Even Little Mary's beau - Henry Hawthorne - was there. It was all so grand until she saw the horsecars, two of them, like those that had disappeared from the streets twenty years earlier when almost overnight, the electric streetcars replaced them. The instant she saw the first horsecar, she shivered with the strangest chill. Then, as they passed where she was standing, suddenly Ellan gave a small cry of alarm, and - for only the second time in her life that she could remember - she fainted.
When she regained consciousness, she tried to convince her family that nothing was wrong. In, fact, nothing was, at least nothing she could explain. It had been years since she thought about her "devil," not that she didn't talk about the day of the Borden murders. Why, hardly a week went by without someone talking about it.
Ellan had been surprised at her reactions when the horses passed by in the parade. It was the odor that had stunned her, and when the first horsecar passed, she had had an imaginary glimpse of the man in the long coat, an imagined stare into his burning eyes, and a lingering, chilling whiff of that forgotten smell - whatever it was - that she had so successfully banished from her senses all those many years. She knew what horses smelled like, and this order was nothing related to any of the hundreds of horses with which she had had contact. She was honestly frightened.
We are to believe that the odor Ellan smelled at this parade is the same odor she smelled on August the 4th, 1892, when she, supposedly, came face to face with a man, whom Brown claims was Bill Borden, standing in the Borden's yard. At the time of this parade, Bill Borden was no where around; he had been dead for 10 years! (Note: This parade took place the summer of 1911; see page 4 of Brown's book for this information. Bill Borden died April 17th, 1901; see page 295 of Brown's book for the date of his death).
On pages 289-291, of Brown's book, Ellan Eagan questions Henry Hawthorne about Bill Borden's odor. Brown wrote:
"Just tell me. Did Bill Borden ever stink real bad?" she persisted, almost begging.
"He was a farmer. He killed and gutted chickens and ducks, he slaughtered many a horse, he butchered pigs and cows, and anytime anyone shot a deer he was the one they called upon to butcher it. He mucked his barn twice a day. Of course he stunk. I never knew a farmer who didn't. Why?"
"No," she said sternly. "Was there ever a time when he smelled of stink you can't describe?"
"No," he told her honestly. "But I remember the time he made
me stink to high heaven, if that answers your question. I'll never forget that awful stench, and I swore I would never smell like that again."
"Well. I hope you never do, too, whatever it was. Tell me about it." They both seemed to relax as Henry returned to his boyhood days with the newfound confidence that he could handle all the frightening memories that had lingered so long in his life.
Bill was not above playing pranks on Henry. One memorable practical joke occurred when he told Henry how to clean himself after the last hard day of cleaning the casks. When Henry had finished the cleaning to Bill's satisfaction, Bill handed him a jar of something that looked like axle grease and a cake of lye soap and told him to be sure and rub this secret grease on all of the spots of his body where the cider residue and the cleaner had come in contact. Henry did exactly as he was told and, when he got into the waterhole that was a summertime bath tub, every part of his skin he had rubbed with Bill's grease began to burn. When the burning stopped, he noticed the foulest odor he had ever smelled. He sniffed the water, the soap, the rag; they all smelled awful. He dried and dressed and ran from the waterhole, but the stench seemed to follow him.
Henry had to sleep in the barn that night and for the next three nights, too, which was no hardship to a young farm boy. It seemed that the livestock grew restless in his presence through, as if he offended them. He knew he offended any human who came within yards of him. The smell lasted two weeks.
Henry added that during his war service he had kidded a veterinarian about the perpetual odor of his boots, and the vet told him that horse urine had high concentrates of many waste product chemicals in it and that sniffing it was one of the quickest ways to determine imbalances that could point directly to possible health problems in the animal. The vet then delivered an unasked-for lecture on the possible variations in odor that could occur and the ramifications of each.
Henry didn't really listen until the doctor mentioned a fatal disease called Blister Beetle Poisoning and the related stench always found in the dead horse's bladder. He had laughed when the vet mentioned that the blister beetle is also known as "Spanish Fly," but stopped laughing when the doctor added that getting any of the dead horse's urine on your own skin was not recommended unless you wanted to be ostracized from the human race until it wore off. When Henry asked if it could be washed off with soap and water, he was told that water would make it worse.
"Your Bill Borden acted as a vet or a renderer, didn't he? He removed dead horses, you told me," Ellan stated.
"Oh, I figured it out that Bill had added something to that jar of salve he gave me to use long before the vet explained what it might have been."
Then, on page 313, of Brown's book. Brown wrote:
William may have entered the Borden house by the front door opened by Uncle John (with Lizzie's knowledge) at some time before midnight on August 3, talked with Lizzie and Uncle John, and then slept in the same room as Uncle John or in Emma's empty bedroom. An alternative is that he spent the night in the hayloft of the Borden barn and was admitted to the cellar that morning by Lizzie after Uncle John and her father had left the house. At that time Bridget was outside at the front of the house, and Lizzie, knowing that a note had been delivered to her stepmother, thought Abby had changed her clothes and left the house with William Bassett on some real or imagined errand of mercy.
I have to question why Bill's odor was not detected by someone in the household that fateful day; Andrew, Abby, Bridget, Dr. Bowen, Mrs. Churchill, the policemen... ; someone would surely have detected the stench. If Bill Borden's odor was so repulsive that he would have been ostracized from the human race, livestock grew restless, and the stench followed him where ever he went for a period of two weeks, then why wasn't his odor detected? According to Brown everyone in that household, with maybe the exception of Bridget, knew who Bill Borden was. If they knew who he was, they would also know that he reeked to high heaven. If Ellen Eagan could smell Bill's odor, while they were both outside, he in the Borden's yard, between the gate and the back stoop and she on the sidewalk, which means that she was standing several feet away from him, you know that it was extremely strong.
If Bill slept in the same room as Uncle John his odor would have lingered in the sheets that would have touched his body. The stench would have also clung to Uncle John's clothing, hair, and skin. I would also think that William's stench would, most likely, have fumigated the entire upstairs and possibly traveled down the staircase to the front entry way. Surely, Abby would have picked up on this stench when going upstairs to tidy up the room where Uncle John slept. Wouldn't Andrew have detected the odor while having breakfast with Uncle John?
If Bill slept in Emma's room, the stench would have lingered in the sheets that would have touched his body, and would, mostly likely, have fumigated the entire upstairs and possibly traveled down the staircase to the front entry way. Again, Abby would have picked up on this stench when going upstairs to tidy up the room where Uncle John slept.
If Bill spent the night in the hayloft, Bridget would have detected his stench. Didn't Bridget go out to the barn to get the water the wash the windows? Even if Bridget did not detect the odor in the barn, you cannot tell me that his odor would not have been detected by someone after he spent and hour to an hour and a half in the house waiting for Andrew.
I totally agree with you, Steven, if this man smelled that bad, he could not possibly have hidden in the Borden house for any length of time without being detected. The stench would have lingered in the house for hours after he had left. I really cannot see how any of the people who were in the house that day could possibly have missed it.
I saved, what I feel is the best question for last... Brown claims, and we are to believe, that the odor of the man Ellan Eagan saw in the Borden's yard the morning of the murders, was the odor from a dead horse's urine. If this is true, where was the dead horse with it's bladder exposed, so that it gave off the stench of urine that Ellan Eagan was so stunned by that she fainted at the parade which took place in the summer of 1911? If there was no dead horse, then what or whom was the odor coming from? Obviously, it was not coming from Bill Borden, since he had been dead a few years at the time of this parade.
The stench of a dead horse's urine, along with a couple of other discrepancies that I am finding, definitely axed Brown's theory for me.
Seriously, he did a great job in that documentary.
