Witness Statements and the Clock

[lydiapinkham]

I just noticed the post about tossing the weapon in the privy. The police did dig up the privy. Unpleasant as it was, I think it was the first place they looked in those days (the Williams case, the Kent case both entailed a "vault" search).

--Lyddie

[Susan]

I found this interesting little blip in Porter about the note in Knowlton's argument, but, couldn't find it in the Trial transcripts.

page 138:

"Relation of mother and daughter. There was so little in common between the daughter and the mother that it was to Bridget the mother gave notice of her intended movement, and not to the daughter. We have it from Lizzie that her mother received a note from sick friends. Who sent it? Where did it come from? It did not come in the screen door, because Bridget was in the kitchen. Mr. Borden knew nothing about it. Lizzie says she told him."

I wonder too if Abby got along with Lurana at all and vice versa. Did she too view Abby as an interloper in the family or did they get along?

[Kat]

Lurana only had Hiram and Andrew and his girls. And she was Emma's and Lizzie's true full Aunty on their father's side.
Her child had died, they had moved away from the Ferry Street homestead. The brothers-in-law did not get along.
Lurana might have had uncles and aunts around from siblings of Abraham- and their children, but Andrew's family was her closest kin.
I wouldn't think it mattered much to Lurana who he was married to. It's too bad no one shared the wealth her way tho. She didn't live a whole lot longer, dying in 1898.

[doug65oh]

As nearly as I am able to find, Lurana Harrington is mentioned exactly once by name in the trial transcript, during testimony given by Emma.

In Volume 2, at about p. 1558, Emma said of Lurana: "She came sometimes" (presuming here that when she came, she was accepted into the house.) This in contrast to husband Hiram, who as Emma gave it, seldom visited - and on the occasions he did visit, never set foot over the threshold, instead making his inquiries at the door...usually for one or other of the girls.

[Susan]

Ya' know, that is so interesting, I never quite thought about it before, but that whole property thing that Andrew did for Abby. And Lizzie and Emma protested saying that what he did for her people he should also do for his own. Well, how about throwing in Auntie Lurana in that mix too? Was Lurana older or younger than Andrew? You'd think either way that he'd have some connection with his sister, try to help her and her husband out, even if he didn't like Hiram. I don't know for sure, but, after Sarah died and before Andrew married Abby, Lurana must have mothered the girls in some way, you would think they would have more of a affinity for her. As Doug pointed out, shes only mentioned once by Emma. Sad.

[doug65oh]

Was Lurana older or younger than Andrew? (asked Susan.)

Andrew was born 13 September 1822, and Lurana was born the 10th of August 1826.

per the timeline on the website.

[doug65oh]

That is interesting, now that you mention it, Susan. It's very difficult in a way, seeing "Andrew the Aged One" to envision him years earlier (as toddler Lurana might have said) "Ma big bwuvah Addy."

[Kat]

A bit about the Bordens and the Harringtons- Here is Hiram at Inquest:

Q. About what, did she [Lizzie] say?
A. In regard to something about Bertie, that is, Mrs. Whitehead, a half sister of Mrs. Borden. I think it was something about helping her, or that her father had bought the property. The general construction I have got of what she said, and from what little I learned, was that he had bought the property and gave it to his wife; and of course that meant giving it to her half sister.
Q. Did Lizzie speak about it to you more than once?
A. Sometimes it has been mentioned in a joking way, about the difficulties. I dont know as I could put enough together to say really what was passed.
Q. How long ago was the last time she said anything about it?
A. I think last Winter sometime. I have not seen her at the house for, I might say all Summer, and I have inquired of my wife how it was that Lizzie had not been down. Emma has always come. And the reply I would get from her was that Lizzie was into everything, that is, the works in the church, and her time was occupied; that is what I would get from her.
Q. When she spoke about it last Winter, what did she say about it?
A. I dont know as I could tell any more than to speak kind of sneeringly of Mrs. Borden. She always called her Mrs. Borden or Mrs. B. I dont know as I could remember anything to put together to make any sense.
Q. Did she speak in an unfriendly way of her?
A. Unfriendly, yes.
Q. You never heard Mrs. Borden say anything about it at all?
A. Never mention it. I have heard my wife say that Abby never mentioned it.
Q. But it was understood there was trouble in the family?
A. O, yes there has been I guess. For several years, I guess, of his early marriage with her, everything was very, very pleasant, uncommonly so for a step mother.
Q. This trouble is of recent years?
A. Quite a number of years, I should think. They were rather reticent about telling these affairs, although sometimes it would crop out.
Q. You don’t know of anybody that was hostile to Mr. Borden?
A. Not a person.
Q. Nor Mrs. Borden?
A. Nor Mrs. Borden.
Q. Was that the step sister that married Whitehead?
A. A half sister of Mrs. Borden.
Q. That is the one that married Whitehead that you have been telling about?
A. Yes Sir.

--It sounds as if the Harringtons got along with the Bordens, including Abby- all except for Andrew and Hiram (who *cut his acquaintance*) and that bad feeling supposedly was over a water bill Lurana and Andrew held in common after Andrew bought out his sister's share of their father's estate.

[Kat]

"The Legend 100 Years After the Crime--
A Conference on the Lizzie Borden Case
Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA
Aug. 3-5, 1992
The Hip-Bath Collection", Barbara Ashton, p211+
PROCEEDINGS

Jenning's notes:

"k.  Harrington, Hiram--Brother-in-law of A.J. Borden arrives at 12:05 and at 12:15 (?) hired a horse to go notify his wife because she had been sick and he wanted to tell her himself because of the shame he feared."

[Susan]

I have not seen her at the house for, I might say all Summer, and I have inquired of my wife how it was that Lizzie had not been down.

Do we have an exact time frame for when Hiram "cut Andrew's acquaintance"? It almost sounds to me like Lizzie did the same and Lurana was making excuses for her not visiting anymore. Do you think it might be possible that Lurana sided with Abby when Lizzie groused about her, causing Lizzie to "cut her acquaintance"?

I wonder what this shame is that Jennings mentions in his notes?

[Susan]

Recall, in the Casebook, page 19, Fleet's original notes say:
..."Lizzie said that she had not seen Mrs. Borden since about 9 o'clock She thought _____Bedroom when she was _____."
Someone filled in the blanks...

Found this originally in Porter's book and then found it in Robinson's closing plea:

"Now they say further, as a reason that she is guilty, or they claim it, that Mr. Fleet tells you that Lizzie said she saw Mrs. Borden about nine o'clock, when she, meaning Mrs. Borden, was making the bed. Now taking that as true---there is no contradiction of it. I am bound to say, however, in fairness to the defendant, that it is possible that Mr. Fleet was mistaken. But it is of no great account, as the defence looks at this case. Admit that, then, for the time being, for this discussion, to be true---I do not say it is---but just assume it. See what it comes to then. That is, Miss Lizzie said to Mr. Fleet---assume that that is a fact---that as she went down stairs or went up stairs she saw Mrs. Borden making the bed in the spare room.

Well, what of it? What of it? True, you say. Your daughter goes up stairs this morning to her room and sees her mother in the spare room making the bed. Well, what of it? Well, they say she was up stairs when Mrs. Borden was making the bed. That is true. She was up stairs in her own house, in her own room, at a time when the orderly woman of the house goes to look after the morning work. It does not appear one way or the other whether they were in conversation or not, and it does not appear whether she went up and down stairs that morning two or three times or not."

Interesting, no?

[weber]

It might be telling if we knew if Lizzie and Emma attended their aunt's funeral when she died. I wonder if they ever published lists of mourners.

[Kat]

Thanks Susan.
Sounds like Fleet could be wrong, or misrepresented his notes later. I think he had a poor memory- he also claims he never saw the handle to the HH in the box in the cellar. One word against his.
I was thinking when Bridget said that about Lizzie seeing Abby in the guestroom, she might be repeating info she overheard like with the note.
Maybe Lizzie told that to Andrew and Bridget did hear it- but overheard it. It's still confusing.

Weber, that's a good question- does one have to be invited to a funeral?

[Susan]

You're welcome, Kat. Yes, Fleet could have been totally wrong on that count, but, I love how Robinson latched on to that and saw it as a potential problem that the jury might have trouble with.

Hmmm, good question about the funeral. I would imagine if Lizzie and Emma were notified of their aunt's death, they probably would have been told when the service would be and would just be expected to show. Especially since it was close family and in town. All the funerals that I've been to I've never been invited to, I was just told about the death and when the viewing times were and when the funeral service would be held, I think that there is pretty much the invitation.