Why I think the murders were an inside job

[snokkums]

While I was reading another thread, one line got me to thinking. The line was:

"On such a busy street, with people running up and down, going off to dentists, selling ice cream, looking for daughters thru windows, going off to grocers, seeing Andrew walking around, noticing strange men mulling about, sitting outsid horse stables, observing horse and buggies parked along sid houses why is it noone mentioned seeing Bridget at the front of the house or on the parlor side of the house washing windows?"

That statement got me to thinking. It broght two points: (1) If you were to notice all that, you would have noticed someone going in the house, and (2) Maybe with all the hustle and bustle going on you would 'nt have noticed anyone going in the house and killing the Bordens.


Or the the 3rd poind, it was done by someone in the house. Noone had to see anyone go in the house because no one. Or if they were let in the house, it might have been someone that was familar to the family and the people around the neighbor hood so noone thought anything about it.

But at any rate, with a gruesome murder like that, and as close as the houses were to each other, noone heard Abby or Andrew scream? Espcially Lizzie and Briget.

[augusta]

I think I read in someone's testimony that it was a noisy street. Just because automobiles weren't around didn't mean there wasn't noise. People were probably calling out to one another; there was the noise of the horses and carriages or wagons; John Crowe had a crew of men working in the vacinity. I think someone near the house outside might have heard a scream from Abby, had there been one. There could have been, and we just don't know. But I can't imagine anyone outdoors hearing Abby fall.

[Shelley]

Oh we have done a lot of guest room experiments over the years. You cannot hear a body fall upstairs in the guest room if you are in the kitchen with the sitting room door closed. It can be heard in the diningroom, sitting room ,parlor and front hall of course. And I have to wonder how Abby fell- I think it may have been in stages-not a full out flat-faced crash down from a vertical.

As to screams in the house on Second St.- if you are in Bridget's room on the third floor, you cannot hear anything going on in the sitting room, including a groan or squeal or shriek. In the guest room, the windows must be open to hear a scream, preferably the north side guest room window. I do not believe this was open on the day of the murder. And the shutters were also closed. And the scream needs to be loud and the person listening must be in the driveway or nearby on the street.
I wonder if Abby ever had a chance to scream out- I believe she was taken totally by surprise- and by someone she knew and was not afraid of. It takes a moment to realize you are being attacked, and then to react. In her case I think it happened too fast.

[augusta]

Really interesting experiments, Shelley. Thanks for sharing.

I agree, I'm prone to believe Abby's attack happened too fast for her to let out a long, blood-curdling scream.

It is so awful to think she probably saw her attacker. I feel bad for Abby all the way around.

I don't think she was the control freak that she's been portrayed as thru history. I think we are understanding her more now. Writers used to say she had no friends, and we now know that isn't true. People spoke well of her. Do you realize the only negative words about Abby come from Lizzie and Emma?

[snokkums]

I, too, think she was attacked quickly. And I think she at least saw her attacker.

I think Abby was a lonely person. She wasn't liked by her step daughters, and I don't think that Andrew loved her. He was looking for a mother and housekeeper for his daughters and him. So, I too, don't think she was a control freak. Just lonely.

[Kat]

No one says they saw Andrew leave, and no one said they saw Morse at all! And Bridget was only seen sporadically- that might show that neighbors did not notice what they were used to seeing?

I would tend to think there was inside help, if not an 'inside job.'

[Chichibcc]

I don't think she was the control freak that she's been portrayed as thru history. I think we are understanding her more now. Writers used to say she had no friends, and we now know that isn't true. People spoke well of her. Do you realize the only negative words about Abby come from Lizzie and Emma?

Not surprising whatsoever-I really never thought that Abby was this horrible villain that they tried to make her out to be.

[Yooper]

One item of interest, Mrs. Churchill mentioned having seen Andrew that morning, but it isn't clear if he was seen leaving the house.

I think it's entirely reasonable that the murderer would have no valid expectation of an opportunity to kill Andrew, whether the murderer was Lizzie or anyone else. Why would an intruder remain in the house and pointedly avoid killing Lizzie and Bridget? If Andrew's murder was the product of a vague plan and a golden opportunity, part of the reason for it might be that murdering Andrew changed the entire focus. If there had been no opportunity to kill Andrew and Abby had been the only person murdered, who would be suspected?

[MysteryReader]

No one says they saw Andrew leave, and no one said they saw Morse at all! And Bridget was only seen sporadically- that might show that neighbors did not notice what they were used to seeing?

I would tend to think there was inside help, if not an 'inside job.'

Have you thought about this- people see the same thing day in and day out or see the same people day in and day out and yet they're not paying attention to what/who they are seeing? It could have been like that on that day- neighbors saw what they daily saw and didn't pay attention to it- so no one could come forward with any useful information.

It's sad anyone innocent dies (I'm not against the death penalty is what I mean) but they weren't/aren't the first/last to see their attacker before they're killed and it's usually someone they know.

I wonder what would have happened if it were just Abby at the house- would she have been killed? What if Andrew hadn't remarried- would he have been? There doesn't appear to be any clear motive for the murders unless you want to look at it from a financial point.

[Curryong]

But, and of course, this is only my opinion, financial questions dominated the Bordens' family life and had done since Andrew had helped out Abby's sister and the 'girls' objected. Only a little while before the murders the invalid sister of Augusta Tripp, (Lizzie's old schoolfriend who gave testimony to the defence at her trial) heard Lizzie say that she and Emma didn't know if they would get anything when their father died.

Class comes into it, too. The two sisters didn't want to grow old in a house without modern facilities in a not very nice part of town, sharing it with a woman they hated. Emma wasn't ambitious to mix with the social elite on 'the Hill' but Lizzie certainly was. She couldn't move fast enough after her trial. She and Emma bought Maplecroft. Once she had money she travelled to Washington, Boston and New York, visiting friends, staying at good hotels, eating at good restaurants. She filled her home with books, (had two reading rooms) had her independence.

[MysteryReader]

I'd give anything to have one reading room, let alone two!

[Curryong]

Me too! I'd live in a library if I could.

[MysteryReader]

Me too! I'd live in a library if I could.

I always tell my husband if I can get locked in somewhere (with dinner, of course) it'd be the library or a bookstore.

[Curryong]

Yes, a bookstore! We have a few in Melbourne that offer coffee and cake in a little cafe just off the store. But dinner and a glass of wine would be bliss!