A question about a Fall River Herald Article

[snokkums]

I was reading in the Lizzie Borden sourcebook an article that was printed in the Fall River Society and I was getting confused. Here is some of the article.

"A vernable citzen and his aged wife haced to pieces at their home. Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Borden lose thier live at the hands of a drunken farm hand. Police actively look for the fiendish murderer."


This the first time I have ever heard or read about the police looking for a drunken farm hand, I know there was a farm in Swansea, I didn't know their was any drunken farm hand. Is this one of the wild stories that was floating around that the paperes jumped on.

To contine:

"Father is stabbed. The first intimation the neighbors had of the awful crime was a groaning followed by a cry of "murder". Mrs. Adeliede Churchill, who lives next door to the Bordens, ran over and heard Miss Borden cry 'Father is stabbed';run get the police.

I am confused on this one. I thought she told Bridget that father was stabbed and go get Dr. Bowen. Bowen wasn't home but his wife was and she relayed the message to Dr. Bowen. I thought that Mrs. Churchill came over after she saw Brighet running back from the Doctors house.
I thought Lizzie told Bridget "Come quick, Father has been stabbed". I didn't think that she told that first to Adelaide Churchill that. I know Mrs Churchill asked Lizzie where her stepmother was and LIzzie didn't know.
So what's up with information?

Was the paper just printing anything and everything?

[Yooper]

That sounds like the newspaper was in a fever to publish the story without any fact checking. As long as they printed something about the Bordens being murdered, the rest was open to conjecture. Details of any major story are often misrepresented in the first reports. That's the problem with using the newspaper accounts as sources; how much was fact and how much was conjecture?

[snokkums]

I thiknk kthat is right. It happens even today, papers want to print a sensational story that they don't get the facts right. The LIzzie Borden murders were like the O.J. Simpson murders of today.

And we buy into it. We just have to have something great to read.

[patsy]

Seems like yellow journalism of the day although I don't think the term was used until a little later. I wonder if they had a Nancy Grace back then.

[mspitstop]

Yes, they had their Nancy Grace in Edwin Porter.

[SweetieDee]

Yes, that was the very first article published. All the details were fuzzy, muddled, and insinuated without all the facts. There are numerous errors in many of the articles at the beginning.