Lizzie goes to Washington?

[BOBO]

This from The Spokane Press. (Spokane Wash.) Feb. 24, 1905..... "Moody, then quite a young man, was district attorney for the southern(?) district of Mass. at that time, and it became his duty as such to prosecute Lizzie Borden on the charge of murdering her aged parents. It will be recalled that the jury pronounced the young woman innocent and Moody lost his case."
"But he never regretted that finding, and today believes that the jury gave the proper verdict. Lizzie Borden still lives (the trial was in 1892), and has visited Washington since Moody became a member of the cabinet, and the two performers in that dramatic affair found time to meet and chat informally of those days."
So Moody thought the verdict correct. Was just wondering.... Did Lizzie go to Washington for the sole purpose of seeing Moody about the trial? If so, what was there to discuss?

[Curryong]

This is just my opinion, but I shouldn't think she went to Washington just to see Moody. She did travel in the years after her acquittal, and 1905 was probably after Emma departed Maplecroft. Friends described her as being intensely lonely at times, so travel was one of the ways she occupied her time.

We know she went to New York and Boston, for instance, and attended the theatre there. She wouldn't have visited Washington for that, of course, but she would probably have enjoyed visiting the national capital and seeing the public buildings, most of them less than 100 years old in her day!

Wasn't she considered a great reader? She may have been interested in the political questions of the time. I can't imagine her becoming a great friend of Moody's, all the same. She probably went to Washington once or twice and she and Moody met briefly and they touched on the trial in the course of conversation. Awkward!

Moody probably felt as Knowlton undoubtedly did, that the prosecution case was very circumstantial and quite weak. There was no undoubted weapon with blood on it. They weren't able to find any blooded clothes, and public opinion at the time of the trial was pro-Lizzie.

No wonder the jury found as they did! Nevertheless she had been chief suspect and the police had to go with what they'd got in the way of evidence against her. I do think they were right to arrest Lizzie, but I also think the jury's verdict was correct in the circumstances.

[Mara]

Do we know what the relationship was between Lizzie and Mrs. Minnie E. A. Lacombe, of Washington DC? She received $1,000 in Lizzie's will.

[Curryong]

Thank you Mara. You jogged my memory and I went ferreting about among my notes again after your post.
Actually, Lizzie may have gone to Washington quite regularly in her later years. Wasn't her cousin Grace Howe, who was socially prominent, a Washington resident, together with her husband who was a senior public servant when Roosevelt was Secretary of the Navy? Grace was also left some money by Lizzie.

She also seems to have left money to the Washington Animal League. I don't know who Minnie Lacombe was, but she was married as her son Howard was also left a sum of money. Maybe she was a transplanted ex Fall River resident, whose maiden name we would recognise?

Minnie and a Mrs Margaret Streeter of Washington DC were left $5,000 apiece by Lizzie, but Mrs Streeter also received the deceased woman's 'diamond and sapphire ring with five stones, which she always liked' according to the Will. Margaret Streeter might have been an ex Fall River resident, as well.

[Curryong]

[quote="Curryong"]This is just my opinion, but I shouldn't think she went to Washington just to see Moody. She did travel in the years after her acquittal, and 1905 was probably after Emma departed Maplecroft. Friends described her as being intensely lonely at times, so travel was one of the ways she occupied her time.

We know she went to New York and Boston, for instance, and attended the theatre there. She wouldn't have visited Washington for that, of course, but she would probably have enjoyed visiting the national capital and seeing the public buildings, most of them less than 100 years old in her day!

Wasn't she considered a great reader? She may have been interested in the political questions of the time. I can't imagine her becoming a great friend of Moody's, all the same. She probably went to Washington a few times a year, while she and Moody probably met briefly once or twice and touched on the trial in the course of conversation. Awkward!

Moody probably felt as Knowlton undoubtedly did, that the prosecution case was very circumstantial and quite weak. There was no undoubted weapon with blood on it. They weren't able to find any blooded clothes, and public opinion at the time of the trial was pro-Lizzie.

No wonder the jury found as they did! Nevertheless she had been chief suspect and the police had to go with what they'd got in the way of evidence against her. I do think they were right to arrest Lizzie, but I also think the jury's verdict was correct in the circumstances.

Sorry folks! I was editing and it turned out as a double post! Don't know what happened there!

[BOBO]

I just can't understand WHY she would even want to talk to Moody ever again. I mean he did try to end to her life, prison or otherwise! I would only have two words to say to a person that did that to me.... and it's not "Good Morning". I was just wondering if there was something else in those conversations? We'll never know.

[Curryong]

Maybe she took the philosophical view that he was 'just doing his job'! Of course he was nominally in charge of prosecuting her and did his best, so to speak, but in my view Marshall Hilliard and Knowlton had more to do with the humiliation of her arrest, which of course led to her arraignment and then the long incarceration at Taunton. She obviously didn't look back on that with any pleasure!

Don't know if it is true or not, but in the book 'The Cases That Haunt Us' which features on another thread, on Page 146 of my copy (a year 2000 paperback) it says that William Moody received in the mail a package from Lizzie some time after the trial. This contained official photographs used in the trial, including crime scene photos, along with a handwritten note that she thought he might like them 'as souvenirs of an interesting occasion'.

Heaven knows if that report is the truth! If it is, however, it shows Lizzie did not bear Moody any ill will. Either that or she had a black sense of humour and was cocking a snook at him, he having failed to score a conviction!

[Mara]

Oh boy, "cocking a snook"? I'm going to have to start taking notes! ;)

[Curryong]

Do you like that one, Mara? Debbie liked 'purloined' in another post! Too much reading of Victorian literature and newspapers!

[twinsrwe]

I liked "cocking a snook", too! I got a kick out of it when I looked up the meaning.

[Curryong]

Thanks, twinsrwe! If it was true I wonder what Moody's reaction was!

[twinsrwe]

You're welcome, Curryong. It would be interesting to know Moody's reaction, that is if it is true. I'm sure it would have been one of those reactions that if a picture were taken, it would be 'worth a thousand words'!