The following is what I have learned from the Grein family the last 8 yrs. Bear in mind, that I have over 1100 pages of correspondence with this family. It comes from a 84 yr. old man, whose 3x great aunt was Lativia Grein, Mary Greins sister in law. His 61 yr. old niece was of great help.
At the time of Mary Grein's death, in 1927, the "leave now" letter was found in a family Bible. It was in an envelope with no stamp or postage marks. On the envelope were the words " to my friend mary sarah welch." It was found by Lativia Grein. I had the privilege of seeing the original copy of this letter in 2010.
To sum things up: When Mary died in 1927, her belongings were given to her sister in law Lativia Grein. When the letter was found, in the Bible by Lativa, page 2 (now missing) WAS WITH THE LETTER. FAMILY MEMBERS WHO READ THE LETTER MAYED THEIR OWN HAND WRITTEN COPIES! I have photo copies of 3 letters in my possession. It is said that page 2 went into detail of how Andrew abused his own daughters and the maids. One copied letter reads "Andrew has his way with the ladies of the house" later it reads "bad enough servants but on daughters to." Family lore says that Lativa destroyed page 2.
When questioned as to why Lativia didn't destroy the ENTIRE letter??.... the elder Grein replied... " Andrew Borden was a monster, Aunt Lativia, did not want to shame the family any longer, we knew what happened, with the letter and family, the truth is told."
Six months ago, the niece, joined the forum... for reasons I won't go into, she never posted and left.
I asked the elder Grein, who killed the Bordens?..... His reply was "Who cares??? The Bastards dead." The animosity between the Bordens and Greins are GREAT.
For me, the reasons I do not think a sexual aspect was present in the home are:
1)- The girls were both sent away for extended periods of time. Emma to school and Lizzie to Europe. Where they might have talked! I think Emma was sent away in order to try and patch things up between Abby and Lizzie. I believe Emma was stoking the hate Lizzie felt for Abby and was generally unkind to Abby. Hence-- bye bye. Lizzie's Europe trip might have been for similar reasons. To help her attitude. It seems the opposite occurred in both cases!
2)- If Bridget had known-- no raises would have kept her there, despite how kind Abby was to her! Abby's kindness towards her points to a woman who was decent and had love and compassion to offer others. Not a 'mean old thing' as Lizzie allegedly stated. Likewise, had Bridget been a victim-- or other maids, SOMETHING about it would have leaked out.
3)- Andrew seemed to derive his pleasure from making money and controlling it. He could have been abusive in this way. Holding it over the girls' heads. He seems to be a peculiar sort. People didn't like him.
4)- If he had pedophile urges, once the girls passed puberty he would have lost interest-- and then, there was Abby. She never conceived. She was young enough to have done so-- as to the idea that she was morbidly obese and unable to have children-- I don't think her weight played any part in fertility. Go anywhere today-- and you will see women her size-- all over! Looking at photos of a younger Abby show me a normal sized women. She may have gained weight but she was never a candidate for the the biggest loser.
5)- People talk about Lizzie giving Andrew her ring-- but I do not believe there is any recorded testimony as such. I concede, I might be incorrect.
More to come!
