Lizzie Borden Society Forum

I was amused to see the flurry of vitriol in the forum that my posting seemed to generate. It has been over ten years since I last felt it and that was from the experts in Fall River. Sadly, some truly interested researchers are often eclipsed by those who would seek the ride to glory on the skirt of a long dead woman. Ms. Borden has, wisely it seems, placed that jewel out of the reach of anyone.

Why my identity should matter in the least is a source of puzzlement to me. For those of you that care - I am not one of the elect - simply a student of interesting things. Should I actually have a business transaction with someone, my name, address, telephone number will be no mystery. This isn't some penny dreadful. I simply no longer require the materials, I would like to reclaim the space they take up, I don't want to spend the time piecemealing them on Amazon or E-bay and I hate the thought of breaking up the set. If someone else wants to do it then that is their business. I am selling the whole lot to a reasonable offer and to someone that can show me that they have some legitimate research interest. Simple as that. No haggling, no partial sales, all or nothing...
Make an offer - give a reason. If you want to say "because I can double my money by selling it all on E-Bay" that's ok too but I'd rather it went to someone with more scholarly interests.
List follows:
Victorian Vistas: Fall River 1865-1885 - Sylvia
Victorian Vistas: Fall River 1886-1900 - Sylvia
Victorian Vistas: Fall River 1901-1911 - Sylvia
The Knowlton Papers - Martin & Binette
Lizzie Borden: The Untold Story - Radin
Lizzie - Spierling
Forty Whacks - Kent
The Borden Murder Mystery - Phillips
History of the Borden Murders - Porter
Lizzie - Hunter
Lizzie Borden - Brown
Goodbye Lizzie Borden - Sullivan
Lizzie Borden - Wiliams, Smithburn & Peterson
A Private Disgrace - Lincoln
The Girl In The House Of Hate - Samuels
Lizzie Borden Sourcebook - Kent
Lizzie Borden - bound reprint of New Bedford Evening Standard 1892
Reprint Fall River Daily globe 8/5/1892
Photocopy - American Law Revue The Borden Case 1893
Photocopy Stenographers Minutes of the Inquest
Photocopy 2nd District Court depositions Bridget Sullivan
Photocopy Stenographers Minutes Dr. Dolan
Photcopy Stenographer's Minutes multiple witnesses 1
Photcopy Stenographer's Minutes multiple witnesses 2
Photcopy Stenographer's Minutes multiple witnesses 3
Microfilm Transcripts of the Trial of Lizzie Borden 2 spools
11 x 14 Print (from F.R.H.S.) of the most famous Lizzie portrait

Enigma,

If you are NOT who some of us may think you are, I apologize.

HOWEVER, while I would LIKE to believe you are making this 'offering' honestly, I wonder why you seemingly refuse to answer emails sent to you. You made your offer in another post...I responded, but to date, no response from you. Hmmm.

Sadly, some truly interested researchers are often eclipsed by those who would seek the ride to glory on the skirt of a long dead woman....I would say at this point it sure seems like that hot, dried out Arizonan wind...again.


Tracy...

OK...2 minutes after I nade my last post, I received an email from Enigma referring me to the first post in this topic. Still no contact information however. Very interesting. I do believe it's possible I have seen this movie...and know the ending.


Tracy...

Maybe I need to be more fair about what I mean by contact information. Enigma, please check your email.


Tracy...

Enigma, I guess your name says it all. You have stumbled upon us at a very trying time. We have just been through a bad experience where one person was pretenting to be several different people she was not. You can read all about it here somewhere. You will have to exuse us if we are touchy about people who want to remain anonymous and unknown. We have been burned by such mystery before.

Your identity does matter. If you truly believe that you must remain anonymous I am afraid you have come to the wrong place to sell your collection. The "vitriol" you felt was from a long history of bad experiences with folks who are not who they say they are---and those that are reacting to you in any percieved negative way are doing so to protect us all from this happening again. They are the lions at the gate, as it were. You sort of walked right into it, I know, but if you hunt around a bit in other posts I am sure you will see how bad it got here not too long ago.

I wish you good luck in the sale of your collection. I think if you want to inspire confidence you should be more forthcoming with your true identity and join us in discussing the case instead of merely using us to sell your colleciton. I mean no disrespect by this remark, but you should understand that we do not know you and you won't let us know you. It is an odd world you expect us to live in.

Even Evan Hunter answered his emails and wrote me back personally and was gracious. The upfront thing to do here is to be honest about yourself instead of mysterious. I fear it is you who have inspired the conspiracy theories surrounding your identity when you refuse to reveal yourself to people you wish to do business with.

I apologize to those of you that wrote and did not receive an immediate response. My life is such that I do not always check my email daily. It has taken me months to get around to posting here as it is. I was surprised to find so many responses so quickly so I decided that it might just be easier to post the listing for all to see rather than to try and answer each email individually.

You should remember that the reason I am doing this is because I no longer have an interest in the case or things related to it. I had thought this would be an easy way to find a new home for the material. I was not expecting to have my own personal "inquest". However, having had a little personal experience with some of the charlatans that gravitate to this subject I suppose I can understand your suspicions. I am a private person and I am not interested in plastering my name and contact information across the Internet. I have given my number to one party that seems interested and I will be happy to discuss whatever she wishes to know about the materials. I will do the same to anyone else that feels that they need more information. I do confess that I had thought this would be less work, not more however. If you doubt my motives - there is a simple solution - don't write. I will have no further comments to post.

You do have a a wonderful collection to sell, and if it was being piecemealed out I would be interested in some of it... I already posses most of the books, etc and, like you-- do not wish to go to the trouble of selling/disposing of those items individually.


I do wish you well in finding a good home for these resources and do know that some of us are working toward not being so paranoid! The experience we have had has, unfortunantely gone on and on and the person behind it shows no signs of growing up and moving on....

I have been in contact with Enigma, and and now more aware of his position on the privacy issue and on his wishes concerning the sale of his collection.

I would like to issue this 'public apology' to Enigma for coming on strong with my suspicions. I explained to him directly WHY, with my personal experiences, and those of others I have witnessed, with one certain unsavory character, that I reacted the way I did.

I will always fiercely defend the integrity of this forum. I know that on some issues surrounding things Lizzie, that we will disagree...maybe even to the point of 'vehemency', but I am also fairly sure that even on those points we will agree that being able to come to this table with our forum 'family' is something very much worth protecting.


Tracy...