Lizzie Borden Society Forum

Hi, and HELP, I don't know if I'm reading this in the order I should be but what I've done is stopped reading 40 whacks right at the beginning & dove into the source documents. I finished Lizzie's inquest then the inquest testimony of the others. Of course I have little post it notes with questions on many pages, however I'm now in the middle of the witness statements. I was holding my own until I hit pages 23 - 28. First I had to look up who everyone was & what they did because the names were unfamiliar. But WOW it looks like reporters were bribing police for information, that one of the reporters then at one time his wife were hiding under a bed and takng notes to get conversations between Lizzie & her lawyer. One reporter McHenry really thought that she would get convicted from what the government had on her. It seems they also wanted to get Bridget out of the country. Also somehow the Pinkertons were involved. It looks like alot of people wanted to make money on this instead of getting down to what really happened. It makes me wonder about how much the lawyers knew of what was going on and were they not being honest & just playing Lizzie to get whatever they could?And on top of that--why would the Marshal order Harrington to Providence RI to be a witness to these conversations? I guess you can say I'm a little confused. I'm going to continue to finish the witness statements, then onto 40 whacks. ( I have most of the important books on Lizzie except Mr. Rebello's book & The Knowlton papers). Is this incident referred to anywhere else? Also, would it be helpful to read these in a certain sequence or should I just keep going the way I am? Thanking all of you in advance for your help. ( It looks like I'll be a newbie for a long time--but that's ok because I'm really enjoying the journey.)

You may be surprised at the amount of views your post has garnered with no reply!

It is rather a complicated situation with McHenry/and wife and Trickey.

Do you know about them and their *conspiracy?*
It was sort of between them- not the whole police or county Administration or lawyers or anything. In fact, Trickey was indicted by the same grand jury as indicted Lizzie. I think it was for witness tampering (Bridget).

Here are short bios on the characters from The Knowlton Papers Glossary:
MC HENRY, EDWIN D.: a private detective. He resided in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1889, employed as general manager of the Rhode Island Detective Bureau Company, a firm established in 1886. Renamed McHenry and Company Detective Bureau in 1891, the firm dissolved the following year. In 1892, accompanied by his wife, Nellie, he relocated to New York City. The Fall River Evening News of February 7, 1894, noted that "Mrs. E. D. McHenry, wife of the detective who was employed by the government in the Borden case, has obtained a divorce nisi on the ground of adultery." In Buffalo, New York by 1895, he became a partner with Frank H. McDonald in the International Detective Agency, a firm which operated for only a year. In 1897, he was proprietor of McHenry's Detective Bureau, operating two years later as McHenry's Secret Service. He was last known to have resided in Buffalo in 1899. In 1892, he was associated with the Boston Globe reporter, Henry G. Trickey, in a scandal which became known as the Trickey-McHenry affair.

MC HENRY, NELLIE S.: wife of detective Edwin D. McHenry. She resided with her husband in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1892. On August 19th of that year she conducted an extensive inter-view with Miss Bridget Sullivan, having gained the confidence of the Bordens' former maid by posing as a relative of the family. The following year she moved with her husband to New York City and, in 1894, resided in a boarding house in Jersey City, New Jersey. The Fall River Evening News of February 7th of that year noted that "Mrs. E. D. McHenry, wife of the detective who was employed by the government in the Borden case, has obtained a divorce nisi on the ground of adultery."

TRICKEY, HENRY G. 1868 - 1892: born in Dover, New Hampshire, son of John W. and Betsey E. Trickey. Having relocated with his family to Belmont, Massachusetts, in his youth, he was educated in the public school system there. An honors graduate from Belmont High School, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, soon after leaving school, there engaging in the study of law in the offices of a prominent attorney. Deciding against the legal profession after less than a year, he obtained a position as a reporter for the Tribune in Cambridge, Massachusetts, thus beginning his newspaper career at the young age of seventeen. Shortly thereafter, he became employed at the Boston Globe, covering the neighboring communities of Lexington, Belmont and Arlington until his appointment to the Boston staff. He was a successful and enterprising journalist, his career accomplishments ranging from an expose of opium resorts in Boston in 1885 to an interview with Jefferson Davis, former leader of the Confederacy, in 1886. He married Miss Gertrude Melzar of Wakefield, Massachusetts, in 1890. He was an active member of both the Boston Press Club and the Press Cycle Club. In October of 1892, he was the author of an article which contained information allegedly provided by Detective Edwin D. McHenry, exposing new evidence in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' case against Miss Lizzie A. Borden. Soon discovered to be a fabricated story, it was retracted by the Boston Globe the next day. Shortly following this episode, he left his home in Dorchester, Massachusetts, going first to the home of relatives in Evanston, Illinois, and later to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where he registered in a hotel under the name of Henry Melzar. Conflicting reports exist as to why he left the United States; it has been said by some that he went to Canada out of fear of indictment for the Boston Globe article while others feel he was actually in Ontario on business for that newspaper. It was on December 3 of 1892 that, in attempting to board a moving westbound train in a Canadian depot, he fell to his death.

--I keep reading that the false story published about Lizzie was retracted *the next day* but technically it was 2 days later that the Boston Globe apologized.

Hi Kat, Thanks so much for all the info (and typing). Yes I got a little concerned that I asked something that I wasn't suppose to bring up because no one answered. I know I need those two essential books for research and hopefully someday will be lucky enough to get them. I didn't know about the conspiracy that's why it really confused me. It looks like they were just wanting the headlines to sell papers to make a big name & some money for themselves. Was this at the time people could publish anything without checking accuracy. I thought that's what newspaper publishers actually did, was check this sort of thing.

I don't know if they checked, but Harry and I have found that years later, when some of these reporters wrote books, they still didn't get their facts right. Some even relied upon memory and didn't even look stuff up again in their own archives. Elizabeth Jordan comes to mind.

We don't know why that stuff about Trickey and McHenry is even in the Witness Statements.

The false story was planted in October and retracted two days later.

I would think there would be info on that either on this site or in our archives? I remember member "Gramma" kept telling us to read the original Globe story. She felt where there was smoke there was fire. You would need to find the false story that was published. I have it but it should be partly transcribed hereabouts- maybe in the Privy?

viewtopic.php?t=36&highlight=trickey

Rey the link above, It looks like the right one anyway.

That's good, Doug-Oh!

I guess that is The Evening Standard's version that I transcribed.
Oh well, good enough for now...

Again, thanks for the leads. I have the book with the Evening Standard Articles. So I looked up Oct. 10, 1892. I have a Boston Public Library ECard, so I'll try to call it for the same date. Again, thanks for all the help and the previous links were really interesting. So alot of the subjects such as these have been talked about many times I'm sure. So do you have like a listing or catalog of where different topics have been listed? Or do you just call them back as people ask about them?

There is a search feature on this Forum. I used to know where everything was and could find things easily. Of course, after time goes by I lose track.
Usually if you ask out loud someone who is good at searching will find the link for you.

Even if things have been covered before, it's usually helpful when somone brings a subject up again- we might get a new perspective, or have the pleasure of re-visiting an old topic.

Kat @ Sun Sep 16, 2007 9:16 pm wrote:
MC HENRY, NELLIE S.On August 19th of that year she conducted an extensive inter-view with Miss Bridget Sullivan, having gained the confidence of the Bordens' former maid by posing as a relative of the family.

I was reading through the witness statements and came upon the Harrington notes (pg 22 - 28) regarding the McHenry/Trickey exchange, which lead me to search the Forum where I found this.

How the heck did Harrington & Golden squirrel themselves away in a cupboard in the McHenry household and not get discovered?

Has anyone seen this *extensive interview*; if so, how do I find it? I would lokk to read it!

Yes the *Interview* with Bridget, by Nellie McHenry is in The Knowlton Papers, pages 33-35.
I was just looking this up the last day or two, when I find your question here.

In the Fall River Daily Globe of August 24, 1892, there appeared an article titled "An Unhappy Family." It goes into Bridget's feelings about the Bordens and working for Abbie.
Bridget testified at the Preliminary Hearing on August 26 and continued on August 27.
It's important, with these dates in mind, to know that the letter from Nellie is dated "Prov. Aug. 25/92." At the beginning tho, in the body of the letter, she says she visited Bridget on August 19th "at her boarding place in Fall River."
Nellie could write any date she wanted as to when she supposedly interviewed Bridget. It's when the letter reached Hilliard that is important. Providence is a hop-skip-and-jump from Fall River, too. Same day writing and delivery is possible.

(We also don't have Bridget's inquest testimony. It's not impossible that the McHenry's had access to that earlier in the case.)