Lizzie's Ironing is Confusing to Say the Least

[irina]

We pretty much know Lizzie's version. She was struggling to iron a number of handkerchiefs, the fire was low, flats were cool, she went to the barn, someone killed her father and she returned from the barn with only a "chip" to hopefully get the fire going again so she could iron, but the flats were still cool so she was going to go to her room and lie down except on the way she found her father's body so she backtracked and yelled for Maggie. That's pretty simple but sworn testimony clouds the picture.

Lizzie's testimony at the prelim. obtained at lizzieandrewborden.com

It was established that Andrew had left the house...
Q: What were you doing when he started away?
A: I was in the diningroom I think; yes I had just commenced to iron.
Q: It may seem a foolish question. How much ironing did you have?
A: I only had about eight or ten of my best handkerchiefs.

Through questioning it is established that she was not finished when Andrew returned to the house.

Q: Will you give me the best story you can, so far as your recollection serves you, of your time while he was gone?
A: I sprinkled my handkerchiefs, and I got my ironing board and took the ironing board in the dining room and left the handkerchiefs in the kitchen on the table...

Adelaide B.Churchill's inquest testimony, p. 133(40)

Q: Did you see any ironing board in the dining room?
A: I did not.
Q: Did you see whether it was there or not?
A: I don't think it was but I am not very observing.
Q: You did not carry the ironing board out?
A: No, sir.
Q: Did you see any signs of ironing anywhere?
A: I did not to my knowledge.
Q: Did you notice flats on the stove?
A: I did not.

Alice Russell inquest testimony, page 150(57)

In response to questioning she states, "I found the handkerchiefs part ironed, and part damp. I took the damp ones and shook them out."

Q: Did you find the ironing board?
A: I don't remember seeing it.
Q: A little ironing board?
A: I don't remember it.

NOW THE CONFUSION BEGINS~~~~~~

Bridget Sullivan, trial testimony, page 237

Referring to what happened after Andrew came home, Bridget was washing inside windows and Lizzie entered the sitting/dining/kitchen area:

Q: Will you state what she did after she came in?
A: She came into the dining room, went out to the kitchen and took an ironing board and placed it on the dining room table and commenced to iron.
Q: You in the meantime continuing to wash windows?
A: I was washing the last window in the dining room.

Questioning then brings out that this is the time Lizzie telld Bridget that if she is going out, to lock the door because Mrs. Borden has gone out, etc...

Q: And in the meantime did she go on ironing whatever she was ironing?
A: Yes, sir, she got through and I went out in the kitchen.

In the kitchen Lizzie tells Bridget about the fabric sale. Bridget decides to lie down upstairs.

Q: I don't know that you made it quite clear what Miss Lizzie Borden was doing as you went upstairs.
A: To my room do you mean?
(page 251)
Q: Yes, to your own room.
A: She was in the dining room turned in, and as she went into the dining room I went upstairs.
Q: Had she stopped ironing at that time?
A: No, sir.

Cross examination by defense implies Lizzie was ironing all morning in the dining room though Bridget didn't see her do it and didn't really know. (page 284)

On page 399 of the trial transcript Alice Russell is questioned on cross examination. It doesn't seem that ironing comes up on her direct examination. There is a charming Q & A about her finding the handkerchiefs.

Q: Do you remember what happened to them?
A: I took them upstairs and as I went in Miss Lizzie said, "Oh, yes, those are what I was ironing."
Q: What was done with them?
A: I said, "What shall I do with these?" and she said, "Lay them in this drawer", and I took those that were sprinkled and lay them over Miss Emma's towel rack to dry.

My first problem is that Lizzie said she took out the ironing board right after Andrew left in the morning but Bridget is quite specific about Lizzie bringing the ironing board into the dining room just after Andrew came home, and as Bridget is finishing the dining room windows. Then Lizzie "commenced" to iron and ironed until Bridget went upstairs. I have tried to rationalize these points of view. Lizzie didn't know up from down, or as many say, she deliberately lied. Perhaps she started ironing in the kitchen and then moved the operation into the dining room which could make Bridget's statement true. In one place Bridget seems to acknowledge that Lizzie worked on ironing during the morning but her statement about the ironing board being taken into the dining room after Andrew returned home is awfully specific.

Possibly Lizzie sprinkled and rolled the handkerchiefs earlier in the morning but didn't start ironing till later. Keep in mind Alice found several ironed and several un-ironed.

The problem with this is time. We think Andrew got into the house about 10:45. Lizzie had a conversation with him, set up her ironing board in the dining room, commenced to iron, and had two short conversations with Bridget, according to Bridget. According to Lizzie she helped settle her father on the sofa, also. Lizzie called Bridget to come down stairs about 11:05. May we assume her best handkerchiefs are likely linen, possibly with lace? That takes a hot iron and patience. With a modern steam iron I couldn't iron several such handkerchiefs in that short time. OK, so maybe Lizzie had been ironing off and on all morning till the fire got cool. Maybe she ironed a few, went upstairs, killed Abby, returned downstairs and found the fire too cool to finish ironing. (I threw that in for the Lizzie did it folks. )

For the Bridget is complicit folks~WHY then does Bridget so plainly state that Lizzie takes the board into the dining room and begins ironing at that time? Why didn't anyone else seem to see an ironing board? Alice Russell with the overactive conscience, who put away the actual handkerchiefs didn't see an ironing board? Mrs. Churchill saw neither board nor flats on the stove, but she said she wasn't an observant person.

Why also would Lizzie iron in the dining room at all? Bridget who did the most ironing for the family, in one place in her testimony, states that she did her ironing in the kitchen on a big board. Why would anyone pack flats far away from the stove, especially when under the best of circumstances they wouldn't stay hot very long and would need to be returned to the stove frequently? I know someone is going to say the house was small. I would reply I think the kitchen had a table as good as the dining room table.

Why the complexity? Why can't Bridget say, "Miss Lizzie was ironing in the kitchen"? Is that about Lizzie bringing the board into the dining room a lie? If so, why? What purpose does it serve? What are we missing here? How could Lizzie have been actively ironing when Bridget went upstairs if the fire was too low? I could understand Lizzie testing the flats, poking the fire, etc., but Bridget makes it sound like Lizzie was industriously ironing. What's the point? Who's covering what?

[Curryong]

Thank you for thinking about the 'Lizzie did it' folks, irina!

Of course, not being used to flat irons and their vagaries, I suppose that perhaps the linen ones needed a hot iron, the smaller lacier ones a cooler going over with the iron. The stove seems to have been allowed, after the washing of the breakfast dishes, to get very cool. Perhaps the hankies had dried without too many crinkles and only needed a few motions of the iron.

It's odd, that, when Lizzie and Bridget have that little conversation about locking the door, (at about 9:30 am, when Bridget's about to commence washing the windows,) that Lizzie doesn't say, if she was, "I shall be in the kitchen ironing a few items", or "I am ironing, so I shall be near the door if you do want water from inside."

I think Lizzie got muddled in her testimony and the only time she actually ironed was in the dining room, after her "Oh, sh--!" moment when time was precious and she wanted to know where Bridget was going to be before Uncle John arrived home.

It would, as you've pointed out, be much more logical to iron in the kitchen near the stove. The flat irons would probably have been kept on that shelf above the kitchen wood cupboard. Bridget didn't note any large ironing board set up in the kitchen when she came in to do the inside windows, did she?

Indeed, it's quite an odd action to take a small ironing board into the dining room and place it on the table where you and the family are going to eat in about half an hour. Half a dozen hankies, too, are not necessaries. They can be ironed any time.

In the terrible circumstances of the day it's not really surprising that neither Mrs Churchill or Alice noted the small iron board especially if it had been quickly placed against the wall or under the table for example. Lizzie could easily have quickly sprinkled the hankies with water, the action of a few moments, after her talk with her father.

In short, I think it, (the ironing) was an excuse to keep her eye on Bridget and have a little talk and make sure she was out of the way.
And remember, Bridget saw her turn and go back into the dining room, (the room where Andrew's coat was hanging up) as she herself made her way up to her room. Lizzie didn't seize her hat and follow her into the kitchen prior to the barn excursion, or talk about sinkers, fishing, lead or tin.

She wanted to know if Bridget was going to be out of the way and confined her conversation to that.

[irina]

Some interesting thoughts, Curryong.

If I didn't include the specific Q&A Bridget did establish that the big ironing board was not out that morning. You have a point that the ironing need not have been an intense job. Lizzie didn't seem to do many domestic chores so maybe she didn't put a lot of time into ironing. Believing in self sufficiency I do a lot of things the old fashioned way but I have never ironed with flats. I have been told they did not hold heat very long and had to be repeatedly put onto the stove. Another term for flats in this country was "sad irons" supposedly because ironing was so difficult it was a "sad" thing to do.

One point I didn't make as clear as I should have. If there was ANY ironing going on from 10:45 till Andrew's demise at about 11:00, well it couldn't have been much. A conversation with Andrew, two short conversations with Bridget, taking the ironing board into the dining room. That's just working from Bridget's testimony. If we add Lizzie's testimony we would add her settling her father on the sofa and a trip to the barn. My feeling is there was NO ironing going on in that time frame. Some handkerchiefs were ironed per Alice' testimony but I don't think it was done in that 15 minute period. That said, what did Bridget really see? Was she lying entirely? If so, why? The ironing board in the dining room just sounds terribly false to me. Are we working with a faulty time frame? Was Andrew home much sooner than circa 10:45?

Guilt or innocence or partial innocence I think may ultimately be proved with this very tight section of time. Anyway we look at it it doesn't go together. There is too much activity for all three people, Bridget, Lizzie and Andrew, for only 15 to 20 minutes of time. Once again giving a nod to the Lizzie did it folks, suppose Bridget just got upstairs, Lizzie heard her reach the top landing and enter her room. Lizzie instantly proceeded to kill her father and within five minutes called for Bridget. Something just doesn't feel right and the elaborate ironing story is part of what doesn't fit in my opinion.

[Curryong]

Mrs Dr Kelly was on her way to a dental appointment when she saw Andrew return to no 92 that morning. She at first told the police that was at 10:32am but later admitted that her clock was running slow. If we say Andrew was fiddling with the front door lock at about 10:40, (which Mrs Kelly didnt see, she'd gone by then) would you say that was reasonably accurate?

He gets inside eventually! Then comes the change of clothes upstairs, or does it? Because nobody actually saw him wearing his Prince Albert that day, or I don't think they did. What if he was wearing his cardigan jacket all the time? I can't remember whether it was in Lizzie's witness statements or not but apparently he made a bit of a fuss that morning about having to go and post Lizzie's letter at the Post Office in the hot sun because he was feeling so seedy. He could have just deposited his papers in the safe upstairs when he came home and then went to lie down.

Apparently some rural villages in India still don't have electricity and use a form of flat iron introduced by the British which holds embers/bits of hot coal in a small compartment on the iron, keeping it hot. Perhaps Lizzie should have used those! Apparently theyre very efficient. I wish I knew more about flat irons. I'm searching through my books on the Victorian home.

[irina]

I have heard of the kind of iron that had coals in it. When I was a little girl a lot of people had collections of sad irons as they came in different designs, etc. The ones that had to repeatedly be put on the stove weren't very easy to use. In the movie 'Dr. Zhivago' there is a scene where Lara is ironing sheets with the type of iron Lizzie seems to have been using. I thought it was probably pretty accurate and showed the difficulty.

I had thought Andrew came into the house about 10:45 but I think 10:40 is a must. I wasn't sleeping good about 3:00 this morning and thinking about how to sort the various testimonies. Lizzie and Bridget report at least four different definite activities in that time frame. They both report about four definite activities for Andrew in that time frame. Bridget: Finishing windows, sitting room; washing windows, dining room; putting away her basin/rags; brief conversations with Lizzie plus going upstairs to her room. Lizzie (using Bridget's testimony): ironing board to dining room; conversations with her father and Bridget; commencing ironing, whatever that means; going to and from the kitchen. Andrew (using mostly Bridget's testimony): read a magazine; went up stairs; conversation with Lizzie; laid down for a nap. We could throw in Lizzie's barn trip and her settling her father on the sofa but those items are in question. These were basic things that took place in 15 to 20 minutes.

Plus someone had time to commit a murder, hide the weapon...and call Bridget. The murder probably didn't take very long. We are all in agreement hiding the weapon need not have been difficult. We all agree the murderer may not have gotten blood on him/herself. BUT the problem for me is it seems that Lizzie would need to attack Andrew about as soon as Bridget laid upon her bed. She chucks the weapon possibly without much thought as to where, or possibly there was a hole in the wall she knew well. She just about doesn't have time to go outside and throw the hatchet on top of Crowe's barn. Then, still without thinking, looking in a mirror or whatever, calls Bridget and appears to a number of people to be well groomed, clean, etc. It seems like another person must be involved.

[Curryong]

Possum used to say, on various threads, that people grossly over-estimate the time it takes to do something, and would record how much he was able to accomplish in even a ten to fifteen minute period. And he is quite right. Lizzie had about 15 minutes to accomjplish what she had to do and managed it. The hatchet throwing, the checking in the mirror, as well.

[irina]

I can imagine Possum can do things rapidly. So was I before migraine made mush out of my nervous system. Speaking for myself I know how fast I was capable of moving, how fast I could talk, how fast my brain actually still works. (Twitter was made just for me, I think.) Bridget may have had those capabilities. I don't think Lizzie did. The ability to act quickly has some physiological base, including fast or slow twitch muscles. Everything we know about Lizzie is she wasn't this type of person. She could have been loaded on adrenaline that day, but if she was a slow sort of person naturally I would expect her to have made many and massive mistakes if she tried to hurry.

The way I used to be, I would have packed the ironing board, hankies and a couple of flats into the dining room in one big pile. I would have chattered to Bridget while I did it. (Lizzie may have talked with Bridget this way, about the note.) If I nailed Bridget in the kitchen to tell her about the sale I would have been loud and hustling while I talked rapidly.

Something just doesn't feel right about the set up. Possibly something that skews our overall understanding is that Bridget to the best of my knowledge never mentioned Andrew's activity after the conversation with Lizzie. Lizzie is the one who describes helping him lie down for a nap. For all we know Bridget went into the dining room to wash windows. Lizzie was in the kitchen and dining room. Bridget dumps/rinses her basin, hangs up her rags, talks with Lizzie in the kitchen, then goes up stairs. Nobody claims to know what Andrew was doing at that time in the sitting room. Possibly he laid himself down on the sofa right after his conversation with Lizzie and thus perhaps was deeper asleep than we think when he was attacked.

I know in other places some have suggested both Mr. and Mrs. Borden may have been dead from natural causes before being attacked. I don't buy that at all. BUT, old men do drop dead, especially on fairly hot mornings after they have been unwell. A lot has been made of Andrew's awkward position, etc. It would be interesting if he collapsed in a coma from stroke or something, and the killer thought he was already dead. Lack of forensics at the time will forever hide that possibility. It is very unlikely but possible. If Lizzie thought he was dead she may have felt abusing the corpse to cover up Abby's death, was acceptable. That's a theory to mention only once since it can never be proven.

[Curryong]

I am a slow-moving person with a slow metabolism, naturally. In my life I've HAD to quicken up reflexes etc because when you have small children you just can't dawdle. (I am fanatical about being on time for appointments too, or if I've promised a friend I will be somewhere at a certain time.) My point is, that if one's life depended on it, if, in a way, this was the pivotal moment of your existence, then whatever had to be accomplished would and could be done swiftly.

Bridget didn't see Andrew again because she didn't need to go back into the sitting room. The windows were done in that room. For all we know, Andrew might have laid down straight after coming downstairs and drifted off to sleep immediately. Lizzie gave testimony that

Q. When you were out in the barn, where did you leave your father?
A. He had laid down on the living room lounge, taken off his shoes and put on his slippers and taken off his coat and put on the reefer. I asked him if he wanted the window left that way.

Later, she was asked

Q Can you give me any judgement as to the length of time that elapsed after he came back and before you went to the barn?
A I went right out to the barn.
Q. How soon after he came back?
A. I should think less than five minutes. I saw him taking off his shoes and lying down. It took only two or three minutes to do it. I went right out.

Of course, as a Lizzie-dun-it person, I don't believe she did that. I think the last time she saw Andrew before quietly opening the dining room door and killing him, was when she probably observed him going into the sitting room after coming downstairs from his bedroom.

I don't think Lizzie and Bridget actually had much conversation in the kitchen, did they? I think she did follow Bridget out into the kitchen (probably to check that Bridget was going to rinse her cloths out in the sink room and then depart upstairs) and made up the info about the sale, which apparently wasn't specific to that Thursday. The last time Bridget saw Lizzie she was going back into the dining room.

I think it would be excellent to lay the testimony of Bridget and Lizzie side by side plus what we know of Andrew's movements from the time he came home, in a kind of time-line, and see where each coincides and diverges. I am going to try and do that today. (It's Thursday morning here.)

I would imagine that, even in those primitive days, the doctors performing the autopsy would have been able to tell from the state of the organs whether a stroke or heart attack had occurred. However, I will defer that question to more medically qualified people like Possum and debbie. By the way, where is debbie?

[irina]

What you are suggesting is kind of what I was trying to do here, but centered on the ironing. I still maintain that any hankies ironed were ironed earlier in the morning so why the heck take the board into the dining room? Bridget seems to split her interactions with Lizzie. Lizzie told her about the note/ Mrs. B. going out, while Bridget was washing dining room windows. A bit later Lizzie followed her into the kitchen to tell her about the sale.

Bridget said Andrew sat down and read something for a bit, went upstairs, and had whatever conversation with Lizzie. That should take more than 5 minutes but Lizzie is horribly time challenged. It wouldn't matter if that took 10 minutes or so, anyway. I don't see how Lizzie could have gone right out after Andrew laid down because I'd bet he laid down while Bridget and Lizzie were still in the dining room. Either Lizzie checked on him and asked him about the window after Bridget went upstairs, and then she went out, or she checked to see if he was vulnerable and killed him. Something really doesn't fit.

It's possible that no one seemed to see the ironing board because perhaps my idea of a small ironing board it something up on pegs and visible. Maybe it was just a board with a piece of flannel and it was flat on the table. Lizzie could have moved it from the kitchen in anticipation of Bridget starting dinner very soon. But if so...that would be something like a consciousness of innocence. Barring a major discovery of new evidence I think shredding the smallest points may yet yield something.

It's Wednesday evening here. That's what I always thought. It's tomorrow there and yesterday here.

[Curryong]

If Bridget had gone to Sargent's store (a failing business in North Main St which closed its doors finally in 1894) it would take about eight minutes to walk there, according to Rebello. If Bridget had decided to come straight back to rest that would be 16 minutes walking time and then time in the shop (10 minutes, a quarter of an hour?)

[irina]

I don't think that would have much to do with anything since dinner would have to be started soon. Bridget's half day off started after dinner. Can we even try to say Lizzie was suggesting Bridget nip over to the store in the half hour before starting dinner? I was just pondering what Lizzie was REALLY saying to Bridget about locking the door because Mrs. B. had gone out. I was thinking that between the spoken lines Lizzie was saying, "If you go out this afternoon that you have off, be sure to lock the door because Mrs. Borden won't be back till after dinner sometime." None of it goes together.

If we can compress activities of all three living people into 10 minutes we could get a slightly different picture. Bridget goes upstairs. (My feeling is that migraine pain, or perhaps pain of any kind, distorts time so I wouldn't expect her to know how long she had laid on her bed.) Andrew is in process of taking a nap. Lizzie either goes outside, goes down to the cellar (which makes sense to me), or kills him. If the latter she would then have from about 10:50 till 11:05~about 15 minutes. That is more believable than maybe five minutes.

A reason I feel she may have been in the cellar is her report of a groaning, scraping, or distressing noise. If it was all a lie why not say she heard her father call out, heard footsteps running away, heard a man curse...? Anything. If the barn story is a whopper (really big lie), we know what she is capable of. Why then something so vague about a sound or noise or whatever it was? She could have made herself a heroine rushing back to the house to save her father, but she got there too late. That would have been a much better lie which could have been defended along with the barn story. I think she was in the cellar and survivor's guilt fueled the barn story. A reason I have trouble with the barn story is the time frame. Too much to add to the crowded events of a short period.

[Curryong]

No, I'm not suggesting that Lizzie wanted her to set off that very second! I just put that little bit in about Sargent's as an interesting little snippet location-wise, if Bridget had gone to the sale that afternoon!

My explanation is that after THAT moment when Lizzie realised that Uncle John was coming home the schedule that she had planned changed. She realised that sooner or later Andrew had to be killed and it was fortuitous for her that Bridget, who had a slight headache when she woke (I don't think it was a migraine, was it?) was wearied by her exertions with the windows and general feeling of seediness. Therefore she went to her room. She may even have dozed for a few minutes after hearing the 11am clock chime. It obviously wasn't for very long, as by about 11:06 Lizzie was hollering.

I wrote in a former post a while ago that what a murderer really needs is lots and lots of luck. Lizzie, by and large, had it, (having a middleaged male jury, for example.) Elsewhere she was not so lucky (with the police for instance.)

She was in my view supremely lucky in that both Andrew and Bridget were feeling seedy and wanted to lie down. If, for instance Andrew had wanted to have a snooze in his bedroom behind a locked door, there would have been nothing Lizzie could have done about it. Similarly, if he had come back refreshed and feeling much better, he may well have decided to SIT and read in the sittingroom while lunch was being prepared. Or, if he had come back home twenty minutes later! You see what I mean about luck and the fateful part it plays in people's lives?

It was similarly luck that Bridget decided to rest upstairs instead of making up the stove or cutting the mutton into dainty portions, or eating a pear or muffin in the kitchen.

There are lots of different alibis Lizzie could have adopted. If she was down in the cellar doing things because of her menstruation etc then all it would have taken would have been a few words in the sympathetic Dr Borden's ears and he would have made it right for her with the police, who certainly wouldn't have investigated the arrangements a woman having her period makes when going to the toilet.

The fact is, she didn't. Instead we get things which I believe were made up on the spot, a groan, a scrape etc., stated very early on to her worried friends, Alice, Mrs Churchill and to Bridget. She perhaps didn't count on these being recounted to the police by these ladies. Perhaps she felt these were the sort of noises an intruder would make and therefore they would be accepted. I don't believe she was in the barn either, and the twenty minutes she told the police she was there is frankly ridiculous.

Still taking a look at the timeline!

[PossumPie]

There was about 5 min. time frame. Try it yourselves... walk 2 min. out of your home, stand around for 1 min. then walk 2 min back home. I bet you are surprised as to how far you can get...I'll do the math for you. The average person can walk a leisurely pace 704 feet in 2 min. this is 235 Yards, longer than 2 American football fields. Lizzie could have walked the length of a Football field, hidden an object, walked back, and had 2 min. extra time. Not a problem.

I've observed with this case people think things either take much longer or much shorter than reality to do. Someone said there was no way she could have cleaned up in the short time between killing Father and calling Bridget. I then set a 5 min. timer on my microwave, went upstairs quickly showered, dried off, changed clothes, and got downstairs again before the timer went off. BTW, I'm NOT a spry 30 anymore, but a somewhat arthritic 50...

[Aamartin]

possum is 100% correct! I HATE making my bed from scratch-- It required me to put a duvet in a duvet cover and then turn it right side out, etc. I set a timer on my phone last time I did it-- 4 minutes and a few seconds.

With our phone apps-- my friend and I can walk 2 miles across town in less than an hour-- usually about 45 minutes. We walk at a leisurely pace and visit.

As far as Curryong's hypothesize that Lizzie would have done better with a cellar/period alibi-- I agree. I wonder if she placed herself outside due to lack of imagination or because she really was outside and had to admit some reason for it. I think she was outside. Disposing of the hatchet and had to say that in case she was seen outside. If the waist of her dress was tight enough, she could have hiked up the skirt and 'carried' the hatchet outside, under her clothing. Her gait might have been off-- but she would have had nothing in her hands.

[Aamartin]

possum is 100% correct! I HATE making my bed from scratch-- It required me to put a duvet in a duvet cover and then turn it right side out, etc. I set a timer on my phone last time I did it-- 4 minutes and a few seconds.

With our phone apps-- my friend and I can walk 2 miles across town in less than an hour-- usually about 45 minutes. We walk at a leisurely pace and visit.

As far as Curryong's hypothesize that Lizzie would have done better with a cellar/period alibi-- I agree. I wonder if she placed herself outside due to lack of imagination or because she really was outside and had to admit some reason for it. I think she was outside. Disposing of the hatchet and had to say that in case she was seen outside. If the waist of her dress was tight enough, she could have hiked up the skirt and 'carried' the hatchet outside, under her clothing. Her gait might have been off-- but she would have had nothing in her hands.

[Curryong]

Couldn't she have just popped the hatchet in a basket and later told people she was collecting some pears, the three she supposedly ate in the barn loft?

I think the timeline is, unsurprisingly, a little wonky, as people naturally were going about their business not looking at the nearest clock. However, If Mrs Dr Kelly saw Andrew come round to the front door of No 92 after fruitlessly trying the side door at about 10:36 am, where was Lizzie? She said she was reading magazines and waiting for her flats to warm up yet she didn't hear her father rattling at the side door?

Well, no, because, although Lizzie denied it at the Inquest, she was upstairs and, a moment or two later, was having a giggle about Bridget fumbling with the door. Another of her pointless lies occurred when she gave testimony at the Inquest that Bridget had intimated that Andrew had forgotten his key. In fact he had his key (the door was locked and bolted anyway) and Bridget testified that he had said nothing when he came into the house.

Lizzie in her testimony says she was ironing in the dining room but leaves out the conversation with Bridget while Bridget is cleaning the inside dining room windows. She also omits the momentary conversation in the kitchen about the sale of material.
Instead, Lizzie gives testimony that she goes to speak to her father in the sittingroom to ask him a question about the mail, (a question Lizzie has already asked him in the dining room overheard by Bridget, who was washing the sitting room windows at the time.) According to Lizzie she observes her father changing his shoes and getting ready for a nap.
She asks him a question about the window, and then departs, on her testimony, for the barn, about five minutes after Andrew has arrived back home. That is, she would have gone to the barn at about 10:45 am.

This is a time when, according to Bridget, she is washing the dining room windows, Andrew now being in the sitting room. Lizzie, according to Bridget's testimony, comes in and starts ironing. The conversation about Mrs Borden and the note takes place. Bridget departs for the kitchen, having finished her window tasks, and according to Bridget's testimony, Lizzie tells her about the sale.

Bridget departs upstairs, does a few things in her room and then lays down fully clothed on the bed. She testifies that she would have been in her room 'I think I was there three or four minutes' when she heard the City Hall bell ring and looked at her clock and noted that it was 11am. (Sometimes, because of the quaint phraseology of Bridget's testimony it's hard to get what she really means.)

The inference is, in my opinion, that Bridget departed for her room at about 10:55am -10:56am. She then goes on to say that Lizzie called about ten or fifteen minutes after the clock struck eleven.

It was probably more like 11:10am as Mrs Churchill departed on her shopping expedition to get meat at about eleven, got back about ten minutes later, saw Bridget running, white-faced, put her parcels down and saw Lizzie near the side door of no 92.

Due to Mrs Churchill running to Hall's stables John Cunningham called the local newspapers and then the Police Station. Marshall Hilliard received the call just before 11:15am, as Officer Allen testified that he looked at the clock when Hilliard told him about 'a row' at no 92 Second St. Allen was definite that he arrived at the Bordens at 11:19am as he later repeated it and timed himself.

So, we have an important divergence of testimony between Bridget and Lizzie, and a time period for murder of between 10:56am approximately and about 11:08 am, 11:09, when Lizzie hollered for Bridget to come downstairs.