Lizzie around the world and the Chamberlain Case

Lazy · Post by **Lazy** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:18 am

Hi all,

I live in Australia and heard about the Lizzie Borden case a week ago in a university history lecture. Searching around, then I found these forums and about the Second St B&B and how much interest the case still generates today in Massachusetts and the USA in general... so in a way I was surprised that as a law student I hadn't heard of it before.

There's a similar case in Australia in that the whole truth surrounding it was never really discovered (R v Chamberlain) which continues to captivate people today...

Anyway, I was just wondering how far around the world Lizzie's story has spread. Are forum members here from other countries around the world? And it will also be interesting to see if the facts that have reached here are accurate to what you all know about it.

Lazy

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 4:42 am

Hi Lazy, welcome to the Forum!

I think we have one or two other posters who are overseas; Sweden and England, if I remember correctly? It would be interesting to see what you have heard about the case. Have you read any of the source documents on the case, such as the Inquest and Trial transcripts yet?

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:29 am

Hello Lazy.
(Gee I never thought I'd ever get a chance to say something like that...)

The web-site gets hits from all over the world.
The dingo/Baby case is a fantastic one.
(Did you see the Seinfeld episode where Elaine says that famous line?).

Lazy · Post by **Lazy** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 4:51 pm

Hi

No I havent read any transcripts- besides the fragments Ive seen on here, that is. How might I find them?

My university course gave me a few short documents including one chapter from a book... cant remember which one. About 20 pages in total- that's all the writing Ive really read on it so far.

They did a documentary/dramatisation last year on the Chamberlain case for TV, and there was a film (Evil Angels) in 1998 about it as well. (I recommend the film if you can find it, by the way!)

Yes Ive seen all the Seinfeld episodes several times (cant beat the lost car in the carpark though!)

diana · Post by **diana** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 5:56 pm

Hi Lazy --

On the index page of this forum -- scroll down to the bottom left and you'll see a link to LizzieAndrewBorden.com. Click on the green face of Lizzie and then on 'crime library'. That provides access to the witness statements, the inquest testimony, and the trial transcripts.

Hours of fun.

I've read Evil Angels and seen the film "A Cry in the Dark". I thought Lindy Chamberlain was completely exonerated after the baby’s jacket was found in 1986, and that the Chamberlains received over a million dollars in compensation from the Northern Territory for wrongful conviction. But is there still speculation about the case?

Last summer I saw a small item from Associated Press saying that a man called Frank Cole claimed to have retrieved the Chamberlain baby's body from the jaws of a wild dog he shot the night Azaria disappeared. He said he didn't report it to the police because shooting a dingo in the national park would have earned him a fine. He didn't know what happened to the baby's body but thought it might have been buried in the garden of one of the three men he was camping with, all of whom have since died. He reported this to the Herald Sun (in Sydney?) but that paper was careful to note that the his story could not immediately be corroborated so his claim may have come to nothing in the end, I guess.

connecticuthills · Post by **connecticuthills** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 7:16 pm

Hi Lazy
Ive always believed the dingos ate the baby

The best Seinfeld, when Kramer was arrested as a serial killer

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 9:10 pm

Lazy @ Tue Mar 15, 2005 2:51 pm wrote:They did a documentary/dramatisation last year on the Chamberlain case for TV, and there was a film (Evil Angels) in 1998 about it as well. (I recommend the film if you can find it, by the way!)

Yes Ive seen all the Seinfeld episodes several times (cant beat the lost car in the carpark though!)

Yes, I saw the movie, though under the title "A Cry In The Dark". I thought Meryl Streep looked absolutely awful in that movie, though wonderful acting job! That line is forever engrained in my head, "A Dingo ate my baby!"

Diana is right, theres hours of fun reading there, you can download all the sources documents and be in the know.

Seinfeld.....Soup Nazi!

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 5:03 am

Is Evil Angels good enough to be considered Literature?
I read a book on the case which was almost perfect- could that be the title?
I have here also another book I had read on the case called Mother On Trial, but I don't think this it.
This was the 80's- and it was very hard to interest anyone in the Chamberlain case, at least in my surroundings.
I must have found someone tho- and lent the book.
I'd like to read it again. I went to Amazon but there was no cover picture. That's one way I can remember what I've read...

Lazy · Post by **Lazy** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 2:07 am

Hi everyone,

Thanks Diana, I'll definitely have a read of the transcripts!

Thats interesting that the Lindy Chamberlain film was called A Cry In the Dark- here it was just Evil Angels- or, I think, Evil Angels-A Cry In the Dark was written on the movie poster. I actually didnt know there was a book on it- besides the new autobiography (or was it a biography?) called Through My Eyes which was just released recently here.

The man that claimed to have taken the body from the dingo and buried it last year had his story checked by the police- they decided it was a hoax and not worth investigating although we didnt really hear a lot about it. The thing is that the case is almost like an urban legend here and I think the worry was that this guy was just trying to get some attention as he was dying with a confession on one of the most contraversial criminal cases in Australian history! Whether he was telling the truth or not, who knows.

The new TV movie (Also called Through My Eyes) had Miranda Otto from Lord of the Rings as Lindy. I personally thought Meryl Streep's acting was better. As for what they looked like- they were both pretty much like the real live Lindy Chamberlain!

Hmm, might have to rename this forum topic Lindy Chamberlain!

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 4:04 am

Heres a more recent pic of Lindy Chamberlain:

And Meryl Streep from the movie:

diana · Post by **diana** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 2:30 pm

Thanks for the update on the 2004 story, Lazy.

Kat, you were asking about the book Evil Angels? It was written by an Australian lawyer called John Bryson. The author blurb goes on to say his fiction is published in literary magazines and periodicals and he received the Allen Lane Award for Evil Angels in 1986. So it could well be the book you read. The cover picture on the paperback is a black and white photograph of Lindy holding her baby. The photo is torn into 4 pieces and just visible under those pieces is a color pic of a snarling dingo.

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 6:57 pm

Thank you! You and William and Harry seem to know when I'm desperate to find out something!

snokkums · Post by **snokkums** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 10:49 pm

hey lazy,
where are you in australia? I was stationed in Sydney when i was a marine.
Wow!

You mean Lizzie got all the way to down under? That's awsome!
snokkums

lydiapinkham · Post by **lydiapinkham** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 11:09 pm

Hi, Kat! Evil Angels was published here in '87 or '88. I remember because I read it while I was pregnant with my first. It is a terrific book, but pretty harrowing, prego or not.

--Lyddie

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 11:18 pm

I remember reading something like this a LONG time ago. Was this a family that was camping near Ayers Rock (?) and the dingo somehow got in the tent and took the baby?

I don't remember the book I read reaching any definite conclusions but the woman/family was somehow suspected.

Forgive me for the lame questions, but it has been a long time.

Lazy · Post by **Lazy** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 12:19 am

Yes, thats the one, Harry. According to pop culture, it was either the dingo took the baby or Lindy slit its throat. At the time she was made out to be almost like a witch because she never cried or showed remorse in the trial, and she was a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, which people didn't know much about and treated them like they were some strange cult. A lot of evidence for the trial was destroyed or not properly analysed forensically, and the media practically judged her guilty before she entered the court.

Snokkums I'm in South Australia, just out of Adelaide.

Lindy looks a lot different now, especially without the 80's bob cut!! I remember when the case was new-ish and she was on TV on the news- I reckon she looked a fair bit like Meryl Streep there!

Diana, I'm having trouble downloading the transcripts. The little ones work all right, but the trial transcripts themselves just bog down and don't get past the first ten pages. Does anyone know of another way I can do it other than trying to open it with Acrobat that might work better???

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 1:06 am

She was guilty, then she was not guilty, then she was guilty, then she finally was innocent, right?
My gosh, this baby took over her whole life.
Did she stay married?

Lazy, write to Stefani as webmaster.
koorey@lizzieandrewborden.com

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 3:20 am

http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/60/s ... ry_224.asp

This site says they divorced.