The View from 92

Mixed reviews on the debut Sunday night of the Lifetime series The Lizzie Borden Chronicles. Here’s what the local newspaper had to say. 

The famous address on Second Street still draws many visitors to its front door, just as it did on the morning of August 4, 1892 when word of the shocking double homicide of Andrew and Abby Borden became known.

Built by Southard Miller in 1845 for Charles Trafton, the Borden family arrived in 1872 when Lizzie was twelve years old and her sister Emma, twenty-one.  Mr. Borden had remarried in 1865 and the family of four settled down on busy Second Street where Mr. Borden could be close to his business interests.

There was wall-to-wall carpeting on the first and second floor, central heating with radiators, lace curtains in the parlor, and a pull-chain toilet in the cellar for “the girls”.  Mr. Borden also knocked out a wall on the first floor, making a spacious dining room. The house, originally built as a two-family home in 1845, was made into a comfortable home for the Borden family.

After Lizzie’s acquittal in 1893, the Borden sisters moved up to The Hill section of the city and purchased a Queen Anne home which Lizzie called Maplecroft.  The sisters held on to the Second Street house until 1918 when it was sold.

Over the years, other people have died at #92, but only two were ever murdered there. The crime is unsolved to this day.  The property has served as a rooming house, a printing business, a toy and stationery business, the home of an insurance man, a family home, and in 1996, a bed and breakfast museum.

Only this house and the little cape-styled home next door remain of the original buildings in this block of Second Street.

There is cause for rejoicing in Lizzieland!  Sarah Miller’s upcoming book, Lizzie Borden & The Trial of the Century is a winner.  Aimed at the young adult demographic, this is a page-turner for anyone wanting to get the facts on the infamous Borden double homicide of 1892.

Miller has an appealing you-are-there style which engages the reader from the start, but best of all, this is a work based on the source documents in the case without all the speculations, theories, rumors and misinformed myths which mislead and muddy the case .

Thoughtfully organized by chapter from the events of August 4^th through the inquest, preliminary, trial and aftermath, this is a sensible read which enlightens and frankly,  – entertains.  The text is studded with inserts of useful knowledge set off in gray which provide useful background information on everything from the jury, Lizzie’s dresses to places and people.  These enrichments, along with a Who’s Who of all the important players in the story help to expand the reader’s  understanding of the finer points of the case.

The author’s aim to create a balanced view of the case, along with painting a truer picture of Lizzie as a real human being, not an axe-wielding caricature, as so often portrayed , has been amply realized.  It’s refreshing to see Lizzie in a neutral light while considering the possibility that she may have been innocent. This is a thinkers’ book which engages the reader from the very  first page and kicks those little gray cells into overdrive.

A cold winter ‘s night, a cup of hot cocoa and Miller’s, Lizzie Borden  & The Trial of the Century- nothing could be better for the true crime reader.  Just be warned, it will be a long night as you will not want to put this one down! (Shelley Dziedzic for Lizzie Borden, Warps and Wefts)

Released on May 13th- at last! Most likely prompted by the recent Lifetime Christina Ricci effort- the 1975 version with Elizabeth Montgomery can now be pre-ordered on Amazon.

Pharmacist Eli Bence made the cut in the Ricci film but why Lizzie told Bence she needed prussic acid to kill rats in the attic is hard to explain. The real reason is every bit as interesting. Lizzie wanted the poison to clean a set of sealskin sacques (loose fitting coat) of moths and moth eggs. Furs were generally put into cold storage in summer. Lizzie hung hers up in muslin bags on the third floor of the house. Lizzie denied going to the pharmacy at the corner of Columbia and South Main, or even acknowledging she knew where it was. Two men in the pharmacy at the time, Kilroy and Hart, backed Bence up. For more on Bence .

After the great ratings and enthusiastic reception of the less-than-accurate Lifetime attempt at telling the Borden story, you can be sure a little flurry of books will soon be out there, hopefully getting all the facts right. Random House has signed up a new Lizzie young adult book to be published in Spring ‘16.  It’s a narrative non-fiction book called The Borden Murders, and is by Sarah Miller. Another released this month is now available on Amazon. Keep your fingers crossed for accurate research.  We can only hope, Lizziephiles!

The hatchet killing which happened just before Lizzie’s trial began and which was referred to in the Lifetime movie this past weekend was the Bertha Manchester crime- which thankfully was solved. Care was taken that Lizzie’s jurors did not learn about this case as it would seem to suggest a killer was still on the loose in Fall River with a hatchet. Bertha Manchester is also buried in Oak Grove Cemetery.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F50B17F7345B1A738DDDAC0894DE405B8385F0D3

Did you watch tonight?  What did you think?  Airing again Sunday, January 26th.

Lizzie Borden, just a romantic gal at heart.

http://www.heraldnews.com/article/20150717/NEWS/150716918