![]() Lizzie had recently built a roost for pigeons, but Andrew Borden was said to have killed many of them with a hatchet out of concern that the birds were attracting local kids to hunt them. The Bordens were very wealthy, and some have suggested that Lizzie was either upset about matters of property transfer, or simply didn’t want to wait for an inheritance. The people who counted, however – the jury – had little trouble in determining that Lizzie could never commit such a heinous crime, and after 90 minutes of deliberation, their verdict was “not guilty.”Īs for motive, that is also the object of speculation. Legal eagles, such as the attorney general who typically prosecuted capital crimes, and the district attorney both believed in her guilt. ![]() The Women’s Christian Temperance Union and suffragists had Lizzie’s back and pointed out that she would not be judged by a jury of her peers at trial because women, as non-voters, didn’t have the right to serve on juries. Lizzie’s guilt or innocence drew the whole country into the case, and in her own town of Fall River, Massachusetts, cultural, religious, class, ethnic, and gender divisions shaped opinions. It was the murder that got considerable attention in 1892 not only for its gruesomeness (Andrew Borden’s face had been hatcheted into nearly two halves, while the head of Lizzie’s stepmother, Abby, was smashed to pieces), but because the prime suspect was their thirty-two-year-old daughter, a sweet-looking Sunday school teacher – and a woman. ![]()
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