Lizzie was 32 years old at the time of the murders.
John Vinnicum Morse - There was a guest visiting in the Borden house at the time of the murders, which was an unusual circumstance. He was John Morse, the brother of the first Mrs. Borden, and an uncle to Emma and Lizzie. He was not a frequent visitor to the Bordens, having only been a guest once or twice every few years. But he was on friendly terms with Mr. and Mrs. Borden, and was probably the only true friend that Mr. Borden had. Morse had arrived for this visit the day before the murders. Strangely, he came without any luggage.
Bridget Sullivan - Bridget Sullivan was the Borden’s live-in maid. She was originally from Ireland and had been in America for about seven years and worked for the Bordens for about three years. She was 20 years old at the time of the double murder. She was on good terms with the family. She washed, ironed, and cooked meals. Emma and Lizzie called her “Maggie” because they had had a previous maid with that name. Mr. and Mrs. Borden called her Bridget.
Chapter Two: The Crime Scene
The Borden house was located at 92 Second Street, Fall River, Massachusetts. It was a two and a half story house with a grape arbor and a barn in the backyard. The barn had space for a carriage, a sleigh, horse stables, and a hay loft.
The property was surrounded by a picket fence and in back of the barn, on the other side of the fence was a pear orchard. The fence along the back side of the property contained barbed wire. There was a well near the barn that was not used. Neighbors included Adelaide Churchill, a widow who lived on the north side of the Bordens at 90 Second Street, and the Kelly family who lived on the south side.
Directly across the street from the Churchills was the home of Dr. and Mrs. Seabury Bowen, the Borden’s family physician. Another close family friend, Alice Russell, lived down the street and around the corner to the north.
There were three ways to enter the Borden home. The front door of the house led into the front entry, a side door led into the kitchen, and an outside entry at the back of the house led down into the basement. The floor plan of the house was rather strange when compared to other houses. There were no hallways. One had to go into and out of a room to get into the next room.
The first floor consisted of an entry way, a parlor to the immediate left that was hardly ever used, a dining room off the parlor, a sitting room to the right of the dining room, a kitchen beyond the sitting room, and a pantry and sink room at the back entryway. A stairway to the second floor was also in this side entryway. The stairs in the front entry also led to the second floor. At the top was a landing with a large closet, and one could see straight ahead into the guest room from this landing.
Emma had a small bedroom just beyond the guest room, and next to her room was the larger bedroom of Lizzie. Toward the back of the house were Mrs. Borden’s dressing room, the master bedroom, the back stairway and the landing. Bridget’s room was in the attic at the back of the house. There was an unfinished bedroom also in the attic and a large area for storage. The one toilet facility in the house was located in the basement next to the coal bins. Also in the basement were a laundry room, a fruit cellar, a furnace, and two wood rooms. The doors to the Borden house were kept locked at all times.
Chapter Three: The Morning of the Murders
The morning of August 4, 1892 dawns bright and sunny and warm. It is 6:00 a.m. John Morse is the first one to come downstairs. He spent the night in the second floor guestroom. Fifteen minutes later, Bridget comes down from her attic room and starts the fire in the kitchen woodstove in preparation for breakfast. At about 6:30 a.m. Mr. and Mrs. Borden come downstairs. Mrs. Borden goes into the kitchen and gives Bridget orders about food for breakfast. The menu includes left-over warmed-up mutton (this is the third day of eating the mutton), Johnny cakes, bananas, coffee, cookies and milk.
Mr. Borden goes first to the sitting room where he puts the key to his bedroom door on the mantel. Mr. and Mrs. Borden keep their bedroom door locked all the time, but leave the key in plain sight on the mantel during the day. Supposedly this is done because they believe Lizzie previously stole something from their bedroom. Keeping the key on the mantel is sort of a way to tease Lizzie, a “playing with her mind” type thing, saying we dare you to do it again. After leaving the sitting room, Mr. Borden takes his slop pail down to the basement, then goes out to the barn, picks some pears from the trees hanging over the back fence, comes back through the yard and into the house.
At or about 7:00 a.m., Uncle John Morse, and Mr. and Mrs. Borden have breakfast together. Bridget waits until they finish before she eats. At about 7:30 a.m. Morse and Mr. Borden finish eating and go into the sitting room where they talk and visit until about 8:40 a.m. During that time Mrs. Borden is in and out of the sitting room as she does her morning dusting with a feather duster. At about 8:40 a.m. John Morse leaves the house to visit other relatives across town. Mr. Borden lets him out the side door and hooks the screen door after him. Then Mr. Borden goes back to the sitting room, takes the key from the mantel and goes upstairs to his bedroom. Bridget is in the kitchen during this time between 7:30 and 8:40 eating her breakfast and washing the breakfast dishes.
At 8:45 a.m. Lizzie comes downstairs, goes into the kitchen and sees Bridget washing dishes. Bridget asks her what she wants for breakfast, but Lizzie says, “I don’t know as I want any breakfast, but I guess I will have something, I guess I will have some coffee and cookies.”
As Lizzie sits down at the table to drink her coffee, Bridget suddenly feels ill from a sick headache and she goes outside in the backyard to throw up. She stays ten or fifteen minutes. She comes back into the kitchen. She hooks the screen door again. She finishes her dishes and takes them into the dining room. Mrs. Borden is there; she is dusting the door between the sitting room and dining room. She says she wants the windows washed, inside and outside both. Bridget does not see Mrs. Borden any more that morning.
It is now close to 9:00 a.m. on August 4, 1892. Bridget is preparing to wash the windows, getting her pail and rags together. Mr. Borden is upstairs. Mrs. Borden is dusting in the dining room. Lizzie is drinking coffee in the kitchen. Lizzie’s older sister, Emma, is off on a visit to friends in Fairhaven which is about 15 miles from Fall River. No one else is in the house.
Chapter Four: 9:00 a.m.
It is now about 9:00 a.m. Mr. Borden comes downstairs, puts the key back on the mantel in the sitting room, and leaves the house by the side door. He is going downtown to check on some business details and run some errands. Adelaide B. Churchill, the neighbor on the north side of the Borden property, happens to look out her kitchen window and she sees Mr. Borden outside at this time. He is near the steps at the side of the house and walking toward the front of the property. She watches him turn and walk in the direction of downtown Fall River.
A little after 9:00 a.m. Mrs. Borden leaves the dining room and goes upstairs to the guest room. She wants to dust and tidy up after having John Morse spend the night in the room. During the trial, Lizzie testified in court that her step-mother also did her sewing in the guest room. Mrs. Borden is not seen again alive.
Lizzie begins to iron handkerchiefs in the dining room. While waiting for the flat to get hot enough to iron, she sits down to read a magazine. Bridget is in and out of the dining room. She is shutting the windows both there and in the sitting room so she can wash them. Bridget testified in court that while she was closing windows, she did not see Lizzie or anyone else in the dining room or the sitting room during this time. But Lizzie testified that she herself made “several quick trips upstairs”, so it is possible that is the reason Bridget did not see her in the dining room ironing or reading a magazine. At about 9:15 a.m., after closing the windows, Bridget fills her pail with water and goes outside through the side door to begin washing the windows. Lizzie calls to her from the side door, “Maggie, are you going to wash the windows?” Bridget tells her yes she is, and tells Lizzie