#please rb.

The day of August 4th, 1892, started normally in the Borden household, with two exceptions. Lizzie’s elder sister, Emma, was on vacation in Fairhaven, and Andrew’s brother-in-law, John V. Morse, was visiting to discuss business matters.

At 8:45 a.m, Morse leaves the house to visit his niece, and Andrew sits in the sitting room. Abby tells Bridget, the family maid, to wash the windows inside and out. Lizzie comes downstairs for breakfast.

Between 8:45 a.m and 9:00 a.m, Bridget reports feeling ill, and leaves the house briefly to vomit.

At 9:00 a.m, Andrew leaves the house. Bridget returns inside, and witnesses Abby dusting. She does not see Lizzie.

Between 9:10 a.m and 9:30 a.m, Abby goes upstairs to clean the guest room where Morse was staying.

At 9:30 a.m, Lizzie stands at the backdoor as Bridget exits to the barn.

Estimated between 9:30 a.m and 10:00 a.m, Abby is killed by blows to the head.

Between 9:35 a.m and 10:20 a.m, Bridget washes the outside windows, pausing to speak to a person referred to as “Kelly girl” at the southern-most fence.

Between 10:00 a.m and 10:20 a.m, neighbor Churchill sees Bridget washing the outside windows.

At 10:20 a.m, Bridget re-enters the house and began to wash the indoor windows.

At 10:40 a.m, Andrew returns home and is let inside by Bridget after he fumbles with the key. Bridget hears Lizzie laugh from the direction of the staircase.

At 10:45 a.m, Andrew lays down on the sitting room sofa to take a nap. A neighbor witnesses a stranger stealing pears from the backyard. Lizzie sets up an ironing board. Lizzie tells Bridget that there is a sale at a clothing shop, and informs her that a note was left saying that Abby had gone out.

At 10:50 a.m, a neighbor notes that an open buggy was parked in front of the Borden home. Bridget begins to feel ill again and retreats to the attic to lay down.

At 10:55 a.m, Lizzie goes out to the barn.

At 11:00 a.m, Lizzie reportedly hears a noise like “scraping.” 

Between 10:55 a.m and 11:05 a.m, Andrew is killed from blows to the head.

At 11:10 a.m, Lizzie re-enters the house and calls for Bridget, yelling that “someone has killed father.” As Bridget comes down, Lizzie begs her to fetch a nearby doctor, Dr. Bowen. However, Bowen was not at home. Bridget fetches Lizzie’s close friend, Alice.

At 11:12 a.m, Churchill sees Bridget rush to get Alice and notices a distressed Lizzie. She questions what’s wrong, and leaves to get a doctor.

At 11:15 a.m, a neighbor notices the disturbance and phones the local police.

At 11:20 a.m, Bowen returns and enters the Borden household. Officer Allen arrives and sees a distressed Lizzie sitting at the kitchen table.

At 11:21 a.m, Allen and Bowen begin examining the body of Andrew. Alice and Churchill arrive with Bridget. Morse departs his niece’s house, not yet knowing of the situation at the Borden home.

At 11:23 a.m, Bowen returns to his home to send a telegram to Emma, informing her of the murders.

Between 11:25 a.m and 11:30 a.m, Lizzie asks if Abby has returned. Bridget and Churchill go upstairs to check and discover her body. Bridget fetches Bowen and his wife.

Between 11:35 a.m and 11:40 a.m, Officers Doherty and Wixon, along with reporter Manning, arrive at the Borden household. They are let in by Bowen. Andrew’s watch is removed by Wixon.

Between 11:35 a.m and 11:40 a.m, Morse returns to the Borden household, standing in the backyard.

Around 11:37, Officers Mullaly and Medley arrive.

At 11:40, Bowen returns and is informed that Abby’s body has been discovered upstairs.

At 11:45, Dr. Dolan arrives to examine the bodies. Morse speaks to an officer outside and claims he heard of the murders from Bridget. He then goes inside to examine Andrew’s body, before going upstairs to see Abby’s.

Between 11:50 a.m and 12:00 p.m, Bridget, Medley, Doherty, and another officer go to the cellar to examine the hatchets.

At 12:20 p.m, Officer Harrington arrives.

At 12:25 p.m, Harrington interviews Lizzie.

At 12:45 p.m, Doherty and other officers drive to Andrew’s farm to interview anyone working/living there.

Between 12:45 p.m and 3:30 p.m, I was unable to find adequate information.

At 3:30 p.m, photos were taken of the bodies and skulls.

At 5:00 p.m, Emma arrives home from Fairhaven. 

Between 5:00 p.m and 5:30 p.m, state detective Seaver arrives.

At 5:30 p.m, Dolan delivers the bodies of Andrew and Abby to an undertaker.

At 6:00 p.m, Alice leaves to return to her home. 

At 8:45 p.m, Officer Hyde reports seeing Alice and Lizzie enter the cellar, though no one else had seen Alice return to the Borden house.

And that’s that. That’s the recorded timeline that I’ve put together of the day. Now, I’ll be getting into the two most popular theories. 

Lizzie.

Lizzie Borden is the most popular suspect, and one of the most notorious women in American history. It’s easy to understand why she was the main suspect. Her close relationship with her father, her reportedly odd behavior, and her strained relationship with her stepmother, Abby. 

Lizzie and Abby had never had a familial relationship. Lizzie would refer to Abby as “Mrs. Borden,” and neither she nor Emma would call her “mother.” They were, though, mostly civil to each other. However, tensions rose when Andrew placed Abby before Emma and Lizzie in his will, as well as buying houses for Abby’s relatives. 

The placing of Abby as the first beneficiary in the will would have angered Lizzie and Emma, who were both unmarried and were thus financially dependent upon Andrew. Were he to die, Lizzie and Emma would then have to rely on Abby. Though Abby was not reported as showing any anger towards Lizzie and Emma, the relationship was strained on both sides. 

I can’t talk about Lizzie without mentioning the relationship between the sisters and Andrew. Lizzie was the youngest daughter of Andrew, and when she was a teen, she gifted her father a ring, which he would often wear or carry with him. This was odd due to the fact that those who knew him would often say that Andrew was not sentimental. Emma, on the other hand, still held a cold relationship with Andrew. Emma and Lizzie’s biological mother died when Emma was 13, and Emma very quickly had to take on the role of mother to Lizzie. Andrew was reported as having refused help from outside family members, preferring to keep a quiet, closed doors family with Lizzie and Emma.

By all accounts, the family relationship was cold, even from the time that Lizzie was a child. It was Emma and Lizzie together, against Andrew and Abby. Except, of course, for the relationship between Lizzie and Andrew.

If this relationship was as inappropriate as it seems, then Lizzie truly was, at the time of the murders, trapped. Lizzie never knew a mother, as she never formed a relationship with Abby. Andrew was her only parental connection, and even if there truly was no inappropriate relationship occurring, he was still a cold man who was more of a household leader than a father.

For those who believe that Lizzie committed the murders, there are various motives given. The two I have mentioned, financial dependence and abuse, and more. One popular theory is that Lizzie was having a secret affair with Bridget or Alice, and this affair was found out, so Lizzie committed the murders out of fear of punishment or exposure. 

Usually paired with the abuse theory, it’s also commonly thought that Lizzie had cared for pigeons in the barn, which were then killed by Andrew as punishment.

Once more, it’s very easy to see why Lizzie was a suspect for all the reasons I’ve mentioned. As well, her testaments following the murders were contradictory. Officers reported that she seemed aloof (although, it is important here to note that neighbors noted that she was distressed and that she simply presented her emotions in a different way.) There was a bucket of bloody clothing in the cellar. It seemed as if Lizzie would have been the only one able to commit the murders.

John Morse

John Morse has gained popularity as a suspect in recent years, as people have begun to poke holes in his alibi. 

Morse was the brother of Andrew’s first wife and the biological uncle of Lizzie and Emma. But he seemed to have a closer, though businesslike, relationship with Andrew.

The day prior to the murders, Morse came to the Borden household for a surprise visit, discussing finances and business with Andrew. It’s commonly reported that this discussion grew into an argument, ending with Morse losing. 

Despite this, and his profession as a butcher, Morse was dropped as a suspect very quickly, due to him having an alibi that seemed rock solid. Almost too rock solid. He provided numbers of streetcars and buggies that he passed, made sure to strike up public conversations, and took notes of exact times. Morse left his niece’s house a minute after the officers first arrived at Lizzie’s, despite the fact that he had not yet learned of the murders. 

When he returned home, he told an officer that he had heard of the murders from Bridget. However, he had not had access to a phone nor a telegram in the time between him leaving his niece’s house and his arrival at the Borden house. Prior to him leaving his niece’s house, he would have had an eight-minute to receive a telegram or phone call, although his niece did not report that. In those eight minutes, however, Bridget was with Churchill and Alice, and would not have had the time to send a message to Morse. Though it would be easy to say that Bridget may have met him outside and informed him, according to all reports, Bridget remained inside with the rest of the household.

Interestingly, Morse also knew where Abby’s body was despite not being told.

As much as neither of these theories can be proven, they cannot be disproven either. Unless we one day uncover new evidence that alters the case, any theory could be true, even ones that I didn’t mention here. Perhaps it was a snubbed employee of Andrew’s, perhaps it was the man stealing pears, perhaps it was whoever owned the buggy parked by the Borden house, or perhaps it was Bridget. None of these, we can definitively say, happened or didn’t happen.