ARGUING FOR HER LIFE
Ex-Governor Robinson's Friends DisappointedNew Bedford, Mass., June 19 - This was Lizzie BORDEN'S worst day and will remain so unless the jury brings her in guilty to-morrow. It was so because her spokesman did not do justice to her case, while on the other hand the lawyer for the government made the very most that was possible out of the slender web that the prosecution have woven around her. The mob that besieged the court house was the greatest that was ever seen around that ancient temple of justice.
Emma BORDEN was allowed in the court room and sat where Lizzie used to sit, behind the lawyers for the defense. But Lizzie could not sit with her. There being no longer any excuse for her to consult with her counsel, she had been ordered back into the prisoner's dock. All through Governor ROBINSON's argument in her behalf she kept her head down, and her face shielded by her fan, and she so bent her light, pliable fan around her face that was impossible to see her eyes and mouth. However, a view of her side face showed that not a muscle moved and that al her extraordinary stolidity marked her conduct. Her sister Emma fancied it a becoming thing to hide her face in her fa also, and this she did for nearly four hours. Even when she took down this implement of modesty and retirement she kept her eyes closed.
At the noon recess Lizzie was made the center of an eager, talkative crowd
of old friends and visitors, and with them she chatted quietly, vouchsafing
to a few particular friends some very transitory smiles.
After the recess she returned with a box and no nosegays. The box was of
the size and shape of those in which confectioners put up candy, but some said
it contained cut flowers. She seemed to have determined that she would not flinch
before the leader for the government, though she is said to be very much terrified
by the racking cross- examination he gave her at the inquest. She did not once
cover her face. She not only looked steadily and listened intently while Mr.
KNOWLTON delivered his impressive argument, but if any one got in the way of
her sight of him she leaned one way and the other so as not to miss a movement
that he made. She displayed absolutely no emotion what so ever, and her eyes
were as dry as her lips were firm.
Mr. KNOWLTON made an impression as a pleader. A giant of a man, with the physique of a bull and the voice of a soldier in battle, he sprang into the arena armored and armed as only a man could be who knew the case by heart, and with equal confidence believed in his own side of it. He endeavored to choose moderate language and to be considerate and gentle but it was his earnestness that made his speech memorable and that was the quality which necessarily made it seem relentless and stern and angry. He is a natural born and redoubtable fighter. He probably would agree with General SHERMAN, who said that a battle should be made as terrible as possible in order to end it quickly.
Ex-Governor ROBINSON did not rise to the occasion. There is only one Joseph H. CHOATE within the ken of New Yorkers and it is fair to presume that great ability as a cross-examiner is not often allied with an equally high grade of eloquence. It is a pity for Miss Lizzie BORDEN that the ex-governor was not able to do justice to the situation, but it is of advantage to the world upon which Mr. ROBINSON had flashed like a star of the first magnitude to know that he is not in all respects a prodigy unparalleled. It would be expecting a great deal of any lawyer to make the most of the BORDEN case, since it questionably offered the grandest opportunity and widest variety of chances that any modern criminal case has held out to a skillful orator.
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ROBINSON'S PLEA
Apparently He Did ot Make the Most of His Client's Case
New Bedford, Mass., June 19 - The day of the arguments in the BORDEN case
brought out a terrific jam at the court house, and an hour before the time of
opening, the doors were besieged by people mostly women in holiday attire, all
hoping for seats. There were too few seats for the accommodation of a tenth
part of the claimants and there was much grumbling in consequence. When the
court was ready for opening there were many ladies standing in the aisles, but
they were quickly ushered to the anterooms and corridors and obliged to sniff
the battle from afar.
The bar enclosure was packed with legal lights from all over the country.
In fact, so closely was it packed that the counsel for the prosecution was obliged
to pass behind the justices' bench and thus gets to their seats within the bar.
When Sheriff WRIGHT came in the aisles were cleared in a second, and everybody
was obliged to sit down.
The jury took their seats at 8:55, looking quite refreshed after two days'
rest, and a few minutes later Miss BORDEN came in, a bunch of pinks in her hand
and a contented smile on her face. The jury was ??lled promptly on the opening
of court, and almost immediately Governor ROBINSON began his argument. He said:
"May it please your honors, Mr. Foreman and gentlemen - One of the most
dastardly and diabolical crimes ever committed in Massachusetts was perpetrated
in August, 1892, in Fall River. The enormity of it startled everybody; every
man feels that the wrong should be righted and the wicked brought to justice.
Here was a crime with all its horrors, and who could have done such an act?
"In the quite of a home in the broad daylight, on the streets of a populous city, who could have done it? Inspection showed Mrs. BORDEN had been slain by the use of some sharp instrument, and below the stairs was Mr. BORDEN'S mutilated body. The terrors of those scenes no language can portray, and we are challenged at the outset to find who was equal to that enormity, whose whole heart is blackened with crime. A maniac, not a man of senses and heart - a lunatic, a devil. They were well-directed blows which caused those deaths, not directed by a blunder, none going amiss. Surely we can say at the outset that this was not the careless, untrained doing of one unfamiliar with such work. Now suspicion begins to fall here and everywhere.
‘They surround this and that one and follow out clues everywhere. No decent man complains of investigation, and everything ought to be done; but we say everything was not done and the proper methods were not taken. Tracing the course of all suspected persons from the preliminary hearing to this trial, the speaker said that in all those proceedings the prisoner had no voice. The government said, if we can't prove it against her, she shall go free; but it was one-sided, and you are to draw no inference whatever from those proceedings of the preliminary hearing.
"We would not be safe if in those great crimes our lives hung on the words of a single man. We come here to seek freedom and right through you, gentlemen. As you begin to contemplate this crime you must say such acts are physically and morally impossible for this young woman. It is a wreck of human morals to say this of her. The defense complains of no persecution on the part of the district attorney. He has only one duty to do, and with his well-earned fame at the bar, he has no need to search for fame, and he will be the last man to attempt such; he stands above such things, and says, all I have is the case as it is and as it was brought me by the police of Fall River. He isn't here for blood; neither is he helped for that purpose by our friend from Essex county. So you see no small play, no mean tactics on the part of the commonwealth, only a presentation of what has been proved here, and only that."
Here the speaker referred to the kindly manner in which the sheriff had used Miss BORDEN, and said: "She came into this court presided over by our ablest justices, who want the commonwealth's case tried fairly, and now you are only to deal with the facts. I said the case was brought here by the Fall River police; I haven't time to go into sarcasm and denunciation; the blue coat and the brass buttons cover up what is inside; the officer is always magnifying this and minimizing that, and looking for the one who committed the deed upon which they are at work. The witness stand brings out their weakness when they knock their own heads together, but after all they showed themselves to be only men with human weakness, So, I say to you, this defendant comes before you perfectly satisfied that the jury is the most refreshing aspect that the eye of human beings ever feasted upon. You are men, Bristol county men, with hearts, heads, souls and right minds, and you come here in obedience to the laws, because in answer to their demands you must render this great service; you are loyal to the state and to common humanity. Bring your hearts, your homes and your intellect here, and let us talk to you as men.
Lizzie BORDEN has been in your charge from the day we opened this case, and that was your oath, and now comes the time when not alone are her lawyers to speak for her and the justices to speak, but you twelve men take her in charge. She isn't the property of anybody, but a free, intelligent innocent woman in your charge. This woman has never been alone in this court room, but has been watched over carefully. You are trying this woman for her life, and you are bound to say: ‘I will critically consider this question, and I will make no mistake,' for if you do, no power on earth can right it. The man I want to see in the jury box is he who says, as you have said, that he has read and heard opinions, but you are capable of using common sense.
"The man I don't like to see is the one who is like a piece of putty to take the impression of the last one who comes in contact with him. Every man of you is man enough to say when some one presents an idea in your jury room that is not in the case, to say so. It is not your business to marvel the mystery; but simply to say is this woman guilty; that's all, and though the real criminal shall never be found, better that than you should find a wrong verdict. Not who did it, how could it have been done, but did she do it? You must but think for a moment that this defendant is set for the finding out of who did it. She isn't a detective, and she has been in jail for nine months, under constant control from the very day almost of the murder. Don't ask her to do impossible things, to do what she can't do; the commonwealth does not want any victims, either; in olden days sacrifices were offered, but in these days we don't even burn witches in Massachusetts. I ask only that you be true to yourselves.
"There always goes with any person the presumption of innocence of crime; that is your bulwark and it started with her from the day she was taken in charge and it never leaves her until that presumption is overcome and she is declared guilty. Bear that in mind, that the presumption is always in the scale, and the scale is always tipped in the prisoner's favor until tipped the other way. The court will explain the difference between direct and circumstantial evidence, and there is no need for me to go into it fully, because I deem it unnecessary. If you are asked to convict upon any evidence, you will look to see if it fits in, and whether it is all in, whether the chain is complete before you make up your minds. The court will tell you the proof must come up in your minds to a moral certainty, not a mathematical certainty, beyond a reasonable doubt. The magnitude of a mistake is not to be lightly considered, but such men as you, with your home influences, your church associations, will have no doubt what you ought to do. You are to say as to this woman's guilt or innocence, but it will be a duty such as you have never done before. Under the laws of this state the defendant is permitted to testify on the stands if she desires, but if she does not, the statutes say no inference will be drawn as to her action, and the district attorney will not insult this court by referring to this in the slightest degree. The law holds that it is too great a strain to put on a defendant to put him on the stand in such cases, and you will not, as you go to your room, depart from this understanding. You must leave out rumors, reports, and statements which you heard before the trial commenced, and leave out every single thing which Mr. MOODY said he was going to prove, unless he did it. He has spoken for the commonwealth, and the commonwealth expects him to do just what he said he was going to do. He said he would claim and prove this defendant was preparing a dangerous weapon.
"We has not proved it, has he? And many things offered in faith by him have been stricken out by the court because they were not proper. The commonwealth came here intending to do these things, but were not allowed. They were going to prove that this young lady went out to buy poison, but it was not proved; it was not allowed, and I shall expect the district attorney to get up and say so, or I shall be disappointed in him; they were going to show you the defendant had contradicted herself, but the court said this wasn't proper; now you are not going to say, I rather think, Messrs. KNOWLTON and MOODY wouldn't have offered this if they had not proof, but this won't do; decide this case from the evidence on the witness stand and nothing else, so you will leave those things out; no person, no instrument prepared; no statement made under oath by her that you know anything about. I don't care what you have read. My intention is not to distort facts, but to find out just how we stand; things that are not in dispute I will not touch and I trust I will not by a single letter step over the line of proof or deal unjustly with the commonwealth so dear to us all. Mr. BORDEN went down the street and arrived at the bank at 9:30 o'clock, and returned home about 10:45, the defendant thinks. It must have been as much as that. The alarm of the murders reached the police at 11:13 o'clock. In that time Mr. BORDEN was murdered. He was around the house before that, so we must believe the murder was committed between 10:55 and 11:10 o'clock. Mrs. BORDEN was killed first, probably between 9:45 and 10:15 o'clock. It is for us to see if the defendant federate with it. There sits the defendant, accused of the foulest and darkest of crimes. Let us see where the chain is to be found which binds her to those terrible accounts. Why must the district attorney show a motive in this case? Simply to explain the evidence.
"There is no direct evidence against Miss BORDEN. No weapon whatever and no knowledge of the use of one has been shown. It is not shown she ever used an implement of such a character. The evidence shows that she did not know where they were kept. Not a spot on her, from her hair to her feet, on her dress or anywhere. Think of it. Yes, there was one spot on her skirt as big as the point of a pin. That was not where you expected it to be, if she had done it, in an out of the way place. I don't know even of a Fall River policeman, from the top down, who believes that that fly speck of blood had anything to do with the case.
"Then there was a bundle of burnt paper, which Philip HARRINGTON found.
Then there were mean assertions made that Dr. BOWEN was doing something. We
thought they had the handle there, wrapped up in the newspaper, and that the
handle had been burnt up entirely and that the newspaper only remained. What
a funny ?re.
"That handle is still flying through the air somewhere, a poor orphan
handle without its hatchet. For heaven's sake get the 125 policemen of Fall
River and chase it.
"Let them catch it and reunite it to its hatchet.
"Lizzie BORDEN was at home that day. There was nothing strange in that.
It was better for her to be home in her room than out in the streets."
The speaker said if Miss BORDEN had gone up stairs that morning and looked
under the bed she might have seen the body of her step-mother. There is no evidence
to show that the door of that spare room was wide open. The prosecution assumes
that the door was wide open. The door may have been only ajar; it may have been
closed. Miss Lizzie had no occasion to go into that room. She would not be likely
to do so, judging from the evidence introduced as to the family relations. It
is true she went up stairs and saw her step-mother making the bed in the spare
room.
"It makes no difference how many time she went up and down stairs that day. Grant that she did go up stairs at about 9 o'clock. Mrs. BORDEN was alive then. They say she stayed up there, without offering any evidence on that point. The defendant told about the note and they say that is evidence of guilt. Now you know that after the tragedy she told Bridget that Mrs. BORDEN had a note and had gone out; then Mrs. CHURCHILL comes and she is told about the note, but listen to what Bridget said about it; about Mrs. BORDEN hurrying off and not telling her, as usual, where she was going. Bridget had been told by Mrs. BORDEN about the note. Have you the slightest doubt about Bridget's statement? And Mrs. CHURCHILL was positive about what Bridget told her in regard to this. Now Mr. MOODY said in his opening that Lizzie told a lie about this but Bridget told the fullest and clearest story about it, and holds it down to herself. There isn't anything in the testimony that qualifies that at all; Miss RUSSELL said she heard the talk about the note, but did not know what it was. And when they went to look for the note, you will remember that the suggestion of burning up the note came from Miss RUSSELL. We get nothing from the officers on this matter, and when we consider it all, the evidence in regard to the note comes from Bridget and Lizzie in the very first instance. And why should it not? They were all in the family together, and there is no doubt she did have a note and she did go out. Now a person may say, where is the note? We would be glad to see it. They say nobody has come forward to say where it went, but you will find men in the county, now who don't know this trial is going on. This note may have been part of a scheme, a foul scheme; we don't know. But that Lizzie lied about it is not so."
The visit to the barn was taken up. Lizzie had told Bridget that she was in the barn, heard a groan, and went into the house through the open screen door. Dr. BOWEN asked her: "Where have you been?" She said she had been out in the barn for iron. To Mrs. CHURCHILL she said she had gone to the barn for a piece of tin or iron with which to fix her screen.
"Mr. FLEET asked her whether she had been out in the barn twenty or thirty minutes. He had a theory, and was ferreting out a crime. She said: ‘I was out there twenty minutes.' He had not ordered her to silence then. She still breathed, although FLEET was there. FLEET said to her: "Well, call it twenty minutes." Kind of him, wasn't it? He was willing to make it twenty minutes. You have heard about the picnic at Marion. There is water up there in which fish swim. It is only natural that a party of young women should want to catch something - fish, I mean. Now, did she go into the barn? She says she did. The ice cream peddler came along.
"He had sold ice cream to Bridget; had sold none to Lizzie. So he knew
Bridget. He went by looking into the yard. He saw a woman, not Bridget, whom
he knew, walking to the house from the barn. If it was not Miss BORDEN, there
must have been a stranger there. MULALLY - you remember MULALLY - he was one
of the ‘knights of the handle.' He says that on August 8th RUBENSKI told him
of having seen a woman walking from the barn to the house. MULALLY comes here
and says RUBENSKI told him it was 10:30 o'clock when he saw the woman in the
yard."
Counsel drew attention to the fact that the stable-keeper where RUBENSKI
kept his horse had corroborated him as to the time, and so had NEWHALL, the
man from Providence.
A recess for five minutes was taken at this point. The summing up of ex-Governor ROBINSON, so far as it has gone, was discussed freely. Much disappointment was expressed about it. The ex-governor's effort had not been so great as had been expected of him. The lawyers said the facts in the case had not been handled as they had been led to believe they would.
"Bridget," the ex-governor said after recess, "when she heard Mr. BORDEN was dead said she would go to Mrs. WHITEHEAD'S and tell Mrs. BORDEN if she was there. The government will probably try to make something out of the fact that Lizzie thought she heard Mrs. BORDEN come in. When Bridget was called down and spoke about Mrs. BORDEN and, volunteered to go to Mrs. WHITEHEAD'S to see if she knew where she was she unconsciously confirmed the note story. Then when Bridget was asked to go up and look for her and refused, it is fair to say that they thought she must be up in the front room because Mrs. CHURCHILL and Bridget had both been up in the back way, and knew she was not in her own room and Lizzie, thinking perhaps she might be in the front or guest room, suggested to Bridget that she go there to look for her. Now, the suggestion would be that Lizzie said, ‘Go up the front way and find her.' Mr. BORDEN came in at 10:45 and the inference that Mrs. BORDEN came in was natural, perhaps from the shutting of a door or of the movements of somebody else. They knew she was not in her own room and believing she heard a noise, Lizzie inferred she was in her room."
"Now, they say she showed no feeling; that when her step-mother lay dead in the spare room, she stood at the head of the stairs and laughed. Well, if you are down stairs in your own house and some one cracks a joke, you laugh at it. But suppose your son dropped dead in a room up stairs? Then you, who do not know he is dead, are a hard- hearted wretch because you laughed at the joke. The way the BORDENS lived, how the house was furnished, or what they had to eat each day had nothing to do with the case."
The speaker then took up the question of motive.
"Now what sort of combination are you trying to make of this woman?
She kills her step-mother because she didn't like her, and killed her father,
whom she did like, because she wanted his money. Miss Lizzie said Mrs. BORDEN
was her step-mother and not her mother. The emphatic policeman FLEET told that.
She had said to Mrs. GIFFORD, the dressmaker, that her step-mother was a mean
old thing, and that they did not have much to do with each other. But Bridget
SULLIVAN, who for two years had been closer to the family than any one else,
had never heard a quarrel between them. I agree with you that Lizzie A. BORDEN
is not a saint. I venture the assertion that the members of the jury are not
saints."
"Here is an old man," he continued, "who wore no ornament of any kind except one. That was a ring on one of his fingers. When he was buried, it was put into the grave with him. A simple old man, wearing that evidence of affection for his little girl."
As the speaker was running on thus, Lizzie furnished evidence of emotion. She did not take the fan from her face, but moved a little so she could place her handkerchief to her eyes. She did this and held it there several minutes.
"She told Miss RUSSELL of the fears she had that something would happen to the family. They say that shows she had murder in her heart. They say Miss Lizzie burned her dress. The common way to get rid of old things is to burn them. The government says: ‘You gave us this dress and it is not the dress. We want the Bedford cord.' We say: ‘We burned it.' There is a difference between those who saw Miss LIZZIE that morning. Some are mistaken but all are honest. Now they took this dress, thought it had blood on it, and accepted it as the dress. But when they found, through Professor WOOD, that there was no blood on it at all, they say it is not the dress and ask for the Bedford cord. The dress had been laying in the clothes press until Miss Emma, looking for some place to hang a dress, came across the paint-stained dress and asked Miss Lizzie why she did not burn it up. The truth is, Dr. DOLAN found this, which he thought was blood-stained and when they searched the house it was only a farce. They did not really care to search any more, thinking they had the blood-stained garment which would convict her of the crime.
"If Lizzie BORDEN killed her stepmother at 9:45 o'clock did she come down and greet her father in that blood- stained dress? She must have stood astride her step-mother and smashed the hatchet into her head. She must have walked into the sea of blood, scattered it all over herself, changed her clothing and changed it after the second slaughter. I would not be surprised if they said she did the slaughtering while nude. My heart aches to think what may be the theory of the prosecution. She didn't try to get Bridget out of the house. Don't you think she would have sent her out on some errand?"
The claw-headed hatchet was then taken up by the lawyer. He pointed out that Dr. DOLAN and the other doctors disagreed as to what had been used to kill the BORDENS. Dr. DOLAN had insisted that one of the blows had been struck with the clawhead of the hatchet. The other doctors said such had not been the case at all. The handleless hatchet was referred to. Ex-Governor ROBINSON maintained that the blade of that hatchet could not cut its way cleanly through Mr. BORDEN'S eye ball, nor could it have made a cut in Mrs. BORDEN'S hair, as if it had made with shears. The hair found on the clawheaded hatchet, which the government had at first called dog's hair, was now cow's hair.
"If these are not the implements with which the murder was committed
where is it? Fall River appears to be prolific in the way of hatchets."
During the latter portion of the summing up in her favor Miss BORDEN removed
her fan from her face, leaned forward and looked steadily at the jury. She held
her head somewhat to the right and waved her fan gently. She never smiled when
the ex-governor told what the late Benjamin F. BUTLER had said of the case.
It was:
"Why doesn't Dr. DOLAN hold an autopsy on Lizzie BORDEN and find the
hatchet?"
The exclusive opportunity theory, the lawyer said, was simply an anticipation
which was not realized. The side screen door was unfastened from 9 A. M. that
morning until 11:15 o'clock. The back screen door was open. A person could get
into the house by simply avoiding Bridget on the outside and Lizzie on the inside.
A man might have gone to the house for the purpose of killing Mr. BORDEN, and
happened to meet Mrs. BORDEN - probably some one she knew - and struck her down.
Then he waited for Mr. BORDEN to come home and killed him. It would have been
the most natural thing in the world for the assassin to have left the door of
the spare room open. Then, as to the young man who was seen outside, what was
he but the outside spy for the one committing the deed. That job was not done
by one man alone.
At this point a recess was taken. Mr. ROBINSON had talked half an hour longer than the time which had been allotted to him, and had not yet finished. What he said and the way he said it disappointed his friends very much.
During the recess for dinner there were many peculiar manifestations on the part of the women. A great many of them remained in the court room and would not leave. Others massed themselves at the entrances. When they could not get in themselves they manifested an inclination to permit no one else to do so. Handsome gowns were torn and trampled on and the women seemed to enjoy it. They were prepared apparently to go any length to get into the court room. When they did get into the court room they wedged themselves into every available place and stood in the room where it was difficult to breathe, fully contented. Ex-Governor ROBINSON resumed his summing up when the court reassembled. He advised the jury not to jump at conclusions and reminded them of the solemnity of the duty which devolved upon them.
"I forgot to speak to you about the testimony of Mr. MEDLEY with reference to the dust on the floor of the barn. He could not find traces of Miss Lizzie's footsteps in the dust, but before MEDLEY went there, two boys, described by one of them as ‘me and Brownie,' had been there tramping about, and so had others. Mr. MEDLEY was mistaken."
The hatchet which would not fit the hole in the skull of Mrs. BORDEN was
referred to.
"I there had been any blood on the defendant's hair, he said, those
who are bathing her face and administering to her would have discovered it.
If she committed the murders, she must have killed Mrs. BORDEN first. Then it
would have been necessary for her to have gone down into the cellar, where there
was running water, and washed herself, her hair included, thoroughly. When you
assume that, you put an awful lot on her to perform in a short time. She looked
all right when her father came home. Then she must have gone into the cellar
again, put on the blue dress and gone up stairs, killed her father and then
gone to the cellar again, changed her clothes and disposed of them so effectually
that no trace of them has yet been found.
Then she must have hurried to clean that handleless hatchet, if you assume she committed the crimes, and prepare it so by drying it and placing dust on it, so as to place it so as to present the same appearance as the others. Our experiences teaches us that a woman of 32 years, brought up in one of our homes, serving God and man, teaching the ignorant and down-trodden, would not blaze out as a human monster. Suppose she had been wicked and designing and Bridget as innocent as she now is, would it not have been simple for her to drive Bridget into the toils and save herself? But when the name of Bridget was mentioned to her, she said Bridget could not have done it."
Counsel referred to the manner in which people had stared and scrutinized
Miss BORDEN during the past two weeks, and wondered that she could stand the
strain. She has said that when she gets back to woman's estate she will allow
the woman's feeling to show itself but now every move she makes will be misunderstood.
"During all the time she was hounded by the police she never forgot
that it was her duty to show the officers every attention, and in no way did
she seek to retard the search. Now, when the family was gathered in the parlor,
note her expression when she said: "Is there anybody in this house suspected?"
and when told that she was the suspected, she replied: ‘I am ready to go now
or at any time.' Gentlemen, as you look upon her you will pass your judgment
that she is not insane. During all those days have you seen anything that shows
the lack of womanly feeling or womanly bearing? If you make a mistake in this
case against the commonwealth, that is something you can correct if you make
a mistake in the other way you make a mistake beyond all remedy, a mistake so
deplorable that tongue can never tell its wickedness. This commonwealth will
be little worth preserving, as the crier of this court asks every day, if such
mistake is made and is to be followed by others equally as deplorable. She is
not without sympathy in this world; gentlemen take care of her as you have,
and at the end let her go back to that blood-stained and wrecked home where
she has passed so many years of her life."
It was 3 o'clock when ex-Governor ROBINSON closed, after having made a speech four and three-quarter-hours in length. As he was closing, Lizzie began to weep. Her face was red and swollen when she removed her handkerchief from it.
When the jury returned it was 3:07 o'clock. Half a minute later District
Attorney KNOWLTON began to sum up for the prosecution.
"However we may differ," he said, "we can agree that this
is a most heart-rending case. It was a terrible crime. When the news of it spread,
a thousand men in the community turned detectives and yet the crime is an impenetrable
mystery. If you had read the details of the crime in a novel you would have
said that it was good enough for a novel, but that such a thing could not happen
in actual life.
"The woman we are trying is a Christian woman, as that term is used to-day. She is a lady, the equal of your wife and my wife. She is a woman whom we would never have suspected of such a thing. Is sex a protection against crime? I do not speak lightly of influence of Christian parentage. It is hard to consider women guilty of such a crime. If they lack in strength they make up for it in cunning and sagacity. If they are stronger in love also are they stronger in their hatred. The greatest criminals in the world have been women. We must face this case as men."
He spoke of the fact that it had been said of him that he was animated by a spirit of revenge or ambition. The shaft had struck home, but he wanted it understood that what he did had been done solely from a sense of duty. If he could have retired from the prosecution with honor, he would have been glad to do so. He spoke in low tones and with a serious manner, and what he said produced a considerable effect in the court room.
"Let me say a word as to the nature of the evidence. We have produced every witness as a witness whom we thought could shed any light on the matter. There is another class of witnesses, and that is the policemen. If a crime is committed. Mr. Foreman, who would you go to? Would it not be to the police? They pursued every avenue which would lead them to a possible solution of the case. I cannot tell you how many men have been followed and watched, in how many cities investigations have been made. A blue coat does not make them any better nor should it make them any worse.
"No one who has told of it has seen Lizzie BORDEN burn that Bedford cord dress. We know what she said and did just before and after that, but we have no direct evidence that she burned the dress. The most surprising thing about these murders is that they were not committed at the same time. You supposed as I supposed when I heard of the case, that some man had rushed into the house, killed the old woman, rushed upstairs and killed the old man, and then made away, but it was established that the couple had been killed at separate times. While BORDEN was down in the bank that morning the assassin met Mrs. BORDEN in that room and killed her. This is a tremendous fact. It is the key note to the situation. It was the murder of Mrs. BORDEN. It was against her that the hate was directed. It was not to be believed that the assassin entered the house, killed the old woman and then waited an hour and a half for the old man to return. He must have been an assassin of much cunning. He did not know that Bridget was going to go upstairs. He did not know Miss BORDEN was going to the barn. He must have known that Mr. BORDEN would be back in a short time, but he did not know at what hour MORSE would return. He must have waited there almost all the morning. Would he wait for the entire family? Let us look at the conditions in that family. There is no need for me to tell you there was no peace in that family.
"Lizzie BORDEN'S mother died when she was 3 years of age, and her step-mother had reared her, had cared for her. She was a mother to her, and brought her up respectable and respected. It was the only mother she had ever known. And then they had a quarrel; what a quarrel. A man worth one quarter of a million wants to buy and give his wife the interest in the homestead where her sister lives, and because this was done, this woman repudiated the mother. The stroke of that instrument at the last never went so deep as the contemptuous treatment and the withdrawal of the word ‘mother.' Bridget never knew anything about it; she kept her counsel. And the time comes when living in the same house they stop speaking to each other. Year in and year out these people were under the same roof, compelled to see each other every day. Bridget was pushed hard to say that the family ate at one time and at the same table, but Bridget did not say anything of the sort; she would say they all ate in the same dining room. I admired the love and loyalty of Emma BORDEN and I could not put to her many questions. She said the relations were pleasant, where we sadly knew they were not. We can only guess how far the happiness of that household had been poisoned by the work of one who ought to have been the last to poison it. Was anybody benefitted by the taking away of poor Mrs. BORDEN? There was one woman in the world who believed that old woman stood between her father and herself was nothing in these blows but hatred and a great strong man would have taken that hatchet and with one blow only would have made an end of it. The arm that wielded that hatchet was strong only in hatred.
"That BORDEN house was the most zealously guarded house I ever heard of; there was even barbed wire on the bottom of the fence; the door at the head of the back stairs was kept locked always. The front door had always been kept locked but it was that woman's duty to open it in the morning, but she did not do it, and when Mr. BORDEN came home he thought to find it open and she had to help him. Then the screen door; Bridget locked it when she went in from her little trip in the yard and it was unlocked only when she was out in the yard washing windows." Here the speaker reviewed the movements of the family on the morning of the tragedy from the time of their arising in the morning through the time when Mr. and Mrs. BORDEN and MORSE took breakfast together, to the time of MORSE going away and Mr. BORDEN locking the screen door after him; then Mr. BORDEN goes down town; then Bridget goes out washing windows; Mrs. BORDEN goes into the guest chamber and Lizzie and she are above stairs. Lizzie then goes out doors to see if Bridget is fairly at her work and then goes back and the murderer was gone.
"Up to the time the murder was done there was no room for the assassin to come in. When that woman fell under the blows, the 200-pound woman, the fall must have been heard by whoever was in the house at the time. If Lizzie was down stairs she was in the passageway of the assassin; if she was up stairs, she was on the same floor quite near, and she could not have helped hearing. No matter how craftily murder is planned, there is always some point where the plans fall and they failed here at the critical time; she was alone in the house with that murdered woman; she must have known it, and she knew that by and by there was coming into the house a stern and just man who would have noticed the absence of his beloved wife, and who would have asked for her and that question must be answered. He came in and she went to him and said: ‘Mother has had a note and has gone out.' When Bridget got through her work Lizzie told her that she was going to lock the screen door, as Mrs. BORDEN had gone out and she might go out too. Counsel on the other side said this statement was not a lie but there was no note; there never was anybody sick and the note story originated with Lizzie BORDEN; Bridget SULLIVAN said she never heard anybody come with a note; she never saw any note and the first she heard of it was what Lizzie said. Bridget knew there was no note come when she was on guard outside and inside. It did not come to the side door because the door was locked most of the time. And the front door bell never rang that morning. I repeat, there never was a note. My learned friend suggests this was a scheme on the part of the assassin when he had come there to assassinate her."
The court adjourned at 5:08 until to-morrow morning at 9 A. M., when Mr. KNOWLTON will conclude his argument.
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DEATHS AND FUNERALS
-John F. DONOVAN died last Saturday at his home in Charlotte, aged 20 years-Albert D. FULLER late superintendent of the Albany Orphan Asylum died suddenly last Sunday morning, aged 43 years. Notice of the funeral may be found in the proper column.
-Mrs. Louise HIRSCHMAN died last Sunday evening at 8 o'clock, after one week's illness, at her home, No. 57 Reynolds street. She left a husband, father and three sisters her surviving.
-The funeral of Mrs. Cecelia S. P. CARY will be held from the residence on South avenue in Brockport at 3 o'clock this afternoon. Rev. James A. SKINNER, rector of St. Luke's Church, will officiate. The interment will be at Lake View cemetery.
Arrangements have been made for the reception of the members of Mrs. CARY'S class, in Brockport. They will meet at Miss BUELL'S studio, No. 708 Granite building, at 1:30 P. M. to-day to take the 2:10 train for Brockport.
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DIED
FULLER - Suddenly, at Albany, N. Y., Sunday morning June 18, 1893, Albert
D. FULLER, late Superintendent of the Albany Orphan Asylum, in the 43rd year
of his age.
-Interment at Penfield, N. Y. Carriages will leave Fairport Depot Wednesday,
June 21st at 9 A. M.
WHEELER - George B. WHEELER, aged 23 years.
-Funeral will take place at the residence of his aunt, Mrs. HALL, corner
Gregg and Exchange streets, at 4:30 P. M. Wednesday.
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