DIED OF ALCOHOLISM
New York, June 6 - Mrs. Annie Devanet PALMER, the wife of Frank W. PALMER, a broker doing business n Brooklyn, was found dead in bed at the United States hotel this morning, in a room which she had occupied since the previous evening. Mrs. PALMER was a dipsomaniac. It is believed that her death was due to natural causes and that alcoholism was a contributing cause. Mrs. PALMER was 81 years of age, and was the daughter of John GRAMNER, a well-to-do resident of Newburgh, N. Y.
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THE GERMAN CHESS EXPERT
New York, June 6 - Arnold SCHOTTLANDER, the German chess player, will start for Albany on Friday, en route to Buffalo and Chicago, at each of which cities he will stay at the principal chess centers. This afternoon he played a series of off hand games, including three against J. S. RYAN, the distinguished player and member of the Manhattan Chess Club. SCHOTTLANDER scored every game.
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DEATHS AND FUNERALS
-William BURGESS died last Sunday morning at the City Hospital, aged 56 years.
-John SCHLOSSER died yesterday morning at his home, No. 39 North Orange street, aged 65 years.
-Anna FAY died last Monday evening at the family residence, No. 183 Clifton street, aged 25 years.
-Wilnifield SKILLICORN died last evening at his home, No. 173 Cady street, aged 34 years. He leaves parents, a brother and three sisters to mourn the loss.
-Mrs. Candida DIETZ died yesterday afternoon at the family residence, No. 71 Baden street. Her husband, two daughters and three sons survive her.
-Robert GORDON died suddenly yesterday morning at the residence of his father, Harvey GORDON, No. 713 East Main street, aged 21 years. Death was due to heart disease. He was a graduate of the State Agricultural College of Michigan, and had been employed for several years by L. P. ROSS.
-Mrs. Gamaliel CASE, of Sodus, died at the home of her daughter at Dundee last Monday, aged 75 years. She was one of the early settlers in this locality. She left four children, Mrs. William B. MORSE of this city, Mrs. TETOR, of Dundee, J. M. CASE, of St. Louis, and B. J. CASE of Sodus.
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MARRIED
MILLER - RICHTER - In this city, Tuesday June 6, 1893, by the Rev. Hermann RENKER, at St. Boniface Church, Grand street, John MILLER and Minnie RICHTER, both of this city.
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DIED
RILEY - In this city, Sunday, June 4, 1893, at the family residence, No.
394 Plymouth avenue, Martin F. RILEY, aged 49 years.
-Funeral on Thursday at 8:30 o'clock at the house, and at the Church of the
Immaculate Conception at 9 o'clock.
CORRIS - In this city, Monday, June 5, 1893, at the family residence, No.
13 Swan street, Frances E., wife of William CORRIS, aged 33 years.
-Funeral on Wednesday, June 7, at 2:30 o'clock.
GORDON - In this city, Tuesday morning, June 6, 1893, at the family residence,
No. 713 East Main street, Robert Alexander, son of Harvey D. and Josephine E.
GORDON.
-Notice of the funeral hereafter.
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THE BORDEN TRAGEDY
Story of the Crime Presented by the Prosecution
Second Day of the Trial
The Theory of the People as Detailed by the District Attorney -
A Case Depending Entirely on Circumstantial and Expert Testimony
Mr. MOODY opened the government's case.
He said that on the 4th day of August last an old man and an old woman, without
a known enemy in the world, were stricken down by an unknown assassin. In the
prisoner's dock is a young woman, a daughter of the murdered man and step-daughter
of the murdered woman, a young woman of good social standing, charged with the
crime of murdering these people. It was his purpose, he said, to put the story
of the crime in the easiest manner possible. Mr. BORDEN was a man of considerable
property, and of quite, retiring ways, who had saved his money as he made it,
and had maintained his family on what might be termed a narrow scale. Lizzie
A. BORDEN was two or three years of age when her father married for the second
time, not long after the death of his first wife. The marriage was over twenty-five
years before the time of their death, and there was no issue. Abby Durfee BORDEN,
at the time of her death, was about 64 years old. The house in which these homicides
were committed had been occupied by the family some twenty years. There was,
or came to be, between prisoner and stepmother, an unkindly feeling. From the
nature of the case it will be impossible for us to get anything more than suggestive
glimpses of this feeling from outsiders. The daughters thought that something
should be done for them by way of dividing the property after they had learned
that the stepmother had been amply provided for. Then came a division and ill-
feeling, and the title of "mother" was dropped. The prosecution would
show that a dressmaker of the family had spoken of the stepmother as "mother,"
when Lizzie chided her and sais: "Don't call her mother; we hate her; she's
a mean, spiteful thing." When an officer was seeking information from the
prisoner right in sight of the woman who had sunken under the assassin's blow,
and asked: "When did you last see your mother?" The reply came from
Lizzie: "She isn't my mother, my mother died when I was an infant."
They would show that there was an impassable barrier built up between the daughters
and the step-mother. Upon the day preceding the homicide John V. MORSE came
to the BORDENS to visit them. He came and slept there Wednesday night. Upon
Tuesday night an illness occurred in the household. Mr. and Mrs. BORDEN were
taken ill with retching and vomiting, and the prisoner was taken the same way.
Bridget SULLIVAN, the servant, was not. A physician was consulted. Upon the
day before the homicide the prisoner went to a drug store and there asked the
clerk for 10 cents' worth of prussic acid for cleaning a cape. She was refused,
and, after some talk, went away. The speaker said there could be no doubt that
the prisoner was the person who went to that store. On the evening of Wednesday
the prisoner made a call on Alice RUSSELL, a friend of her's, and it will appear
that the prisoner had been intending to spend a vacation at Marion and the two
friends talked of that trip. She told Miss RUSSELL that she had made up her
mind to go there, but she said:
"I cannot help feeling depressed; that something is going to happen.
Last night we were all sick but the girl; it may have been the baker's bread."
"No," said Miss RUSSELL: "others would have been sick if that
were so."
"Then it, might have been the milk."
"What time do you get your milk?"
"About 4 o'clock. I am afraid," Lizzie continued, "that the
house will be burned down some night. Father has had so much trouble with his
men. The other night the barn was broken into.">
"But that was only the work of boys," said Miss RUSSELL.
Lizzie continued, saying that she had seen a man about the place who ran away when they caught sight of each other, and that her father had but recently had a quarrel with a man who came to see him. She was fearful of trouble.
Mr. MOODY then produced the plans of the house of the BORDENS, and the locality, and described them plainly to the jury. He described the location of the KELLEY, the CHURCHILL and the CHAGNON houses, and called particular attention to the fact that there were three exterior entrances to the premises. Entering the front door one goes into a hall, from which leads two doors, one to the parlor in the northwest corner, one into the sitting room and a stairway leading up stairs. Up stairs and down are practically alike. Going up stairs from the front you go into a hallway, out of which are three doors, into a large closet for dresses, etc., another leading into the guest chamber, which is directly over the parlor and corresponds to it in size. As you turn on the journey up the stairs one can look direct into the door of the guest chamber. The other door leads to the prisoner's bed room in the rear of the house. Between the guest chamber and the bed room of the prisoner there was a door which was always kept locked on both sides and in the prisoner's room there was a desk against it. When you have to go into this part of the house you can go now here but into the guest chamber and into the chamber of the prisoner and this closet. As one enters the prisoner's bedroom, a door leads to the left into Miss Emma's room; another leads into the room of the father and mother, over the kitchen. That door was always kept locked on both sides, on the prisoner's room side by a book, on Mrs. BORDEN'S side by a bolt; and the proof that this door was locked on the morning of the murder will be ample and complete. From Mrs. BORDEN'S room a door leads to the entry way into the kitchen, and that door was also locked on that day. As you go up the hallway, you get access to but four rooms and there was no access to the rear of the house. In the lower part as you enter the hallway below, it is as above, but there are no closets. On the left is the parlor. Straight ahead you enter the sitting room; now you come to a difference of construction. Turning to the left from the sitting room, you enter the dining room, on the north, and it is directly under Emma's room. The dining room has a door of exit into the kitchen. Above that the arrangement is varied by a partition, so that the door corresponding to the dining room door from the sitting room, is that leading from Emma's room to the prisoner's. Mr. MORSE returned on Wednesday night; it is important to show who occupied the house that night, and we will just go to the front part of the house. The prisoner came in late that night and fastened the front door, upon which there were three fastenings. The cellar door had been closed since Tuesday. Bridget came in at the back door and went to bed up stairs, and when these women came in and went to bed, every exterior approach was closed. The prisoner slept in her own room that night and MORSE in the guest chamber. Mr. and Mrs. BORDEN slept in their room over the kitchen, and Bridget SULLIVAN slept in her room above in the third story. In the morning Bridget was first up; we may safely assume, on the proof that the only human beings in the house that night were those we have mentioned. Bridget got her fuel down stairs and built a fire, got the milk at the rear door and locked it after she brought it in.
There was a screen door here, and this it was which Bridget locked, after she got the milk. Lizzie came down, then Mrs. BORDEN and then Mr. BORDEN. Mr. BORDEN did some chores in the barn, and was seen by Bridget. She saw MORSE only at breakfast with the others. After breakfast the first one to depart was MORSE, at 7:45 o'clock, and Mr. BORDEN let him out and locked the screen door behind him. Soon after MORSE went away, the prisoner came down and ate her breakfast. While she was eating, Mr. BORDEN went up stairs and Bridget went out in the yard because she was sick. When she came back Mr. BORDEN had evidently gone down town. Mrs. BORDEN and Bridget had some talk about washing windows, and the latter was told to do the work.
Mrs. BORDEN disappeared then and it will appear that she told the prisoner she was going up stairs to put some pillow cases on the bed in the spare room. You will be satisfied that this was not far from 9:30 o'clock and that she never left her room alive again, for no living person saw her alive again, except the assassin. When preparing to wash the windows, Bridget went to the back door as she wanted to come in and get her water, but she said afterward that she might lock it if she wished, and she would get her water from the barn. The door was left unlocked and the prisoner went into the house. There were two sitting room windows, which were washed first; then Bridget came to the front of the house and then to the north side and washed the parlor and dining room windows. She saw neither Mrs. BORDEN nor the prisoner during all the time she was washing theses windows. When she finished she came in, locked the door, and began washing the inner side of the windows. She had begun her work there when somebody was heard at the front door. Let us find out what time this somebody came to the door, because it was Mr. BORDEN.
At 10:25 o'clock Mr. BORDEN was at the store of Mr. CLEGG, who fixed the exact time. He left at 10:40 o'clock, another store, for his home, but a short distance away. Mrs. KELLY saw him coming from the screen door, where he had evidently tried to get in, and taking out his latch key to use it at the front door. Mrs. KELLY fixes the time, but it will be shown that the clock she took the time by was not reliable. When he came home Bridget found the door locked and bolted, contrary to custom in that house. He had put his key in but the door was locked and bolted. He came in and made some talk about opening the door, and the prisoner, from the hall above, made some laughing exclamation. At that time Mrs. BORDEN'S body lay above, dead probably more than an hour. The prisoner then came to him asking him for mail and said: "Mrs BORDEN is gone out; she had a note and has gone to answer to it." That was a lie to stifle inquiry. As Bridget was washing the windows again the prisoner got an ironing board and went to work, and then she told Bridget the falsehood about the note; she told her to be careful about the doors, as she might go out. Bridget did her work and was about to go up stairs when the prisoner said: "There's a cheap sale on goods down town where they are selling goods at 8 cents a year," and Bridget said she guessed she'd have some. Then Bridget went upstairs and there was nothing more until the alarm came. Then she came down, was sent to Dr. BOWENS and then to Miss RUSSELL. Mrs. CHURCHILL came by accident and the alarm was given to the police at 11:15 o'clock.
It could not have been far from 10:45 o'clock when Mr. BORDEN reached home. The prisoner was the last person left with her father alive, and she said she was in the back yard when she heard a groan and went in and found her father dead. She sent Bridget for Dr. BOWEN and, failing to get him, sent for Miss RUSSELL, and it must be borne in mind that this was the woman to whom Lizzie had predicted disaster, only the night before. Mrs. CHURCHILL came only by accident. Bridget asked:
"Shall I not go down for Mrs. BORDEN?"
"No" said the prisoner. "I am not sure, but I think I heard
her come in; I wish you would try to find her," and Bridget and Mrs. CHURCHILL
went up stairs, and when near the landing, the dead body was seen on the floor
in the guest chamber. It is to be regretted that Dr. BOWEN was the family physician,
or we might have obtained from him some accurate information. He said Mrs. BORDEN
had died of fright, for he so expressed himself at the time. The prisoner went
to her own room without once going to look at the woman murdered, and changed
her dress. The prisoner told Dr. BOWEN she went to the barn to get lead for
sinkers; she told Miss RUSSELL, she went to get a piece of iron to fix the window
with. She told Officer MULLALAY that she was in the barn, heard a peculiar scraping,
went in and discovered her father. She first said that after Bridget went up
stairs she went out into the barn to get lead to make sinkers, but when she
gave a later and detailed account, she said she went up there to open the window,
ate some pears, came back to the house looked at the fire, found it was low,
went to her room to wait for the fire to come up, came down and discovered her
father. Here is a difference of stories as to the discovery of her father. This
day was one of the hottest days of that summer; the loft of the barn was stifling
in its heat. MULLALAY went into the barn, when he came to the scene, looked
at the floor and saw that the dust lay thick on the floor. He stepped in it
and saw plainly every foot step he made. It was believed that Mr. BORDEN died
before her husband and this will be sought to be proved; her blood was congealed;
his was fresh and flowing; there will be the testimony of medical experts to
show the condition of the stomachs of the bodies, just as there was at the preliminary
hearing; there was partially digested food in the woman's stomach in Mr. BORDEN'S
none. Men who are competent to give an opinion will give you evidence on all
these things.
About the two rooms in which these homicides were committed, there was more
or less of blood spatters; there has been produced for inspection the clothing
said to have been worn by the prisoner that morning shoes, stockings, dress
and skirt. The most rigid examination by the best expert in the country shows
no blood on the dress and but one minute spot on the skirt. Now the prisoner
has said that the reason she left her ironing was because the fire was low;
she put some wood in and went to the barn, when she went out, the wood was there
and the fire was out. It will appear that soon after the alarm, an officer was
attracted by Dr. BOWEN doing something at the stove, and he looked in and saw
what appeared to be a large roll of burned paper. The prisoner had on a light
blue dress with a small figure which she was in the habit of wearing; Dr. BOWEN
will say that she had on a cheap drab colored dress that morning. Mrs. CHURCHILL
will say that she had on early a light blue dress and a diamond figure, of navy
blue, and the dress with light spots was not the one she had on when she (Mrs.
CHURCHILL) arrived at the house. Miss RUSSELL and the prisoner went to her bedroom
soon after the former came, and the prisoner said she wanted WINWOOD for an
undertaker. When Miss RUSSELL came back from her errand to the undertaker, she
found Lizzie coming from Emma's room with the pink wrapper on. On Sunday morning
Miss RUSSELL went to the house and there saw the prisoner with a skirt on her
arm, one which the prisoner had purchased that spring; a light blue dress, as
described by Mrs. CHURCHILL. The dress ordinarily worn in the morning was also
bought in the spring. She saw the prisoner standing at the stove and she was
asked by Emma what she was going to do.
"I am going to burn the dress; it's all covered with paint," she
answered. Then she commenced to tear the dress up, and Emma was requested to
be careful not to let any one see her and she stepped aside. The next day Emma
said to Lizzie:
"I am afraid the burning of the dress was the worst thing you could
have done," and Lizzie said:
"Oh, why did you let me do it?"
These murders were done by some sharp instruments, and here counsel showed two hatchets. Upon one, he said, there were some spots, but it was difficult to say what caused them. Two axes were shown, but laid aside as of no use. Counsel showed the hatchets again and said there was nothing to show that they had been used. Upon the day of the murder another weapon was found, but little attention was paid to it. A portion of the handle was in it: it was covered with the coarse dust of ashes. On Monday this hatchet was taken away, and its custody from that time will be traced. All of the hatchets are rusty, but the rust of the one which had the broken handle is uniform, such as might have been received while lying on the grass overnight. Professor WOOD will say that if this broken handle of the weapon had had the rest of the handle in it, it could have been washed clean; he will tell the break in the handle was a fresh one.
Here the skulls were produced by Dr. DOLAN. The counsel the exact measurements of the blade of the broken handled hatchet was 3 1-2 inches; the instrument which fits into the death wounds of Andrew J. BORDEN was just 3 1-2 inches wide.
When those bodies were found, (here photographs of their condition were shown), it was seen that not a thing in the house had been disturbed; no drawers opened and ransacked, no evidence of a struggle in any form; the assailant had been able to approach each of the victims in broad daylight, and without a murmur or a struggle, had laid them low. Mrs. BORDEN'S face was on the floor, and the right side of the head hacked in pieces. Mr. BORDEN was found on the sofa in the sitting room. He apparently had passed from life to death without a struggle, and his head was hacked as was his wife's. The government will prove that there was an unkind feeling between the prisoner and her step-mother; that she was dwelling on murder and predicting disaster and cataloguing defenses; that from the time when Mrs. BORDEN went up stairs to the time when the prisoner came down an hour later there was no other human being there but this prisoner at the bar; that these acts were of a human being; of one who must have had a familiar knowledge of the interior of the premises and of the habits of the occupants; that she made contradictory statements as to how she found the bodies and the jury will be asked to say whether any other reasonable hypothesis exists than that the prisoner at the bar knows more about this case than she has thus far disclosed. Counsel closed by saying:
"The time for hasty and inexact reasoning is past. We are to be guided from this time forth by the law and the evidence only. I conjure you, gentlemen, to keep your minds in that same open and respectful attitude which you have maintained to-day to the end. When that end comes, after you have heard the evidence on both sides, the arguments of the counsel and the instructions of the court, God forbid that you should step one step against the law, or beyond the evidence. But, if your minds, considering all these circumstances, are irresistibly brought to the conclusion of her guilt, we ask you in your verdict to declare her guilty. By so doing, and only by so doing shall you make true deliverance of the great issue which has been submitted to you."
Mr. MOODY finished his opening at 10:55, and the jury was given a brief recess. At the close of the opening, Miss BORDEN had fallen back in her seat, completely exhausted, and her counsel, Mr. JENNINGS, and one of the clerical friends, administered relief in the form of smelling salts and cold water.
When the jury returned the case was opened by the government putting on its first witness, in the person of Thomas KIERNAN, a civil engineer. He had drawn plans of the streets in the vicinity of the BORDEN house, and of the house itself, and identified them as shown by counsel. He said if a man stood on Second street and brought his eye directly in a line drawn past the corner of Dr. KELLEY'S house and the southeast corner of BORDEN'S house, he could see twelve inches of the barn on the BORDEN place.
Mr. KNOWLTON asked the court to allow the jury to take a view of the BORDEN premises. Governor ROBINSON, who consulted Miss BORDEN in regard to accompanying the jury to Fall River, announced that his client waived her rights in the matter, and would not go with them.
Mssrs HODGES, BROWN, NICKERSON and ARNOLD, of the deputy sheriffs, were designated by the sheriff to look after the jury, and Messrs, MOODY, for the commonwealth, and JENNINGS, for the defense, were designated as representing counsel.
The chief justice instructed the jury as to what the view was to be taken for, and then they were dismissed to report for duty to-morrow morning at 9 o'clock.
About 1:30 o'clock the jury walked to the BORDEN house and were admitted with the four men who had charge of them. Also accompanying them were District Attorneys KNOWLTON and MOODY, Mr. ROBINSON and Mr. JENNINGS.
After the jury had examined carefully the inner part of the BORDEN house, a survey of the outside adjoining yard was made, the distance from the house to the fence measured, and the location of the lumber pile and barn loft visited. The jury filed out from the yard and walked up Second street to Dr. BOWEN'S house, and other points figuring in the trial were shown and looked over. Passing to third street considerable time was spent in CROWE'S stone yard, where masons were at work at the time the murder is alleged to have been committed, and the position and distance of the porch in Dr. CHAGNON'S house, where the doctor's daughter was seated at the time of the murder, were also noted. Every place mentioned in the story of the crime, including the Union Bank, were visited. The tour was finished at 4 P.M., and the jury quartered at the MELLEN house.
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