Lizzie Borden Case Study

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The Lizzie Borden case is extremely intriguing. Andrew and Abby Borden were both found brutally murdered in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts. Lizzie Borden, Andrew and Abby’s daughter, notified the family’s maid of the discovery of Andrew Borden lying dead of the sofa. The authorities were notified and a subsequent search of the house found the body of Abby. According to Barbara Maranzani of History.com, Andrew Borden did not lack in the area of enemies and by all accounts was involved in some shady business deals. However a week after the murder of her parents Lizzie Borden was arrested for the murders. Lizzie Borden had a preliminary hearing in front of Judge Josiah Blaisdell, where he deemed Lizzie “probably guilty”. Lizzie then …show more content…
One of which was the families maid Bridget Sullivan, who had served the family over two years. During her examinations Bridget claimed she had not seen any discourse between Lizzie and her stepmother. Another prosecution witness, Hannah H. Gifford, later testified Lizzie expressed ill feelings toward her stepmother in a conversation they had. According to Ms. Grifford Lizzie called her stepmother “a mean good-for nothing thing”. Adelaide Churchill saw Lizzie in a Blue dress the day of the murders, but then later goes on to say she did not see any blood on the dress after the murders. This witness also turns out to be beneficial to the defense. The prosecution later calls John Fleet to the stand. John was an Assistant Marshal and he interviewed Lizzie after the murders. According to his testimony Lizzie refuted the fact Abby was her mother and made it abundantly clear that she was not her mother, she was her step mother. The defense called a fairly small number of witnesses to the stand. Charles Gifford, Uriah Kirby, and Dr. Benjanmin all stated seeing a strange man in the surrounding area to the Borden home. The defenses best witness was Emma Borden, Lizzie’s sister. Emma testified Lizzie and her father had a good relationship, there was no quorums within the house