“In 1892 or thereabouts – the US and Canada were convulsed over the famous Lizzie Borden murder case in Fall River, Mass. The papers were full of it…I remember some of the Cavendish boys driving home from prayer meeting one night singing that horrible quatrain which was broadcast at that time. She was found not guilty.
A few days ago, something, I do not know what, recalled her to my mind. I thought ‘I wonder if she is living still and if she was or was not guilty.’
The very next day, by one of those curious coincidences, I read a review of a new book bearing the idyllic title ‘Studies in Murder’ — in which one of the cases described was the Borden Murder. I sent for it.
There is no doubt in my mind that she was guilty. And yet it is almost as impossible to believe that she could have done it … There was never any scrap of real evidence at the trial to connect Lizzie Borden with the murder …
She is living today. Will she ever confess? Has she ever felt remorse for her crime? I confess I would like to see this woman — talk with her.”
“Studies in Murder”, by Edward Pearson
I absolutely love this woman. LM Montgomery is in her 50s, writing that … I relate to that kind of curiosity about people who do terrible things.
That “horrible quatrain” has been ringing in my head for three days now.
Lizze Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks
And when she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one.
How odd we humans are at times.