The Trial of Lizzie Borden(10)
Popular opinion among the living favored John V. Morse, Andrew’s brother-in-law, because he was an outsider whose visit coincided with the murders. One newspaper profile of Morse termed him “The Suspected Man.” With his ragged beard and shallow gray bloodshot eyes, Morse looked the part of the shifty Western horse trader, a “long, lanky, hard-featured fellow, who dressed like a scarecrow and ate like a cormorant.” He did not appear to improve upon acquaintance, for he was “regarded by his neighbors as a very eccentric and peculiar man.” Like his brother-in-law, he was reserved and “close, almost to the point of penuriousness.” The Fall River police had to rescue him from an angry mob that followed him around in the days after the murders. But as if in a detective novel, Morse appeared to have an airtight alibi. He had memorized the number of the streetcar on which he was riding at the time of Andrew Borden’s death and even recalled the number on the streetcar conductor’s cap. As it happens, the conductor did not remember him but did recall the six priests Morse named as his fellow passengers. Mrs. Daniel Emery, the relative he visited on Weybosset Street, confirmed his departure time and, in an uncanny coincidence, Dr. Bowen arrived to attend Mrs. Emery’s daughter just as Morse was leaving the house at 11:20 a.m. The Fall River Daily Herald reported a possible motive, based on a tip from an unnamed member of the Borden family, that Lizzie “regarded Mr. Morse with more tenderness than most nieces feel for their uncles.” According to the source, Andrew Borden was well aware of her attachment and “he was constantly on the alert to see the breath of scandal did not reach his home.” But there was nothing to support that tantalizing rumor. If anything, Lizzie seemed to view her uncle with hostility or, at best, indifference. Even though she was aware of his presence on Wednesday, she did not see Morse until after the murders on Thursday afternoon. She later said she was annoyed by the sounds of her uncle, father, and stepmother conversing downstairs and had shut her bedroom door.
John V. Morse, courtesy of Fall River Historical Society
Dr. Bowen also faced suspicion—not as a serious suspect, but as a possible paramour of Lizzie Borden’s. Jane Gray, Abby’s stepmother, relayed four-year-old gossip about Lizzie’s relationship with her doctor. While the rest of the family was at the Borden farm during that summer, Lizzie stayed in Fall River. Dr. Bowen escorted her to church one Sunday evening, an act of gallantry that launched a thousand wagging tongues. According to Mrs. Gray, “Some remarked how courageous she was to remain in the house alone; but others replied in a very knowing way, perhaps she has acceptable company.”
Dr. Bowen’s actions on the day of the murders also seemed questionable. First, he provided the medical explanation for a pail of small towels “covered with blood” found soaking in the wash cellar. Officer William Medley asked Lizzie about the contents. Rather than explain the towels were menstrual cloths, she referred him to Dr. Bowen, who vouched for her, declaring “it had been explained to him, and was alright.” Bridget, however, said that “she had not noticed the pail until that day, and it could not have been there two days before [as Lizzie claimed], or she would have seen it, and put the contents in the wash.” Second, he acted as a gatekeeper, closing Lizzie’s door on the police and insisting that she be given a few moments to compose herself. Finally, Officer Harrington saw Dr. Bowen in the Bordens’ kitchen looking at scraps of paper that he appeared to be trying to assemble. When challenged by Harrington, Bowen said, “It does not amount to anything,” adding that it was a note about his daughter’s proposed visit. He then tossed the scraps onto the kitchen stove. Harrington saw the name Emma as it burned. Bowen’s daughter’s name was Florence. Was Dr. Bowen acting in good faith as the trusted family physician or was he trying to protect someone in the house?
After exhausting the suspects outside the immediate family, the police turned their attention to the two women at the scene of the crime. If the murderer was not a member of the household, then he, or she, would have had to avoid both women for the hour and a half between the murders. The housemaid Bridget Sullivan was considered a plausible suspect. Irish immigrants alone composed over a third of those arrested between 1889 and 1893. One of Marshal Hilliard’s civic-minded correspondents told him to arrest Bridget Sullivan, who “carried out the orders of her priest,” adding that “true Americans will learn in time never to imploy [sic] a catholic.” Another warned that servants were “a sly and lying class.” Although an axe was a “man’s” weapon because of the physical strength and proximity required, working-class Irish women were known to be perfectly capable of swinging one, for domestic service often included chopping wood and slaughtering animals. Bridget Sullivan did not need to perform such duties because cords of wood arrived regularly from the Borden farm in Swansea. Nonetheless, she knew enough to be petrified. She was saved by Lizzie Borden’s version of events that placed Bridget outside during Abby’s murder and upstairs in her attic bedroom when Andrew was killed. Yet, despite the dearth of evidence linking her to the crime and the absence of any discernable motive, the president of the board of aldermen wondered out loud why she had not been arrested. Andrew Jennings, the Borden family lawyer, seconded these sentiments, asking pointedly, “In the natural course of things who would be the party to be suspected?”
Dr. Seabury Bowen, courtesy of Fall River Historical Society