The Trial of Lizzie Borden(52)
In an uncanny coincidence, Dr. William Dolan, the medical examiner for Bristol County, happened to be passing the Borden house on August 4 about 11:45 a.m. Dolan examined Andrew Borden’s body: Andrew’s hands were still warm and bright red blood was still “oozing from the wounds in the head.” In his cursory examination, Dolan found eight to ten wounds. He also described Andrew’s position: Andrew’s head was lying upon a tidy covered sofa cushion. The cushion itself lay on his coat, which had been “doubled up and put under there, and that . . . rested upon an afghan or sofa cover.” Dr. Dolan then examined Abby’s body. He found her lying on the left side of her face. Dolan touched her head and hand and found them cooler than her husband’s corpse. He also noticed that her blood had coagulated and was of a dark color. Indeed, “the blood on the head was matted and practically dry.” He found a bloody handkerchief near Abby’s head. As Dolan recounted the gory details, Lizzie Borden hid her face under her fan.
After those initial examinations, Dolan arranged for photographs to be taken of the crime scenes and of the bodies. He then set about gathering the medical evidence that would be needed to determine the time and the cause of death. The grisly procedure had a shocking banality in his retelling. He collected samples of the morning’s milk and the prior day’s milk. He undressed Andrew Borden’s body and laid it on an undertaker’s board in the same room. He removed Andrew’s stomach and put it into a clean jar. He repeated the same procedure for Abby. He packed both stomachs and two jars of milk and sent them express to Professor Wood at Harvard. Later, he examined the two wood axes and two hatchets found in the cellar. Dolan thought “the heavy claw hammered hatchet . . . looked as though it had been scraped.” He also saw spots that looked like rust or blood. Using a microscope, he found two hairs. Those, too, would go to Professor Wood, but he delivered them personally on August 9. Also in that package was a “dress waist, a dress skirt, and an under white skirt” worn by Lizzie on which “there is a minute pin spot of blood.”
Andrew Borden, August 4, 1892, courtesy of Fall River Historical Society
A more thorough autopsy would wait for a week. He performed that on August 11 at Oak Grove Cemetery. There he cut off the heads and cleaned the skulls. (How and where he rendered off the flesh is not known, but his son later claimed he used lobster pots at the family home for the grisly procedure.) Before testifying, he made plaster casts of the heads to show the positions of the wounds, gruesome exhibits for the trial. Mr. Borden had ten wounds on his head, ranging from two inches to four and a half inches long—all marked in blue ink. Part of the skull by the left ear was crushed. The attack on Mrs. Borden had been even more vicious: there were eighteen head wounds in total, thirteen of which went through the skull. The wounds ranged in size from half an inch to five and a half inches. The right side of her skull also displayed a crushing injury. Abby’s last wound (or her first—it was impossible to tell) was of particular interest to Knowlton—a wound at the base of the neck. As Dolan explained the location of the wound, Adams offered Knowlton chalk so that the witness could mark his coat. Knowlton testily refused. Adams, with calculated bonhomie, told the witness: “I have no objection to your marking my coat, and you may do it with a piece of chalk, so that we may see the location and extent of that injury. I hope that I shall not be numbered as an exhibit.” When it was his turn to cross-examine Dolan, he did precisely that and turned his back to the jury to display the location of the wound.
Abby Borden, August 4, 1892, courtesy of Fall River Historical Society
As the local physician Albert Dedrick had already testified, Dolan explained that the state of the victims’ digestion showed a difference in time of death. Andrew’s small intestine was clear and his large intestine was full of solid feces. By contrast, Abby’s lower intestine was clear and there was still undigested food in the small intestine. Based on this evidence, Dr. Dolan confirmed that Mrs. Borden died an hour and a half to two hours earlier than her husband. Most critically, Knowlton asked, “Were the wounds that you found upon the skull of Mr. Borden such as could have been inflicted with a hatchet by a woman of ordinary strength?”
“Yes,” replied Dr. Dolan.
Adams clearly expected Robinson to challenge Dolan’s opinion. Adams said, apparently to Robinson: “Wait a moment. Do you want that?” Knowlton paused politely, then said, “You asked me to wait, so I am waiting.” Snapping to attention, Robinson said that he had objected. Knowlton replied that he had not heard him do so. Adams retreated: “We do not insist upon the objection.” Knowlton then repeated his question and received another affirmative reply. All in all, it was an odd exchange that underscored the very point most damaging to the defense case.
Adams may not have been able to prevent Dolan from giving his opinion about Lizzie Borden’s physical capacity to commit the crime; however, his cross-examination showed the jury that Dr. Dolan had been in less control of the crime scene than he had suggested and that he had perhaps leapt to conclusions about other forensic evidence. Dolan had referred to the state in which he had found the victims as if that were the original state in which they had been found. Adams pointed out one of the policemen (Doherty) “had been there ahead of you and lifted up this woman” and “that Dr. Bowen . . . had pulled out [Abby’s] right hand” to check her pulse. Adams also questioned him about the space between the bed and the bureau in which Abby was found. Doherty had also moved the bed—how much? Adams then asked about the hatchets and axes in the cellar. Dolan admitted, reluctantly, after hearing his own preliminary hearing testimony read back to him, that he had originally thought the claw hammer hatchet was the murder weapon. He claimed that, at that time, he had not yet prepared the skulls and therefore did not fully understand the nature of the injuries. He also admitted that he had mistakenly thought there was human hair on the axe. Overall, it was a dispiriting performance by a key prosecution witness.