The Fall River Tragedy - A History of the Borden Murders: With the Essay 'Spontaneous and Imitative Crime' by Euphemia Vale Blake

by Edwin H. Porter, Euphemia Vale Blake (Contributor)

The story of how Lizzie Borden supposedly murdered her parents has passed into American folklore, partly thanks to the albeit inaccurate playground rhyme, "Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41." Here we have the 'true' story, as reported by the local police reporter who attended the trial and lived only streets away from the Borden home with his young wife. After the trial, Porter 'disappeared' and it was widely speculated he had either been murdered or bribed to disappear in order to suppress the book. His reappearance some time later put paid to the first theory. After his death at age 39 from tuberculosis, a new theory emerged, that he had been away for treatment while keeping his illness secret. Meanwhile, the trial itself was noteworthy for several reasons: it was one of the first to be followed by nationwide press, providing a template for today's tabloid and cable coverage of major trials; it also had some distinguished personnel: one of the prosecutors, Frank Moody, later became the attorney general of the United States and was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Theodore Roosevelt; and Borden’s defense attorney, George Robinson, was the former governor of Massachusetts. The appearance of Professor Wood of Harvard University was an early use of an expert witness at trial.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Biography, History, Crime

396 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1893

About the author

Edwin H. Porter (c. 1864-1904) was a local police reporter in Fall River, Massachusetts, who attended the trial of Lizzie Borden and lived only streets away from the Borden home with his young wife. After the trial, Porter "disappeared" and it was widely speculated he had either been murdered or bribed to disappear in order to suppress the book. His reappearance some time later put paid to the first theory. After his death at age 39 from tuberculosis, a new theory emerged, that he had been away for treatment while keeping his illness secret.

Reviews

[Mark Werderitsch · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Historical Curiosity
This is the first book published about the infamous Lizzie Borden case, published shortly after her 1893 trial. The writer, Edwin Porter, was a newspaper reporter from Boston covering the case. It reads as pretty florid in style and is full of the author's opinions. The book publishes Borden's famously contradictory inquest testimony but does not include the questions, only the answers in paragraph form. It makes Borden appear as if she is having a stream of consciousness episode. The same holds true of all trial testimony provided answers only, no questions. But we are treated to the purple prose of the opening and closing statements of the prosecution and defense attorneys in full.

There are much better, much more recent studies of this case available. But this book is mostly still worth the read as an early true crime study of one of the first murder cases in the United States to get nationwide coverage, the O J Simpson case of the 1890's.

[☆Ruth☆ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A 'must-read' for anyone interested in the Fall River murders.

[Devann Hattis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This shouldn’t be called a “book” so much as a “collection of court transcripts with chapter titles.”

[Sherri Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just a little too dry for what I was hoping to read.

[Gregory Freeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but tedious

This is a bare bones chronicle of the events following the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden. It reads like A dry police report on the facts of the case and never drifts into speculation on the guilt or innocence of the accused Lizzie Borden. It presents all the facts that were available at the time and it proved to be mostly circumstantial. Since we already know the outcome the segment detailing the trial can be a little tedious to read and it might be more interesting to those who have a deeper fascination with the case. In the end we'll probably never know who was the true killer or if Lizzie was just a victim of circumstance.

[Diane Glover · Rating 2 out of 5]

I finished it... but it was a push. As several other people have noted, there was a lot of "answers" from "witnesses" but you don't know the questions asked. So it became harder to follow the deeper in you got. As a technical, research item it would work for research purposes. You could use it as a works sited, but just for reading and getting any "enjoyment" out of "new evidence" it was tedious at best. I pushed through because I have read just about every book concerning this crime, but a die-hard fan is the only type that will, unless it is for further research purposes.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably one of the worst-written books I've ever read. There were points where there weren't even any complete sentences used. I don't know if he was just using transcribed testimony or what. There are so many other better-written books on the Borden murders out there. The only thing that is 'special' about this book is the fact that this author was a police reporter in Fall River at the time of the murders. I think this may be the only contemporaneous book I've read on the subject matter.

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought the author did a good job describing in a lively engaging style the events surrounding the murder of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Bordon. Some of the minutia describing the newspaper investigation and court trial gets a little detailed to the point of stretching one's interest thin, but mostly a very thorough and honest history of Lizzy Bordon's alleged murder of her parents, written by a contemporary.

[Elise R · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obviously important/interesting as a primary source, but I feel like the majority of the book was just reprinting chunks of the trial transcripts without the full context you'd get from just reading the transcripts themselves.

[Briana · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing is dry but still it was interesting to see how someone from 1893 account of the Borden case.

[Stephen Tubbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

An over comprehensive blow by blow account but an excellent historical record.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[Victoria · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. This history is very poorly edited, and gets very dry and long. However, I am glad that I read it as it an historical account from the time period. The beginning is a bit easier to read, as the sections are smaller and make it easier to pace the reading. Once you get into the Lizzie Borden trial, the sections get longer and make it more difficult to read, as information naturally gets repeated throughout the trial and the closing arguments.

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

I rarely put down a book unfinished, but this is thhe most horridly edited book I have seen in my whole life. Typos and grammar mistakes on every page. Not to mention the way it is written is extremely dry. I do NOT recommend this book to anyone!

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Porter presented the case in itself very well. All of the facts were there. With any unsolved murder case of the era (think Jack the Ripper) there are always going to be more questions arising, and the majority being unanswered and only speculated on.

[Kasey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring...the word for word trial testimony was so hard to get through.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I vaguely knew about this case before. It's interesting to learn a bit more of the details, and how the trial went.