An illustration shows Lizzie Borden and her lawyer in the courtroom during her murder trial, 1893.
Photo: Bettmann Archive/Getty ImagesThe faded images of a couple hacked to death on August 4, 1892, are some of the most chilling crime-scene photographs in American history. One victim, Andrew Borden, is shown sprawled at an awkward angle on a chaise longue. His face looks like it’s been scratched off the photograph by a jilted lover, but in reality, savage blows to the head left the 69-year-old man almost entirely featureless. A second photograph shows Abby Borden, Andrew’s wife, facedown in her bedroom near an ornate Victorian dresser, with her head smashed to pieces.
It wasn’t just the savagery of the murders that made the Borden case one of the most famous in American history. Above all, it was the identity of the chief suspect: Andrew’s 32-year-old daughter, Lizzie. Almost 130 years later, children still sing the gruesome rhyme about Lizzie Borden giving her mother (actually her stepmother) 40 whacks. But the most significant legacy of the case is less well known: It was the first widely publicized trial to feature the use of crime-scene photographs, helping to make the new forensic technique standard practice in the U.S. and around the world.
Before the Lizzie Borden trial, the most famous crime photos in existence were the ones in the “Jack the Ripper” case, which had convulsed London four years earlier. But only one of the Ripper’s victims, Mary Jane Kelly, was actually photographed at the crime scene, with the injuries to her face and body visible. In any case, the photos were never used in a criminal prosecution, since no suspect was ever apprehended. The Borden photos, by contrast, were shown to jurors during the trial and used in the inquest to dispute a statement given by the prime suspect.
The facts of the case were fairly straightforward. Lizzie Borden lived with her father and stepmother in Fall River, Mass. She and Bridget Sullivan, the family’s maid, were both in the house on the morning of the attack. After breakfast, Andrew left the house to conduct some business downtown. When he returned, he settled on the couch for a nap.
Lizzie later claimed that at around 11:15 a.m. she discovered her father’s bludgeoned body and screamed for Bridget, who ran out to fetch a doctor. Only after Bridget returned with a neighbor was Abby’s corpse found in an upstairs bedroom. Because the blood around her body had begun to congeal, police later estimated that Abby was killed an hour or so before Andrew, meaning that the murderer had lain in wait for Andrew Borden to return that morning.
“ Forensic photography was still in its infancy at the time of the Borden murders, but the trial helped make its potential clear. ”
After eliminating suspects close to the Borden family, the police began to focus on the prim, churchgoing Lizzie, who had the best opportunity to commit the crimes. She also had a motive: She had been angry at her father for giving valuable real estate to members of Abby’s family. Although there was no trace of blood on Lizzie when police arrived at the scene—a fact that still raises questions today—her conflicting statements caused suspicions.
The photographs first came into play during the inquest, when Lizzie told police she had removed her father’s boots and helped him into his slippers before he settled down for his nap. The photo of Andrew’s body, however, shows the victim wearing boots. The matter of the victim’s footwear was subsequently raised by a police officer at the trial, when the photos were again admitted into the record. A lengthy discussion ensued about whether Andrew was wearing laced boots at the time of his death or not. The photo shows no laces, though the police officer was adamant that Andrew was wearing laced boots when he arrived at the Borden house later that morning. These discrepancies couldn't have been noted without the existence of the photos.
Forensic photography was still in its infancy at the time of the Borden murders, but the trial helped make its potential clear. A decade after the Borden trial, the French police officer Alphonse Bertillon developed a method for taking photographs without contaminating forensic evidence, by fitting a camera with a wide-angle lens onto a tripod and positioning it directly over the body of the victim.
But the Fall River police didn’t have such advanced tools in 1892, and their crime-scene photographs weren’t enough to convict Lizzie Borden. Despite the evidence against her, an all-male jury acquitted her, partly because they couldn’t imagine a woman of Borden’s social standing committing such heinous acts. In a bizarre twist, the jurors then posed for a photo of their own, which they presented to her as a souvenir.
—Dr. Fitzharris is a medical historian. Her new television series “The Curious Life and Death of…” will premiere on the Smithsonian Channel on Sept. 6 with an episode about the Borden case.
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