Tenth Day of the Trial.
City Marshal Rufus B. Hilliard was the witness called. He testified
as had the other officers about his search at the house. He said: “On
Saturday evening following the killing, I went to the house in company
with Dr. Coughlin; there was a large crowd of people present, perhaps
two or three hundred people; I sent for officers and had the crowd
removed to the street; then I went into the house, where I saw the
prisoner, her sister and Mr. Morse; there was a conversation between
Dr. Coughlin and the others; after we entered the parlor Dr. Coughlin
asked that the family remain in the house for a few days; that there
was much excitement and he thought it would be better they should
remain there and not go on the street. I think he told them if they
were annoyed by the people to send word to the city marshal or himself
and they should be protected; Mr. Morse asked about the mail and he was
told they had better send for it; then Miss Lizzie asked, ‘What, is
there anybody in this house suspected?’ the Mayor said, ‘Perhaps Mr.
Morse could answer that from what occurred last night;’ Lizzie then
said, ‘I want to know the truth,’ and the Mayor said he was sorry to
say it, but that she was suspected; then Emma spoke up and said, ‘We
have tried to keep it from you as long as we could.’ Then the Mayor
asked Lizzie where she was when the affair happened, and she said in
the barn for twenty minutes, looking for lead sinkers; Lizzie said,
after Emma spoke, ‘Well, I am ready to go any time.’” The witness was
cross-examined at great length and told of all his connections with the
case.
Dr. John W. Coughlin, Mayor of Fall River, said that on Saturday
evening following the Borden murder he went to the house with the
marshal; there was a large crowd present and he instructed the marshal
to disperse the crowd; it was done; in the house the first person he
saw was Miss Emma; then he saw Lizzie and Mr. Morse. “We all went into
the parlor where I said, ‘I have a request to make of the family, and
that is that you remain in the house for a few days, since I think it
would be best for you all.’ Lizzie asked, ‘Why, is there anybody in
this house suspected?’ and I said, ‘Well, perhaps Mr. Morse can answer
better, as his experience of last evening might tend to convince him
that somebody in the house was suspected;’ then Emma said, ‘We have
tried to keep it from her the best we could,’ and Lizzie said, ‘Well,
if I am suspected I am ready to go at any time;’ then Miss Lizzie, in
answer to my questions, told where she was when the murders occurred;
Miss Emma then said she wanted us to do everything we could for them,
after I had told them to call on me for any protection needed.”
Mrs. Hannah H. Gifford said: “I am a cloak maker and did work for the
Bordens. I made a sack for Lizzie in March, 1892, and had a talk with
her about her stepmother. I spoke, and called Mrs. Borden, ‘mother.’
She said, ‘Don’t call her mother, she is only my stepmother, and she
is a mean, hateful old thing;’ I said ‘Oh Lizzie, don’t say that,’ and
then she said she always kept apart from her, and ate her meals alone.”
The evidence which Miss Anna H. Borden (not a relative) was about to
give in relation to something she had heard the prisoner say about her
stepmother was excluded.
Miss Lucy Collett who sat on the veranda of Dr. Chagnon’s residence
most of the forenoon testified that she saw no one pass out across the
Chagnon yard. Thomas Bolles was washing a carriage in Mrs. Churchill’s
yard and saw no one. Patrick McGowan, Joseph Desrosiers and John Denny,
stone cutters, were at work all the forenoon in John Crowe’s stone yard
adjoining and back of the Borden premises, and they each swore that
they saw no one pass out that way. Mrs. Hannah Reagan, matron of the
Central Police Station and who had the care of Miss Borden at the time
of the preliminary trial said: “On the 24th of August Emma came in to
see Lizzie in the morning; I was in the room, cleaning up; she spoke
with her sister and I went into a toilet room and hearing loud talk,
looked out and saw Lizzie lying on her side and Emma bending down over
her. Lizzie said: ‘You have given me away, Emma, but I don’t care,
I won’t give in one inch,’ measuring on her finger. Emma said: ‘Oh,
Lizzie, I didn’t;’ at the same time sitting down; they sat there until
11 o’clock, when Mr. Jennings came, but Lizzie made no talk at all with
her sister after; never opened her mouth to her; when I first heard
the noise of loud talking I was about four feet away, in a closet;
when Emma left that morning there was nothing said by either and no
‘good-bye’ exchanged.” This testimony created a decided sensation.
Cross-examined by Mr. Jennings—“Emma remained there in that room
until you came, and when you came you said to Emma, ‘Have you told her
all?’ and Emma said she had told her all she had to tell; Emma came
back again in the afternoon, but I can’t tell just when; Mr. Buck was
there, I am quite sure; he came every day. When Miss Emma came in the
afternoon I can’t tell; there was no one there in the morning but her
sister and you; I don’t remember whether Mrs. Holmes, Miss Annie Holmes
or Mrs. Brigham were there or not; I know that Miss Borden looked more
excited when you (Mr. Jennings) left the room than she did before.
I do remember something about an egg one afternoon; it was over the
fact that I said an egg could be broken one way and not another, and I
made a bet with Mrs. Brigham about it; Lizzie took the egg and tried
to break it her way, and failing, said this was the first time she
ever attempted to do anything and didn’t succeed; when I spoke of the
affair between the sisters I spoke of it as a quarrel; this was before
the first hearing. I don’t know whether the story of the quarrel was
published in the morning papers; I was asked about it by reporters;
it was that very afternoon, and also in the morning; I never told any
reporter that it was all a lie, that there wasn’t a word of truth in
it; Mr. Buck spoke to me about it in my room, but I never told him it
wasn’t true; I never said a word to Mrs. Holmes about it. There was a
paper drawn up subsequently, in relation to this story, it was brought
to me by Mr. Buck.” (Statement was here read, in which it was set forth
that there had not been a quarrel between the sisters, and that she had
never said so.) She said she never expressed a willingness to sign the
paper, and that Marshal Hilliard never said a word to her about signing
the paper; he never said, to her remembrance, “If you sign that paper
you sign it against my express orders.” Mr. Buck never asked her about
signing the paper if the marshal was willing. “The marshal told me to
go to my room; there was no one in the room when I went back for I had
the door locked and the key in my pocket; I never said to the marshal
that I’d rather leave my place than have such lies told about me; I
never had any conversation with Mrs. Holmes about this paper; I never
said to Mrs. Holmes in referring to the story, ‘You know they didn’t
quarrel because you were here and we were talking about the egg.’ The
reporter to whom I told the story in the afternoon was Mr. Porter of
the _Fall River Globe_; I never saw the contents of any paper, but Mr.
Buck came to me and said he had heard of such a report, that he had
seen it in a paper, and I said, ‘You can’t always believe all you see
in the papers;’ he wanted me to sign the paper; said that if I did it
would be all right between the sisters; I said I would go and see the
marshal about it. We went down to the marshal’s office and he told me
to go to my room, told Mr. Buck to mind his own business, and he would
attend to his; the marshal said then what story I had to tell I would
tell in court; I do not remember your (Mr. Jennings) being in the
marshal’s room and I don’t remember your conversation with him; I never
heard you say to the marshal ‘If you refuse to let this woman sign this
paper, I’ll publish you to the world.’”
Eli Bence, a drug clerk, was then called. He was prepared to tell
the story of how the prisoner attempted to buy ten cents worth of
hydrocianic acid from him on the day before the murders, but Gov.
Robinson objected. The Jury was sent out and counsel argued the
question of the admissibility of the testimony. The State claimed
that it would show the state of Miss Borden’s mind the day before the
homicides. The Judges decided that it was incompetent and therefore
must be ruled out. This was the second prop knocked from under the
Government’s case. This ended the testimony for the prosecution and the
case rested.