FALL RIVER, Mass. -- The ax murders of Andrew and Abby Borden a century ago remain unsolved -- and the talk of the town.
Did Lizzie Borden, a 32-year-old Sunday school teacher, really hack her parents to death? Many believe she did, although a jury set her free.
The more popular question today, however, is why Lizzie, to paraphrase an old ditty, gave her stepmother 40 whacks and her father 41.
Did Lizzie slaughter her parents for an inheritance? Was it the act of a jealous daughter? Or an outburst of rage by a victim of incest?
The incest theory is gaining in popularity, likely because of current-day awareness of a subject that was hardly whispered about 100 years ago.
That and other theories abound, and some 500 scholars gather in Fall River the first week in August at the Bristol Community College to swap their ideas.
In a city that once played down publicity about the case, Lizzie Borden and the murders of her parents have grown to legendary status, and have become good business.
More than a dozen books about 'the great mystery' are available at local bookstores and the library, and The Little Theatre this summer, the 100th anniversary of the grisly crime, is staging 'Slaughter on Second Street.'
And at the Fall River Historical Society, 92-year-old Florence Brigham gives the best tour $3 can buy.
With a slow but firm step, Brigham leads her followers from the foyer of the restored, old mansion on Second Street to the Lizzie Borden exhibit in a back room.
There Brigham takes her listeners back in time, to shortly after breakfast on Aug. 4, 1892, when Andrew Jackson Borden and his wife, Abby Durfey Gray, were found viciously hacked to death.
The 70-year-old wealthy bank president was found on the sofa in the sitting room with 11 ax-slashes to the head. His 63-year-old wife had been killed 90 minutes earlier in the upstairs guestroom. She had 18 gashes to the head. A ditty spawned by the crime inflated the actual number of whacks.
Lizzie, Andrew Borden's daughter from his first marriage, was arrested and charged with both crimes. A sensational trial followed, attracting worldwideattention.
During the 13-day trial in New Bedford Superior Court, prosecutors tried to convince the 12-man jury that Lizzie's hatred of her stepmother and fear of being left out of her father's will had driven her to brutally kill them.
But Lizzie's defense attorneys claimed the evidence was only circumstantial and speculated about the authenticity of the alleged murder weapon, an old hatchet found in the basement of the Borden home.
The jury, out only an hour and six minutes, acquitted Lizzie, sparing her from the hangman's noose.
Lizzie stayed in Fall River after the trial, but was ostracized by the community. With her father's $500,000 inheritance, she and older sister, Emma, purchased a luxurious home, Maplecroft, where she lived until she died in 1927.
No other suspects were ever charged.
Despite the jury decision, many believe Lizzie did commit the murders, although some feel the killer could have been the maid, Mr. Borden's illegitmate son, an uncle or even Lizzie's sister.
Most popular speculation now centers on a motive.
Could Lizzie have acted out of rage, the victim of incest?
'I thought that incest would make a pretty good fit. It's certainly something no one would discuss back then,' said M. Eileen McNamara, a professor of psychiatry and neurology at Brown University in Providence, R.I.
'The (greed) motive did not seem satisfying. These were vicious crimes -- head blows with an ax. Just as a motive, inheritance was not good enough for me,' said McNamara, who is convinced Lizzie was the killer.
She noted that women who reported sexual abuse in those days were often put in mental institutions for life.
She said evidence of an incestual relationship abound, such as 'the morbid number of locks' inside the house.
Andrew Borden triple-locked every door to the outside and had locks on every door in each room, she said.
McNamara claimed Lizzie was a prisoner in her own home and rage built up from years of abuse could easily have triggered the grisly murders.
McNamara planned to present her theory at a conference on 'Lizzie Borden, The Legend 100 Years After the Crime,' at Bristol Community College Aug. 3-5.
Jules Ryckebusch, chairman of the conference, said Lizzie Borden is becoming a legend.
'She's up there with certainly our most famous criminals and America has a cult about that. She's at new heights,' said Ryckebusch, an English and communications professor at the college.
He said the incest theory is 'certainly one of the most interesting. '
'(Incest) seems to be the newest theory. We're living in a day when child abuse is so common in the press. It's very trendy and very fashionable,' he said.
But Ryckebusch has his own theory. He claimed Lizzie murdered her parents after being caught 'doing something' (possibly masturbating or in bed with the maid) by her step-mother.
'She was caught by a woman she detested and was very jealous. She feared the inheritance was slipping out of her hand,' he said.
The conference includes a trial re-enactment, a forensics display and several panel discussions including one with descendants of members of the prosecution and defense teams and the medical examiner from the original trial.
Conspiracy buffs will be in their glory during the conference, McNamara said.
'It's a great mystery. Everyone gets their own chance to solve it for themselves,' she said.
But Florence Brigham, whose mother-in-law was a character witness for Lizzie during the trial, finds the continuing obsession with the Borden murders strange.
'Nobody ever talked about it (then). Out of respect for the Borden name, we all wanted to forget the whole thing in those days. Out of the respect for the Borden name -- they had built Fall River,' she said.
Brigham is not a supporter of the incest theory. In fact, she doesn't believe Lizzie took that ax.
'I'm still holding out for Lizzie until somebody tells me the uncle didn't do it,' she said.NEWLN:
