A Private Disgrace by Victoria Lincoln

Author:Victoria Lincoln [Lincoln, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: TRUE CRIME / General, TRUE CRIME / Murder / General, TRUE CRIME / Murder / Serial Killers, FICTION / Mystery & Detective / General, FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Historical
Publisher: Victoria Lincoln
Published: 2018-09-18T00:00:00+00:00

BOOK THREE:

Why Lizzie Was Accused:

The Inquest

Chapter 21

WHEN no arrest was made and the word went out that the inquest would be held in private, there was a stir under the hill. As the Providence Journal put it, there was "a change of opinion as to the final outcome" since the friends of the Borden family had begun to "make their influence felt." As our maids would sum it up later: "Ah, God, it's great to be rich!"

This was unfair to Judge Blaisdell. He had known Lizzie since childhood, and he was kind; but he was not stretching the law in her behalf. In Massachusetts, such inquiries may be held in private when there is any chance that their premature publicizing may be prejudicial to a witness.

In fact, the judge leaned over backward to stress the fact that it was an inquest, not a trial. He ruled that Lizzie, like the other witnesses, should not be represented by counsel; he did not warn her or any witness of their rights. Clearly, she knew them, since she had been in constant consultation with her lawyer since the day after the crime; and clearly she could not avail herself of them and refuse to testify without damaging her image as an innocent bystander.

The reaction to all this care for justice was strikingly different before and after the event. When it was first learned that the only witnesses to the whole process would be the city physician and a state detective, there were mutterings about money and influence; later, the inquest would be represented as a corrupt judiciary's dark means of trapping Lizzie into self-incrimination by three days of confusion and mental torment.

Yet, aside from Lizzie's remarkable performance, the inquest was a run-of-the-mill affair, meriting neither the earlier nor the later criticisms.

The witnesses were the household, the friends who came to the house directly after the murders were discovered, Mr. Bence, and Hiram C. Harrington—who was called only because Lizzie named him as a possible suspect. (The only name, to her credit, that she ever did name, and in his interview he certainly asked for it.)

All were questioned briefly except for Bridget and Lizzie. Bridget got the works. She was called as first witness and examined from early morning until four in the afternoon, almost twice as long as any other witness was questioned at a stretch. On the final day she was recalled for the better part of the morning and until three, an hour and a half longer than Lizzie's longest questioning. Knowlton was never satisfied that she was not involved.

On the first day, Lizzie was on the stand for an hour and a half, on the second for the whole afternoon, and on the last day for an hour-long review.

We can now penetrate that press blackout. We have Lizzie's testimony entire, which is fortunate, since she was not put on the stand again and her testimony, unlike that of the others, could not even be briefly quoted at the trial. For

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.