 Good evening. This is crime classics. I am Thomas Highland with another true story of crime listen That's a chicken She's a fat one She's doing practically all the things a chicken can do and Besides all this cleverness. She's about to perform her primary function. She's going to be a dinner The lady who carries the bird in her left hand is named Abby Durfee Borden Stepmother to Emma and Lizzie Borden. Mrs. Borden weighs over 200 pounds The curved handled axe she holds in her right hand is her favorite when she goes out amongst the chickens Her favorite because with it she does such a neat job Which is more than I can say for the person who murdered Mrs. Borden and her husband, Mr. Borden So tonight my report to you on the bloody bloody banks of Fall River Crime classics a new series of true crime stories from the records and newspapers of every land from every time Your host each week. Mr. Thomas Highland connoisseur of crime student of violence and teller of murders Now once again, Mr. Thomas Highland The Place is Fall River, Massachusetts at the start of a hot August in 1892 in that era it was a town whose dominant color was brown the color of sun-dried lawns of rain Stippled brick and board of ladies dresses that reached from neck to pavement Next in popularity as far as color went was black It was a stern time and a stern place and bleak Where certain types of smiles were suspect and were women only dared to stretch in the privacy of kitchen or Boudoir It was a time to when 18 was the age of marriage and a single woman of 32 had to find Sir Cease in this way Breaking saloons windows knitting Secretly tearing from the newspaper the latest picture of John L. Sullivan Also, Jim Corbett who was rumored to be more of a gentleman or This way Endless mercies Lizzie Borden's way and make the sacrifice complete there now How did you like that him? Oh? Very much reverend job, and then I shall write my brother to send me the rest of the new ones from New York I trust your judgment miss Borden implicitly How is your brother? Oh, he's getting married Mary. Didn't I tell you? No? No, you didn't I'm sorry. I Think reverend you might have let me know in another way less blunt, but you don't even know my brother. I Hope he'll be very happy. I'm sure you do Reverend yes, miss Lizzie, and how much longer will you grieve? Dear miss Lizzie Your wife is gone now for four years dear dear miss Lizzie. How kind is your concern? Still let me prove thy perfect will my acts of faith and love repeat Till death my endless Mercy seal your father likes chicken Lizzie chicken he shall get Glad you came out to the backyard You can do something for me beside picking pears from the tree You're just jealous because you can't eat pears mrs. Borden because you'll break out where you've been Lizzie With the reverend mr. Job He got some new hymns from New York Why are you laughing oh? If I was a true mother to you instead of a stepmother I'd tell you right out. You're never going to get married New hymns from New York you'll work with a fruit and flower mission none of these are going to help If I was a true mother to you, I'd tell you all of those things, but Tenderly yes, mrs. Borden, and it eats inside your doesn't it step daughter. Yes, mrs. Borden You and your sister Emma old maize They say that about you. Did you know that yes? Yes, mrs. Borden here At least you can do with some work You can pluck a chicken as well as anyone Well, I do the other Get used to being useful That's a way to live too Take it all right Mrs. Borden, what is it aren't you concerned about yesterday? What about yesterday about the barns being broken into some children probably why should they break into the barn? Looking for iron for sinkers so they could fish Not so delicate Lizzie You do it this way This way I Told mr. Job about the milk. What are you talking about about the milk? What about it? You've been in the sun too long mrs. Borden burned your memory away About the milk. It's being poisoned Poisoned Why else do you think everyone in the family got sick day before yesterday? You didn't I don't drink milk and The barns being ransacked. There's someone who wants to do us harm I Make your fancy stepdaughter someone who hates my father Father said a man at the bank at Kirsten father said he'd seen the man loitering about oh now We've come do it haven't we what now we've brought the conversation around what your father Tell you something He doesn't care for you He doesn't care for you at all he loves me not at all What's the matter? My hands blood chicken blood it'll wash off That's the trouble with you Lizzie you shudder your way through. What did you do that for? What did you smear that blood on my face for? To see how you look mrs. Borden This is not exactly a healthy relationship between two grown people But let's face it the possibility of a lady's liking another lady in the Borden household was pretty remote first of all after the widowed mr. Borden married Abby he told his two daughters to do everything Abby told them and Often Abby would order Lizzie to do things right in the middle of plucking a pair from the backyard tree And Lizzie dearly loved the pairs from the backyard tree Also, it was a constant source of wild hilarity for Abby that neither of her stepdaughters had been taken as bride She'd gotten married, but Lizzie never did nor Lizzie sister Emma And sometimes Lizzie would go to her father's room and she'd ask him She takes care of my needs she cherishes me she's a hulk When seen through the eyes of affection It's much too late to ask you to lover Lizzie, but I insist that this kind of conversation concerning my wife Shall be the last Whatever you say father. No, it's very hot. I think I lie down. I'll take off your shoes. Never mind. I want to very well Yes Tell me about my mother my real mother. Oh, Lizzie. It's been so long. I've forgotten you have not yes Yes, I have no She was very lovely. She had brown hair. She had brown eyes and she was slender. You used to tell me Father what Why did you let her die? She had a sickness for which you let her die. You could have saved her and you let her die And you married that hulk I forbid you father listen to me. I forbid you to speak of my wife in such a manner Let's go away from here father. Are we yes, you and I give that woman this house and we'll go away You'll go away Not me What you speak often of quitting this house you're going to live with a friend Do it you can't mean that do it Good night father I want you to know I always love you No matter what you say to me. I know and I'm sorry for you Good night, Lizzie It was the night of august 3rd in the year 1892 A stifling night humid sleepless and filled with drone A million small sounds continuous and insistent made up of insects and dry grass and moist night clothes against moist bedding And in the middle room of the second floor of number 92 second street Lizzie Borden walked and walked and grew warmer And walked and Lizzie Borden wept her face pressed to the earth she wept And in a little while for some reason or another she got up and walked over to the pear tree And plucked a pear and ate it and smacked her lips sweet with juice at the moon Lizzie Borden You are listening to crime classics and your host thomas highland This saturday night cbs radios gangbusters presents the story of the soda fountain pigeon Also saturday nights on most of these same stations Don't miss the exciting adventures of united states marshal matt dillon on gun smoke Gangbusters and gun smoke saturday nights at the stars address hear both for twice the excitement Now once again thomas highland in the second act of crime classics and his report to you on the bloody bloody banks of fall rift I'd like to give you a brief rundown on the borden family Let's pick the last day. All of them were alive august 4th 1892 Let's say about seven o'clock in the morning andrew jackson borden yawning A j borden is the head of the house and worth over a quarter of a million dollars He's getting up now and getting ready to go to the bank so he can be near some of it Lace me up andrew abby durfey borden just before lacing up abby is 64 years of age and hadn't gone downstairs without a corset since the age of 15 Lizzie borden still asleep Nightclothes on the chair where she left them last night and dreamless woman in bed There are two other people I must mention There's bridget sullivan the maid who is making the mutton soup for breakfast And emma borden assisted to lizzie who's off on a trip to fairhaven in behalf of the fruit and flower mission We know that the borden's all of them had their breakfast We know that mr. Borden left the house at nine o'clock for the bank And we know that bridget washed the windows in the attic And we know that as bridget sat on the windowsill Washing in such a way that a good part of her was hanging over second street Lizzie borden was inside holding her feet so bridget wouldn't fall And we know too that there was conversation. I don't feel so good. Why what's the matter? My stomach still hurts when I press it It's from the other day when the milk was poisoned. No, I don't think it was the milk It was the bananas. I think mrs. Borden fried them too long And I always say that bananas fried too long in mutton soup don't go well together Or help me inside lizzie Here press me here Oh You see then you should lie down bridget and sleep if I could I would But I got these windows to do you just lie down here in your room and sleep Or you do what I tell you if you mean it. There's nothing I'd like better I mean it a better inform mrs. Borden where I'll be no I better no Mrs. Borden is going out soon going out. She did now a nap in I really do Here I'll turn down your bed clothes In in with you Now you just go to sleep Saying that to bridget You go right to sleep saying a thing like that was like putting chloroform under bridget's nose She was a snoozer that one when she worked she worked but get her on a feather bed Good night all know off she went Lizzie tucked her in and watched over her for a few minutes and then lizzie went downstairs and into the guest room Hello, mrs. Borden, what do you want lizzie? I thought you'd gone out What made you think that I just thought so And now what do you want? What are you doing in this room mrs. Borden and why shouldn't I be here? Bridget could make up the guest room. You don't have to you know very well Bridget is not allowed to clean any of the rooms on the second floor. Oh, yes A father's coming home That's strange the side door's locked. He can't get in It's never locked this time of day. Howdy Just a minute. Haven't you got a key? Why is the side door locked? I don't know. Haven't you got a key? No Come down and open the door. Try the front one All right, wait a minute. Lizzie down go down and open the door for your fact A vacuum in time Here is where truth ends and knowledge On august the 4th 1892 at number 92 second street in the town of fall river, massachusetts The time between 10 and 11 15 a.m. Is lost Lost that's the only word for it wrench somehow out of the rest of time and lost and started again when That happened when that was spoken Only miss lizzie We're the next No, no, don't go in there. Go across the street and get dr. Brown quickly In the second room on the sofa come you'd better call from mr. Harrington to the police. Yes It's me. It's bridget dr. Bourne will be over May I say something of course mr. Harrington of the police shouldn't know about this But perhaps mrs. Bourne shouldn't know of this first She's not here She's out on a sick call In here dr. Bourne the sitting room is quite dead my dear Yes I Suggest you so inform the police Inform mr. Harrington I'll see to it. You're very kind This next will be pretty hard to take but you just have to believe it. I've got the records right here to prove it Not only was mr. Harrington not to be found But there was hardly any cop at all in fall river At this very moment most of them were taking part in the annual excursion of the fall river police association At a shore resort at rocky point, which is near providence road island So even as mrs. Churchill was yelling her lungs out for a policeman They were running sack races splitting up into quartets for singing purposes and the more athletic were getting their mustaches wet in the atlantic ocean However a marshall hilliard who had gotten up too late to meet the trolley which met the excursion train Was salking around town and he's the one mrs. Churchill spotted She brought him back to number 92 second street here. The marshall viewed the body gave Condolences to lizzie and set about looking for clues During his search mrs. Churchill made a remarkable discovery Lizzie Yes, mrs. Churchill. I've just been up on the second floor. Yes your mother's up there She's not my mother. She's my stepmother. She's dead. She's my stepmother It looks like somebody took an axe and But she's dead It was quite a troop who went upstairs to look in on mrs. Abbey Borden There was lizzie and bridget and marshall hilliard Then there was mrs. Russell and mrs. Bowen and several other ladies who happened in off the street Then there was dr. Bowen and in a little while the reverend mr. Job happened in The latter was the kindest of all to lizzie Finally toward dusk mr. Harrington did appear Son tanned and sandy and with both his striped bathing suits folded neatly in a strong brown paper He took charge And he asked lizzie where her sister was in fair haven Do and work for the fruiting flower mission had her sister been there at the time her mother was murdered She's not my mother. She's my stepmother very well But where were you lizzie borden in the barn getting a piece of iron for what? Sinkers for my fishing the whole morning and in the garden. How did you happen to find your father dead? I was bringing him a pair And the doctor I would say your father was killed an hour and a half after your mother What about that lizzie borden? She's not my mother. She's my stepmother. Who do you think killed them then? The same man who poisoned the milk The same man who broke into the barn The same man who my father saw loitering Don't you think it's strange that bridget was asleep and your sister out of town and you out in the garden? All of you out of the way for one hour and a half while your parents are murdered Mrs. Borden cannot rightly be called a parent of mine And these were the questions asked and these the answers Harrington asked them the coroner asked them the prosecuting attorney asked them Yes indeed lizzie was tried for murder so there was a prosecuting attorney and he asked them These questions and a lot more The trial lasted 13 days and lizzie borden was adjudged Not guilty So if lizzie borden was declared not guilty We must assume this is the way our unknown murderer operated Hot day on a busy street in fall river Murderer walking down it carrying axe Mrs. Borden disposed of Wait one hour and a half Then Mr. Borden Then and there he goes Murderer covered with blood carrying a bloody axe And no one noticed him or they'd go yelling for mr. Harrington No one did So the murderer was never found And lizzie She never married She embraced other things Till death thy endless mercy seal And make the sacrifice complete Amen In just a moment. Thomas Highland will tell you about our next crime classic Fall river tonight's crime classic was adapted from the original court reports and newspaper accounts by morten fine and david predkin The music was composed and conducted by bernard herman and the program is produced and directed by elliott louis thomas highland is portrayed on radio by lou merrill In tonight's story, iran tedrow was heard as lizzie borden Featured in the cast were jenette nolan betty harford sarah selby herb butterfield william john stone and paul frieze bob laman speaking Here again is thomas highland next week rudge lee england in the year 1855 And a brilliant young medical man whose hobby was dead people And live race horses my report to you will be on the hangman and william palmer who won Thank you Good night Tomorrow night van johnson stars in the thursday theater production of the old man's bride It's a modern john alton romance with loads of surprises as the man sent to fetch a bride for another Learns plenty from a latter-day priscilla with a strong mind of her own It's the thursday theater presented by cbs radio tomorrow night on most of these same stations thursday night's marlena detrick stars in time for love on the cbs radio network