Curious Chapbooks & Hysterical Histories

THE  FAMILY FEUD

Abby Durfee Gray wed Andrew Borden in 1864 when Lizzie was only two years old. For 30 years the two women lived together under one roof, yet on the day of Abby's murder Lizzie gave no indication that they ever got along. During the murder trial, Deputy Marshal John Fleet testified that on the day Abby died he asked Lizzie, "if she had any idea who could have killed her father and mother. Lizzie said, 'She's not my mother, Sir. She is my stepmother. My mother died when I was a child (Sullivan, 105).'" During the inquest, Lizzie commented:

I did not regard her as my mother, though she came there when I was young. I decline to say whether my relations between her and myself were those of mother and daughter or not. I called her Mrs. Borden and sometimes Mother. I stopped calling her Mother after the affair regarding her sister-in-law (Sullivan, 213).

The affair with Abby's sister-in-law concerns one of Andrew Borden's lonesome acts of generosity. Abby's family, the Durfees, were not as well off as the Bordens. In fact, their only property was a double dwelling owned by Abby's mother, which also housed Abby's sister-in-law and family. According to Victoria Lincoln, Abby's mother, Mrs. Gray, put her two-dwelling house for sale. Andrew bought half in his wife's name, allowing Abby's sister to stay in one-half of the house. Andrew had old Ferry Street Cottage made over into a double dwelling and deeded it over to his daughters. Each half-dwelling cost $1,500 (40-41).

One would think such fair and evenhanded treatment would be rewarded, or at least go unpunished. But the two unmarried daughters took umbrage over their father's interest in their stepmother's family. As Lizzie put it at the inquest, "We thought what he did to her people he ought to do for his own (Sullivan, 217)." Unfortunately, when he did for his own by deeding Emma and Lizzie their grandfather's house on Ferry Street (Lincoln, 41), the upkeep of the rental property proved to be burdensome for the ladies, so Andrew bought it back a few weeks before his murder (Sullivan, 22).

It is difficult to say if the death of Mrs. Borden's cat occurred before or during this feud. It in itself would be cause enough for Mrs. Borden to fear her stepdaughter. Borden scholars Pearson and Radin both allude to the rumors of Lizzie's cruelty to animals despite the evidence of her will's munificent bequest to the Fall River Animal Rescue Society. Robert Sullivan, in his objective research of the case, Good-bye Lizzie Borden, actually interviewed Mrs. Abby Whitehead Potter (Abby Borden's niece and namesake), who remembered her aunt and this chilling tale:

Lizzie Borden had company and my aunt had a tabby cat and the cat was trained so that it would touch the latch -- you know, it was [sic] latches in those days -- she'd touch the latch and the door would open. So the cat went in where Lizzie was entertaining and she took it out and shut the door again, and came back so this is what she told Aunt Abby and Abby told my mother; Lizzie Borden finally excused herself and went downstairs -- took the cat downstairs -- and put the carcass on the chopping block and chopped its head off. My aunt for days wondered where that cat was -- all she talked about. Finally, Lizzie said, 'You go downstairs and you'll find your cat.' My aunt did (Sullivan, 23).

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