Evan Hunter - Lizzie

“Have you an inventory, Miss Emma,” Jennings asked, “of the clothes that were in the clothes closet on Saturday afternoon, the time of the search?”

“I have of the dresses.”

“Of the dresses, very well,” Jennings said. “You were there on the afternoon of the search?”

“I was.”

“Did you or Miss Lizzie at any time during that search Saturday afternoon, furnish any assistance to the officers?”

“We both together went to the attic to assist them about opening a trunk.”

“Did you or Miss Lizzie, so far as you know, at any time make any objection whatever to the searching of any part of that house?”

“Not the slightest.”

“Or of anything in it?”

“Not the slightest objection.”

“Did you assist them in any way you could?”

“By telling them to come as often as they pleased and search as thorough as they could.”

“Now, then, Miss Emma, do you know how many dresses were in there that afternoon?”

“I do. Somewhere about eighteen or nineteen.”

“And whose were those dresses?”

“All of them belonged to my sister and I except one that belonged to Mrs. Borden.”

“How many of those dresses were blue dresses or dresses in which blue was a marked color?”

“Ten.”

“To whom did these belong?”

“Two of them to me and eight to my sister.”

“Now, without telling me what I said, did I communicate to you or to your sister, Miss Lizzie, what Marshal Hilliard said in regard to the search of the upper portions of the house, as to whether it was completed or not?”

“You did, Mr. Jennings.”

“And when was that?”

“Saturday afternoon.”

“Then I will ask you to state what it was I said to Miss Lizzie and yourself about the completeness of the search in the upper part of the house.”

“You said everything had been examined, every box and bag.”

“Was any exception made?”

“No, sir.”

“Was that after Marshal Hilliard had taken the dress away or had been given the dress?”

“Yes, sir.”

I had asked Mr. Jennings where the dress was that Lizzie Borden wore that day, the day of the homicide. I was then in the room where Mrs. Borden was found upstairs. He went out into the hallway and came back into the room with a dress. I saw the prisoner soon after that in what is called Miss Emma’s room, just inside the door, standing and talking with somebody else. By that time I had passed the dress to Dr. Dolan after it was handed to me — the dress, skirt and waist which were presented to me by Mr. Jennings.

The dress was rolled up, and the white skirt was rolled up. I rolled up the dress skirt, underskirt and dress waist with what I call a lounge cover that was taken from the dining room. A green-striped cover. I rolled them up, rolled them in a paper, and tied them up, and Mr. Jennings brought them down onto Main Street. I met him at the corner of the Granite Block, and he passed them over to me. The same bundle I gave to him. After I got possession again, I carried them to my office and passed them over to Dr. Dolan.

“Professor Wood, what was the next thing that you had to do with this matter?”

I received at the police station in Fall River, from Dr. Dolan, a trunk containing a large number of substances — including the white skirt, which is there, and the blue dress skirt and blue dress waist. I later received in Boston from City Marshal Hilliard a box which I have here. It contained this pair of low shoes or ties, and this pair of black stockings.

The bottom of the shoe has certain stains which, so far as you could see from inspection, might have been blood stains. But they proved not to be.

And the stockings had no suspicious stains, either.

The blue dress skirt has near the pocket, if I can get it — yes, I have it here, that inner pocket here — a brownish smooch with a part of it I have cut out, and underneath which I have placed a pin in order to note the position of it. It is situated about three inches from the corner of the top of the pocket. In color, that simply resembled or might have been blood.

But upon holding the cloth up to the light it could easily be seen that it did not clog the meshes of the cloth in any way, and probably was not therefore a bloodstain.

But, to be sure, the portion was removed and thoroughly tested and soaked out in order to remove any blood pigment, and found not to be blood.

There was another spot similar to that lower down in the skirt. That was also tested and no blood was detected on it whatever.

Those were the only possible suspicious stains on the whole skirt. I did not determine what those stains were. I simply tested them for blood and found that they were not blood, and went no further. The dress waist was thoroughly examined, and there is not even a suspicion of a blood stain on it.

The white skirt, this one, contains a small blood spot on a line — it is sixteen inches to the left of this line from the placket hole to the bottom of the skirt, and six inches from the bottom of the skirt.

It is this stain here, a portion of which I have cut out, but I have left there about one-quarter or one-third of the complete stain, and it can only be seen by careful inspection. I had to make a larger hole in the cloth in order to avoid removing the whole of the blood spot, it was so small.

This blood spot was about one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter, about the size of the diameter of the head of a small pin — not a large pin nor a medium-size pin, but a small pin — and it appeared to me to be a little bit more extensive and plainer on the outside of the skirt than on the inside. I don’t know as that could be detected now because it has been rubbed so much, but at that time it was perceptible, when the stain was whole.

I examined that, and found it to be a bloodstain.

And the blood corpuscles when examined with a high power of the microscope averaged in measurement 1/3243 of an inch. That is the average measurement within the limits of human blood, and it is therefore consistent with its being a human bloodstain.

“Professor Wood... assuming that the placket hole of the skirt had been worn behind, where would that bring the spot of blood?”

“A little to the left of the back.”

“When you saw it, it was dried blood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And is the examination of the corpuscle of dried blood satisfactory in determining whether it is human blood or the blood of some other animal?”

“If it is satisfactory at all, it is.”

“Yes, if it is satisfactory at all. Are you able to say that this was not a spot of blood which might have gotten on from the menstrual flow of the woman?”

“No, sir, I am not.”

“It would be entirely consistent with that, would it?”

“Yes, sir, it may have been menstrual blood, or may not, so far as I can determine.”

“But it may be consistent with that?”

“Yes, sir.”

My full name is John W. Coughlin. I am a physician and surgeon in Fall River. In 1892 I was the mayor of that city, as I am now. On the Saturday evening following the homicide I went to the Borden house with City Marshal Hilliard. As we approached, I saw a large number of people congregated about the house. The sidewalk on the east side some little distance down, both north and to the south, was crowded with people. The middle of the street — there were a large number of people gathered there, and, in fact, it was with great difficulty that we were able to drive through without running some of them down. I notified the marshal that they should be removed. We drove to a police box, he got out of the carriage, and pulled in the box, calling the officers. After coming back from the corner of Fourth and Rodman Streets, we went into the house.