Strange Deranged Beyond Insane
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Strange Deranged Beyond Insane
The Eerie Echoes of Fall River: Inside the Cursed House of Lizzie Borden
Ever wondered what it would be like to step inside the infamous Lizzie Borden murder house? Well, let me tell you, it's an experience like no other. Join us as we tread through the eerie ambience of the house, guided by our captivating tour guide, Phil. Our journey takes us from a hauntingly beautiful supermoon night to the chilling tales recited in the dark corridors of this legendary domicile.
A macabre tale from Fall River, Massachusetts, unfurls as we draw unsettling parallels between Lizzie's trial and the trial of Aaron Hernandez – both held in the same courthouse. We take you back to the fateful day of the murders through the memories of Lizzie's neighbor, Adelaide Churchill – a chilling account that will make your blood run cold. Hear the all-too-real audio clips from our tour, a haunting echo of the past that still manages to send shivers down the spine.
From the significance of the ominous parlor and breakfast table to the spine-chilling death rhyme, we weave through the stories that have haunted former visitors. We delve into the tales of the devastating fires that plagued Fall River, adding another layer of mystery to the cursed town. Wrapping up our eerie adventure, I recount my personal visit to the murder house, a trip that left me with an unsettling sense of unease and a fascination for the lore of the Borden family. Prepare for an exploration of history like you've never experienced before – thrilling, chilling, and utterly captivating. So, are you ready to step inside the Lizzie Borden house?
Evil is a master of disguise. It can be anywhere and anyone. Good evening everyone. It's your host, melissa, at the one and only Strange Durance Beyond Insane, where everyone here is allowed to be a fucking weirdo. The best part, okay. So I am going to talk about the Lizzie Borden murder house.
Speaker 1:So my husband and I took to the road for some thrills and kills on our motorcycle adventure through the town of Fall River, massachusetts, on August 30th 2023. So not that long ago and we, of course, already missivcation. So we got there about 5.30 PM and our historic walking tour didn't start till about 7. So we walked around the infamous house and waited till someone came to let us in Outside. Of course, we weren't allowed to go in until someone got there. So this tour that we paid for it included a couple of rooms on the main level and, of course, lots of walking around the proximity of the main attractions that were locally around. We figured that we would, you know, of course, learn some new information about the Borden's and then we would be back on our bikes no later than, let's say, like 9.30 to head back for the night at our hotel, which was about an hour away. But let me tell you. We were in for a pleasant and even mind fucking rabbit hole vortex that we could ever have imagined, because we did not know how much more information about the Borden's that we were gonna get and it was like the best ever. I didn't think it was gonna be boring. I'm just weird about historical tours.
Speaker 1:The first one that I went to, when Krissa and I cohost on here, when her and I went to St Louis, we had a really, really good walking tour and I didn't know what to expect on this one. I didn't know if it was gonna be as good, but it was, I have to say, even better, which I'm very surprised. So before I play you some fun clips of the tour, I wanted to definitely add that our tour guide slash historian Phil it's his name there. He was so thorough and detailed, orientated about all of his information all of his information but he was also very captivating to listen to. Our heads were filled with information overload and a better understanding of the Borden's and like who they really were in that town. He painted a picture for us to follow, along with the stories that he was projecting out and how many dreadful and devastating incidents killed this once marketable and profitable area. It must have been manifested somewhere through this beautiful supermoon that night, which we were very, very fortunate to see, that the group that was staying there overnight to do the overnight paranormal they were, I mean this really took the cake because they were so nice and generous. They allowed us to stay and explore the house with them, which was not included in our tour. We were so lucky we didn't hop back on our bikes, probably until I think it was at least midnight, maybe past midnight, and we like standing out in that little parking lot at the house we got to stare up at this bright, even like blinding moon and it was so big. I have so many pictures of it. And for you guys who follow me on TikTok, or even if you want to follow me on TikTok, if you look up strange, deranged, beyond insane on anything that you use to search on the internet, my TikTok comes up now. So that's why I've waited to put a lot of this content out on TikTok, like all my fun pictures from vacation, because I wanted to wait to have the podcast on all the new episodes so that I could have the pictures go with the episodes. So if you guys want to check that out it's. I have a lot of fun pictures for you guys.
Speaker 1:So now the second part of this episode. I'm going to play you some clips of Phil talking and explaining everything. And I did get the okay from him. He said that's fine. He was actually really excited that I was going to put this on the podcast and his remark to me was wow, you're like a die hard, like you're really into exploring and being adventurous and going to places and even putting them on your podcast. Like that says a lot about your passion. And I said absolutely Like I'm super 1,000% passionate about this podcast and this is why it's been brainstorming for a couple years now. To do this is to put all of our experiences on here and have all these guest speakers come on and talk about their experiences or just anything they want to talk about.
Speaker 1:So hopefully my podcast is reaching a bunch of new listeners. The stats show me that it is and I'm really grateful and I hope it continues to grow, because why else have all these? I mean, like, what's the other reason that I would have all these videos and these recordings if I didn't have something creative to do with it? Right? So that will be all for this part of the episode. Thanks for listening and tuning in and we'll be chatting soon. Talk to you later, hey everyone. So I'm going to start playing the recordings from Phil, our tour guide at Lizzie Borden, and I apologize for some delays because these are recordings on my phone, so we're going to start.
Speaker 2:Thursday, august 4th 1892. Morning, a gentleman by the name of Andrew Jackson Borden makes his way up second street here. He's just completed his morning business rounds downtown. He's 70 years old, he's been working his whole life, he's a master fortune and he's decided, after checking on his money, to come home, take a little nap. So he climbs the steps, walks through this very door into the sitting room of his home and he decides to take a nap. And that's the last nap he's ever going to take in his life.
Speaker 2:Shortly after he closes his eyes, somebody approaches Mr Borden with a weapon and we think it looked a lot like this guy right here, 10 to 11, blows a nap into his face. It's all it takes to make him completely unrecognizable, not only as himself but as a human being. A medical examiner said it was the ghastliest sight he'd ever seen in his life. Somebody else said looks more like a pile of raw meat than a human face. When we do get into the house, you'll have the opportunity to assess that damage to itself, because we have the autopsy photo. Yes, yes, I knew you wanted to hear that, but exterior has undergone a lot of renovations over the years, so it doesn't look the same.
Speaker 2:Nevertheless, this is where Mr Borden's uncle lived, well before the tragedy that unfolded over here. Mr Borden's uncle was a man named Ludwig Forde and in 1848, he lives in this house with his wife, eliza, and together they have three children. They've got Maria, who's about four, eliza, ann, who's about two, and a baby boy named Holder. Well, eliza, the mother, it said, suffered from postpartum depression. Of course they were called it that back then. They didn't call it anything, they didn't even diagnose it. Hysteria, probably, you think about it. She had these children, one after the other after the other. No help, no understanding. Very easy to spiral, I'm sure.
Speaker 2:Well, one day Eliza snapped in this house and she took her children down to the cellar and she went to the cistern there, a hole filled with water. She dropped her children in there and drowned them, and when she was done, eliza climbed the stairs to the top floor of her home, killed her husband's straight razor and put it to her neck, ending her own life that night. So many years later, with Lizzie Borden on trial for the murders of her father and stepmother, questions were raised about the sanity of the Borden family in general. Prosecutors tried to say clearly madness runs in the Borden clan. Lizzie's a chip off the old block, crazy and evil like her great aunt, and let's send her to the rope and hang her on it. Well, very quickly, that argument could toss out the window Any idea why that would be Because they don't believe in insanity, or you couldn't use that, bethan.
Speaker 1:Maybe.
Speaker 2:Well, I think there's an argument probably to be made for that too, but the answer is even more obvious, and one you probably wouldn't even think of because it's so simple. The Borden family was aborted by marriage and not by blood, and so we can't claim that Lizzie inherited anything from her. Oh, from her that went up in the area of our basement and it's where the presence of a crying woman is often detected. In fact, quite often, any devices we put down there will go crazy, devices that would have been quiet all night in the rest of the house, making sounds. We've even gotten her name a few times, and that name is Eliza Darlin Borden, who will be the mother for the next door. So some part of her endures here on this property, in the basement, where we believe there's a portal, by the way, kind of feeding off and keeping energy to itself. So that's right. Do we have any questions To a 19th century hatchet worker? We sometimes romanticize the past and we think as we pull up to the Lizzie Borden house oh, this neighborhood must have looked so different back then, so quiet, so serene, so beautiful. And the reality was no, it wasn't. It was pretty much a 19th century reflection of what you see now. This was always a busy, noisy, dirty, congested, mixed residential business district, and plumped in the middle of it was the Borden house. And picture all this being dirt roads too, you know. So it's really just horses clopping away and people shouting at each other. Busy, 19th century, not the nicest part in town, not the worst, but it was definitely a place that Mr Borden didn't have to live.
Speaker 2:This is a wealthy guy. He is about half a million dollars Wow, that's done, yeah, you know, and that's like 10 to 12 million in today's money. So he could have afforded a nice home and a nice part of town which was known as the Hill, and it's quite literally up the Hill that way. But he was kind of grubble, some would say miserly, and he was, you know, a guy who's very practical. He'd say this house is fine because I've got everything I need in this house. Why should I pay any for anything I don't need? And besides, if I move to the Hill, I'm not going to be walking distance from all my money anymore. You know the bank's here, and once that means you have to rely on somebody and pay them. No, thank you. See, you're smart, you're smart.
Speaker 2:It's St Mary's Cathedral. It's the seat of the All River Catholic Diocese and it was very much a part of the landscape here. It was the anchor of the neighborhood. In the Borden's Day the Borden's heard its bell toll the hour, and you'll hear it in two minutes, every single day. And how convenient too to be a family of faith and have your church ride across the street. Except, the Borden's are a Protestant family, not an English Protestant family. So this is for those damn Irish Catholics.
Speaker 2:This church, the Borden's Church, is across town a bit, but we do believe that Bridget Sullen, obviously being Irish and an immigrant who'd arrived here three years prior, this was her church and she'd come here not just on Sundays but I think throughout the week to seek a little solace from the Borden house, which was tense, a lot of fighting, squabbling, iciness in the Borden house between family members, particularly Lizzie and her stepmother, who didn't get along very well. So if you're Bridget, who tried to bail on her employment here at least twice to no success, at least you can come here and get a few minutes of quiet away from all those people. I don't know if you like Ozzy Osbourne at all. Yes, okay, so there's an Ozzy connection at this church by way of his wife Sharon. So a few years back, sharon appeared on a British TV show called who Do you Think you Are? Yes, is it an ancestry show? Yep, do you do ancestry anything like?
Speaker 3:that I've looked into it. I haven't done the DNA test yet.
Speaker 2:It's fascinating stuff. So she learned that her great-great-grandparents lived here in Fall River. They came through the front doors of the church to the altar and she looked up at all the stained glass, the candles, the crosses, and she said wow, ozzy would really love this place. I gotta get him here. So we're waiting on that to happen, but I don't think it's happening.
Speaker 2:Just in the pharmacy yesterday she tried to buy a bottle of poison, so they called Prusik Acid, which you know dangerously full-stuff, and the pharmacist told her as much. She said I can't get this to you without a doctor's note, miss Horton. She goes listen, all I wanted for us to bring it home and clean a seal-skinned cape in my attic. I hear that it's a good repellent for moths. And he says well, that may be true, but you're gonna give me a doctor's note. She says oh, what's the big deal? I've come and bought it before. He goes not for me, you have it and you're not gonna get any today. So good day.
Speaker 2:She marches out and walks home without that poison, presumably Doesn't get it. But when he hears about the murders at the house he remembers this story. He goes. That's rather odd. He goes to the police about it and tells them he's 100% convinced Lizzie Borden, that Lizzie Borden was the one who tried to buy poison from the Dave's or Markers. Now Jury never heard this testimony, in part because they never found poison in the bodies of the victims.
Speaker 2:It's kind of a loop here. It's built directly across the street from the Lizzie Borden house, so if we knock this down you'd see the house right here. I always find it interesting that a place called the Justice Center not permanently casts a shadow over a house where there has been no justice for 131 years. It's almost like it's locking the Borden. These are law offices up top that look right down on the roof of the Borden house and lawyers that have those offices who themselves are held in on solving this crime once is for all. I don't know if that's going to happen. No, I told you so.
Speaker 2:The Lizzie Borden trial was a national situation. That's because it was the first trial in its kind of a very difficult news virus in this country. So it was real time, it was close to real time coverage you would get. Everybody wanted Lizzie Borden 24-7, which could have been enough. So the Sulfur City a few years ago in this Borden house laid close to another trial of national significance. Every media outlet in the country was gathered here for the trial of former New England Patriots player, Aaron Hernandez. Yes, it was, yes. Oh, what a shit show.
Speaker 3:Danger shit.
Speaker 1:I wish I could have been here for that.
Speaker 2:Well, it was crazy. Espn rented out space in the building across the street just to make sure they'd be first on the scene in case anything crazy happened. And, sure enough, after a trial, he was convicted of murder here. Yep, he was jailed during the trial not too far away in the town of Dartmouth in the Bristol County House of Correction, and then we all know what happened he went to prison in 2017, died there in prison. Yeah, after taking.
Speaker 2:This is beautiful house, but this is where Lizzie's next-door neighbor, adelaide Churchill, lived, and the morning of the murders, mrs Churchill had been out grocery shopping and she's just getting home when Lizzie is standing at that side door sending Bridget out to get help. Doesn't know what's going on. First, lizzie sends Bridget out down the steps and across the street Back then here at the courthouse that would have been the family doctor's house he lived right there doctor's phone. He's not home. He's out making house calls, so Bridget runs back. Lizzie, what do I do? Lizzie says go get Alice. And that's when Lizzie goes down to get Alice around the corner.
Speaker 2:Well, while Lizzie's standing at that door, mrs Churchill's looking out her kitchen window and faces the doorway there. She says Lizzie, what's going on and Lizzie replies oh, mrs Churchill, do come over. Someone has killed father, oh my God. So that's when Mrs Churchill does. She drops her groceries almost like in a trance, and she comes over and Lizzie lets her in the side there On her way in, she says Lizzie, I just saw your father this morning on the town. He looks so nice. I want to remember him that way, buttoned up in his suit. That's the memory I want. I don't want to see him, I want to just to avoid the sight of Mr Borden until they put a sheet over him. Little does she know she'll be the one to discover body number two, yes. And when she finds Mrs Borden's body, she ends up doubling over, lets out a blood curdling scream and runs out of the house, refuses to help her in her sleep, existed and Borden's weird.
Speaker 2:That's in 1996. So back to those. Hell of a hell of a hell. Welcome back. I'm going to join you in my pajamas. We're going to have to have this problem. Okay, all right, remind me, I'm doing a head start. You do know. I do Go ahead. And now we find ourselves back here, here in the house. So we start here in the parlor, because this is where. Well, for me anyway, it bears the emotional weight, I think, of the case in two major respects. So this is the room where Lizzie Borden learned she was the suspect in the murders of her father and stepmother. So somebody knows you're in here Right now. At least one person knows Breakfast, where the Borden's had their final meal. It wasn't that great by our standards. Maybe they had mutton broth that had been sitting out in the stove for a few days. Johnny cakes they had cookies crackers but she would have heard this line too which was Andrew boarded and now is dead. Lizzie hit him on the head With the angels. He will sing From the gallows.
Speaker 2:she will swing Because the sentence likely for Lizzie of convicted would be death. So she dodged that for sure and got to live 30 plus more years here in the city. But Lizzie boarded herself where her death rhyme chanted outside of her window On a regular basis, when children weren't throwing dirt and rocks at those windows and putting pins in her doorbell to keep it ringing. I was off thinking a lot of things. There was one story that's passed down A former kid told as an old man.
Speaker 2:He said me and some friends went to Lizzie's house and we threw some dirt up on the door and knocked really loud in the windows Sort of a rite of passage for childhood. And then they went and hid behind a bush and looking at the window, the front window they saw the curtain slowly rise and standing there was Lizzie boarded and she made direct eye contact with the kids and she went like this and the kids were like what do we do? They went up, the door opened, they went in and you know what happened Lizzie boarded and gave them milk and cookies. They're here in the house later soothing her and somebody says where's your stepmom? She says oh, she got a note.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure I heard her from that show a while ago, and I wouldn't be surprised if whoever did this to my father got to her too. She turns to Bridget and says would you go upstairs and check for Mrs Boarded? And Bridget goes. No, mrs Churchill, though the anger goes, I'll go with you. So together, those two ladies tiptoe up these stairs, and when their eyes get leveled with the landing right here, oh, there, we are Right up there.
Speaker 2:You get a direct view into the bedroom.
Speaker 1:All right. So I would like to add to some of the devastations that happen in Fall River, massachusetts, around the Bordens and the reason why I didn't play those recordings on here is because it had gotten really loud. Outside there was like buses and police cars and yada, yada, yada. So you wouldn't have really been able to hair fill and I didn't want to do him like that. So I am just going to add this. So this article is said basically like remembering some of the biggest fires in Fall River history. So you have the Great Fire of 1843. So, july 2nd 1843, two boys playing with a small cannon ignited a pile of wood shavings. The fire began near Main and Borden streets. The fire spread quickly thanks to dry winds. The fire destroyed 291 buildings, including the post office and a custom house, as well as churches, banks and hotels. 200 families were left homeless. Okay, this one's really sad.
Speaker 1:The granite mill fire, september 19th 1874. 23 women and children were working in the mill between Pleasant and Bedford streets at the site of the old China Royal. They were trapped in the upper floors. Some were even jumping from the windows. Let's see the Stiger store fire. That was February 15th 1916. And here's a Great Fire of 1928. This is February 2nd 1928. The fire began when workers who were dismantling the Pocassette Mill Pocassette Palsette, I don't know how to say that, but which was located across the street from the Herald News started a fire in a steel drum in an effort to keep warm. They thought the fire was extinguished by the time they left for the day. At 5.45 pm a newspaper employee called in to the fire alarm. Within an hour the granite block, a professional office building and the bus terminal located on North Main Street were engulfed in flames.
Speaker 1:Firestone fire March 9th 1973. The sprinklers to the building had been shut off for the winter. Workers were installing a new heating system for the new owner's, providence Pile. A foreman at the Fall River Gas Company noticed a light on the third floor of the building shortly after 1.30 pm. After sounding an alarm, he returned to find the second and third floors engulfed. A Herald News report stated that lack of proper water pressure and hundreds of firefighting efforts. The crowd of onlookers went down to the scene after dinner to watch the massive inferno.
Speaker 1:8. Arland's Fire November 5th 1981. A fire at Arland's, a department storehouse in the Richard Borden Mill on Rodman Street, started in the afternoon and burned for many hours. Firefighters poured water the whole time on the gas station next door in an effort to avoid an explosion. So the Notre Dame fire that was May 11th 1982, notre Dame de Lourdes Church, located in the flint, was undergoing a major renovation project when sparks from a welder's torch ignited a fire near the roof. The fire could be seen from miles away, even as far as UMass dart mouth, as the flames engulfed the church's twin spires. The church as well as an entire city block were destroyed. And it goes on and on.
Speaker 1:So the Kerr mill fire that was January 12th 1987, the Kerr mill complex, which was almost like an old school job lot where you could buy anything from underwear to baseball glove, was located on the south Watapa where it says where Meditech is now. The fire began in the Thren mill on Eastern Avenue and spread along the entire complex. At one point there were concerns that the fire would spread across I-95, two buildings on the other side of the highway, I'm sorry, i-195. The complex was destroyed and 900 people were left unemployed. And then the Chase mills fire. That was 1999. In 1999, a fire destroyed the adjacent weave shed and cotton storage buildings located at Lewiston and Salem streets, but the main mill was saved thanks to a large part of the favorable winds.
Speaker 1:So I would say this town is fucking haunted, but I do want to address the story that he told me with the hold on, let me go back. Not the great fire, it was the granite mill. Yeah, the granite mill fire. So September 19th 1874, the one where the women and children were jumping out the windows. I forget her name. A particular woman lost her twins. I think they were twins and they died. And they died very brutally, disgusting, on the street, jumping burnt to death. And supposedly, if you do bring your equipment or just your phone and you want to have some ghost adventures, it is said that you can hear her whimpering and crying. You can hear them on your, you can hear her on your devices, on recordings and through like disembodied voices. So I definitely would love to go back and check this out and I would definitely like to stay overnight at the Lizzie Borden house.
Speaker 1:Okay, so, following up still on the Lizzie Borden house, so while we were waiting for our tour guide to get there to let us in, I was messing around on my Necrometer app and I went to. The first place I went to outside was the basement of the house and unfortunately we didn't get to see that the night that we were there. They probably would have let us, but we needed to get back on our bikes and get to the hotel. But the first thing that was said, right when I got to, the door was scratched. Then it was they take other forms. Then it was we will hurt. And then follow the clue. And then you are not alone. And then nasty REM pod, which of course, I didn't have any of my equipment with me because we were on our motorcycles. There's just, there's no way I could have fit all that on there with all the clothes and everything. And then doorway and that was that Okay.
Speaker 1:So now I wanna play to you guys the church bells, and I was drawn to that church. When we first pulled up I told Paul there was something like airy about that church and I'm gonna play you guys something really cool that I noticed. In fact, I showed Phil and Phil was like I don't remember seeing that ever. And this is where her, I believe. No, I'm sorry. So the aunt's house, the one that killed the children disgustingly, not that side, so the other side. This would have been where the original board and families like Big Barn was Cause I don't think they had livestock. I think he told me they had pigeons. I can't remember, but I think it was pigeons. It was like something really weird. That barn obviously isn't there anymore. They made a new barn that's a gift shop, but this tree where the original barn was. Just listen to this video.
Speaker 3:All right. So we are waiting to get into the Lizzie Board and House and I noticed this tree. I'm not sure if it's part of the property, but you can obviously tell it was struck by lightning. I think that's kind of a crazy coincidence. There's Paul over there. He was patiently waiting. We didn't make it on time for the gift shop, that's okay.
Speaker 1:Which we ended up. He opened it up for us Now in the gift shop. Again, this will be on my TikTok. There is a bunch of old articles in there and the original actress that played Lizzie Borden, of course. And they have a bunch of old the newspapers from Fall River when Lizzie Borden was going on trial, which I bought one of the copies I don't know where I'm gonna put it, it's huge and, of course, a bunch of pictures of the original house, what it was then. And I also got a shirt from the gift shop. It's got Lizzie Borden's face on it and it says don't make me ax you twice, get it. So yeah, I just wanted to add that in the tree Again.
Speaker 1:If you guys see my TikTok after this episode is published and I make the videos, you can clearly see the lightning strike and it's like super eerie and I was so happy to point that out to Phil because to me that's a big deal Like that property, that whole town is a fucking omen. It's cursed. The Borden's go beyond what you can even imagine, so many Borden's involved and I just thought it was a spectacular tour and the house is kept up very well, very clean, working bathrooms and again, I will say you guys should go and check it out for yourselves. But anyways, thanks for listening and we'll be chatting soon.
