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| It could be hindsight, but she does look a bit mad |
Lizzie Borden–you may have heard of her. Near the end of the 19th century, she was accused of killing her stepmother and father with a hatchet. Whether Lizzie is guilty or not (she was acquitted), the murders gave the Fall River, MA home in which they took place an evil reputation. Today, the home is a bed and breakfast with nine rooms, carefully decorated to make them look and feel as they would have when the Borden family lived there.
On August 4, 1892, 32-year-old Lizzie said she discovered her father Andrew dead on the sofa in the sitting room. He was struck with a hatchet about 10 or 11 times, leaving his face pulverized. Further investigation turned up the body of Abby Borden, Lizzie's stepmother, in an upstairs bedroom. She was struck once in the face with a hatchet. When she fell face down on the floor, her killer climbed atop her body and hit her another 19 times in the back of the head. These discoveries and the subsequent trial of a prominent Fall River woman made international news. They've since entered into legend.
The Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast gets a lot of visitors who want to see where these infamous murders took place. If you visit the house, remember that the door will read 92, even though the address is 230 Second St. The old number is there to preserve history, but the new number has been in use since four years after the murder. At $200+ per room, per night, you don't want to waste time looking around for the right building.
The bed and breakfast has 9 rooms, all of which are named after people who lived or stayed there. Guests can stay in any of these rooms, with the Lizzie Borden room and the John V. Morse room being among the more popular. You can sleep between the sheets of an antique Victorian bed directly next to where Abby Borden landed face first on the floor in the Morse room. People even take photographs of themselves prone in the place where she died.
Visitors are typically impressed by the care taken to make the place look authentic. It's hard not to be creeped out when you know you're standing where an axe caved in someone's face, but it's even creepier when it actually looks like it did in crime scene photos taken soon after. There's even an eerily identical sofa to the one Mr. Borden died on that guests can sit on. Unfortunately, the original was likely lost in a hurricane while in storage.
Let's get down to whether this place is haunted or not. I've got pretty much the same verdict I always have, which is a shrug and an "eh, maybe?" Listen, of course there isn't evidence. Of course the stories of hauntings come from the owner and ghost hunters who live for this shit. However, even one atheist writer has been given the proper willies while spending a night in the only room in the house not claimed to be haunted. Yeah, if you want to get spooked, it's a fun place to give yourself chills.
As for the ghosts, some say they see Lizzie–unlikely given that she didn't die there. Others see the Gusher-head ghosts of her parents. Well, if the place is going to be haunted, it would be by these two, who it is interesting to note weren't well-loved in the community, particularly Andrew. Some even say they spot the child ghosts of Lizzie's cousins, who were drowned by their mother in a nearby home. Again, they didn't die there. Assuming that's how ghosts work, it doesn't make sense. Make of it what you will, but I do hope you get a fright if you visit.
