Auto Light and its 96,000 dealers bring you the first lady of suspense, Miss Agnes Moorhead,
in a true story of murder.
Tonight's presentation of Suspense.
Tonight, Auto Light presents a dramatization of the most famous unsolved American murder
mystery, Miss Agnes Moorhead as Lizzie Borden in The Fall River Tragedy.
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And now, with the Fall River Tragedy and the performance of Miss Agnes Moorhead, Auto Light
hopes once again to keep you in...
Suspense.
Just a moment.
Just a moment, I'm coming.
I was just bringing some tea from the pantry.
You're Mr. Lippert from the magazine?
Yes, I'm Elizabeth Borden.
Won't you come in?
Come on in.
I thought we might sit in the morning room.
I have all the things in there.
The newspaper, clippings, and pictures about the trial.
You may sit there, if you will.
Linden Borden took an ax and gave her mother forty-waks.
Then he took another one and gave her mother forty-one...
That child followed you here.
They follow anybody who comes and shout their words.
That has been part of my punishment.
My whole life since the trial has been a punishment.
The worst punishment that anyone innocent or guilty could ever face.
They think I'm guilty.
...and gave her mother forty-waks...
Everyone does.
They always did, but I'm not.
...and gave her mother forty-one...
The jury said I wasn't.
You must forgive me.
I'll pour you tea and tell you all about it.
It was my father and my stepmother who were killed, if you'll remember.
It was a long time ago, father, where he lay on a couch in the living room and my stepmother
upstairs where she'd been attending to the making of the beds.
First, Dr. Bowen came over and then in a little while the police were there too.
After some time had passed, I was arrested and brought to trial.
And all my friends were witnesses against me.
May it please your honor, Mr. Foreman and gentlemen of the jury.
Upon the fourth day of August, an old man and an old woman, husband and wife, each without
a known enemy in the whole world, in their own home, upon a frequented street in the
most popular city of this county, under the light of day and in the midst of its activities,
were first one then another, severely killed by unlawful human agency.
Today, Lizzie A. Borden, the own daughter of one of the victims, is at the bar of this
court, accused by the grand jury of this county of these crimes.
As spokesman for the Commonwealth, it is my purpose to explain to you the grounds and
the basis for that accusation.
I believe the best way to do that is to call the first witness, Dr. S. W. Bowen.
Dr. S. W. Bowen?
Yes, I'm here.
Raise your hand on the book.
Do you sound this word, tell the truth, the whole truth, over the truth, to help your
God?
I do.
Please be seated.
Dr. Bowen, where do you live?
91 Second Street.
That is in Fall River.
Am I right in believing that address is directly across Second Street from where the Borden
family lives?
Yes, that is correct.
Do you know the Borden family?
Yes, I had been a physician and friend for 25 years.
Did you know Mr. Borden's financial situation?
Financial situation?
Did you know if he were wealthy or not?
Mr. Borden's estate, I do not hesitate to say, is considerably more than $300,000.
To be inherited by whom, do you know?
According to his will, to be inherited by his wife.
And upon the condition of her death?
To be inherited by his two daughters.
His two daughters, that is the prisoner Miss Lizzie Borden and Miss Emma Borden?
Yes.
I see.
On the morning of the 4th of August, where were you?
I was working in the front garden.
How long had you been working there?
Between 9.30, if I can remember, and the time I was called to the Borden house.
Had you seen anyone enter the house?
Only Mr. Borden.
The deceased.
What time was that?
Some minutes before 11, say 10 before.
Tell us what you noticed.
I saw him first coming up street.
He turned through his gate and then I heard him knocking on his door.
The door was locked?
Yes.
I could see that he had tried to unlock it with his key, but the door must have been locked
from the inside.
Presently, he was let in by the maid, Brigid Sullivan.
Had you ever known that to happen before?
No.
And you saw no one else enter the house the morning of the 4th?
No.
Now, Dr. Bourne, how did you learn of the trouble?
The maid, Brigid Sullivan, told me.
She came across and said Lizzie had found her father and had called her to go for help.
And you returned to the house with her?
Yes.
Who was there when you arrived?
We went in the side entrance, which led to the kitchen.
Miss Lizzie Borden and her neighbor, Mrs. Churchill.
You remember what was said at that moment?
Yes, I do.
I saw Lizzie and I said, Lizzie, what's the matter?
She said, Father's been killed or stabbed.
I said, where is he?
And she told me, in the sitting room.
Is that all she said in that conversation at that time?
Yes, I went into the sitting room.
Will you describe what you saw in the sitting room?
Mr. Borden was on the couch.
He had the appearance of a man who had been killed while he slept.
Could you explain that, Dr. Bourne?
There was no facial constriction such as is found in cases where the victim fought death.
Were there signs of a struggle in the room?
None.
And when you went out, did you speak to Miss Lizzie Borden again?
Yes.
You'll remember what you said.
Yes, I asked her if she had seen anyone and she said no.
Then I said, where were you?
And she said, in the barn to get some lead.
Dr. Bourne, who discovered the body of Mrs. Borden?
I did.
When?
And I went upstairs to get a sheet to cover the body of Mr. Borden.
I saw her body when I reached the top of the front stairs.
You could see her body from the stairway?
Yes.
Could you see it from the hallway upstairs?
Yes.
Did you examine the body?
Yes, she'd been killed the same way as Miss Borden.
You know, sir, which of them died first?
I believe it has been proved by Dr. Wood that Mrs. Borden died approximately an hour before
her husband did.
Thank you, Dr. Bourne.
That will be all.
This lawyer's name was Mr. Moody.
Oh, he was just full of hate.
And he had a way to fill everybody else with hate, with the questions we asked.
He made all my friends witnesses against me.
Miss Russell, who lived next door south, and Miss Churchill, who lived next door north.
Mr. Moody made them say things to make the jury believe that no one could have gone into
the house without being seen, and that no one had, yet.
So the murders were committed by someone who was there.
And Bridget Sullivan was the only other one there.
But there wasn't anybody who suspected her.
She was just a witness against me, like the rest of them.
Bridget Sullivan, how long have you known the prisoner?
I worked at that house for almost three years.
Would you say they were a happy family?
No, sir.
Can you explain what you mean, please?
There were feelings between Mrs. Borden and the two girls.
Miss Lizzie and Miss Emma?
Yes.
Mrs. Borden was a stepmother.
They didn't like her.
Well, did they show their dislike in any definite way?
Well, Miss Lizzie never called her mother.
She always called her Mrs. Borden.
Do you know why she did that, or what started the feeling?
Yes.
There was an argument about some property.
Mr. Borden gave some over to Mrs. Borden.
Miss Lizzie thought his property should go to his own flesh and blood.
How do you know this happened?
I heard her arguing with her father.
You remember the words that were spoken?
They argued about the property, and Mr. Borden said, Mother has a right to it.
And Miss Lizzie said, Don't call her mother.
She's a mean old thing, and we hate her.
By we, she meant her sister and her?
Yes.
And from that time, Miss Lizzie never called Mrs. Borden mother?
Never that I heard.
Miss Sullivan, what were you doing the morning of the murder?
I'd been washing windows.
Who was in the house that morning?
Miss Emma was not.
She'd been gone since the day before with her two friends.
Mr. and Mrs. Borden had breakfast, and then he left.
What time was that?
Near nine o'clock.
What about Mrs. Borden?
She was dusting.
She told me to wash the windows.
Then I never saw her again.
Will you repeat that, please?
I'll repeat it.
I never saw her again.
I even asked Miss Lizzie where she was, and she told me she went out.
Miss Lizzie told you her stepmother had gone out?
Yes.
She said a note had come, and that Mrs. Borden had gone to see a sick friend.
Did you see the note?
No, sir.
No, I never saw it.
Did you see Mrs. Borden leave?
No, sir.
If she had indeed left, which door would she have gone out?
The front door, sir.
And yet that was the door you unlocked and opened to admit Mr. Borden a few minutes before
eleven.
Yes, sir.
How was it locked?
It was bolted from the inside.
Did you lock it?
No, sir.
And obviously no one going out that way could lock it from the outside.
No, sir.
What about the other doors?
They were locked.
You're sure of that?
Yes, sir.
So no one could have come into the house that morning?
I don't think so.
All right, Miss Sullivan.
Now, when you heard Mr. Borden knock on the door, you went to it.
Yes, sir.
Miss Sullivan, where was Lizzie Borden at that moment?
Upstairs or on the stairway.
How do you know that's where she was?
Because when I was walking to the door, I heard her laugh.
You heard her laugh?
Yes, sir.
And she came down the front stairs after I let her father in.
What was she laughing at?
I don't know, sir.
She didn't say.
Tell us what happened then after Mr. Borden came in.
I heard her ask how he felt.
He'd been sick.
And I heard her get the couch ready so he could lie down.
By that time, I'd gone through the kitchen to the rear stairway where I went up to my
room.
Now, how long did you stay there?
Twenty minutes, I think.
And Miss Lizzie called from downstairs to say that her father had been killed.
Did you speak to Miss Lizzie?
Yes, sir.
When she told me her father was killed, I asked her where she was.
And how did she answer?
She said, I was up in the barn.
Thank you, Miss Sullivan.
That will be all.
This lawyer, this Mr. Moody, was awfully clever.
You understand the Commonwealth had no physical evidence nor any witnesses to the murders.
And Mr. Moody was trying to eliminate the possibility that anyone else could have done
it, as they say.
And I realized that innocence or guilt didn't make any difference anymore.
Mr. Moody would have tried to do the same thing no matter what.
To turn my friends against me, my doctor and my servants.
Captain Harrington, being in charge of the investigation of the day of the murders, did
you question Miss Lizzie Borden?
I did.
When I got there, I asked her if she knew anything about it.
She said she did not.
That she'd found him when she came into the house.
I asked her where she'd been, and she said she'd been in the loft in the barn.
I asked her how long, and she said she thought it had been 20 minutes.
Did you investigate that statement?
I did.
I went to the loft in the barn.
The floor was thick with dust.
When I walked across it, I left footprints.
But there were no other footprints up there.
There was no evidence that anyone else had been there?
No evidence at all.
That will be all, Captain Harrington.
Thank you.
I would like to ask the jury to pause for a moment and weigh the testimony heard thus
far.
I'd like to remind you that it was given by persons who would rather not speak against
the prisoner and who spoke only the truth under oath.
Now, I should like to ask the prisoner, Miss Lizzie Borden, to take the stand.
Auto Light is bringing you Miss Agnes Moorhead as Lizzie Borden, with Joseph Kearns as Mr.
Moody in The Fall River Tragedy, tonight's production in radio's outstanding theater
of thrills, Suspense.
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And ask for me, Operator 25.
I'll tell you the name of your nearest Auto Light Battery dealer.
There you can be sure of getting an Auto Light Stay Full Battery, the battery that needs
water only three times a year in normal car use.
And remember, from bumper to tail light, you're always right with Auto Light.
And now, Auto Light brings back to our Hollywood soundstage, Miss Agnes Moorhead as Lizzie
Borden in Elliot Lewis's production of The Fall River Tragedy, a true story well calculated
to keep you in suspense.
Lizzie Borden took an extra day off from either 40-way...
Oh, I remember the day so clearly when I was called to the stand.
None of my friends would look at me, nor my sister.
And then I realized that my father and my stepmother were more fortunate than I would
ever be.
Are you Lizzie A. Borden?
Swear to tell the truth, the whole truth of your garden?
I do.
Please be seated.
Miss Borden, did you ever have any trouble with your stepmother?
No.
Miss Borden, do you mean not within that past year?
No, about two years ago.
Then you did have trouble with her?
If you wish to call it that.
What was it about?
About my stepmother's step-sister, Miss Whitehead.
Was it a violent expression of feeling?
It was simply a difference of opinion.
In regard to what?
To property.
Her father's house was to sale on 4th Street, and my father bought her step-sister's share
and gave it to her.
To your mother?
My stepmother.
We thought what he did for her he should do for his own flesh and blood.
Did you at that time say to your father, don't call her mother, she's a mean old thing and
we hate her?
I don't know, I may have, but I don't remember.
Were you always cordial with your stepmother?
That depends upon one's idea of cordiality.
Was it cordial according to your ideas of cordiality?
Yes.
I didn't regard her as my mother, I stopped calling her mother after the affair regarding
her step-sister.
Why did you leave off calling her mother?
Because I wanted to.
Have you any other reason to give me?
No.
Well, then that will have to be sufficient.
Now Miss Borden, we come to the morning of August 4th.
That morning, did you breakfast with your father and stepmother?
No, I came downstairs at about nine.
They had finished eating.
Did you see your father?
Yes, he was in the sitting room reading the Providence Journal.
And your stepmother?
I saw her in the dining room, she had a dusting cough.
That was about nine.
When did you see your stepmother again?
After I'd eaten a pear and come back into the dining room.
She told me she had had a note and was going out to see a sick friend.
She said she'd got the dinner.
Did you see the note?
No, no sir.
Did you see your stepmother leave?
No sir.
Or did you hear her leave?
No, no sir.
How long did you stay downstairs?
Oh, I'm not sure.
I ate a pear and drank a cup of tea and then went back to my room.
Your room, that's up the front stairs to the rear, is that correct?
Yes.
And then you walked the hallway and a few paces to the rear of the room where your stepmother's
body was later found.
How long did you stay in your room?
I don't know, it must have been an hour.
Did you see anyone up there?
No sir.
Did you hear anything?
No sir.
What were you doing?
I was sewing a piece of lace on a garment.
Do you know that medical examination has proved that your stepmother was killed approximately
an hour before your father?
Yes.
Do you understand that to mean she was killed at approximately ten o'clock?
Yes.
Were you in your room at ten o'clock?
I think I was.
But you heard nothing, nothing like the sound of a person being struck down a few paces
away.
No sir.
That is extraordinary.
Now Miss Warden, you insist that you did not leave your room for close to an hour.
Yes.
Where is your father?
He had left, he went downtown after nine.
Do you understand that the front door and all the doors were locked from the inside
when he returned a few minutes before eleven?
Yes.
Did you lock it?
No sir.
Do you understand that the witness, Miss Bridget Sullivan, testified that she did not lock it?
I heard her say that.
Well then who locked it?
I don't know.
Did you hear your father try to get in?
Yes sir.
Were you still in your room?
I was coming down.
You had passed the spare room and were on the stairs.
Yes sir.
Did you see anything?
If I had looked in I should have seen Miss Warden.
I didn't look in.
I didn't see anything.
What did you laugh at?
I did not laugh.
Did you hear a witness's sworn statement that you did laugh?
Yes.
Must have been mistaken.
I see.
Now when your father came in through the door, Bridget Sullivan had unlocked.
You came downstairs.
Yes.
Did you speak with your father?
I asked him how he was feeling and he said he thought he would lie down.
And that is when he went to the couch in the sitting room.
Did you help him?
Yes.
Yes I went with him and covered him with a shawl.
And then what did you do?
I went up in the barn to get some lead.
What kind of lead?
For fishing sinkers.
I was going to our farm in Marion and I was going to fish while I was there.
When were you going fishing?
Monday.
The murders occurred on Thursday.
You were going fishing on the next Monday?
Yes.
Miss Warden, why did you pick that particular time on Thursday to go to the loft in the
barn to get sinkers?
I don't know.
It occurred to me so I went to the barn.
Did you pick the loft in the barn as a place to keep sinkers?
No.
My father had once told me there was some lead up in the barn.
You know that search for fishing apparatus in your house has shown there was none there?
There had none there, but there was some at the farm.
Then did not that apparatus include sinkers?
No, there were no sinkers on the line.
How long had it been since you used the apparatus?
Three years.
And you remembered all those years that there were no sinkers?
Yes.
I see.
How long do you think you were occupied in looking for sinkers in the loft?
About fifteen or twenty minutes.
Did you do nothing besides look for sinkers in that twenty minutes?
Yes, sir.
I ate some pears.
Would it take you all that time to eat a few pears?
I do not do things in a hurry.
Is that all you did?
No.
I went over to the window and I opened it.
Why did you do that?
Because it was too hot.
I suppose that is the hottest place on the premises.
Yes, sir.
Do not you think it would have been more comfortable if you waited until late afternoon to look
for your sinkers rather than choose the hottest hour of an August morning?
Perhaps I would have.
I am sure you would have.
From the window, could you see the house?
Yes, sir.
How many pears did you eat in that twenty minutes?
Three.
Could you, standing at that window, see anybody enter the kitchen or the side door?
No, sir.
I thought you said you could see the house.
Not after you pass a jog in the barn.
It obstructs the view of that side of the house.
Miss Borden, have you heard a witness, Captain Harrington, a policeman trained to make accurate
observation, testify that there was no evidence whatsoever that anyone had disturbed the dust
on the floor of the barn loft, that no one had been there?
I heard him.
Did you still insist that you were there for twenty minutes during which your father was
killed?
Yes, sir.
Then how do you account for Captain Harrington's statement?
I don't know.
I'm afraid that Captain Harrington must have been mistaken.
I was up in the barn.
Oh, Mr. Moody was terribly clever.
He suggested a motive, two motives, the hate for my stepmother and the inheritance.
He suggested the story of being in the barn was false.
He suggested that the story of the note and my stepmother leaving was false.
He suggested that I was guilty, but I'm not.
Jury said I wasn't.
They found me not guilty.
They didn't find the axe.
They didn't find blood stains or destroyed clothes or anything, just circumstance.
But it doesn't seem to matter what the jury said.
Nobody else thinks I'm innocent.
That's why they punished me.
But I am innocent.
No matter what people think, I stood trial and I am innocent.
I swear I am.
I swear I am.
I'm sorry.
Will you stop that?
Stop it!
He was not my mother!
Oh, you're leaving.
Don't, don't go.
I haven't finished.
I haven't showed you the pictures or the newspaper clippings.
I saved them all to show somebody.
Why are you leaving like this, Mr. Lippert?
Just because you're a woman?
I'm not a woman.
I'm a woman.
I'm a woman.
I'm a woman.
I'm a woman.
I'm a woman.
I'm a woman.
I'm a woman.
I'm a woman.
I'm a woman, Mr. Lippert.
You haven't even finished your tea.
I didn't finish telling you my...
You haven't even finished your tea.
Suspense presented by Auto Light, tonight's star, the first lady of suspense, Miss Agnes
Morehead.
This is Harlow Wilcox speaking for Auto Light, world's largest independent manufacturer of
automotive electrical equipment.
Auto Light is proud to serve the greatest names in the industry.
That's why during the early months of 1952, the Auto Light family will join together in
saluting the leading car manufacturers who use Auto Light products.
Our Auto Light family is made up of the nearly 30,000 men and women in 28 great Auto Light
plants from coast to coast and in still other Auto Light plants in many foreign countries.
Our family also includes more than 18,000 people who have invested a portion of their
savings in Auto Light, as well as 96,000 Auto Light distributors and dealers in the United
States and thousands more in Canada and throughout the world.
Our Auto Light family will salute the Hudson Motor Car Company on the next Auto Light Suspense
television program.
If you live in a television area, check the day and time of Suspense on television so
that you'll be sure to see this show.
And remember, be with us next week for another thrilling Auto Light Suspense program on radio.
Next week on Suspense, our star will be Mr. Richard Bassehart, who will portray a man
who found it necessary to commit the perfect crime, a tale we call The Perfectionist.
In weeks to come, we shall also present Mr. Charles Boyer, Mr. J. Carroll Nash, and Mr.
James Mason, all on Suspense.
Suspense is produced and directed by Elliot Lewis, with music composed by Lucian Morrowick
and conducted by Lut Bluskin.
The Fall River Tragedy was written for Suspense by Gil Dowd.
In tonight's story, Joseph Kearns was heard as Mr. Moody, featured in the cast were Peggy
Weber, Herb Butterfield, Ralph Sedan, Will Wright, and Stuffy Singer.
Agnes Moorhead may currently be seen in the Wald-Krasna RKO production, The Blue Veil.
And remember next week on Suspense, Mr. Richard Bassehart in The Perfectionist.
This is the CBS Radio Network.