Charged with killing her father and stepmother with an axe in 1893, Lizzie Borden became the center of perhaps the most baffling murder trial in United States legal history. Sullivan returns to the original court documents to solve the mystery of how the woman celebrated in folk rhymes as a killer got off scot-free. Illustrated.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best book on the case for lawyers,
By Roger C. Park (San Francisco, California) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Goodbye Lizzie Borden (Hardcover)
Sullivan, a Massachusetts Superior Court judge, did a meticulous review of the transcript. He discusses legal and factual issues in a cogent and clear fashion. For lawyers, it is by far the best book on the case. He concludes that Lizzie committed the crime, possibly out of material motives (she could have feared that her father was about to convey property to her stepmother). Seems plausible to me. There sure was a lot of circumstantial evidence against her. Those who think she's innocent ought to read her testimony before the coroner. It's hard to explain that testimony except to say that it's a pack of lies designed to cover up a murder. Because of a dubious ruling by the trial judges, the prior testimony was not admitted at trial and, needless to say, Lizzie did not open the door by taking the stand. The verdict was a triumph for the reasonable doubt standard, backed up by an all-male jury's conviction that a respectable woman couldn't do such a thing.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting and informative, but deeply flawed.,
By
This review is from: Goodbye Lizzie Borden: The Story of the Trial of America's Most Famous Murderess (Penguin True Crime) (Mass Market Paperback)
Robert Sullivan makes a strong case that Lizzie Borden might have gotten off, even if she committed the crime. Oddly enough for a judge, he confuses this with proving that she did commit it. Sullivan starts off with the assumption that she was guilty, briskly rejects any other possibilities, and lo and behold, he finds her to be guilty.
I would recommend this book to anyone with a strong interest in the case. It has all sorts of information that is not included elsewhere about a similar crime that could have thrown off suspicion, the backgrounds of the jurors, etc. Sullivan simply rejects the idea that anyone else could have done it. The suggestion that it might have be Bridget Sullivan is quickly dismissed without examinaton: "Bridget didn't do it." I feel informed, but not at all convinced. I recommend Kent's Forty Whacks: New Evidence in the Life and Legend of Lizzie Borden as the best book that I have ever read on the subject, and Edgar Radin's Lizzie Borden: The untold story (A Dell book) as the second.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
fine analysis,
By I ain't no porn writer (author, "Crippled Dreams") - See all my reviews
This review is from: Goodbye Lizzie Borden: The Story of the Trial of America's Most Famous Murderess (Penguin True Crime) (Mass Market Paperback)
This is an analysis of the Borden case from a legal point of view by a former judge. The facts are well-presented and the legal insights and arguments are convincing, but the impartial reader will sense and be annoyed by the author's clear bias against Lizzie throughout much of the book. The book would have been strengthened by a fairer ad more even-handed, two-sided approach. Even so, it's an excellent piece of factual and analytical work.
David Rehak author of "Did Lizzie Borden Axe For It?"
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