Lizzie Borden, with an ax,
Gave her mother 40 whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father 41.
Lizzie Borden (July 19, 1860 – June 1, 1927)
The rhyme is an exaggeration, the truth is that Lizzie’s mother received only 18 or 19 strikes with an ax while her father received 11. Lizzie B. was accused of murdering her father and stepmother in 1892. She was found innocent by a jury and she and her sister lived together in a plush and comfortable home in Fall River, MA for 20 years.
It is not surprising that Lizzy was not convicted by a jury. It was 1892, and Lizzie and her older sister, Emma, were far beyond marrying age. The Boston Herald reported this about the younger Borden sister, “viewed Lizzie as above suspicion: “From the consensus of opinion it can be said: In Lizzie Borden’s life there is not one unmaidenly nor a single deliberately unkind act.”
However, suspicion continued to mount against Lizzie, and a local physician stated that it had to be Lizzie because, “hacking is almost a positive sign of a deed by a woman who is unconscious of what she is doing.” After a very heated trial with mountains of evidence against her, she was still released. The thought that a prudish, devout spinster could be capable of such brutal murders was absurd.
Lizzie Borden only murdered her parents, but she is the most well known female murderer in America.
I would like you to meet Belle Gunness.
Belle Gunness (November 22, 1859 – ?)
Belle was a very ambitious woman who moved to the US in 1881. Initially she burned her house and store, receiving a large insurance settlement, but it wasn’t long before she killed her husband and two children for that insurance pay out, as well. She remarried a man named Peter who had an infant girl, and her new family also mysteriously perished. After that, she courted wealthy men on her farm who all vanished. When her farm burned, more than 40 bodies of men and children were found in shallow graves around the property.
Ray Lamphere, Gunness’s hired hand, was arrested for murder and arson on May 22, 1908. He was found guilty of arson, but cleared of murder. He died in prison, but not before revealing the truth about Belle Gunness and her crimes, including burning her own house down – the body that was recovered was not hers. Nobody saw Belle again after the fire, but she did make a withdrawal from the bank before leaving town.
Would you like some candy, little boy?
Tillie Klimek (Gburek) (1876–1936)
Tillie was considered a pychic, or a mystic, who was plagued with nightmares about the future and when people (and dogs) would die. She was famous for foreseeing specific dates of doom for people around her, including her five husbands. Women who ate her candy fell ill with poison, and it is believed that “taking candy from a stranger” was declared dangerous from her actions. Tillie informed one of her husbands that he would die in three days. To prove she was serious, she bought a coffin that very day and left it in her basement, only to pull it out three days later to bury him. The list of victims of her deadly culinary skills grew to 20, men and women, lovers and rivals. She was only convicted of one murder, however, and died in prison.
Now, out of the three ladies listed here, who do you see as the most dangerous? It’s amazing to me that Lizzie still holds the most fame for her crimes (even though she was found not guilty) with the many lovely ladies that committed atrocious acts.
Behold the power of a jingle.
