There was some mutton for breakfast that morning. And some broth and johnnycakes, coffee and cookies. The broth was made of mutton. It might have been a quarter past seven when they sat down to breakfast, I can’t exactly tell the time. While breakfast was going on, I was around the kitchen cleaning up things. I don’t know exactly what I was doing. I’d finished my ironing the day before, and put away the clothes. I guess they must have gone in the sitting room after breakfast. The bell from the table rang, and when I went in there was nobody in the dining room. So I sat down and had my breakfast. Then I took the dishes off out of the dining room and brought them out in the kitchen and began washing them. The next I remember to see was Mr. Borden and Mr. Morse going out the back entry, the back door. Mr. Morse went out, but Mr. Borden returned. He came to the sink, and he cleaned his teeth in the sink, and after that he took a bowl, a big bowl, and filled it with water, and took it up to his room. He had the key in his hand as he went up with the pitcher, took it off the shelf in the sitting room.
I was washing the dishes at the sink when Miss Lizzie came through. It was no more than five minutes later, I think. I don’t remember how the time was. She came from the sitting room, and through the kitchen, and she left down the slop pail, and I asked her what did she want for breakfast. She said she didn’t know as she wanted any breakfast, but she guessed she would have something, she would have some coffee and cookies. She got some coffee, got her cup and saucer and got some coffee. And I went out in the backyard, and she was getting her own breakfast. Mr. Borden hadn’t come back down again. The screen door was hooked, and of course I unhooked it when I went out.
I went out because I had a sick headache and I was sick to my stomach. I went out to vomit. In the back yard. I can’t tell how long I was out there. Maybe ten minutes, maybe fifteen. I didn’t see Mr. Borden again after he went up to his room with the water. I don’t know where he’d gone in the meantime. When I got back in the kitchen, I completed washing my dishes. Some of them was washed, but all of them wasn’t, and I finished them and took them in the dining room, and I got them completed, and Mrs. Borden was there as I was fixing my dining-room table, and she asked me if I had anything to do this morning. I said no, not particular, if she had anything to do for me. She said she wanted the windows washed. I asked her how, and she said, “Inside and out both. They’re awful dirty.” She was dusting, had a feather duster in her hand, dusting between the sitting room and dining room, the door.
I didn’t see Miss Lizzie anywhere at that time. I don’t remember to see her. I can’t exactly tell the time, but I think it was about nine o’clock...
My full name is Adelaide B. Churchill. I’m unmarried at the present time, I’m a widow. I’ve been a resident of Fall River for forty-three years and some months. With the exception of about six months, I’ve lived at my present residence all my life, forty-three years and some months, the house I was born in. It’s called the Mayor Buffinton house, after my father, Edward P. Buffinton. It’s the house next north of the Borden house. I occupy the whole house, live there with my mother, sister, son, niece and the man that works for us.
I’ve known the Borden family for the past twenty years. Been on terms of social relations with them, calling backwards and forwards. I can perhaps best describe Mr. Borden as tall and straight... a tall, straight man. Mrs. Borden was very fleshy, I can’t think she was as tall as I am, not any taller, A short, heavy woman.
On the morning of August fourth, 1892, I first saw Mr. Borden at about nine o’clock or so, somewhere along there, I can’t tell just exactly. I saw him from my kitchen. He was standing by the steps. Not on the steps, but on the walk by the steps. He wasn’t in motion, he was just standing. On the side of the house toward the barn.
“Can you tell me, Miss Sullivan, what you did after you received this direction from Mrs. Borden? Where did you go and what did you begin to do?”
“I was out in the kitchen.”
“What were you doing in the kitchen?”
“Oh, I was cleaning off my stove and putting things in their places and so forth. And when I got ready, I went in the dining room and sitting room and...”
... left down the windows which I was going to wash and went downcellar and got a pail for to take some water. The windows was up, and left down the windows. There was no curtains there. The shutters was open at the bottom, I remember. I didn’t see anybody there when I went in the dining room and sitting room to close the windows. I got a wooden pail downcellar, came upstairs, and in the kitchen closet I found a brush which was to wash the windows with. I filled my pail with water in the sink and took it outdoors. As I was outside the back door, Lizzie Borden appeared in the back entry and said, “Maggie, are you going to wash the windows?”
I said, “Yes. You needn’t lock the door, I’ll be out around here. But you can lock it if you want to. I can get the water in the barn.” She made no reply to that, but she didn’t hook the door. I don’t know where she went then. I went to the barn to get the handle for the brush. It was in the barn, right in one of the stalls. On the first floor of the barn. Before I started to wash the windows, as I had the water and brush, Mrs. Kelly’s girl appeared, and I was talking to her at the fence...
My name is Abraham G. Hart. I am treasurer of the Union Savings Bank in Fall River. The bank is situated in what is sometimes called Market Square, North Main Street, a few rods from the City Hall. Upon the east side of North Main Street, just north of City Hall.
Mr. Borden was president of the bank for four or five years before he died. I was acquainted with him for forty years or more. On the morning of the homicides, Mr. Borden came into the bank as was his usual custom in the morning, about half-past nine. It wouldn’t vary but a few minutes from that time, I think, though I don’t think I looked at any timepiece. To my sight that morning, Mr. Borden did not seem in the usual health. I think he was under the weather, as we say. He did not look as well as usual. He remained there about five minutes, no more than seven. There’s another bank in the same building. The National Union Bank, a separate organization from the savings bank.
My name is John T. Burrill, my occupation is cashier of the National Union Bank, in the same building as the Union Savings Bank. Mr. Borden was a stockholder and depositor at my bank. On the morning of August fourth, I saw him in the bank, in front of the counter where I work. I saw him in conversation with Mr. Hart and a colored man who was there in regard to a loan. That is Mr. Abraham Hart, the last witness. I think it must have been between quarter-past nine and quarter-to ten.