... When I got up in the bedroom, I laid down in the bed. I heard the bells outdoors ring, the City Hall bell, as I suppose it was, and I looked at my clock, and it was eleven o’clock.
My name Hymon Lubinsky.
I peddle ice cream. Ice-cream peddler. I work for Mr. Wilkinson. I peddle by team. I keep my team on Second Street. Charley Gardner’s stable. Near the corner of Second and Rodman Street. Near Morgan Street, too. Between Rodman and Morgan. Up a little from the Borden house. That morning, I get my team from the stable and drive toward Second Street, by the Borden house. It was after eleven, a few minutes after eleven.
I saw a lady come out the way from the barn right to the stairs back of the house — the northside stairs, from the back of the house. She had on a dark-color dress, I can’t tell what kind of color it was, nothing on her head. She was walking very slow, toward the steps. I don’t know if she went in the house, I couldn’t tell this, I was in the team. I didn’t stop the team, I just trotted a little, not fast.
The woman I saw was not the servant. I have delivered ice cream to the servant, oh, two or three weeks before the murder. The woman I saw the day of the murder was not the same woman as the servant.
I am sure about that.
... I was lying in the bed, I know I wasn’t drowsing or sleeping, and up to that time, I heard no noise, heard no sound of anybody, heard no opening or closing of the screen door. If anybody goes in or out and is careless and slams the door, I can hear it in my room.
The next thing that occurred, Miss Lizzie hollered, “Maggie, come down!”
I said, “What’s the matter?”
“Come down quick!” she said. “Father’s dead! Somebody came in and killed him!”
This was ten or fifteen minutes after the clock struck eleven, about as far as I can judge. I ran downstairs. I had not changed any of my clothing or taken off any clothing at all. When I came downstairs, the first person I saw was Miss Lizzie. She was standing at the back door, standing at the door that was leading in, a wooden door. The door was open. She was inside the threshhold, standing with her back to the screen door. I went around to go right in the sitting room, and she said, “Oh, Maggie, don’t go in! I’ve got to get a doctor quick! Go over! I’ve got to have the doctor!”
I went over to Dr. Bowen’s right away. I guess I ran, I don’t know whether I did or not. But I guess I went as fast as I could. His wife came to the door, and I told her that Mr. Borden was dead. I think that’s what I told her. And she said the doctor wasn’t in, but she expected him along any time, and she would send him over...
“Mrs. Churchill, you testified earlier that on the morning of August fourth, 1892, at about nine o’clock, you saw Mr. Borden standing on the walk by the steps. On the side of his house toward the barn, is that so?”
“That’s so, yes.”
“At any time on that morning, did you leave your house and go upon some errand?”
“Yes, sir.”
“About what time did you leave the house?”
“I don’t know. Somewhere near eleven o’clock, I should think.”
“Where did you go to?”
“I went to M. T. Hudner’s market.”
“On what street is that?”
“South Main Street.”
“How far from your house?”
“Just a little ways. Nearly opposite our house, only a little north.”
“Nearly opposite your house on a parallel street?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you do any business there?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What was the general nature of it?”
“I got three articles for dinner. Something for dinner.”
“Did you delay in the shop there after you bought the articles?”
“I asked my brother, who worked there, to send a telephone message for a woman who was at our house.”
“Had some brief conversation?”
“Yes.”
“Then what did you do?”
“I went right home.”
“When you reached the neighborhood of your house, did you notice anything?”
“Bridget Sullivan was going across the street from Dr. Bowen’s house to the Borden house. She looked very white, and I thought someone was sick. She was going fast.”
... When I came back to the house, I said, “Miss Lizzie, where were you? Didn’t I leave the screen door hooked?”
“I was out in the back yard,” she said. “And heard a groan. And came in, and the screen door was wide open.”
She wanted to know if I knew where Alice Russell lived, and I said I did.
“Go and get her,” she said. “I can’t be alone in the house.”
So I stepped inside the entry and got a hat and shawl that was hanging inside the entry and went down to Miss Russell.
At that time, no outcry or alarm had been given to any of the neighbors...
“You saw Bridget Sullivan going from Dr. Bowen’s house back to the Borden house...”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then what did you do, Mrs. Churchill?”
I went right in the north side of our house, in the back door, passed through the dining room into the kitchen, and laid my bundles on a long bench. And I looked out the window, and I saw Miss Lizzie at the inside of the screen door. She looked as if she was leaning up against the east casing of the door, and she seemed excited or agitated to me, as if something had happened, and I stepped to the other window — the other kitchen window, the east window — and I opened the window and said, “Lizzie, what’s the matter?”
She said, “Oh, Mrs. Churchill, do come over! Someone has killed father!”
I shut down the window, passed right through the kitchen and dining room into the front hall, and went right out the front door over to Mr. Borden’s. I didn’t see Bridget there when I arrived. I stepped inside the screen door and Miss Lizzie was sitting on the second stair, at the right of the door. I put my right hand on her arm and said, “Lizzie, where is your father?”
“In the sitting room,” she said.
And I said, “Where were you when it happened?”
“I went to the barn to get a piece of iron,” she said.
“Where’s your mother?” I asked.
“I don’t know. She’d got a note to go see someone who’s sick. I don’t know but she’s killed, too, for I thought I heard her come in. Father must have an enemy,” she said. “We’ve all been sick, and we think the milk’s been poisoned. Dr. Bowen’s not at home,” she said, “I must have a doctor!”
“Lizzie,” I said, “shall I go and try to get someone to get a doctor?”
“Yes,” she said, and I went out.
My full name is A. J. Cunningham. The J stands for John. I’m a newsdealer in Fall River. On the morning of August fourth, as I was going up Second Street, what attracted my attention was Mrs. Churchill running across the street. She started from the Borden residence and she run triangular across the street to an office there of Mr. Hall’s, the place that’s called Hall’s Stable. I was opposite Hall’s Stable. I went up as far as Varney Wale’s store where my business there was collecting money for newspapers. The weekly payment was twelve cents. I was there a few seconds, and then I went on the opposite side of the street to Mr. Gray’s paint shop — on the corner of Spring and Second. To collect the same amount there. I was there about the same time, and before I reached Hall’s Stable again, I see Mrs. Churchill standing on the sidewalk, talking to two or three gentlemen that was in front of Mr. Hall’s office. When I got there, I learned from another party that there was some trouble in the Borden house.