Alice Russell Saw Lizzie Borden Burn a Dress. Her Testimony Changed the Case.

In August 1892, wealthy businessman Andrew Borden and his wife, Abby, were found murdered inside their home in Fall River, Massachusetts. Suspicion soon fell on Andrew’s 32-year-old daughter, Lizzie Borden, but police could find neither a bloody weapon nor bloodstained clothing. Because of this, she was not immediately arrested or charged with the murders.Three days later, family friend Alice Russell walked into the Borden kitchen and saw Lizzie standing near the stove with a dress in her hands. Emma Borden, Lizzie’s older sister, was washing dishes nearby.“I am going to burn this old thing up,” Lizzie told her sister, according to Russell’s later testimony. “It is covered with paint.”Russell left the kitchen, then returned to find Lizzie tearing apart the dress. “I wouldn’t let anybody see me do that, Lizzie,” she warned her.Russell kept what she’d seen to herself for nearly four months. When she finally told a grand jury about the dress, Lizzie was indicted for both murders.Here’s how Russell went from trusted family friend to a key witness for the prosecution.Who Was Alice Russell?Alice Russell was born in 1852 in New Bedford, Massachusetts. At the time of Andrew and Abby’s murders, she was an unmarried, 40-year-old dressmaker who lived next door to the Bordens in Fall River. She and Lizzie were close friends and belonged to the same church. She died in 1941.On August 4, 1892, shortly after Lizzie discovered her father’s body on the sitting room sofa, she sent the family’s maid, Bridget Sullivan, to get Russell. She hurried to the house and stayed there for the next four nights, according to her June 1883 testimony, helping Lizzie and Emma while police searched the property and the family prepared for the funeral.She also spoke to Lizzie the night before the murders.What Did Lizzie Tell Alice Russell Before the Murders?Lizzie visited Russell on the night before the killings and was reportedly in an uneasy mood. She talked about a stomach illness that’d recently struck the Borden household and said Abby feared the family had been poisoned.She also worried that someone might hurt Andrew because he’d made enemies with his curt manner. “I feel afraid sometimes that Father has got an enemy,” Lizzie said. At one point, Lizzie told Russell she felt that “something is hanging over me.”The next day, Abby was killed in an upstairs guest room. Andrew was found dead on the sitting-room sofa, killed later that morning.Why Did Lizzie Borden Burn Her Dress?A dressmaker had sewn the dress Lizzie burned at the Borden house in early May of 1892. Emma testified it was a cheap dress and Lizzie brushed against wet house paint shortly after it was made and continued wearing the dress around the house until it became badly faded and soiled.During a police search on the Saturday following the murders, Emma noticed the dress still hanging in a crowded closet. “You have not destroyed that old dress yet; why don’t you?” she recalled telling Lizzie. That gave the defense a simple explanation for what happened the next morning: The dress was cheap, ruined, and already headed for the trash.Prosecutors focused on its appearance. The dress was light blue with a darker pattern, and witnesses said Lizzie was wearing blue on the morning of the murders. Police never found any bloodstained clothing. They searched the house on Saturday; by Sunday, this dress was gone.Still, nobody could connect the burned dress to the murders. Russell saw no blood on the fabric and couldn’t identify it as the dress Lizzie had worn on August 4. She hadn’t even seen Lizzie place it in the stove.Why Did Alice Russell Wait to Tell Authorities About What She Saw?Russell testified at the inquest and preliminary hearing, both held in August 1892. During this time, Lizzie was in jail, but not officially charged. Troubled by what she had withheld, she eventually consulted an attorney, who told her to inform the district attorney.On December 1, Russell returned to the grand jury and described what had happened in the kitchen. The jurors had previously adjourned without indicting Lizzie. The next day, they charged her with killing Andrew and Abby.Her friendship with the Borden sisters was over.How Did Alice Russell’s Testimony Affect Lizzie Borden’s Trial?When Lizzie went on trial in June 1893, prosecutors pointed to Russell’s burned dress testimony, suggesting she destroyed evidence. However, her lawyers argued that a murderer wouldn’t dispose of bloody clothing in broad daylight, with her sister and closest friend in the same room. The defense also reminded jurors Russell testified she had seen no blood on the dress. Since the dress was burned, and all the court had was witness testimony, and ultimately could not connect the dress to the killings.The jury acquitted Lizzie on June 20, 1893. Russell’s testimony had helped put her friend on trial, but it could not put her in prison.How to Watch Monster: The Lizzie Borden StoryThough Russell’s testimony became one of the most damaging parts of the case against Lizzie, she doesn’t appear in Netflix’s Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story. To find out who testifies against Lizzie, played by Ella Beatty, in the fictionalized version of her life and trial, stream all eight episodes now.