Ghosts of the SouthCoast

by Tim Weisberg

  Bridget hears Lizzie laugh on the stairs as she says “pshaw,” fumbling with inside triple locks.

  10:35 to 10:45

  Bridget sees Lizzie go into dining room and speak in a low manner to her father.

  10:45

  Mark Chase, residing over Wade’s store, sees a man at the Borden fence taking pears.

  10:45 to 10:55

  Lizzie puts an ironing board on the dining room table as Bridget finishes the last window in the dining room. Lizzie asks Bridget in the kitchen if she’s going out; Lizzie tells her of note to Abby and a sale at Sargeant’s.

  10:50 to 10:55

  Mark Chase observes a man with an open buggy parked just beyond tree in front of the Borden house.

  10:55

  Bridget heads upstairs to her room to lie down.

  10:55 to 10:58

  Bridget goes up to her room; lies down on her bed.

  10:55 to 11:00

  Andrew Borden dies from blows to the head with a sharp instrument.

  11:00

  Bridget hears City Hall clock chime.

  11:05 to 11:10

  Hyman Lubinsky drives his cart past the Borden house.

  About 11:10

  Lizzie hollers to Bridget to come down, saying “someone has killed Father.”

  11:10 to 11:12

  Lizzie sends Bridget to get Dr. Bowen.

  11:10 to 11:13

  Bridget rushes back across street from the Bowens’, telling Lizzie he’s not home.

  Lizzie asks Bridget if she knows where Alice Russell lives and tells her to go get her.

  Mrs. Churchill observes Bridget crossing street, notices a distressed Lizzie and calls out to Lizzie; she tells him “someone has murdered Father.”

  11:10 to 11:14

  Mrs. Churchill goes to the side door, speaks briefly to Lizzie and then crosses the street, looking for a doctor.

  11:16 to 11:20

  Dr. Bowen pulls up in his carriage and is met by his wife, and they rush over to Bordens.

  John Cunningham checks outside cellar door in the Borden back yard and finds it locked.

  11:20 to 11:22

  Officer Allen checks the front door and notes it bolted from inside; he also checks the closets in the dining room and kitchen.

  11:20

  Morse departs Daniel Emery’s on Weybosset Street and takes a streetcar back to the Bordens.

  11:23 to 11:30

  Lizzie asks to check for Mrs. Borden; Bridget and Mrs. Churchill go upstairs and discover body.

  11:35 to 11:40

  Officer Doherty questions Lizzie, who tells him she heard a “scraping” noise.

  11:35 to 11:45

  Morse arrives at the Borden house and goes first to the back yard.

  11:45

  Morse talks to Officer Sawyer at the side door, yet Morse later testifies he heard of murders from Bridget.

  11:45 to 11:50

  Morse sees Andrew’s body; then he goes upstairs and sees Abby’s body.

  11:50

  Morse speaks to Lizzie as she lies on lounge in dining room.

  11:50

  Morse goes out to the back yard and stays outside most of the afternoon.

  11:50 am to noon

  Assistant Marshal Fleet arrives, sees the bodies and talks to Lizzie in her room with Reverend Buck; Lizzie says “she’s not my mother, she’s my stepmother.”

  Officers Doherty, Fleet and Medley accompany Bridget to cellar, where she shows them a hatchet in a box on the shelf.

  5:00 p.m.

  Emma arrives in Fall River.

  8:45

  Officer Joseph Hyde, observing from a northwest outside window, sees Lizzie and Alice go down to the cellar.

  Haunt or Hoax?

  In 1996, the former Borden home became a bed and breakfast under the ownership of Martha McGinn. Originally belonging to her grandfather, John McGinn, there were no reports of paranormal activity during its time as the McGinn’s private residence. However, once the house became open to the public, strange things began happening—enough that the television series Unsolved Mysteries paid a trip to Fall River to document some of the ghostly incidents.

  While all of this seemed interesting to a paranormalphile such as me, I took much of it in stride. Growing up, my mother and her sisters were deeply interested in the Borden case, so I knew its grisly details. I figured now that the house was a commercial venture, the ghosts were simply marketing.

  Those thoughts were even more solidified after a 2005 episode of Ghost Hunters in which TAPS investigated the house and no activity was captured. Investigator Steve Gonsalves famously quipped, “Any place with a gift shop can’t be haunted,” and for the moment, I agreed. Lee-ann Wilber, who along with Donald Woods had purchased the property from the Martha McGinn, was now claiming to have experiences. I remained skeptical.

  Even upon my first visit in June 2006, I was convinced the haunt existed solely in people’s minds, that they were tripping on the legend instead of experience the paranormal. I was led on a tour along with Spooky Southcoast cohost Matt Costa by Eleanor Thibeault, the tour guide who had shared her experiences on Unsolved Mysteries. As she recounted those experiences to us, I got the feeling that she did believe she experienced something, but I wasn’t convinced it was anything paranormal.

  All that changed in October 2006.

  Can You Move My Legs?

  One of our radio show’s loyal listeners had traveled from California to the East Coast to spend her birthday exploring some of the very locations we talk about on the air each week. She was celebrating her birthday at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast, having rented the place out for a night of uninterrupted, untainted investigation. We were invited to join along and jumped at the chance.

  During the course of the night, it became clear that there was some sort of presence lurking about. Everyone felt it, and many of us were about as psychic as a brick. I tempted fate by lying in the exact spots where Andrew and Abby’s mutilated bodies were found—nothing. I called out for the spirits to come and get me—still nothing. It wasn’t until I decided to take a break that something occurred.

  The house consists of eight guest rooms spread over the top two floors, with the ground floor consisting of a sitting room, a parlor, a dining room and a kitchen. Each guest room is named after someone either from the Borden family or pertaining to the case. On the third floor is two rooms named for the lawyers who tried the case; the Hosea Knowlton Room is commonly referred to as the “chimney room” because of the chimney that bisects it. It was in this room that I decided to lie across the bed, perpendicular to the way one would normally lie, and rest for a few moments.

  Immediately I felt a tingle come over my hands, which I had folded across my chest. A cold began to envelop me. I called out to the rest of the investigators, who were in the next room and then came and verified the cold spot with digital thermometers. Touching my hands, they could feel the electricity causing them to tingle.

  I asked aloud that if anything was in the room and if so, could it do something to let me know it was there? Almost immediately, I felt two unseen hands grab my ankles and begin slowly lifting my legs up off the side of the bed. Observers could actually see where the invisible hands were pinching the tops of my sneakers. After a time, it let my feet down, and we were able to re-create the phenomena with others both that night and repeatedly since. Of course, that was only my introduction to the spirits of the Borden house.

  The Kids from Next Door

  In that same room, there is a chest full of small toys. If the trunk is left open (and some say, the closet door is left ajar as well), when returning to the room you will find the toys spread out over the floor, as if a child had been playing with them. These are believed to be the spirits of two children who were murdered next door. An article given to me by Wilber from a newspaper clipping at the time of the trial specifically mentions that in the house next door, a relative of the Bordens who shared the same surname “
had thrown her three young children in a cistern to drown and afterward jumped in and died with them. She endeavored to get her fourth child in with the rest, but the little one escaped.” Only two of those children have been detected by mediums visiting the Borden house, and they claim their names are Sally and James.

  Michael, Did You Move the Camera?

  Another spirit who may be in that room is Michael, the former caretaker. When Wilber and Woods bought the house, they couldn’t afford to keep him on so he was let go. Shortly after, he died in a fire. His presence has been documented by Elizabeth Nowicki, the house psychic, who has communicated with him many times. In fact, during the course of one of our investigations, Nowicki was speaking with Michael when an infrared camera that Matt Moniz had placed on the trunk in the room moved completely on its own. After being reset, it did the exact same thing a few moments later. Repeated attempts to try and make it move in the same manner by tugging on the cable or stomping on the floor failed to achieve the same result. You can view it for yourself on the Spooky Southcoast page on YouTube and see what you think.

  As time went on, the two Matts and I became friends with Wilber and were afforded the opportunity to investigate the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast on a frequent basis. By continually studying the phenomena at one specific location, we’re able to chart how it changes, whether it gets stronger or weaker or whether it trends toward one particular form of evidence or another. For example, the leg-lifting went on for quite some time, but now it rarely happens. EVPs were once a frequent capture, but now it seems as though we’re hearing more noises with our own ears rather than on recorded media. And Lee-ann can’t be thanked enough for her patience with our random visits and all-nighters. Not only is she a good friend to us, but she’s a good friend to paranormal research.

  We’ve brought numerous other investigators with us, each with their own specializations and unique abilities and techniques. The house almost never fails to impress, so much so that when we’re contacted by local media outlets, which usually happens every Halloween, we recommend they join us for a night with Lizzie and the family.

  “But I’m a Good Daughter”

  One night in August 2007, a local magazine writer tagged along on an investigation between Spooky Southcoast and Whaling City Ghosts. The writer was a true skeptic and wanted to experience something monumental. At Lizzie’s, that wouldn’t take long.

  For some reason, on that particular night, the spirits in the house were exceptionally interactive. When Liz Nowicki was hanging with us for a bit, she sensed Andrew Borden’s presence while we were in the Morse Room, which is the room in which Abby Borden was killed.

  Now, Andrew and I have never liked each other, for reasons we’ll get into later. Let’s just say I know his secret, and I’m not afraid to share. Usually, I’m the object of his ire, but on this particular night he went after Liz. His unseen form scratched at her, and we could see those scratches develop on her arms and shoulders (it was summer and she was wearing a tank top) without anyone touching her. Soon, they progressed to the point of welts. I yelled out, “Leave her alone, Andrew! Pick on someone your own size! I won’t even fight back!” as I stood near the wall in the very spot were Abby’s body was discovered and put both my arms behind my head, elbows sticking out in front of me. Suddenly I felt two invisible hands push down firmly on my elbows and start pushing me up against the wall. I tried to push back, but I found it very hard to do so. I stood there wrestling with something none of us could see for a good two or three minutes, until he finally pinned me against the wall.

  Abby Borden was found in the upstairs bedroom, killed by nineteen blows to the head with an ax. Courtesy of Stefani Koorey.

  The room is now known as the John Morse Room.

  It wasn’t the first time I’d been accosted by the spirits there. Previously, I had been choked while trying to stop a spirit from pinching a young boy (you know how when your aunt pinches your cheek too tight? Imagine seeing that happening to a kid, but with no hand there) and another time, I was pushed on the stairs exiting the basement to the backyard.

  Later in our night with the journalist, we were all discussing what to do next while gathered in Lizzie’s bedroom. With our recorders running, we were simply having a conversation, not conducting a formal EVP session. Yet in the recording, you can hear, very loudly and distinctly, a female voice with a Victorian-era accent exclaim “but I’m a good daughter!” We’ve come to believe this is the actual voice of Lizzie Borden, either proclaiming her innocence or hoping we won’t judge her based on that one morning of indiscretion in August 1892. There is clear desperation in her voice.

  During that same investigation, we also encountered two memorable EVPs while formally conducting a session. In one, we’re in the Knowlton room, and I’m asking the spirit to lift my legs again. A whispery voice then states directly into the recorder’s microphone “Why don’t you go (expletive) yourself?” In the same session, I’m speaking to the other investigators and the same voices calls me an “a—hole.”

  Like I said, they don’t like me very much.

  The Flying Picture

  Every once in a while, though, the ghosts in the house turn their attention to someone else. That’s what happened one night when Matt Moniz was hanging out in the parlor, having a conversation with a few other guests while a tour was going on elsewhere in the house.

  During the course of their discussion, a silver picture frame lifted up off an end table to about Matt’s eye level, slowly rolled end over end in midair, stopped and then flew across the room as if it was thrown by a major-league ace.

  Matt and the others just sat and stared at each other, stunned for a moment, before continuing their conversation. It was just another night at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast.

  Weird Pictures in the Sitting Room

  I’ve only been involved in two actual séances in my life, and both were at Lizzie’s. Liz Nowicki conducts them for a small fee for guests of the house, and I’ve been allowed to sit in on them. Being skeptical of the process, I also videotaped them for posterity.

  We held one of these séances in the sitting room where Andrew Borden was murdered. As with the rest of the house, the room looks remarkably like it did in 1892, a testament to the restoration work Lee-ann and Donald have done over the years.

  Andrew Borden was found in the sitting room, a victim of ten blows to the head with an ax. Courtesy of Stefani Koorey.

  During this séance, I was videotaping when someone noticed that my T-shirt was lifting up over my stomach. At first she thought it was just because my arms were holding the camera, but she could see that even as my arms remained steady (I like to think of myself as a more than adequate cameraman, so I know my shot was true) my shirt continued to lift. Someone else snapped a picture of it, and it shows streaks of a mysterious orange light right over the part of my shirt that was being lifted.

  That’s not the only weird photo that has come out of the sitting room, either. Whenever we bring anyone there for the first time, they’ve got to stop for the “photo op” in the parlor. A small hatchet is in a woodpile in the kitchen, and the women usually want to swing the hatchet while a man pretends to nap on the couch, in a re-creation of Andrew’s murder. Yet every time, the pictures come out with weird anomalies, including a complete vanishing of the ax itself while in motion—even when the shutter speed is set very high, which it should be for fast-motion capture. Even professional photographers have been baffled by this phenomenon.

  The sitting room as it looks today. With Luminal and a black light, traces of Mr. Borden’s blood can still be seen under the floorboards in the basement.

  The Clock that Stopped

  In the sitting room, there is a mantel clock with a very loud tick to it. When the house is deathly silent, you can hear the tick all the way up on the third floor. It is a beautiful decorative piece, but if I had to sleep there, I’d probably end up going downstairs and smashing the thing!

  One p
articular night, we had been investigating for about eight hours and everyone was getting pretty loopy, so we decided to take a break. I sat on the floor of the sitting room with a handful of other people, and we decided to see if we could get the spirits to slow down the clock’s tick. Amazingly, within a few minutes it happened—to the point where the clock stopped ticking completely. Then, after a few seconds, it began ticking back furiously in an effort to catch up, before finally returning to normal.

  The Noises Upstairs

  One of the best parts about the access we have to the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast is the ability to be the only ones there during the off-season. Often, we’ll go there to record paranormal television shows, on-site episodes of our radio show or just to investigate with the bare minimum of people around. Jeff Belanger wrote about one incident that happened under those circumstances in the introduction to this book, but it’s not the only time we’ve heard noises like that.

  Once, Matt Moniz, a few others and I were seated at the dining room table when upstairs, we could clearly hear the sound of a baby crying. Thoroughly creeped out and knowing nobody else was up there, we tried to ignore it. When we later went to the second floor to continue our investigation, we heard the sound of a woman singing on the third floor.

  People often report hearing a loud thump every so often on the third floor. This was also featured on the episode of Ghost Hunters, where investigators Donna LaCroix and Andy Andrews heard it while in the Knowlton room. We had the opportunity to investigate the house with Donna on a separate occasion, and we were able to tie what she heard into the reports of those who stay in the Andrew Jennings room right next door—the sound is produced by the heavy foot pedal of the old-fashioned sewing machine slamming to the floor. The question is what slammed it?