Perfect Alibi ^(Myth)

When delving in the details of the Borden murders of August 1892, many realize that the case against Lizzie Borden doesn’t really make a lot of sense, or at least that it cannot be reasonably proven. Yet, because reasons remain to suspect that an “insider” committed the crime, armchair sleuths often turn to John Morse, Lizzie’s uncle and Andrew’s brother-in-law. Why? Because Morse just happened to show up at the house the day before the murders. He hadn’t brought a bit of luggage, no change of clothes, not even a toothbrush, and yet he spent the night. 

The timing coincidence did seem odd, and so did the fact that Abby was killed in the room he had slept in less than half-an-hour after he left the house that morning. He walked across town to visit a niece and nephew and didn’t return until about half-an-hour after Andrew was killed. His timing was suspicious, and so was the fact that he said he didn’t notice the crowd in front the house when at the time there was a crowd in front of the house. 

But perhaps the oddest thing about Morse’s story was he seemed to have constructed for himself an alibi that was just a little too detailed, a little too perfect. He could not only tell police what time he caught a horse car back from the house on Weybosset Street where he had gone visiting, he could also tell them that exactly six priests were riding on the same car. He reportedly could also tell them the number of that particular car as well as the number of the conductor’s badge. For many, this kind of detail smacks of an alibi that was purposely manufactured by Morse to cover up his culpability for the crime.

But, of course, officers investigated Morse’s alibi and found it was corroborated by those he visited that morning, as well as a different horse car conductor who could remember seeing a bunch of priests on the passing car that Morse had ridden back across town. This allowed them to officially cross him off their suspect list.

As for the overly perfect details of his alibi, including the conductor’s badge number, no such details were ever mentioned in any testimony in any court proceeding, nor in any recorded statements to police, nor in any interviews with reporters. Nor does it show up in The Jennings Journals, in which both Andrew Jennings and his assisting attorney, Arthur Phillips, recorded what they learned from several interviews with Morse.

The first mention of this claim seems not to have been made until 1934, more than 40 years after the fact, in an article for the New Bedford Evening Standard, written by Phillips, sharing his memories of working with Lizzie’s defense team. Numerous writers picked up the seemingly odd detail and have since repeated Phillips’ claim to the point it is today it is taken as a given.

Of course, it could be that Phillips had an unrecorded conversation or two with John Morse in the weeks immediately after the murders and simply wrote down what he remembered Morse telling him. Maybe that memory was accurate, maybe it wasn’t; many of his later writings do present inaccuracies. Either way, the “too perfect” details of Morse’s alibi were not part of the official record of the case at the time, and, as it popped up so many years after the fact, should probably be considered yet another Borden murders myth.