O. M.

Hanscom and Lizzie Bordens Dress

A True Hanscom Tale
By Robert B. Hanscom
On August 4, 1892, a 32-year old woman by the name of Lizzie Borden
staggered on to the front porch of her fathers home in Fall River,
Massachusetts, and shouted for help. Someone has killed him, she told the
first person to respond. Inside, the bloody body of her father, Andrew
Jackson Borden, was discovered on the parlor sofa. He had been axed to
death by approximately 11 blows to the head and torso.
As more help was being summoned, Lizzie wondered aloud about the
whereabouts of her stepmother, Abby (Gray) Borden. Worried that Mrs.
Borden might also be in some danger, a neighbor Mrs. Churchill went
upstairs to look for her. Within moments, the body of Abby Borden was
found behind the bed in the guest bedroom.
She had been dealt
approximately 19 hatchet blows and had nearly been decapitated.
The city of Fall River was stunned. Aside from the fact the Andrew J. Borden
was one of its wealthiest citizens, the sheer brutality of the double murder
was unprecedented. In a scenario far more familiar to the sensationalism of
today, Massachusetts reporters swarmed to the murder scene, soon to be
followed by press from all over the country.
Lizzie Borden quickly became a prime suspect in the case. Despite the fact
neither blood nor weapon was ever observed on her, there were numerous
inconsistencies in her story. And it rapidly became widespread knowledge
that she had everything to gain by the deaths. With the demise of both
Andrew J. Borden and Abby Borden, Lizzie and her older sister Emma became
the sole heirs of a fortune estimated at a half-million dollars.
In the media frenzy that followed, throngs of Fall River residents joined the
press in camping outside the Borden home. The county district attorney,
Hosea Knowlton, a man with political aspirations, vowed to leave no stone
unturned in finding the killer and solving the case. Aware that she was under
suspicion, Lizzie immediately hired the Borden family attorney, Andrew
Jennings, to represent her in what was becoming a high-stakes drama. In
turn, Mr. Jennings engaged the services of the best known Pinkerton
detective in New England to conduct an independent investigation and to
make certain that District Attorney Knowlton was not gathering evidence that
could be unfairly prejudicial to Lizzie.
*

The best known Pinkerton detective in the New England area was none
other than Orrington Moses Hanscom. Known as O. M. Hanscom, he
was born in Oxford, Maine, January 12, 1846, the second child of Moses
McGray Hanscom (1819-1899) and his wife, Mary Ann (Leavitt) Hanscom
(1819-1907). His grandfather, William McGray Hanscom (1796-1873), was a
grandson of Moses Hanscom Jr. (1710-1809) of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, and a
great-grandson of Moses Hanscom (b. 1680).
In January 1862, when he was just 16 years old, young Orrington lied about
his age (he claimed he was 18), and enlisted as a private in the Civil War. He
served until the end of the conflict.
Returning to Oxford, he was married on July 30, 1866 to Katherine Robinson,
known as Kate, born in Scotland, July 7, 1848. They resided for the first
few years of their marriage in Oxford, then moved to Boston. Joining the
Boston Police Department, O. M. Hanscom rose rapidly through the ranks, in
large part because of his solid reputation for honesty and attention to detail.
After a number of internal promotions, he was asked to join the New England
branch of the Pinkerton Agency as its head.
In 1891, the year before the Borden slayings, O. M. Hanscom was
instrumental in solving the Josephine Barnaby murder case. It was that
highly publicized investigation that earned him a measure of fame and, in
turn, led to his hiring by Andrew Jennings to assist in Lizzie Bordens defense.
*

The murders had a dramatic impact on Fall River. Most of the towns
businesses shut down as an inescapable dread descended on the city. In the
first few hours after the bodies were discovered, it was generally believed
that an axe-wielding maniac was on the loose, a killer capable of wiping out
entire families. Attempting to quell what was beginning to look like runaway
hysteria, the city marshal announced that an arrest would be made by the
end of the week. Immediately, the Fall River police department converged
upon the Borden house and began ransacking rooms, bureaus, beds, boxes,
trunks searching any place where something might be hidden.
In
particular, the army of detectives and policemen were looking for the murder
weapon.
Lizzie Borden, by her own account, had been on the premises the entire
morning of the murders. When questioned by police detectives, she claimed
that she had gone out to the barn behind the house a couple of hours after
breakfast. She had been looking for irons to serve as weights for her fishing
pole, and thought she had seen some out there. Her search, however,
proved to be unsuccessful, and she started to return to the house. But,
instead of doing so, she sat down inside the barn and leisurely ate a pear.

Finally, after an absence of nearly 90 minutes, she departed the barn and
made her way back into the house.
It was then, according to her account, that she discovered her fathers body
in the front parlor.
For a number of reasons, her alibi story was doubted. First, because no one
had been with her, there was nobody to back it up. Second, the heat that
day had been particularly oppressive, and it was even more extreme in the
dusty, unventilated barn building. The detectives working on the case were
immediately skeptical that she could have spent anything close to 90
minutes in the barns oven-like atmosphere. Third, the first investigators
who entered the barn observed no footprints in or around the barns dusty
surfaces.
The police detectives quickly concluded that Lizzies barn alibi was an
invention. Why, they questioned, would she make up such an odd story?
The only supposition that they could reach was that Lizzie had to have been
the murderer. And, if she was the killer, the murder weapon likely a hatchet
had to be hidden somewhere on the Borden property.
On the morning of the slayings, A. J. Borden had been downtown at his office
building. From the moment he was last seen in public to the time Lizzie
sounded the alarm that he had been murdered, there was a lapse of only 3040 minutes. It was simply too short a time period for Lizzie, if indeed she
was the murderer, to have left the premises, dumped the murdered weapon
elsewhere, and then returned.
It had to be there, and the hunt was on.
Increasingly worried that evidence might be surreptitiously planted, attorney
Jennings stationed O. M. Hanscom in the Borden house to observe the police
detectives methods. Under O. M.s watchful eye, the intense search lasted
for more than three hours. But it produced nothing, and for the moment
seemed to exonerate Lizzie. If the murder weapon was not in the Borden
home, it would be a logical presumption that the weapon had left the home
in the hands of an unknown killer.
*

Buoyed by the failure to find the murder weapon, O. M. Hanscom strategized

on how to conclusively prove Lizzies innocence. As he stood in the Borden
home observing the police detectives rip the place apart in their search for
evidence, he realized that a murder weapon was not the only thing they
didnt find. O. M. Hanscom had personally seen the bloody bodies of Andrew
J. and Abby Borden, and he had quickly concluded given the extreme

nature of their injuries that whoever had committed the crime must have
been covered with blood spattering back at them.
The police had been looking for a weapon but, in the process of doing so,
found no blood-soaked apparel either. But, because they were so focused on
finding the hatchet, they hadnt understood the complete significance of
their inability to find any evidence.
O. M. Hanscom did. He had already spoken to the family maid, Bridget, who
told him that when she had last seen Lizzie before the murders around midmorning she was wearing a pale blue dress. O. M. had also spoken with the
Bordens neighbor, Mrs. Churchill, who told him that two hours when
Lizzie stood on the front porch calling for help, she was wearing a pale blue
dress.
Once he realized this could be the key to proving Lizzies innocence, O. M.
Hanscom continued his queries. Did you observe any blood stains or spots
on Miss Bordens dress? he asked each of the several people who were the
first to arrive at the scene following the discovery of the murders.
To a person, no one remembered any blood on Lizzies dress.
Now he wanted the actual gown. He was somewhat astonished that the Fall
River police detectives had not already taken it into custody, but no matter
he would go ahead and do so. If, as he had been told, it contained no blood
spatters, it would greatly strengthen Lizzies position.
But where was the dress? He began asking for it somewhat subtly because
he didnt want the police detectives to beat him to it. But the first three
people he talked to had no knowledge of its whereabouts.
Finally, on the Monday following the murders, he interviewed Lizzies close
friend, Alice Russell. When he questioned her about the dress, he was
stunned to hear that, just 24 hours previously and after he began inquiring
about it, Lizzie had burned the dress.
He was soon to learn that two people had witnessed the event: Lizzies
sister, Emma (who later, during the trial, claimed that it was her idea that
Lizzie finally get rid of that old thing), and Alice Russell (who, at trial, said
she remarked at the time, If I were you, I wouldnt let anybody see me do
that, Lizzie.) Lizzie later testified that she put the dress in the kitchen stove
because it was badly stained with brown paint.
O. M. Hanscom didnt know what to think. All who had seen the dress
directly after the murders had stated there were no visible stains of any sort.
Yet now he was hearing that Lizzie Borden had burned the dress because it
had paint stains. None of it made sense.

It was a turning point for New Englands best known Pinkerton detective.
He was a smart man and he wasted no time in concluding that Lizzie had
destroyed the dress for a reason. But he was also in an awkward position.
Because of local police resentment that he had been brought into the case to
protect Lizzies interests, a statement attributed to him had been planted in
the local press: If the parties are guilty, the agency will drop work at once
and not become accessory to a crime. If they are not guilty, the agency will
hang on and assist materially.
O. M. Hanscom wanted out of the case, but he could hardly withdraw without
inferring Lizzies guilt. Yet, of greater concern to him was the reputation of
the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Finally, after lengthy discussions with
Lizzies attorney, Andrew Jennings, a solution was devised: O. M. Hanscom
left town, ostensibly for another assignment.
His departure seemed
legitimate and did not even attract press attention. It was assumed that he
would be back.
But O. M. Hanscoms exit from Fall River was actually his exit from the case.
He was to never return to provide material assistance to Lizzie Bordens
defense.
The reason was simple:
he no longer believed in Lizzies
innocence.
*

Through other sources, the news of the dress burning was soon learned by
District Attorney Knowlton. Based on the fact alone, a grand jury was
persuaded to indict Lizzie Borden for the murders of her father and her
stepmother.
The trial was lengthy and complex. Ultimately, because of a continued lack
of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, Lizzie was acquitted of the murders.
Public opinion was with her during the course of the trial and for a short time
thereafter, but it soon shifted the opposite direction. Within just months
after the trial ended, it became a popularly held opinion that Lizzie Borden
had gotten away with murder. Around Fall River and in nearby towns, a
chant was born:
Lizzie Borden took an axe,
And gave her mother forty whacks,
And when she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.
With her inheritance, Lizzie purchased a mansion in an exclusive Fall River
neighborhood. But high society refused to embrace her, and her later years
were isolated and lonely. She died in 1927 at the age of 67.

If there appeared to be no blood on the dress, why did Lizzie burn it? We
dont know what O. M. Hanscom concluded, because as far as anybody
knows he never talked to anybody about his suspicions. But, because
Hanscoms generally think alike, I will try to speak for him:
Lizzie didnt commit the murders. Somebody else entered
the house who first killed Abby Borden, then ambushed and killed
Andrew J. Borden when he returned from downtown.
Lizzie was never in the barn. She was in the house the
entire time the murders were being committed.
She let the
murderer in, and was likely present in both the guest bedroom when
her stepmother was killed, and in the parlor when her father was
killed. She was a co-conspirator in the killings.
After both murders occurred, she possibly provided
clothing to the killer to wear over his (or her) blood-stained garbs.
She then assisted the killer in making a subtle, unnoticed departure
from the house. The murder weapon left with the murderer.
Whoever committed the murders was likely paid by Lizzie
to commit them, or was given a promise of payment (perhaps from
her eventual inheritance).
Because Lizzie had likely been present in the rooms when
her father and stepmother were slaughtered, she had been slightly
splattered with their blood. Possibly it was so little that, at first, she
may not have even realized it.
This would explain why her
neighbors and other witnesses reported seeing no blood on her
dress. But, when O. M. Hanscom began asking for the garment, she
realized that he would certainly examine it in great detail. The
blood splatters would be detected and her complicity in the crime
would be known. She chose to burn the dress. It was a risky move,
and it earned her an indictment for murder. But, with no material
proof of her guilt, the absence of a blood-stained dress ultimately
worked to her advantage.
*

O. M. Hanscom spent his later years as Deputy Superintendent of the

Boston Police Department. He died in Roxbury, Massachusetts (where
he lived at 13 Weld Avenue) on November 7, 1907, age 61. His widow
Kate outlived him by 14 years and died in Boston on January 16, 1922,
age 73. Both are buried in the Hanscom family plot in Oxford, Maine.
The Borden murder case remains unsolved. Numerous books and a
multitude of theories have been produced over the last 120 years,
but none have been able to conclusively summarize what really

happened. The murder weapon was never discovered, nor was the
bloody clothing worn by the murderer. While most agree that Lizzie
was not the actual killer, there is general consensus that she was
deeply involved. One theory is that Lizzies older sister, Emma who
was vacationing at time out in the country disguised herself as a
man and briefly returned to Fall River to commit the murders. Another
book claims that it was one William Borden allegedly an out-ofwedlock son of Andrew J. Borden and therefore Lizzies half-brother
who was hired to kill the wealthy couple.
But, because all those involved in this case are now dead, it is probable
we will never know the true story of the Borden murders. At least one
man, however, had likely figured the whole thing out, and that man
was our own Orrington Moses Hanscom.