The INQUEST of Lizzie Borden, Episode 1

"There is no great genius without a touch of madness."
Aristotle 350 BC

It is so exciting to be able to be the first person in history to have recorded the Inquest of Lizzie Borden's testimony into a series of podcasts thanks to the digital revolution and now to make them available on Youtube. It only took 130 years since August 4, 1892.

Her defense lawyers did everything they could to keep the jury and the public from hearing it. Successfully ruled "Inadmissible" by her defense it was the crafty skill of shorthand secretaries employed by the Boston newspapers that captured every word of Lizzie's inquest as it was read into the record at the end of her preliminary trial on September 1, 1892.

When examing Lizzie Borden's crime I find it best to zoom in on those extreme close-ups and to zoom out and pan wide to get a general sense of the era that she lived in during the strict rules and expected social norms of the Victorian Era of 1892.

It is the only time we have Lizzie on the record a mere five days after the murders, therefore every word must be carefully scrutinized for its veracity and nuance. Although she was on double doses of morphine, she answered every question with the perfect amount of bitchcraft.

Although I wanted to put all 4 episodes into one giant podcast it is far too much information to take in all at once. Also, analytics show that many of us, including myself, want to spend our time listening to more and more great content, so our attention spans are getting shorter.

The first 10 minutes contain the heaviest exposition but once you are past that Lizzie and D.A. Hosea Knowlton really gets into it and the tension escalates all the way to the 4th episode. She was snarky, bitchy, and evasive and Knowlton would ask her the same question 10 different ways till Sunday.

Lizzie Borden was summoned to appear for questioning before Judge Blaisdell and D.A. Hosea Knowlton for her inquest five days after the suspicious murders of her father and stepmother. She was the last person to see each person alive moments before their deaths even though they occurred two hours apart.

Announcer: Dennis Alexander
Narrator: Martin Dodge
Lizzie Borden: Tanya Montoya
D.A.Hosea Knowlton: Tim Dennis
Recorded at KBOO Radio, Portland, Oregon.
Recorded during 2018 & 2019
Released as a podcast on Buzzsprout on March 28, 2020

Music: Purchased at MelodyLoops.com

Powerful Rocket by Snow Music Studio
My celebration song!

Pumpkin Fiction by Elena Naumova

Spooky Pumpkin by Audiocalm (My tribute to Alfred Hitchcock)

Check out my other podcasts:
https://www.lizziebordenaudio.com

Read my hypothesis on how Lizzie committed the murders w/o getting blood on her hair or clothes with the use of a gossamer. It took me months of study to come to this conclusion.

https://www.lizziebordenaudio.substac...

Follow me on Facebook:   / lavender011  
Or the demon stepchild Twitter: @realizzieborden
It may be a few days before I see it.

Transcriptions of Lizzie's inquest testimony provided with permission by Stefani Koorey and LizzieAndrewBorden.com
Copyright Permission for Stefani Koorey read by Dennis Alexander. -:)
Read the latest book by the Fall River Historical Society "The Jennings Journals 1892"
https://www.lizzieborden.org

My Lizzie Borden friend from Staten Island won a grant and wrote a book called:
"Inadmissible: Lizzie Borden and other Murderous Women."
Her name is Kimbra Eberly and here's the Amazon link: https://amzn.to/3A1Bh5t
You can also scroll down on Amazon and read my book review of the book.

Because of editing purposes and the fact I used the Arnold Brown version of the Inquest in the back of his book "Lizzie Borden: The Legend, The Truth, The Final Chapter" published August 1, 1991, unaware at the time that the version had been edited it is not recommended that you follow along with transcripts unless provided by Youtube.

Although last summer of August 2021 we did attempt to record another Inquest this time with Borden scholar Stefani Koorey's version many things went wrong that caused us to stop tape mid-performance. We could not recapture the "lightning in the bottle" we caught our first time.

I learned a valuable lesson as a director. Performance over perfection.
Although I had to cover up my inexperience by using 'echo to hide clipping' I have to allow myself the grace to get better at recording and never make those mistakes again.

There are 4 Inquest Episodes in total. :)