June 8, 1893
I am a widow; have been a resident of Fall River more than forty-three years, and have lived in my present house nearly all my life. It is the house next north of the Borden house. My household consists of my mother, sister, son, niece and a man who works for us. Have known the Borden family for twenty years; have been on calling terms with them.
I saw Mr. Borden on the morning of August 4th, about nine o'clock. I was in my kitchen, and he was standing by his steps. At eleven o'clock I went to M. T. Hudner's market on South Main Street, to buy some things for dinner. When I got back to Second Street I saw Bridget Sullivan crossing the street from Dr Bowen's to the Borden house. She was walking fast, she looked very white, and I thought someone was sick. I went into my house, put down my bundles, and looked out my kitchen window.
Miss Lizzie Borden was standing inside their screen door, at the side of their house. I opened the window and said, "Lizzie, what is the matter?" She replied, "Oh, Mrs. Churchill, do come over. Someone has killed Father."
I went over and stepped inside the screen door. She was sitting on the stair. I put my hand on her arm and said, "Oh, Lizzie!" Then I said, "Where is your father?" She said, "In the sitting room." And I said, "Where were you when it happened?" and, she said, "I went to the barn to get a piece of iron." I said, "Where is your mother?" She said, "I don't know; she had got a note to go see someone who is sick, but I don't know but she is killed, too, for I thought I heard her come in." She said, "Father must have an enemy, for we have all been sick, and we think the milk has been poisoned. . . Dr Bowen is not at home, and I must have a doctor." I said, "Lizzie, shall I go and try to get a doctor?" And she said, "Yes," and I went out.
I went down Second Street to Mr. Hall's stable and asked a man there to go for a doctor. Then I went back to the Bordens', and presently Bridget came and then Dr Bowen. The doctor went into the sitting room to see Mr. Borden.
Shortly after, he came out and made some exclamation. Then he turned to me and said, "Addie, come in and see Mr. Borden." I said, "Oh no, Doctor, I don't want to see him. I saw him this morning. I don't want to see him." Later, after the body was covered, I saw his feet. Miss Russell came soon afterwards, and Lizzie said she wished someone would try to find Mrs. Borden. So Bridget and I started. She led the way, and as I went upstairs, I turned my head to the left, and when I got up so my eyes were level with the front hall, I could see across the floor of the spare room. At the far side, I saw something that looked like the form of a person.
I turned and went back. I don't know what I did. I went into the dining room and made some noise or other, and Miss Russell said, "Is there another?" I said, "Yes, she is up there."
I had had no information about this, except what I saw myself as my head rose above the level of the floor. I remember that later Miss Lizzie said that she should have to go to the cemetery, and I said, "Oh no, the undertaker will attend to everything for you." I never saw her in tears that morning.
Q. Will you describe the dress that she had on while you were there?
A. It looked like a light-blue-and-white groundwork; it seemed like calico or cambric, and it had a light-blue-and-white ground-work with a dark, navy-blue diamond printed on it.
Q. Was the whole dress alike, the skirt and waist? A. It looked so to me.
Q. Was that the dress she had on this morning? [Showing dark-blue dress;]
A. It does not look like it.
Q. Was it?
A. That is not the dress I have described.
Q. Was it the dress she had on?
A. I did not see her with it on that morning.
Q. Didn't see her with this dress on that morning?
A. No sir.
CROSS-EXAMINATION
Q. [By Mr. Robinson] Were you at home all the morning before this occurrence, Mrs. Churchill?
A. Yes sir.
Q. In the house?
A. Yes sir.
Q. And were you engaged in your housework that morning?
A. Yes sir.
Q. And I suppose taking no more notice of things outside than you ordinarily do? You had a good deal to do?
A. Yes sir, quite a good deal.
Q. Well, except the fact that you saw Mr. Borden in the morning as he was standing about the back steps, you do not recall anything about his movements or those of any of the family?
A. No sir; I saw one other person that morning. I saw Bridget.
Q. She was doing what?
A. Rinsing the parlor window when I saw her.
Q. What dress did Bridget have on that morning?
A. I don't know; a light calico, I think.
Q. Do you know anything about it?
A. No sir.
Q. You could not tell, could you?
A. No sir.
Q. Have not thought of that at all?
A. No sir.
Q. Have you since that August 4, 1892, ever thought what clothes Bridget had on?
A. No sir.
Q. And if we were now making the same inquiry about Bridget, you could not tell, could you, her dress?
A. No, I never took particular notice of it.
Q. Took no notice?
A. No, not of the dress.
Q. Did Mrs. Bowen come there sometime in the morning?
A. Yes sir.
Q. What dress did she have on?
A. I don't remember. I think it was a white groundwork-light calico with a black vine or something on it, but I don't know.
Q. I don't doubt you know what you had on yourself?
A. Yes sir, I do.
Q. Could you tell us all about that?
A. Yes sir.
Q. But when you get beyond that and what you say of Miss Lizzie's dress, you would not say much more about it, would you? Tell what Miss Russell had on?
A. No, I don't know what she had on.
Q. You had been there with Miss Lizzie all the time?
A. Yes sir.
Q. Did you see any blood on her dress?
A. No sir.
Q. [Referring to blue dress] On a dress as light as that, if there had been any blood you would have seen it, wouldn't you?
A. I don't know. I should think if it was in front I might have seen it. If I was right side of her there I couldn't help it, I don't think.
Q. You were right over her fanning her?
A. Yes sir, stood in front of her.
Q. Rubbing both her hands, and she was lying on the lounge?
A. She wasn't on the lounge when I fanned her. She was in the kitchen when I fanned her.
Q. You afterwards saw her with Miss Russell, and she was lying on the lounge?
A. Yes sir.
Q. At that time did you see a particle of blood on her dress?
A. No sir.
Q. Or her hands?
A. No sir.
Q. Or her face?
A. No sir.
Q. Or any disarrangement of her hair?
A. No sir.
Q. Or anything about her shoes?
A. I didn't notice her shoes at all.
Q. What did Bridget tell you about Mrs. Borden having a note?
A. She said Mrs. Borden had a note to go to see someone that was sick, and she was dusting the sitting room, and she hurried off, and says, "She didn't tell me where she was going; she generally does."
Q. That was what Bridget told you?
A. Yes sir.
Q. That was not what Lizzie told you?
A. No sir.
Q. Bridget said Mrs. Borden had a note?
A. Yes.
Q. And she hurried off?
A. Yes sir.
Q. She was dusting the sitting room?
A. Yes sir.
Q. And Bridget says, "She didn't tell me where she was going; she generally does"?
A. Bridget said—
Q. Bridget said that?
A. Yes sir.
Q. That was not what Lizzie said?
A. No sir.
Q. Now, you have got that right, haven't you? No doubt about that?
A. That Bridget said that "Mrs.. Borden had a note to go to see someone that was sick. She was dusting in the sitting room. She hurried off. She didn't tell me where she was going. She generally does."
RE-DIRECT
Q. [By Mr. Moody] Lest there be any mistake, Mrs. Churchill, you don't speak of this talk with Bridget with reference to the note as in substitution, but in addition to what Miss Lizzie Borden told you?
A. I t was after Lizzie had told me.
Q. Then Bridget told you what you have told us?
A. Yes, after that.