by Rick Geary
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Product Description
³Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks, when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one!² In this third volume of Geary¹s Treasury, the famous Lizzie Borden double murder is explored with as much attention to well -researched detail as in his Jack the Ripper.
Amazon.com Review
Rick Geary received quite a bit of critical praise for his Jack the Ripper volume of A Treasury of Victorian Murder, and rightfully so. The Borden Tragedy (the third volume in the series), is no less impressive. Based on the famous 19th-century Lizzie Borden double murder, this comic-book version of the event is supposedly excerpted and adapted from the unpublished writings of an unknown woman from the Borden's hometown of Fall River. The narrator, a friend of Lizzie Borden, is intent on finding out all of the facts behind such a grizzly butchering. We are taken through meticulously researched evidence, all stunningly illustrated by Geary, but Geary leaves us without taking a strong stand one way or the other. As an extra treat, the back cover includes a list of comparisons between Lizzie Borden and O. J. Simpson.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Murder In The Horse & Buggy Era. Well-Drawn/Written/Documented Book, 2008-08-11
Too often, cartoons are thought of as "kid stuff". But Rick Geary has created a well-researched account of the infamous Borden murders in cartoon format, & it is useful for adults & children alike.
Filled with illustrations from old photos, maps & blueprints, you get an excellent feel for the events. Geary makes plain other features, such as the oppressively hot Summer temperatures, the eyewitness that saw Lizzy in the yard, clean & un-bloodstained, & many other documented facts that less fair authors choose to omit.
This early era in American History come across well, & the cartoon approach makes the "horse & buggy" period comprehensible to the Internet Generation.
A big thumbs up for this one.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Detailed introduction to a baffling case, 2007-12-13
Detailed introduction to a baffling case
I'll bet that most Americans have heard of Lizzy Borden, and know something about her reputation of having killed her parents with a hatchet. Beyond that, not so much.
"The Borden Tragedy" tries to cover all bases in the case, introducing the reader to the major actors and the theories behind the murders, which occurred (I'm embarrassed to admit) in my own backyard -- Fall River, MA, barely half-morning's drive from my home. In the sweltering, mid-morning hours of August 4, 1892, someone brutally murdered Andrew and Abby Borden inside their cozy home with multiple blows from a weapon. A maid, a grown child, a border and neighbors scurried about, seemingly oblivious to the grisly drama unfolding inside. Suspicion fell, naturally, on those closest to the tragedy. But hard evidence was equally hard to find. Were the Bordens done in by those of their own household? Was this s revenge crime related to Mr. Borden's business ventures? Or was a madman on the loose?
The book reconstructs in fascinating detail the movements of the many individuals on that fated day, but also in the days preceding. The Bordens were odd, in their way, but not seemingly bizarre. Father Andrew was a quite stern and forbidding man, though not unsentimental. He wore a ring Lizzie gave him as a gift years before. Stepmother Abby was hardly beloved, but seems not to have been detested. Daughters Emma and Lizzie, in their 40s and 30s respectively, were unmarried and still lived at home with their parents. If there were resentments, they were kept carefully in check. But was there more to the family drama than met the eye? While the speculation of moderns minds may tend toward the lurid (weird dad + 2 single women = ?) , the author follows the lead of his 19th century subjects and leaves this promising territory unexplored.
The book does a nice job of laying out the rather confusing facts of the murders the subsequent trial, and the aftermath for the involved parties. Though the murders were brutal, involving extensive injury to faces and heads, the wounds are always hidden by shadows, except for a display of the skulls in the trial scene. This minor mercy makes the book appropriate for kids about 10-12 and up who have an interest in the story.
The author's only stumble was in what must have been a marketing gimmick on the back cover -- a comparison of the Borden case with the more recent OJ Simpson case. Oh well. At the back of the book, the author does include a few newspaper clippings of the day, giving the interested reader the chance to get a feel for journalistic styles of the late 19th century.
"The Borden Tragedy" gave me a good grounding in the case. Next time I swing (!) through Fall River, I'll have to pop by their home (still standing) and their family grave.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
good.. but not enough dialogue, 2007-08-20
best part is on the back cover where it compares oj simpson to the borden girl! very fun book to read although id have put more dialogue in it. but it does cover the murders nicely.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
The Tragedy in a Nutshell, 2006-10-19
This is an illustrated novel to provide a quick tour of this famous unsolved crime. The `Bibliography' fails to list David Kent's "Forty Whacks", the one best book on this case. Geary's book necessarily skims over the details; there are no page numbers. If Abby was called to the front door to receive a note would the door still be triple-locked as at night? The position of Andrew on that sofa shows how he was found; he must have been sitting upright (try it and see). The drawing of the barn omits the stairs to the second floor. Geary sums up the arguments for Lizzie's innocence, and covers the other solutions from other authors.
The wounds on Andrew's skull suggest a right-handed killer who faced him; or a left-handed killer who struck while Andrew was reclining. Abby's killer would have to be right-handed to hit her right side of her head from the back; or left-handed if she faced the killer. This is one of the puzzles of this crime. The question about Andrew "apparently fallen over from a sitting position" can be explained by Andrew putting on his shoes to greet a secret visitor. Lizzie was guilty of withholding the identity of this visitor. But her actions were approved by the members of the Fall River ruling class. The back cover compares Lizzie Borden to O.J. Simpson on a number of similarities. The last item about "any other individual" points to an unknown subject given the lack of evidence against either (no bloody clothes or shoes, no murder weapon). Somebody else did it. It would be more accurate to compare Dr. Sam Sheppard to Lizzie. Both were at the crime scene, neither had blood spatter on their clothes or the murder weapon. Both were correctly found not guilty, but suffered from prejudice for the rest of their lives.
You can read about other True Crime cases. If no one in the household did the murder, it was an intruder (or unknown subject). The Borden murders was solved in Arnold Brown's book: it was a nephew of Andrew. Lizzie kept this secret to avoid a scandal. Members of the Fall River ruling class knew, and also kept this secret (except to acknowledge it was a secret). Arnold Brown spent two years researching his book. That was more time than the professional writers used. Brown admits he has no documentary proof for his conclusion, the nephew's birth certificate is kept secret by Massachusetts' laws. There can be no documentary proof of the Mellen House Gang conspiracy because a secret is never committed to paper (else it is not a secret). Brown believes the conflict was over Andrew's will. But a will does not require an heir's presence. Andrew did business from his home, he often made loans to people and foreclosed on their property when they couldn't pay. I believe the secret visitor was there to explain why he could not repay a loan that was due. There are many stories of murder for money in True Crime. Remember the loan from Dr. Parkman to Dr. Webster?
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Very, very good, 2006-05-27
Rather than read a single book that "solves" the Borden killings (there's a new solution every few years), you should get a copy of this. This book beautifully outlines the ambiguity of the Borden scenario, leaving the reader with both the sense that noone but Lizzie could have done it, AND that there's simply no way she could have done it. This book clearly and beautifully lays it all out for you. With his expert eye Geary's illustration-diagrams clarify things in a way that even a movie can't. The wierd layout of the Andrew Borden house has never been more clear than in his cut-away illustration.
Noone understands like Geary, the usefulness to a reader of foregrounding the factual information, which leaves you in a position to think more critically about the events. I find his books to be the most useful authority for getting my head around the facts and movements of the suspects, moreso than in the non-fiction books covering the same topic. Geary's best books bring the crime scenes and milieus vividly back to life. His calm, methodical sequencing of the surrounding events lends an operatic and important scale to some tawdry murders. They are perfect for reading just before bedtime.
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