Q. Did you get any breakfast that morning?
A. I don't know whether I ate half a banana. I don't think I did.
Q. You drank no tea or coffee that morning?
A. No sir.
Q. And ate no cookies?
A. I don't know whether I did or not. We had some molasses cookies. I don't know whether I ate any that morning or not.
Q. Were the breakfast things put away when you got down?
A. Everything except the coffee pot. I'm not sure whether that was on the stove or not.
Q. You said nothing about Mr. Morse to your father or mother?
A. No sir.
Q. What was the next thing that happened after you got down?
A. Maggie went out of doors to wash the windows and father came out into the kitchen and said he did not know whether he would go down to the post office or not. And then I sprinkled some handkerchiefs to iron.
Q. Tell us again what time you came downstairs.
A. It was a little before nine, I should say. About quarter. I don't know sure.
Q. Did your father go down town?
A. He went down later.
Q. What time did he start away?
A. I don't know.
Q. What were you doing when he started away?
A. I was in the dining room, I think. Yes, I had just commenced, I think, to iron.
Q. It may seem a foolish question. How much of an ironing did you have?
A. I only had about eight or ten of my best handkerchiefs.
Q. Did you let your father out?
A. No sir, he went out himself.
Q. Did you fasten the door after him?
A. No sir.
Q. Did Maggie?
A. I don't know. When she went upstairs, she always locked the door. She had charge of the back door.
Q. Did she go out after a brush before your father went away?
A. I think so.
Q. Did you say anything to Maggie?
A. I did not.
Q. Did you say anything about washing the windows?
A. No sir.
Q. Did you speak to her?
A. I think I told her I did not want any breakfast.
Q. You do not remember of talking about washing the windows?
A. I don't remember whether I did or not. I don't remember it. Yes, I remember. Yes, I asked her to shut the parlor blinds when she got through because the sun was so hot.
Q. About what time do you think your father went downtown?
A. I don't know. It must have been about nine o'clock. I don't know what time it was.
Q. You think at that time you had begun to iron your handkerchiefs?
A. Yes sir.
Q. How long a job was that?
A. I did not finish them. My flats were not hot enough.
Q. How long a job would it have been if the flats had been right?
A. If they had been hot, not more than 20 minutes, perhaps.
Q. How long did you work on the job?
A. I don't know, sir.
Q. How long was your father gone?
A. I don't know that.
Q. Where were you when he returned?
A. I was down in the kitchen.
Q. What doing?
A. Reading an old magazine that had been left in the cupboard, an old Harper's magazine.
Q. Had you got through ironing?
A. No sir.
Q. Had you stopped ironing?
A. Stopped for the flats.
Q. Were you waiting for them to be hot?
A. Yes sir.
Q. Was there a fire in the stove?
A. Yes sir.
Q. When your father went away, you were ironing then?
A. I had not commenced, but I was getting the little ironing board and the flannel.
Q. Are you sure you were in the kitchen when your father returned?
A. I am not sure whether I was there or in the dining room.
Q. Did you go back to your room before your father returned?
A. I think I did carry up some clean clothes.
Q. Did you stay there?
A. No sir.
Q. Did you spend any time up the front stairs before your father returned?
A. No sir.
Q. Or after he returned?
A. No sir. I did stay in my room long enough when I went up to sew a little piece of tape on a garment.
Q. Was that the time when your father came home?
A. He came home after I came downstairs.
Q. You were not upstairs when he came home?
A. I was not upstairs when he came home, no sir.
Q. What was Maggie doing when your father came home?
A. I don't know whether she was there or whether she had gone upstairs. I can't remember.
Q. Who let your father in?
A. I think he came to the front door and rang the bell and I think Maggie let him in and he said he had forgotten his key. So I think she must have been downstairs.
Q. His key would have done him no good if the locks were left as you left them?
A. But they were always unbolted in the morning.
Q. Who unbolted them that morning?
A. I don't think they had been unbolted. Maggie can tell you.
Q. If he had not forgotten his key, it would have been no good.
A. No, he had his key and could not get in. I understood Maggie to say he said he had forgotten his key.
Q. You did not hear him say anything about it?
A. I heard his voice, but I don't know what he said.
Q. I understood you to say he said he had forgotten his key.
A. No, it was Maggie said he said he had forgotten his key.
Q. Where was Maggie when the bell rang?
A. I don't know, sir.
Q. Where were you when the bell rang?
A. I think in my room upstairs.
Q. Then you were upstairs when your father came home?
A. I don't know sure, but I think so.
Q. What were you doing?
A. As I say, I took up these clean clothes and stopped and basted a little piece of tape on a garment.
Q. Did you come down before your father was let in?
A. I was on the stairs coming down when she let him in.
Q. Then you were upstairs when your father came to the house on his return?
A. I think I was.
Q. How long had you been there?
A. I had only been upstairs long enough to take the clothes up and baste the little loop on the sleeve. I don't think I had been up there over five minutes.
Q. Was Maggie still engaged in washing windows when your father got back?
A. I don't know.
Q. You remember, Miss Borden, I will call to your attention to it so as to see if I have any misunderstanding, not for the purpose of confusing you, you remember that you told me several times that you were downstairs and not upstairs when your father came home? You have forgotten, perhaps?
A. I don't know what I have said. I have answered so many questions and I am so confused I don't know one thing from another. I am telling you just as nearly as I know how.
Q. Calling your attention to what you said about that a few minutes ago, and now again to the circumstances, you have said you were upstairs when the bell rang and were on the stairs when Maggie let your father in, which now is your recollection of the true statement of the matter? That you were downstairs when the bell rang and your father came?
A. I think I was downstairs in the kitchen.
Q. And then you were not upstairs?
A. I think I was not because I went up almost immediately, as soon as I went down, and then came down again and stayed down.
Q. What had you in your mind when you said you were on the stairs as Maggie let your father in?
A. The other day somebody came there and she let them in and I was on the stairs. I don't know whether the morning before or when it was.
Q. You understood I was asking you exactly and explicitly about this fatal day?
A. Yes sir.
Q. I now call your attention to the fact that you had specifically told me you had gone upstairs and had been there about five minutes when the bell rang and were on your way down and were on the stairs when Maggie let your father in that day.
A. Yes, I said that. And then I said I did not know whether I was on the stairs or in the kitchen.
Q. Now how will you have it?
A. I think, as nearly as I know, I think I was in the kitchen.
Q. How long was your father gone?
A. I don't know, sir. Not very long.
Q. An hour?
A. I should not think so.
Q. Will you give me the best story you can, so far as your recollection serves you, of your time while he was gone?
A. I sprinkled my handkerchiefs and got my ironing board and took them in the dining room. I took the ironing board in the dining room and left the handkerchiefs in the kitchen on the table and whether I ate any cookies or not, I don't remember. Then I sat down looking at the magazine, waiting for the flats to heat. Then I went in the sitting room and got the Providence Journal and took that into the kitchen. I don't recollect of doing anything else.
Q. Which did you read first, the Journal or the magazine?
A The magazine.
Q. You told me you were reading the magazine when your father came back.
A. I said in the kitchen, yes.
Q. Was that so?
A. Yes, I took the Journal out to read and had not read it. I had it near me.
Q. You said a minute or two ago you read the magazine a while and then went and got the Journal and took it out to read.
A. I did, but I did not read it. I tried my flats then.
Q. And went back to reading the magazine?
A. I took the magazine up again, yes.
Q. When did you last see your mother?
A. I did not see her after when I went down in the morning and she was dusting the dining room.
Q. Where did you or she go then?
A. I don't know where she went. I know where I was.
Q. Did you or she leave the dining room first?
A I think I did. I left her in the dining room.
Q. You never saw her or heard her afterwards?
A. No sir.
Q. Did she say anything about making the bed?
A. She said she had been up and made the bed up fresh and had dusted the room and left it all in order. She was going to put some fresh pillow slips on the small pillows at the foot of the bed and was going to close the room because she was going to have company Monday and she wanted everything in order.
Q. How long would it take to put on the pillow slips?
A. About two minutes.
Q. How long to do the rest of the things?
A. She had done that when I came down.
Q. All that was left was what?
A. To put on the pillow slips.
Q. Can you give me any suggestion as to what occupied her when she was up there, when she was struck dead?
A. I don't know of anything except she had some cotton cloth pillow cases up there and she said she was going to commence to work on them. That is all I know. And the sewing machine was up there.
Q. Whereabouts was the sewing machine?
A. In the corner between the north and west side.
Q. Did you hear the sewing machine going?
A. I did not.
Q. Did you see anything to indicate that the sewing machine had been used that morning?
A. I had not. I did not go in there until after everybody had been in there and the room had been overhauled.
Q. If she had remained downstairs, you would undoubtedly have seen her?
A. If she had remained downstairs, I should have. If she had remained in her room, I should not have.
Q. Where was that?
A. Over the kitchen.
Q. To get to that room she would have to go through the kitchen?
A. To get up the back stairs.
Q. That is the way she was in the habit of going?
A. Yes sir, because the other doors were locked.
Q. If she had remained downstairs or had gone to her own room, you undoubtedly would have seen her?
A. I should have seen her if she had stayed downstairs. If she had gone to her room, I would not have seen her.
Q. She was found a little after 11 in the spare room. If she had gone to her own room, she must have gone through the kitchen and up the back stairs and subsequently have gone down and gone back again?
A. Yes sir.
Q. Have you any reason to suppose you would not have seen her if she had spent any portion of the time in her room or downstairs?
A. There is no reason why I should not have seen her if she had been down there, except when I first came downstairs, for two or three minutes, I went down cellar to the water closet.
Q. After that, you were where you practically commanded the view of the first story the rest of the time?
A. I think so.
Q. When you went upstairs for a short time, as you say you did, you then went in sight of the sewing machine?
A. No, I did not see the sewing machine because she had shut that room up.
Q. What do you mean?
A. I mean the door was closed. She said she wanted it kept closed to keep the dust and everything out.
Q. Was it a room with a window?
A. It has three windows.
Q. A large room?
A. The size of the parlor; a pretty fair-sized room.
Q. It is the guest room?
A. Yes, the spare room.
Q. Where the sewing machine was was the guest room?
A. Yes sir.
Q. I ask again, perhaps you have answered all you care to, what explanation can you give, can you suggest, as to what she was doing from the time she said she had got the work all done in the spare room, until 11 o'clock?
A. I suppose she went up and made her own bed.
Q. That would be in the back part?
A. Yes sir.
Q. She would have to go by you twice to do that?
A. Unless she went when I was in my room that few minutes.
Q. That would not be time enough for her to go and make her own bed and come back again.
A. Sometimes she stayed up longer and sometimes shorter. I don't know.
Q. Otherwise than that, she would have to go in your sight?
A. I should have to have seen her once. I don't know that I need to have seen her more than once.
Q. You did not see her at all?
A. No sir, not after the dining room.
Q. What explanation can you suggest as to the whereabouts of your mother from the time you saw her in the dining room and she said her work in the spare room was all done, until 11 o'clock?
A. I don't know. I think she went back into the spare room and whether she came back again or not, I don't know. That has always been a mystery.
Q. Can you think of anything she could be doing in the spare room?
A. Yes sir. I know what she used to do sometimes. She kept her best cape she wore on the street in there and she used occasionally to go up there to get it and to take it into her room. She kept a great deal in the guest room drawers. She used to go up there and get things and put things. She used those drawers for her own use.
Q. That connects her with her own room again, to reach which she had to go downstairs and come up again.
A. Yes.
Q. Assuming that she did not go into her own room, I understand you to say she could not have gone to her own room without your seeing her.
A. She could while I was down cellar.
Q. You went down immediately you came down, within a few minutes, and you did not see her when you came back.
A. No sir.
Q. After the time she must have remained in the guest chamber?
A. I don't know.
Q. So far as you can judge?
A. So far as I can judge she might have been out of the house or in the house.
Q. Had you any knowledge of her going out of the house?
A. She told me she had had a note. Somebody was sick and she said, "I am going to get the dinner on the way" and asked me what I wanted for dinner.
Q. Did you tell her?
A. Yes, I told her I did not want anything.
Q. Then why did you not suppose she had gone?
A. I supposed she had gone.
Q. Did you hear her come back?
A. I did not hear her go or come back, but I supposed she went.
Q. When you found your father dead, you supposed your mother had gone?
A. I did not know. I said to the people who came in, "I don't know whether Mrs. Borden is out or in. I wish you would see if she is in her room."
Q. You supposed she was out at the time?
A. I understood so. I did not suppose anything about it.
Q. Did she tell you where she was going?
A. No sir.
Q. Did she tell you who the note was from?
A. No sir.
Q. Did you ever see the note?
A. No sir.
Q. Do you know where it is now?
A. No sir.
Q. She said she was going out that morning?
A. Yes sir.
Q. I shall have to ask you once more about that morning. Do you know what the family ate for breakfast?
A. No sir.
Q. Had the breakfast all been cleared away when you got down?
A. Yes sir.
Q. I want you to tell me just where you found the people when you got down that you did find there.
A. I found Mrs. Borden in the dinning room I found my father in the sitting room.
Q. And Maggie?
A. Maggie was coming in the back door with her pail and brush.
Q. Tell me what talk you had with your mother at the time?
A. She asked me how I felt. I said I felt better than I did Tuesday, but I did not want any breakfast. She asked me what I wanted for dinner I told her nothing. She said she was going out and would get the dinner. That is the last I saw her.
Q. Where did you go to then?
A. Into the kitchen.
Q. Where then?
A. Down cellar.
Q. Gone perhaps five minutes?
A. Perhaps not more than that. Possibly a little bit more.
Q. When you came back did you see your mother?
A. I did not. I supposed she had gone out.
Q. She did not tell you where she was going?
A. No sir.
Q. When you came back, was your father there?
A. Yes sir.
Q. What was he doing?
A. Reading the paper.
Q. Did you eat any breakfast?
A. No sir. I don't remember whether I ate a molasses cookie or not.
I did not eat any regularly prepared breakfast.
Q. Was it was usual for your mother to go out?
A. Yes sir, she went out every morning nearly and did the marketing.
Q. Was it was usual for her to go away from dinner.
A. Yes sir sometimes, not very often.
Q. How often, say?
A. Oh I should not think more than---well, I don't know, more than once in three months, perhaps.
Q. Now I call your attention to the fact that twice yesterday you told me, with some explicitness, that when your father came in, you were just coming downstairs.
A. No I did not. I beg your pardon.
Q. That you were on the stairs at the time your father was let in, you said with explicitness. Do you now say that you did not say so?
A. I said I thought first I was on the stairs; then I remembered I was in the kitchen when he came in.
Q. First you thought you were in the kitchen; afterwards, your remembered you were on the stairs?
A. As I said, I thought I was on the stairs. Then I remembered I was in the kitchen when he came in.
Q. Did you go into the front part of the house after your father came in?
A. After he came in from down street, I was in the sitting room with him.
Q. Did you go into the front hall afterwards?
A. No sir.
Q. At no time?
A. No sir.
Q. Excepting the two or three minutes you were down cellar, were you away from the house until your father came in?
A. No sir.
Q. You were always in the kitchen or dining room, excepting when you went upstairs?
A. I went upstairs before he went out.
Q. You mean you went up there to sew a button on?
A. I basted a piece of tape on.
Q. Do you remember you did not say that yesterday?
A. I don't think you asked me. I told you yesterday I went upstairs directly after I came up from down cellar, with the clean clothes.
Q. You now say after your father went out, you did not go upstairs at all?
A. No sir, I did not.
Q. When Maggie came in there washing the windows, you did not appear from the front part of the house?
A. No sir.
Q. When your father was let in, you did not appear from upstairs?
A. No sir, I was in the kitchen.
Q. That is so?
A. Yes sir, to the best of my knowledge.
Q. After your father went out, you remained there, either in the kitchen or dining room all the time?
A. I went into the sitting room long enough to direct some paper wrappers.
Q. One of the three rooms?
A. Yes sir.
Q. So it would have been extremely difficult for anybody to have gone through the kitchen and dining room and front hall without your seeing them?
A. They could have gone from the kitchen into the sitting room while I was in the dining room, if there was anybody to go.
Q. Then into the front hall?
A. Yes sir.
Q. You were in the dining room ironing?
A. Yes sir, part of the time.
Q. You were in all the three rooms?
A. Yes sir.
Q. A large portion of that time the girl was out of doors?
A. I don't know where she was. I did not see her. I supposed she was out of doors, as she had the pail and brush.
Q. You knew she was washing windows?
A. She told me she was going to. I did not see her do it.
Q. For a large portion of the time, you did not see the girl?
A. No sir.
Q. So far as you know, you were alone in the lower part of the house a large portion of the time after your father went away and before he came back?
A. My father did not go away, I think, until somewhere about 10, as near as I can, remember. He was with me downstairs.
Q. A large portion of the time after your father went away and before he came back, so far as you know, you were alone in the house?
A. Maggie had come in and gone upstairs.
Q. After he went out and before he came back, a large portion of the time after your father went out and before he came back, so far as you know, you were the only person in the house?
A So far as I know, I was.
Q. And during that time, so far as you know, the front door was locked?
A So far as I know.
Q. And never was unlocked at all?
A I don't think it was.
Q. Even after your father came home, it was locked up again?
A. I don't know whether she locked it up again after that or not.
Q. It locks itself?
A. The spring lock opens.
Q. It fastens it so it cannot be opened from the outside?
A. Sometimes you can press it open.
Q. Have you any reason to suppose the spring lock was left so it could be pressed open from the outside?
A. I have no reason to suppose so.
Q. Nothing about the lock was changed before the public came?
A. Nothing that I know of.
Q. What were you doing in the kitchen when your father came home?
A. I think I was eating a pear when he came in.
Q. What had you been doing before that?
A. Been reading a magazine.
Q. Were you making preparations to iron again?
A. I had sprinkled my clothes and was waiting for the flat. I sprinkled the clothes before he went out.
Q. Had you built up the fire again?
A. I put in a stick of wood. There was a few sparks. I put in a stick of wood to try to heat the flat.
Q. You had then started the fire?
A. Yes sir.
Q. The fire was burning when he came in?
A. No sir, but it was smoldering and smoking as though it would come up.
Q. Did it come up after he came in?
A. No sir.
Q. Did you do any more ironing?
A. I did not. I went in with him and did not finish.
Q. You did not iron any more after your father came in?
A. No sir.
Q. Was the ironing board put away?
A. No sir, it was on the dining room table.
Q. When was it put away?
A. I don't know. Somebody put it away after the affair happened.
Q. You did not put it away?
A. No sir.
Q. Was it on the dining room table when you found your father killed?
A. I suppose so.
Q. You had not put it away then?
A. I had not touched it.
Q. How soon after your father came in before Maggie went upstairs?
A. I don't know. I did not see her.
Q. Did you see her after your father came in?
A. Not after she let him in.
Q. How long was your father in the house before you found him killed?
A. I don't know exactly because I went out to the barn. I don't know what time he came home. I don't think he had been home more than 15 or 20 minutes. I am not sure.
Q. When you went out to the barn, where did you leave your father?
A. He had laid down on the living room lounge, taken off his shoes and put on his slippers and taken off his coat and put on the reefer. I asked him if he wanted the window left that way.
Q. Where did you leave him?
A. On the sofa.
Q. Was he asleep?
A. No sir.
Q. Was he reading?
A. No sir.
Q. What was the last thing you said to him?
A. I asked him if he wanted the window left that way. Then I went into the kitchen and from there to the barn.
Q. Whereabouts in the barn did you go?
A. Upstairs.
Q. To the second story of the barn?
A. Yes sir.
Q. How long did you remain there?
A. I don't know. Fifteen or 20 minutes.
Q. What doing?
A. Trying to find lead for a sinker.
Q. What made you think there would be lead for a sinker up there?
A. Because there was some there.
Q. Was there not some by the door?
A. Some pieces of lead by the open door, but there was a box full of old things upstairs.
Q. Did you bring any sinker back from the barn?
A. Nothing but a piece of a chip I picked up on the floor.
Q. Where was that box you say was upstairs, containing lead?
A. There was a kind of a work bench.
Q. Is it there now?
A. I don't know sir.
Q. How long since you have seen it there?
A. I have not been out there since that day.
Q. Had you been in the barn before?
A. That day? No sir.
Q. How long since you had been in the barn before?
A. I don't think I had been into it, I don't know as I had, in three months.
Q. When you went out, did you unfasten the screen door?
A. I unhooked it to get out.
Q. It was hooked until you went out?
A. Yes sir.
Q. It had been left hooked by Bridget, if she was the last one in?
A. I suppose so. I don't know.
Q. Do you know when she did get through washing the outside?
A. I don't know.
Q. Did you know she washed the windows inside?
A. I don't know.
Q. Did you see her washing the windows inside?
A. I don't know.
Q. You don't know whether she washed the dining room window and sitting room windows inside?
A. I did not see her.