True-Crime, Composition, and Sarah Miller’s (2016), The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden & the Trial of the Century by Stacy Graber, McKenzie Davis, Renee Seebacher, and Sarah Welsh

Special Friday or Weekend editions of Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday happen about once a month. They generally happen when someone suggests an interesting topic, something timely, or a topic that matches some event on the calendar. Once again Stacy Graber has something interesting to say. Not that this is a surprise, I think she always has something interesting to say. In addition, she has asked some of her Youngstown State students to help out.

As always, you can find more of Stacy's post by looking through the contributors tab. Thanks Stacy.

True-Crime, Composition, and Sarah Miller’s (2016), The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden & the Trial of the Century

Stacy Graber, McKenzie Davis, Renee Seebacher, and Sarah Welsh
Youngstown State University

If you are a true crime enthusiast looking to get into the hospitality industry, then look no further: A thriving B&B/museum (18 thousand visitors documented in 2019 (De Leon 2021)) has come available for the purchase price of $2 million.  I am talking about the infamous family home of Lizzie Borden in Falls River, Massachusetts, the site of a double hatchet murder in 1892.
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The commercial success of such attractions is an apparent reflection of the popularity of “dark tourism” or travel to locales associated with death and disaster (Madden 2019).  I hadn’t considered this sort of destination travel as a social phenomenon until it was framed as such in the articles that appeared in my feed after I taught Sarah Miller’s (2016) book, The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden & the Trial of the Century, and once the Borden residence was announced for sale.  Although, I have long known about people’s lurid curiosity for visiting places steeped in tragedy and despair like defunct prisons and asylums, or crime scenes and sites of carnage. 

People used to early acquire background knowledge on the Borden murders through a gruesome jump-rope chant, which Miller (2016) indicates originated with a rhyme neighborhood kids sang within earshot of Borden after she was acquitted.  However, if the story is unfamiliar, Borden was the prime suspect of the double homicide of her father and step-mother and, after imprisonment and a sensationalistic trial, she was found not guilty, but lived the remainder of her days in the shadow of public doubt.
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Miller’s (2016) text is engaging because it provides young readers with a narrativized dossier of evidence (e.g., crime scene photographs, floor plans, excerpts from court transcripts and journalistic accounts, etc.) for drawing independent conclusions toward solving the crime, which synchs with argument-based standards across content areas.  When I taught the book in a college-level YAL course, I drew upon Cole (2009) to frame discussion on how the mystery genre catalyzes inferential thinking through the practice of cognitive strategies (e.g., posing questions, clarifying, making connections, and revising initial assumptions) (p. 331).  And, I followed that up with identification of patterns of organization enacted by the detective genre in tracking the thought process of a sleuth (e.g., cause and effect, process analysis, chronological and spatial order, comparison, etc.).  Finally, I concluded by reiterating Hillocks’ (2011) classic recommendation to study mysteries (print and visual) to teach the fundamentals of argument with particular emphasis on the generation of warrants (i.e., reasoned links between claim and evidence).

After our reading of The Borden Murders, I invited students (many of whom were teacher candidates) to describe a writing task or project based on Miller’s text, which would include an annotated bibliography comprised of at least 3 thematically related sources in varied formats (print, visual, and digital) toward assembling multimodal text-sets.
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Therefore, the following material consists of select blueprints for working with Miller’s text, designed by 3 prospective ELA teachers at YSU.  By taking their lead, a new audience can engage with the folkloric Lizzie Borden and ELA teachers can capitalize on students’ love for the genres of true crime and mystery. 

Plan 1 by McKenzie Davis

​As a final project for a unit on Miller’s (2016), The Borden Murders, students will be assigned the task of composing a written piece that considers potential suspects of the Borden murders other than Lizzie Borden herself. Students’ suspect choices must be thoroughly explained (i.e., they must do so by referencing possible evidence and motive presented in Miller’s text or look to other scholarly resources on the Borden murders), and they should include a theory as to how the perpetrator executed the murder so that blame fell onto Lizzie. The supplementary resources for this unit are provided to aid students in their consideration of possible suspects, as they encourage students to consider criminal justice and psychological perspectives during writing. The YouTube selection presents a real-time visual of the Borden house, which students may use to build the murderer’s plan of execution and escape. 

Annotated Bibliography
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BuzzFeed Unsolved Network. (2017, May 12). The murders that haunt the Lizzie Borden house. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/LuNDAGxYHSs

This resource allows viewers to virtually step inside the Lizzie Borden house, giving students greater perspective on the configuration of the house and the murder scenes. It also addresses theories for suspects aside from or in partnership with Lizzie Borden.

Fincher, D., et al. (Producers). (2017-2019). Mindhunter [TV series]. Netflix. https://www.netflix.com/

This fictional series is based on the true-crime book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker.  The series follows FBI agents assigned with the task of interviewing serial killers to get inside their minds. Select episodes from this series would pair well with Miller’s Lizzie Borden text because they provide a true-crime perspective and glimpse at the thought process of murderers.

Tartt, D. (2004). The secret history. Vintage Books.

This novel presents an insider’s view of the construction of a murder (i.e., not only does it capture the psychological perspective of characters and their motives, but it also addresses the characters’ plot to make death appear accidental). This work of fiction would pair well with a nonfiction unit on Lizzie Borden because it offers readers the opportunity to consider the makings of a murder from the point of view of the murderers themselves.

Plan 2 by Renee Seebacher

​After reading Miller’s (2016) The Borden Murders, students will create a case file for the unsolved mystery of who killed Andrew and Abby Borden. This project is inspired by the Unsolved Case Files games. Unsolved Case Files was founded by John Carroll and Lou Wilson, and the idea of these games is for players to act as detectives in order to solve cold crime cases in a way that is interactive and fun while still feeling authentic (Carroll & Wilson, 2020). Using The Borden Murders as an anchor text, the case file that students create will include a crime scene investigation report, a person of interest form for whomever the student believes committed the murders, a drawing of what the crime scene in the Borden home looked like, and a case closed summary detailing the conclusion the student comes to on who committed the murder and how. Students may also include any additional documents or drawings they deem necessary to the case. All documents and drawings included in the case file will be created using details and evidence from the book. This multi-genre project calls for close reading of the text while allowing students to express their creativity in the classroom.

References

Carroll, J., & Wilson, L. (2020). About unsolved case files - The true story. Unsolved Case Files. https://www.unsolvedcasefiles.com/about.html.
 
Annotated Bibliography
 
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. (2013, August 9). Types of evidence [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW4XQM-iQWQ
        
In this video, Amy Garrett, a forensics instructor at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, discusses the major categories of forensic evidence and the different types of evidence that fall under those categories. This will assist students with deciding which details to include in the evidence report portion of their case file on the Borden murders.
          
Schimel, B. (2017). Crime scene sketch. Wisconsin Department of Justice State Crime Laboratories. https://wilenet.org/html/crime-lab/index.html 
        
This PDF of chapter four from the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratories’ Physical Evidence Handbook details how to sketch a crime scene. This will assist students with creating their own sketch of the crime scene at the Borden home that will be included in their case file.

Unsolved Case Files. (2020, August 7). Buddy Edmunds – Unsolved case files – Who killed Buddy? Cold Case Crime Board Overview [Video]. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com-/watch?v=kawJYDBDVv0&feature=emb_title
 
This video, published on the Unsolved Case Files YouTube channel, lays out the case of Buddy Edmunds (a victim in one of the games). Since this project is inspired by Unsolved Case Files, this video will give students an idea of what the documents they will be asked to assemble should look like, as well as insight on how such documents are used to solve cold crime cases.

Plan 3 by Sarah Welsh

When designing a final project based on Miller’s (2016) The Borden Murders, I considered that not all students think and learn alike. Some prefer to work individually, while others work better collaborating in groups. Therefore, I designed a final project that would fit either learning style and give students the freedom to choose which assignment would suit their needs. As an individual assignment, I would have students develop a 3-4-page research essay that discusses how modern forensic technology and crime scene investigation techniques of today could have assisted in solving the Borden murders, and I would require that they use at least three supplemental sources in their research. One source I provided is a nonfiction text by Bridget Heos (2016), Blood, Bullets, and Bones: The Story of Forensic Science from Sherlock Holmes to DNA. Without having to read book in its entirety, students could skim chapters to find evidence for their papers as to how those techniques could have helped solve the Borden murders. I also provided an article from USA Today, which discusses how DNA evidence has been used to solve cold cases from decades ago. Students could use this resource to frame their argument and direct research.

As for the collaborative option, I would have students work together to create a Lizzie Borden-themed board game based on the classic game of Clue. I would want them to research the layout of the house, possible suspects, and common weapons of the time period to design those aspects of the game board and pieces. They could then build the game however they choose and groups would present their game to the class. I provided students with sources that show maps of the Borden household layout to help them visualize what the house looked like and where the crimes were committed. Relatedly, I would ask that students use Miller’s text for characters, suspects, and research on the time period. Finally, since the whole class would benefit from hearing the story told from different perspectives, I provided students with two popular video accounts on the Borden murders that convey a vivid summary of the actual crime.

Annotated Bibliography

Buzzfeed. [Buzzfeed Unsolved Network]. (2017, May 12). The murders that haunt the Lizzie
Borden house [Video].  YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuNDAGxYHSs  
 
The popular news blog Buzzfeed, via their YouTube channel Buzzfeed Unsolved (a comedic true crime channel), created a video exploring the house where the Borden murders were committed tandem with real-time commentary. All students would find the format engaging, and students who choose the group assignment could use this video to see inside the actual house which could benefit research for designing the game board.

Heos, B. (2016).  Blood, bullets, and bones: The story of forensic science from Sherlock Holmes
to DNA. HarperCollins.
 
Heos’ text offers the history of how forensic science and CSI came to be. Specific chapters that would be helpful for students completing the individual assignment are chapters 5, 7, and 11 which discuss fingerprint analysis, investigation of blood spatter patterns, and the introduction of DNA evidence respectively.

Linder, D. O. (2021). The trial of Lizzie Borden: Selected maps & diagrams.
https://famous-trials.com/lizzieborden/1445-maps
 
Douglas O. Linder, professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, provides images and descriptions of the exterior and interior of the Borden property. Students can use these images for the group assignment option to build the rooms for their Clue game board based on actual details from the house where the crimes were committed.

Rae, K. [Kendall Rae]. (2020, October 1). Did Lizzie Borden axe murder her parents??!  [Video]. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zga8m_T1LAk
 
True crime YouTuber, Kendall Rae, explains the Lizzie Borden case. Students may find this version of the story helpful because a popular YouTuber condenses the account to 30 minutes making it more engaging and easier for students pick out technical details about the case. This video could be shown during reading and/or as support during project development.
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Yancey-Bragg, N. (2019, May 14). DNA is cracking mysteries and cold cases. But is genome
sleuthing the ‘unregulated Wild West?’ USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/14/heres-how-dna-cracking-cold-cases-and-exonerating-innocent/1159571001/
 
This article provides information on how DNA technology and research have been used by law enforcement to finally solve cold cases. Students can use this article to do the individual writing assignment as proof that DNA evidence has expanded the ability of investigators to solve crimes and bring justice to victims.
 
References

Cole, P. (2009).  Young adult literature in the 21st century.  McGraw Hill.

De Leon, C. (2021, January 21).  Lizzie Borden’s notoriety is this home’s selling point.  New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/21/us/lizzie-borden-museum.html

Hillocks, G. (2011).  Teaching argument writing (grades 6-11): Supporting claims with relevant evidence and clear reasoning.  Heinemann.
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Madden, D. (2019, September 25).  Dark tourism: Are these the world’s most macabre tourist attractions?  Forbes.  https://www.forbes.com/sites/duncanmadden/2019/09/25/dark-tourism-eight-of-the-worlds-most-gruesome-tourist-attractions/

Biographical Statement: Stacy Graber is an Associate Professor of English at Youngstown State University.  Her areas of interest include critical theory, pedagogy, and popular culture.

Until next week.