Speaker 1: In June of eighteen ninety three, Lizzie Borden's jury was
Speaker 1: weighing the evidence against her. The twelve male jurors watched
Speaker 1: her for two weeks as both sides presented their arguments.
Speaker 1: It was so hard for most men to believe that
Speaker 1: a woman from a respected family would murder her parents
Speaker 1: with an axe. Author Kara Robinson explains why.
Speaker 2: She was someone who ticks all the boxes of upper
Speaker 2: middle class womanhood. You know that she's unmarried, daughter, engaged
Speaker 2: in good works, who lives at home, and so she thought,
Speaker 2: you can't really expect her to account for her time
Speaker 2: in the way that you would expect a man who's
Speaker 2: out in the world working.
Speaker 1: And that means that the jury might not have been
Speaker 1: as concerned about where Lizzie was during the murders as
Speaker 1: a jury would be today.
Speaker 2: And we also know some things that the jury never heard,
Speaker 2: you know, namely that Lizzie Borden was alleged to have
Speaker 2: bought prussic acid or I'm sorry, Lizzie bordon was alleged
Speaker 2: to have tried to by prussic acid before the murders.
Speaker 2: And you know that shows a certain amount of intent,
Speaker 2: and it would have really postured the very effective defense
Speaker 2: strategy of trying to suggest that she's just this innocent
Speaker 2: bystander who has just had the most fortunate of being
Speaker 2: home at the wrong time.
Speaker 1: Without the benefit of that potentially useful information, the jury
Speaker 1: wasn't getting the whole story. It was a form of
Speaker 1: gender and class bias, and that sort of bias is
Speaker 1: something that pervaded the eighteen hundreds and the nineteen hundreds.
Speaker 1: Crime historian Nel Darby says that misogyny over the centuries
Speaker 1: has framed female killers in a certain way.
Speaker 3: So if you want to commit a crime, if you
Speaker 3: are so angry that you want to commit that crime
Speaker 3: now and it's not so premeditated, you will go for
Speaker 3: what you can find. I say something that kind of
Speaker 3: makes us rethink female criminality because you're making assumptions about
Speaker 3: the tool that they're using.
Speaker 1: Some murder weapons are more masculine than others. Give me
Speaker 1: a break.
Speaker 3: I think there's a lot of assumptions made that if
Speaker 3: women commit murder, they're going to use poison, and even
Speaker 3: you know, within fantaside cases, there's this kind of assumption
Speaker 3: that if you poison your child, that makes you worse
Speaker 3: than if you've drowned them or suffocated them, it's seen
Speaker 3: as less feminine. Again, takes more planning, and so it's
Speaker 3: interesting how we perceive these women according to what they've
Speaker 3: used to commit their crime.
Speaker 1: Nel says that visualizing the proper Lizzie Borden swinging an
Speaker 1: axe at her parents was startling to men in the
Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds. I think it still is.
Speaker 4: Women have always.
Speaker 3: Been perceived that if they commit crime, they will commit
Speaker 3: it through some sort of more ladylike way than men.
Speaker 3: That scene is quite a musculine weapon and a musculine
Speaker 3: way of killing somebody, and I think it does ignore
Speaker 3: the fact that you use what is to hand.
Speaker 1: I learned all about that bias when I interviewed people
Speaker 1: for season four of tenfold More Wicked. It was a
Speaker 1: story about Clara Phillips. In nineteen twenty two, the twenty
Speaker 1: four year old showgirl beat a woman to death in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles named Alberta Meadows. Clara suspected that the nineteen
Speaker 1: year old was having an affair with Clara's husband, even
Speaker 1: though there was no evidence the murder was clearly premeditated.
Speaker 1: Clara took her friend Peggy Caffey to a store where
Speaker 1: Clara bought a claw hammer. She hid it under her
Speaker 1: coat as she drove Alberta and Peggy up a desolate road.
Speaker 1: When Alberta got out of the car and denied the accusations,
Speaker 1: Clara beat her to death. It was a brutal murder
Speaker 1: committed by an attracted woman. She was convicted, but of
Speaker 1: second degree murder. That means they didn't think it was premeditated.
Speaker 1: The all male jury seemed enamored with her. Some jurors
Speaker 1: admitted that her looks played a role, but it was
Speaker 1: also just really hard to believe that a woman could
Speaker 1: also be a butcher. And on June twentieth, eighteen ninety three,
Speaker 1: the jury of men in New Bedford, Massachusetts had to
Speaker 1: think beyond that bias to suspend disbelief and convince themselves
Speaker 1: that Lizzie Borden did have the ability to pick up
Speaker 1: a heavy axe and murder her father and her stepmother.
Speaker 1: After just ninety minutes of deliberation, jurors knocked on the
Speaker 1: judge's door and they presented their verdict to the courtroom.
Speaker 1: Lizzie Borden was not guilty.
Speaker 2: And they themselves then, you know, head out of the
Speaker 2: courtroom and go to a bar where they have a
Speaker 2: drink because they'd been suffering under enforced temperance during the trial,
Speaker 2: and they have a picture taken of themselves and they'd present.
Speaker 5: It to Lizzie Borton.
Speaker 2: So I think that, you know, I think if you
Speaker 2: put those things together, that you'd say that this isn't
Speaker 2: really a case of reasonable doubt for them. This is
Speaker 2: a case where they were absolutely certain that she was
Speaker 2: not the murderer, or at least they were not prepared
Speaker 2: to consider the possibility that she was the killer.
Speaker 1: Lizzie was elated, of course, and will shorthand what happens
Speaker 1: afterward with Lizzie and her sister Emma.
Speaker 2: They keep the old house, which they rent out because
Speaker 2: you know, they are Andrew Borden's daughter, so they know
Speaker 2: the importance of a good commercial earner.
Speaker 1: But eventually they sold the house where their parents were murdered.
Speaker 1: Bordon tour guide Ashley Bolero tells us more as we
Speaker 1: stroll around the Bordon home.
Speaker 6: So what I can show you in here is so basically,
Speaker 6: the girls sold the house and they pack up all
Speaker 6: the furniture, and the furniture that they originally had in
Speaker 6: this home was ruined in a fire and it becomes
Speaker 6: a residential It is reopened in nineteen ninety six with
Speaker 6: the idea of making a bed and breakfast with the
Speaker 6: Burdens in mind. So none of the furniture that you
Speaker 6: see here is belong to the Bordens, but it is
Speaker 6: time period accurate, so late eighteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds.
Speaker 1: Kara Robertson says that the Bardon's sisters moved into a
Speaker 1: quiet life in a beautiful seven bedroom, three and a
Speaker 1: half bathroom mansion in a nicer neighborhood overlooking Fall River.
Speaker 1: The mansion even had a name, Maplecroft. Kara says that
Speaker 1: their choice of locations was very telling.
Speaker 2: That's one of the things that you know that I
Speaker 2: think is very striking about the end of the story,
Speaker 2: that you know, she could have chosen to live elsewhere with.
Speaker 5: The amount of money she had.
Speaker 2: I mean, she could have been, if not perhaps totally anonymous,
Speaker 2: at least not a figure of such notoriety. But you know,
Speaker 2: she chose to remain in Fall River, and that sort
Speaker 2: of speaks speaks to, I think the provincialism that she
Speaker 2: sort of couldn't imagine being anywhere else. But also that
Speaker 2: you know that had, after all, been the height of
Speaker 2: her ambition.
Speaker 1: Lizzie Borden didn't want to leave Fall River, even if
Speaker 1: most of the people there weren't interested in keeping company
Speaker 1: with her. Kara says that in a sense, Lizzie got
Speaker 1: the life that she wanted, financial freedom without the burden
Speaker 1: of living with her overbearing parents. But it wasn't easy
Speaker 1: for her.
Speaker 2: She's frozen out of her church circle pretty quickly, that
Speaker 2: the pews around her are empty, and it becomes clear
Speaker 2: that the people who back her during the trial aren't
Speaker 2: going to necessarily want a socialife with her.
Speaker 1: Lizzie and Emma lived in Maplecroft for more than a decade.
Speaker 2: She continues to live with her sister until nineteen oh five,
Speaker 2: so that's twelve years after the acquittal, but.
Speaker 1: More than ten years after her trial. Lizzie and Emma
Speaker 1: had a fight that ended their relationship.
Speaker 2: The sisters have a dispute, and we don't know what
Speaker 2: it's about. Their speculation that it could have been about
Speaker 2: Lizzie Borden becoming a little bit too chumming with the
Speaker 2: theatrical troupe, including a particular actress.
Speaker 1: That's an interesting theory I have no idea, but Kara
Speaker 1: also says that it could have been over a handsome
Speaker 1: coachman that Lizzie favored. Then there's the rumor that Emma
Speaker 1: got an outside opinion.
Speaker 5: There are all sorts of speculation.
Speaker 2: Just we do know that she consulted her spiritual adviser
Speaker 2: about events transpiring at the house and that she wasn't
Speaker 2: happy about it, and she moved out and then never
Speaker 2: spoke to her sister again.
Speaker 1: After moving out, Lizzie Borden lived alone for more than
Speaker 1: twenty years. She died on June first, nineteen twenty seven,
Speaker 1: and the answers of what happened to her father and
Speaker 1: stepmother went with her to the grave. Kara says that
Speaker 1: at the end, Lizzie Borden was isolated, whether she deserved
Speaker 1: to be or not, and that's all part of the
Speaker 1: mystique about this story. Who was she?
Speaker 2: The people who roughly speaking, were her kind of people
Speaker 2: back her against outsiders during the trial because it would
Speaker 2: have reflected really badly on everyone, and then they freeze
Speaker 2: her out and you know, basically ostracize her afterwards.
Speaker 5: You know, it's a little bit simplistic, but that's sort
Speaker 5: of what happens.
Speaker 2: And there's also the problem that you know, we want
Speaker 2: encounters in other famous ecoitos, which is that you know,
Speaker 2: in the emotion of the moment, people maybe are relieved
Speaker 2: that the person is not found guilty, but then again,
Speaker 2: you know, when time passes, you think, well, if.
Speaker 5: That person didn't do it, then who did? Uh?
Speaker 2: And there's never anybody who's considered to be a real
Speaker 2: suspect after Lizzie Borden.
Speaker 1: That being said, Kara Robertson remains optimistic about finding out
Speaker 1: more information, even if it is more than a century
Speaker 1: after the murders.
Speaker 2: The most interesting material about the case, it's come from
Speaker 2: people's addicts, as they've gotten as you know, the Famili's
Speaker 2: closed up summer houses and they've come out. The defense
Speaker 2: lawyers journals were held in the lawyers at it for
Speaker 2: years and years and years, and finally, you know, finally
Speaker 2: they were.
Speaker 5: Donated to the Historical Society.
Speaker 2: So it's entirely possible that you know, at some point
Speaker 2: we'll get more insight into the story and that you know,
Speaker 2: Lisey Bordon can be a fuller person that as opposed
Speaker 2: to someone on whom everyone projects their deepest fears or anxieties.
Speaker 1: Of course, the Borden House is now a world famous museum.
Speaker 1: And on this cold November night, Ashley, Carrie Nolty and
Speaker 1: I are standing on Second Street outside the home taking
Speaker 1: one last look.
Speaker 7: So you're saying, there's a liar that killed four people here.
Speaker 7: Then you've got Lizzie Borden, then you've got Eliza Bordon,
Speaker 7: and then you've got the Satanic panic lady basically block.
Speaker 5: Of each other. That's crazy.
Speaker 2: It's you can see every single location, from every single
Speaker 2: location on this street. That's where something happens.
Speaker 5: Not the town.
Speaker 1: I think it's this.
Speaker 5: It's just this one street.
Speaker 1: I ask Ashley where her tour head's next, and she
Speaker 1: gestures up the street. Another Lizzie Bordon connection.
Speaker 6: So we stop at Saint Mary's Cathedral Church, which is
Speaker 6: the church that Bridget Sullivan attended while she lived here.
Speaker 1: This church will be the starting point for our final story.
Speaker 1: It is a beautiful Catholic church just up the road
Speaker 1: at the intersection of Second Street and Spring. It's formerly
Speaker 1: called the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, and
Speaker 1: I love it. We haven't mentioned Bridget Sullivan in this episode,
Speaker 1: but remember that she was the Irish housekeeper for Lizzie
Speaker 1: Borden's family at the time of the murders. Luckily for Bridget,
Speaker 1: she had been spotted cleaning windows during the murders, so
Speaker 1: she was ruled out as a suspect. But Bridget has
Speaker 1: always been an enigma in this story, one of the
Speaker 1: case's most mysterious characters. Almost as soon as her testimony
Speaker 1: to authorities was complete, Bridget vanished from Fall River. She
Speaker 1: eventually got married in Montana, and in the years that
Speaker 1: followed there were rumblings about a deathbed confession to having
Speaker 1: helped Lizzie by providing fuzzy testimony about the case. But
Speaker 1: that's another topic for a show that's not tenfold more wicked.
Speaker 1: When Sullivan disappeared from Fall River, she left Saint Mary's
Speaker 1: Cathedral with one fewer pershioner, and Bridget's curious role in
Speaker 1: the murders was left to the history books of the city.
Speaker 1: Kara says that Bridget Sullivan was fortunate that she had
Speaker 1: an alibi, because yet again, immigrants in Fall River were
Speaker 1: not always given a fair shake in criminal cases.
Speaker 2: And then there's the question of Bridget Sullivan, you know,
Speaker 2: who could have been a serious trouble because although it
Speaker 2: didn't seem like a murder that would have been committed
Speaker 2: by a woman, you know, immigrant women didn't quite qualify
Speaker 2: as you know, women as understood by that differentiation, you know,
Speaker 2: so someone like Bridget Sullivan would have been expected to
Speaker 2: chop wood and do other physical labor.
Speaker 1: Bridget Sullivan's role in the Borden murders, if she did
Speaker 1: have a role, was certainly ambiguous. But even though we'll
Speaker 1: leave her behind from here, she does make an excellent
Speaker 1: transition to our final story, back to Saint Mary's Sullivan's
Speaker 1: beloved church. It has stood here since eighteen fifty two,
Speaker 1: and over the centuries it certainly hosted its share of
Speaker 1: interesting parishioners. But for our purposes, we're jumping ahead almost
Speaker 1: a century to nineteen seventy nine, when Saint Mary's became
Speaker 1: an important location in yet another terrible story centered on
Speaker 1: Fall River. I know, for a tenfold story, nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: nine feels pretty recent, but this one seems worth it.
Speaker 1: Ashley and Jeff Blanger say that this story features vulnerable victims,
Speaker 1: a frightened city, and a snake of a man, all
Speaker 1: set during the wave of frightening crimes. Dubbed the Satanic Panic.
Speaker 1: This case centers on a killer named Carl Drew.
Speaker 6: And we talk about this Satanic Panic and Carl Drew
Speaker 6: who he was.
Speaker 5: I can't put this in icily. He was a pimp.
Speaker 4: Carl Drew was trying to gain power and influence and
Speaker 4: so on. He was dealing drugs, he was doing all
Speaker 4: kinds of things.
Speaker 1: Carl Drew was twenty four years old in nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: nine when the first murder took place, and he was
Speaker 1: a cult leader.
Speaker 6: And during the Satanic Panic, it was assumed that these cult.
Speaker 8: Leaders were performing human ritualistic sacrifices.
Speaker 4: So Carl Drew was recruiting sex workers, local sex workers
Speaker 4: to bring them in and you know, little did they
Speaker 4: know that they were going to be victimized like this.
Speaker 1: During the eighties, there were thousands of unproven allegations of
Speaker 1: Satanic ritual abuse and animal sacrifice across America, including sexual
Speaker 1: assaults and murders. Parents and investigators became convinced that women
Speaker 1: and children were being brutalized by devil worshipers using them
Speaker 1: in their Satanic rituals, and in nineteen seventy nine, the
Speaker 1: city of Fall River had become mired in its own
Speaker 1: version of that satanic panic. In October of that year,
Speaker 1: a seventeen year old named Doreen Anne Levek went missing
Speaker 1: in fall River. Doreen was from nearby New Bedford and
Speaker 1: she had been a sex worker. Witnesses had spotted her
Speaker 1: drinking heavily the night of her disappearance, and Doreen's body
Speaker 1: was discovered the next day under some bleachers at a
Speaker 1: technical high school in fall River. She was identified after
Speaker 1: police released a composite sketch the next month. In early November,
Speaker 1: another young woman vanished. Nineteen year old single mother Barbara
Speaker 1: Raposa had a history of drug abuse and sex work.
Speaker 1: Barbara's father became alarmed when she didn't pick up her
Speaker 1: son from a babysitter. Hunters found her body several months
Speaker 1: later in a rural area nearby Fall River. We've talked
Speaker 1: about this repeatedly on my shows, the vulnerability of different
Speaker 1: segments of society. Sex workers can be easy targets, particularly
Speaker 1: for serial killers like the Gilgo Beach suspect. Crime historian
Speaker 1: Nel Darby shared more details with me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I suppose it's because of the unpredictability
Speaker 3: of their lives, they aren't keeping regular hours, they are
Speaker 3: going out at night. They might not tell people where
Speaker 3: they're going or when they be back. They might not know,
Speaker 3: so they are immediately vulnerable.
Speaker 1: A lack of communication, even in the nineteen eighties made
Speaker 1: it difficult to track them if they were in trouble.
Speaker 1: And of course this kind of vulnerability goes back hundreds
Speaker 1: of years.
Speaker 3: If I look back at did Jack forrit the case,
Speaker 3: you've got drink issues. You know, nowadays you'd also get
Speaker 3: drug issues where they might be dependent on earning a
Speaker 3: certain amount of money and take risks that they might
Speaker 3: not otherwise have done. So it's all quite sad again
Speaker 3: that these these women tend to be forgotten. They tend
Speaker 3: to be you know, it tends to be assumed that
Speaker 3: they haven't got any body who cares for them or
Speaker 3: loves them or would miss them, and yet they do.
Speaker 3: It's just that these individuals might not know what their relatives,
Speaker 3: their friends are getting up to at night. You know,
Speaker 3: they don't know where they are all the time.
Speaker 1: By nineteen eighty, Carl Drew was on the radar of investigators.
Speaker 1: Drew was known as a pimp, a brutal one who
Speaker 1: was also a well known drug dealer. Police knew that
Speaker 1: both victims were connected to him.
Speaker 4: They were meeting in the woods and so on, had
Speaker 4: a little shack out there.
Speaker 1: And Jeff Bllanger says that these murders happened at a
Speaker 1: time when the Fall River area was particularly vulnerable.
Speaker 4: The thing about Satanism just like a curse. If you
Speaker 4: believe in it, then it's real, and it's absolutely real
Speaker 4: the people that lost their lives in a ritual, whether
Speaker 4: there's such a creature as Satan or not, if you
Speaker 4: die in a sacrifice, that's pretty real to you.
Speaker 1: No one knows what really happened out there in the
Speaker 1: woods with Carl Drew and his cult, but the police
Speaker 1: knew that he was up to something, and they also
Speaker 1: knew that a potential killer needed to be brought in
Speaker 1: and questioned.
Speaker 6: The Fall River Police wanted to question him about some
Speaker 6: murders that had happened, and that some ties that he
Speaker 6: had to these murders.
Speaker 1: Fall River police needed informants to arrest Carl Drew, and
Speaker 1: they began talking with a woman named Karen Marsden, who
Speaker 1: was connected to Drew through sex work, but she had
Speaker 1: already heard about the bodies that were found, and Karen
Speaker 1: was clearly frightened. Police tried to convince her that she
Speaker 1: would be protected, that Carl Drew wouldn't be able to
Speaker 1: hurt her if she cooperated with them.
Speaker 8: And they spoke to Karen asking her to basically make
Speaker 8: a statement.
Speaker 1: Investigators suspected that Karen knew details about the cult, so
Speaker 1: the month after Barbara's body was discovered, they contacted Karen.
Speaker 1: Karen would not tell investigators who killed Doreen. She just
Speaker 1: didn't believe that they could keep her safe, sobbed in
Speaker 1: the police car. They wanted to take her to the woods,
Speaker 1: to the place where they believed the murder happened, but
Speaker 1: Karen was petrified. She insisted that she needed religious guidance,
Speaker 1: so the police agreed to drop her off at Saint
Speaker 1: Mary's in February of nineteen eighty.
Speaker 8: And she was like, well, if I'm going to talk
Speaker 8: to anybody, I need to speak to a priest first.
Speaker 8: So they brought her over to the church right over there,
Speaker 8: Saint Mary's Cathedral Church, and that was the last time
Speaker 8: she was seen alive.
Speaker 1: During the Satanic Panic of the early nineteen eighties, Karen
Speaker 1: Marsden became Full River's third victim, and crime historian Nel
Speaker 1: Darby says she's sadly not very surprised.
Speaker 3: So there's always been the thing, well, they might not
Speaker 3: be missed as quickly because they might be living on
Speaker 3: their own, not be living with family who look out
Speaker 3: for them.
Speaker 1: But Karen Marsden was missed, and when she didn't return
Speaker 1: home that night, Marsden's grandmother panicked and reported her missing
Speaker 1: the next day.
Speaker 8: Her remains were found a couple of months later in
Speaker 8: a nearby town called Westport.
Speaker 1: It took extensive police searches and there were only partial
Speaker 1: remains discovered, about one hundred and fifty miles from Fall River.
Speaker 1: Here's what the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has happened, adding more
Speaker 1: details to an already convoluted case. In December nineteen seventy nine,
Speaker 1: Robin Murphy and Karen Marsden were in a relationship living
Speaker 1: together in Fall River. Miss Marsden had previously lived with
Speaker 1: and worked for Carl Drew, a Fall River pimp who
Speaker 1: also led a satanic cult. Miss Murphy was an active
Speaker 1: participant in a group of pimps, sex workers, and drug
Speaker 1: abusers that included mister Drew. On the evening of February eighth,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty, seventeen year old Robin Murphy and Ms Marsden
Speaker 1: were in a car with mister Drew and two other people.
Speaker 1: Once they were in the woods in Westport, they beat
Speaker 1: Karen Marsden to death with rocks and slit her throat.
Speaker 1: Robin Murphy also admitted to being present and playing a
Speaker 1: role in the murder of Barbara Raposa in Fall River
Speaker 1: on February seventh, nineteen seventy nine. Murphy was given immunity
Speaker 1: in the Raposa murder trial because she testified at another
Speaker 1: trial in which a different cult member was convicted of
Speaker 1: first degree murder. At Drew's murder trial in March nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty one, different people took the stand to testify against him.
Speaker 1: They said that there were numerous rituals in those woods
Speaker 1: between October of nineteen seventy nine and February of nineteen eighty.
Speaker 1: This next part is from Michael Newton's book, An Encyclopedia
Speaker 1: of Modern serial Killers. It reads declaring himself to be Satan.
Speaker 1: Drew would reportedly chant and pray in a different language,
Speaker 1: leading his flock through the grisly steps of human sacrifice
Speaker 1: on at least two occasions. Carl Drew and Robin Murphy
Speaker 1: were given life sentences for murdering Karen Marsden. Drew was
Speaker 1: sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole
Speaker 1: for the murder of Raposa. The family of the third victim, Doreen,
Speaker 1: never received justice. Although Drew was sentenced to life without parole,
Speaker 1: Murphy was released in two thousand and four. The next year,
Speaker 1: Carl Drew filed a motion for a new trial. He
Speaker 1: claimed ineffective assistance of counsel. He also said that the
Speaker 1: witnesses were lying. Here's what's interesting. Remember that Robin Murphy
Speaker 1: had testified at Drew's original trial, and that's why she
Speaker 1: was convicted of second degree murder, not first degree murder.
Speaker 1: She cut a deal with the prosecutor after she was parolled.
Speaker 1: Murphy testified at Drew's evidentiary hearing that her testimony at
Speaker 1: his original trial was quote fabricated and molded by former
Speaker 1: prosecutors and investigators. After listening to Murphy's testimony as well
Speaker 1: as other evidence, Supreme Court Judge John P. Connor Junior,
Speaker 1: denied Drew's appeal and dismissed Murphy's news statements. He said
Speaker 1: that she was the most unreliable of all the witnesses
Speaker 1: at the hearing. Judge Connor said this about Robin Murphy.
Speaker 1: She maintains that she has no recall of February eighth,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty, that's when Karen Marsden was killed. He said
Speaker 1: that she doesn't remember what she told the representatives of
Speaker 1: the District Attorney's office on in April twenty ninth through
Speaker 1: May one of nineteen eighty, and that she doesn't remember
Speaker 1: testifying at the trial that the defendant killed Marston. Judge
Speaker 1: Connor declared quote the testimony of Murphy's prostitutes and the
Speaker 1: police officers who were involved in the Marsden investigation in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one reveal Murphy to be a very intelligent, controlling,
Speaker 1: and violent person whose primary interest was taking care of herself.
Speaker 1: Twenty three years in prison have not changed that impression.
Speaker 1: Carl Drew eventually died in prison. Robin Murphy was paroled
Speaker 1: in two thousand and four, but then violated her terms
Speaker 1: and returned to prison in twenty eleven. In twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: at the age of fifty nine, Murphy became eligible for
Speaker 1: parole once again, but the Parole Board denied her application.
Speaker 1: This is what it said. The Board is of the
Speaker 1: opinion that Robin Murphy has not demonstrated a level of
Speaker 1: rehabilitative process that would make her release compatible with the
Speaker 1: welfare of society. Murphy is eligible for parole once again
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four, though virtually no one sympathizes with
Speaker 1: her or the other cult members even decades later. Although
Speaker 1: some believe Carl Drew to be innocent, most see him
Speaker 1: as another nefarious killer from Fall River's past. If you
Speaker 1: believe some of the media over the past few decades,
Speaker 1: Fall River, Massachusetts did seem to be cursed, particularly in
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 4: You know, this is a time when the New Bedford
Speaker 4: Highway murders, which is a really interesting story too. The
Speaker 4: bodies are being dumped in and around, you know, the
Speaker 4: streets of New Bedford and Fall River and so on.
Speaker 1: Jeff is absolutely right about the times being strange, more
Speaker 1: confounding murders, but these happened several years after Carl J.
Speaker 1: Drew haunted the woods. The New Bedford Highway killer did
Speaker 1: create another level of mystery and fear in this part
Speaker 1: of New England. Here's a quick summary of this unsolved case.
Speaker 1: In one year, nineteen eighty eight, eleven women went missing
Speaker 1: from New Bedford, Massachusetts. It's a community about fifteen miles
Speaker 1: to the southeast of Full River. By the following year,
Speaker 1: the bodies of nine of the eleven victims were recovered
Speaker 1: along the highways in the area, including around Full River.
Speaker 1: Two women were never found but are presumed dead. Investigators
Speaker 1: believed that this was certainly the work of a serial killer.
Speaker 1: It's a famous case in New England, though truthfully I
Speaker 1: had never heard of these murders. Investigators are still working
Speaker 1: these cases more than three decades later, and with the
Speaker 1: advancement of DNA testing as well as genetic genealogy, it's
Speaker 1: certainly possible that the serial killer might still be identified.
Speaker 5: Hope.
Speaker 1: So, the New Bedford Highway murders were frightening and they
Speaker 1: heightened the area sense of fear in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1: After those murders, some people felt like the areas seemed
Speaker 1: like the nexus for an evil entity meant to create
Speaker 1: death and provoke fear for generations, particularly in people who
Speaker 1: visited those two blocks in Full River. Jeff Balanger says
Speaker 1: he's not so sure.
Speaker 4: So again we try to make connections. We try to
Speaker 4: find order amid this chaos of people being murdered and
Speaker 4: found dead on the side of the road or in
Speaker 4: the woods, and we try to understand what's behind the
Speaker 4: monsters that are doing this.
Speaker 1: I suppose that it's the idea that something supernatural must
Speaker 1: be at work, that a normal person would never do
Speaker 1: something so wicked. How else do we explain so many
Speaker 1: horrific things happening in one area. New England has a
Speaker 1: deep history. How could bad things not happen? You all know,
Speaker 1: I do believe in ghosts, sort of. I wouldn't say
Speaker 1: I'm sure, though. I am certain that my family's old
Speaker 1: farmhouse has spirits roaming around. But my beliefs generally are
Speaker 1: grounded in science and provable facts, not blind faith. But then,
Speaker 1: just when I thought we'd be leaving all this talk
Speaker 1: of how New England is certainly haunted behind, Jeff Balanger
Speaker 1: throws a wrench into all of it.
Speaker 4: Okay, so let's continue to zoom out. Have you heard
Speaker 4: of the Bridgewater Triangle?
Speaker 1: What I mean?
Speaker 4: So, here's the thing, right, So the Bridgewater Triangle is
Speaker 4: this area just a scoch North of Fall River of
Speaker 4: just unusual paranormal and strange activity. It goes down to
Speaker 4: Freetown's State Forest, which is where Carl Drew and the
Speaker 4: Satanic Shack was, And so people have looked into this
Speaker 4: area for years. There's been UFO sidings, ghost sightings, monster sightings,
Speaker 4: cult activity, murder, and so on.
Speaker 1: And so on. This is the last thing we need
Speaker 1: this season and even bigger playing field. But Jeff insists
Speaker 1: that it's important to consider if you are a true believer.
Speaker 4: And so those of us who have sort of looked
Speaker 4: into this Bridgewater triangle, if you expand it just a little,
Speaker 4: that includes Fall River, that includes even parts of Rhode Island,
Speaker 4: even in Connecticut, and so on, and there's an unusual
Speaker 4: amount of strange activity in and around this region. That's
Speaker 4: about two hundred square miles, which I get is a
Speaker 4: large area. And if I put any two hundred square
Speaker 4: mile area where there's some population, you will find weirdness
Speaker 4: and murders and so on.
Speaker 1: Agreed, Every city, every town in this country has history
Speaker 1: history of deception, of betrayal, of murder, of true crime.
Speaker 1: But it seems like it would be hard to find
Speaker 1: an area more steeped in those things than full River.
Speaker 1: I asked Jeff Blanger if folks in the city ever
Speaker 1: grow tired of their most famous public figure.
Speaker 4: I'm sure there's people in Fall River that are absolutely
Speaker 4: sick of the Lizzy Borden thing. Can we please move
Speaker 4: on and be known for something else? And then there's
Speaker 4: other people that are just like, hey, how cool. At
Speaker 4: least my city's known for something. At least we got that,
Speaker 4: you know, at least we're infamous when you go across
Speaker 4: the country.
Speaker 1: But infamous right for two horrific murders. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: it does bring people to the city, and it's a
Speaker 1: city that I really like.
Speaker 4: It's a love hate relationship, I think, similar to the
Speaker 4: way Salem, Massachusetts has a love eight relationship with its
Speaker 4: witchy history. You can't argue that it brings in tons
Speaker 4: of people. However, I'm sure if you live there, you're like,
Speaker 4: could we be known for something else?
Speaker 1: Jeff thinks that Fall River and Salem take different approaches
Speaker 1: to how they tout their street.
Speaker 4: Salem's different. I mean, when you put a witch riding
Speaker 4: a broomstick on the side of your police car, good
Speaker 4: luck playing that down right. But fall River they don't
Speaker 4: have hatchets on their town hall, you know, dripping blood.
Speaker 4: But however, there are a lot of people that go
Speaker 4: there because they're either true crime fans, or they're paranormal fans,
Speaker 4: or you know, they just love the macabre.
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed my time in fall River. I liked
Speaker 1: the food and the people. I enjoyed learning about true
Speaker 1: crime at the Lizzie Borden House, the place where Sarah
Speaker 1: Maria Cornell died right on the bay, is now a
Speaker 1: park and it's beautiful. The historical society is terrific, and
Speaker 1: even Oak Grove Cemetery is wonderful. Jeff says that just
Speaker 1: like other cities, Fall River has its highlights and it
Speaker 1: has its struggles.
Speaker 4: You know, fall River, It's parts of it are really beautiful.
Speaker 4: Parts of it are pretty run down, but you know,
Speaker 4: well it's in a great spot by the water. You're,
Speaker 4: like I said, you're close to Providence and those opportunities
Speaker 4: Providence rud Island. So yeah, it's a unique place where
Speaker 4: it's part of it is caught in this like post
Speaker 4: industrial rundown, and parts of it are just trying to
Speaker 4: reinvent itself with restaurants and bars and exploring the history
Speaker 4: and so on.
Speaker 1: And Fall River might find its stride soon.
Speaker 4: You know, any place can be revitalized, any place can
Speaker 4: be celebrated. And every town has got its great neighborhoods
Speaker 4: and it's bad neighborhoods and Fall Rivers no different.
Speaker 1: But those mythical connections might be misleading because every city
Speaker 1: has murders, right, and some of them are weird and unusual.
Speaker 1: But whenever there's a high profile murder in a place
Speaker 1: like Fall River, it's hard not to think about Lizzie
Speaker 1: Borden and that infamous history.
Speaker 4: Right, I know, And so and again, it's not the
Speaker 4: greatest neighborhood, and bad things happen in not the greatest neighborhood.
Speaker 4: So is it us just making connections that aren't there?
Speaker 4: It's just coincidence that a few bad things happen in
Speaker 4: this small area or is there really something to it?
Speaker 4: And that comes down to faith if you believe in it.
Speaker 4: Like I said, if you believe in a curse, you're cursed.
Speaker 4: There's no way out of it other than to somehow
Speaker 4: stop believing that you're cursed.
Speaker 1: And so in the end, I'm a yes on ghosts
Speaker 1: and spirits and a hard no on curses, especially on
Speaker 1: an entire city, but on a family. Maybe. If you're
Speaker 1: a descendant of Sarah Earl and Thomas Cornell Junior and
Speaker 1: your name is Lizzie Borden, I don't think anyone else
Speaker 1: from that line is cursed, and that includes, of course
Speaker 1: our helpful family relative Carrie Noulty. But boy, Lizzie Borden
Speaker 1: definitely had tragedies all through her family line, and we've
Speaker 1: tied them all together. Rebecca Briggs Cornell might have been
Speaker 1: murdered by her son Thomas and or his wife, Sarah Earle.
Speaker 1: Sarah and Thomas's last child, named Innocent, would become a Bordon.
Speaker 1: Sarah Maria Cornell, the possible murder victim for my new
Speaker 1: book was related to Thomas Cornell, and both Eliza Darling
Speaker 1: Borden and her husband Lodwick were from Thomas and Sarah's
Speaker 1: family lines. Eliza's son William might have been connected to
Speaker 1: that terrible fire across the street from the Borden home,
Speaker 1: And of course Lizzie Borden was in Innocent Borden's direct line,
Speaker 1: as was Lodwick, Lizzie's great uncle. What a mess. I've
Speaker 1: now stopped exploring Bordon murder stories with Lizzie No More Please,
Speaker 1: and Jeff Billanger agrees all things seem to return to
Speaker 1: Lizzie Borden.
Speaker 4: And I think that's part of what captivates us by
Speaker 4: this case. And then we spidowe about and we look
Speaker 4: for causes because no one was ever punished. It's so frustrating, right,
Speaker 4: It makes you crazy. That haunts us, that buildings haunted.
Speaker 4: I don't care if you believe in ghosts or not.
Speaker 4: It haunts us, It haunts a community, haunts a world.
Speaker 4: Why have there been so many damn TV movies made
Speaker 4: out out of the Lizzybordon story? Why are we talking
Speaker 4: about it right now? It's not going away? Right, It
Speaker 4: just doesn't go away because, damn it, you know, we
Speaker 4: know it could happen again.
Speaker 1: Now we've come to the end. I usually like to
Speaker 1: conclude a Tenfold story with a relative, so I asked
Speaker 1: Carrie Nolty one last question to wrap up this very
Speaker 1: strange season of Tenfold More Wicked. Does she believe in curses,
Speaker 1: either curses on families or curses on towns, or is
Speaker 1: it something else like generational trauma?
Speaker 8: Do you think Fall River is curse?
Speaker 9: I don't belie leave in curses per se in terms
Speaker 9: of something that can just damn an area. I believe
Speaker 9: in reverberations of personality of people, of choices and actions
Speaker 9: and how they affect everyone, rippling down through the years.
Speaker 9: And I think that that is a human quality that
Speaker 9: we all have to reckon with and we are still
Speaker 9: reckoning with.
Speaker 1: And I have to say I think I agree with her.
Speaker 1: A note for my listeners. Tenfold More Wicked launched in
Speaker 1: January of twenty twenty one on Exactly Right, and it
Speaker 1: was my goal to introduce our audience to compelling stories
Speaker 1: in crime history, stories that move you, characters that you'll
Speaker 1: remember even though they may have died hundreds of years ago.
Speaker 1: My team and I created twelve seasons of Tenfold, spanning
Speaker 1: from Rhode Island and sixteen hundreds to Austin, Texas in
Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties. With the conclusion of this season, our twelfth,
Speaker 1: I have decided to bring tenfold More Wicked to a close.
Speaker 1: I am excited to stay with Exactly Right to bring
Speaker 1: you a weekly episode of my true crime chat show
Speaker 1: Wicked Words, starting on July eighth. Right here in this
Speaker 1: podcast feed. Plus, I now get to focus on my
Speaker 1: love of historic true crimes on Buried Bones each week
Speaker 1: with Paul Holes. Not to fear. All seasons of Tenfold
Speaker 1: will remain here for your future enjoyment. Thanks for the
Speaker 1: love over the last three years, y'all. If you love
Speaker 1: true crime, check out my books American Sherlock and All
Speaker 1: That Is Wicked. I also have an audio book called
Speaker 1: The Ghost Club. I can't wait to tell you the
Speaker 1: real story about the world's most famous ghost hunter, who
Speaker 1: was the head of the world's most famous ghost club
Speaker 1: and how he investigated England's most famous haunted house. This
Speaker 1: has been an exactly right tenfold more media production producer
Speaker 1: Jason Whaling, Senior producer Alexis m Rossi, Consulting producer Kyle Ryan,
Speaker 1: sound designer Eric Friend, composer Curtis Heath. Additional music Jeremy Buller,
Speaker 1: artwork Nick Toga. Executive producers Georgia Hartstark, Karen Kilgarriff and
Speaker 1: Danielle Kramer.