SPIRIT TALES AND MAGIC
Our host; Dr.G had his first paranormal experience at only eight years old. With over five decades of storytelling, magic and paranormal story collection he is an award winning story teller on a mission to revive firelight and the telling of stories!
SPIRIT TALES AND MAGIC
The Enigma Beyond the Verdict
Could an obscure psychiatric condition explain the most notorious double murder of the 19th century? Join us as we unravel the chilling enigma of Lizzie Borden and her alleged role in the gruesome murders of her father and stepmother. Despite being acquitted, the whispers of her guilt echo through time. We explore the possibility of dissociative fugue playing a part, and sift through the eerie happenings at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast that keep visitors awake at night. With reports of ghostly laughter and objects that seem to move on their own, we ponder the thin veil between history and the supernatural that still captivates us today.
As we immerse ourselves in ghostly tales, we invite you to share your own spine-tingling experiences, particularly any encounters at the infamous Borden house. Even if you've never set foot there, we reflect on the unseen world where the past refuses to stay silent. If you're heading to Salem, soak up the atmospheric blend of street fires, tantalizing food booths, and timeless ghost stories. Special thanks to Kayla, Mark, Annie, and Christian for a memorable night by the fire. As we wrap up, Cassandra and I are off on another adventure, leaving you with eerie memories and the warm glow of storytelling from near Salem.
Good morning everybody. It's Dr G Spirit, tales and Magic and it's Halloween. Happy Halloween. We're going to forego our usual introduction and wish all of our brothers and sisters that do, and even those that don't, a very happy Halloween and safe travels through Salem today, which is where we are currently. A very happy Halloween and safe travels through Salem today, which is where we are currently Going to be. A lot of cool people in costume having a lot of fun in that crowd, but not trying to poo-poo your fun. But please remember that there are some unscrupulous folks in that crowd too. Be some pickpockets and people of questionable character, wondering about, as there is at all big events. Right, be careful, know your critical distance line. That distance line, that's the space around you. So we're going to explain.
Speaker 1:Disassociative fugue the dog on earth is that? Well, I'm going to tell you it's formerly called a fugue state or a psychogenic fugue. Sounds like a soup. Would you like some of the psychogenic fugue? Anyway, it's a rare psychiatric phenomenon. It's characterized by what they call reversible amnesia. It's usually identified in conjunction with unexpected wandering or travel. Unexpected wandering or travel. It's sometimes accompanied by the embellishment of a new identity to recall personal information prior to the presentation of the symptoms. Dissociative fugue is a mental and behavioral disorder. It's classified variously as a disassociative disorder, a conversion disorder, some people say it's sometimes called a somatic symptom disorder or disassociative amnesia. Now why would we bother with that? Oh, we would bother with that because Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks and when she saw what she had done, she gave her father. Yes, that's the Lizzie Borden poem.
Speaker 1:Despite the accusations, lizzie Borden was acquitted of her crimes. To this day her trial is examined and her innocence remains in question. Did Lizzie Borden brutally murder her father and stepmother? Did Lizzie Borden brutally murder her father and stepmother? No-transcript Of the murders in tandem with the events and the other circumstances, if you will, that surround them. We would think it speaks for itself. Local drug clerk Eli Bentz accused Lizzie of having attempted to purchase perseric acid that's a big-time poison back in the day. He did that one day before the murders. This was later determined by officials to be unrelated.
Speaker 1:The morning of the murders police arrived at the Borton house, but they didn't really diligently inspect it. They didn't go to Lizzie's room on account of her not feeling well. On August, the 6th, police did a more thorough inspection of the house later and informed Lizzie that she was now a suspect. The next day they say that Lizzie was found destroying a dress. She claimed that she had planned to burn it because it was stained with old paint.
Speaker 1:At the inquest Lizzie exhibited extremely strange behavior. She avoided questions that would have been beneficial to answer and contradicted herself numerous amount of times. She was arrested on August the 11th, the final day of her three-day inquest. The inquest findings were eventually ruled inadmissible at her trial. The evidence that was presented, however, included a hatchet found in the boardman's basement which appeared to have dust intentionally placed on it to give it the appearance of not having been used, which caused an apparently surprised Lizzie to faint upon seeing them. But there was actually a whole lot of what we would call circumstantial evidence. So after an hour and a half of deliberation, the jury acquitted Lizzie Borden on June 20, 1893, because the majority of the prosecution's case they felt had been compromised of purely circumstantial evidence. Lizzie spent the rest of her days in Fall River. She was ostracized and until her death, which I believe was June 1, 1927, she was always the axe murderer.
Speaker 1:Ever since the murder, investigators have attempted more than once to understand just what happened on that fateful morning. There have been many theories, but the general consensus is that Lizzie most likely murdered her father and stepmother. When it comes to why, writers and investigators alike have proposed multiple theories, many revolving around claims of dysfunction in the Borden family, including allegations of sexual abuse. That was, however, never proven. There was even a bit of talk about a homosexual relationship between Lizzie and the family maid Bridget Sullivan also never proved. Family maid Bridget Sullivan also never proved. Such claims are interesting, but a few have gained a bit of a foothold over the years. The most common explanation for the sudden violence which Lizzie may or may not have enacted, and all of her contradictory statements and her erratic behavior have been the possible instability of her mental state. Those theories have proposed that perhaps Lizzie had been suffering from a disassociative fugue. That's why we mentioned that. That's why we mentioned that.
Speaker 1:Suzanne St John, a realtor and tour guide of the now infamous Lizzie Borden Bed Breakfast and Museum, when I started working here she says it was more about the history. I really didn't care about the paranormal. However, all that changed after. St John says she experienced a few unusual happenings of her own Guests tell us they hear laughing, playing in the middle of the night. Things get moved about on their own, she says, and St John has experienced a few unusual things herself. St John has experienced a few unusual things herself, saying that once she discovered toys scattered across the room that no one had occupied. She also talks of a picture that fell over and slid two feet across the floor without any plausible explanation, as well as a closet door that once opened and closed by itself.
Speaker 1:On the eve of the anniversary of Andrew and Abby's murder, st John says that she and two other tour guides at the house felt a sudden sharp, piercing pain in their left eyes, which, by the way, would be the same exact location of Andrew Borton's fatal injury. Perhaps the most unsettling, however, is the story St John tells of a tour guide at the Lizzie Borden house who asked her group to silence their cell phones before beginning the tour. Moments later, a guest's cell phone rang. She looked up and said it's my mom. The tour guide asked if she wanted to leave and take the call, to which the woman replied my mom has been dead for two years.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to ask you if you have a Lizzie Borden story, because you probably don't. However, if you've been there and while you were taking the tour or perhaps spending the night, something crazy happened. We'd love to hear about it. You know we always say there is a world Unseen. It's a world that exists all around us All the time and every now and then we catch a glimpse of it and the dead get in.
Speaker 1:Many of our listeners from all over are going to find themselves in Salem this evening. While you're there, take a minute. I know it's going to be crowded, but there'll be some fires lit in the middle of the street and there'll be some gas-powered heating devices around some of the food booths. So take a little time out, get yourself a snack and tell a ghost story. It's good for you. We'd also say thank you very much to Kayla and Mark and Annie and Christian. We had a great night last night around the fire and the food was amazing. We'll talk in a few days. My friends Cassandra and I have got a jet. Good afternoon from near Salem.
