HANSON – Well, Hanson thinks she was guilty.

By a vote of about 35 to 22, the audience at Camp Kiwanee’s Needles Lodge Thursday, Oct. 20 convicted Fall River resident Lizzie Borden of the murders of her father and step-mother in 1892, despite her acquittal of the crimes in her lifetime.

“District Attorney Hosea Knowlton,” portrayed by Lynn’s Delvena Theater Company actor Joseph Zamparelli then advised the residents to gather the appropriate lumber and materials to construct a scaffold in the center of town, as “Lizzie,” portrayed by Lynne Moulton protested her innocence. 

The pair acted out vignettes about events surrounding the crime, in “Lizzie and the Forty Whacks,” which included Knowlton’s questioning of Borden during a coroner’s inquest and her defense attorney, George Dexter Robinson – also portrayed by Zamparelli. Both actors portrayed several roles.

The presentation by local author Richard Little on Thursday, Oct. 13 at the Hanson Public Library, meanwhile, revealed that the Rockland educator’s review of the circumstantial evidence of the case leads him to believe Borden was, in fact, not guilty.

That does pose a problem.

Where the productions agreed were some of the grisly details of the crime. While there were not 40 whacks for dad and 40-plus-one for the step-mother Lizzie wasn’t overly fond of – there were really 18 for step-mother Abby and 17 for dear old dad, Andrew Jackson Borden – both programs agreed that there had been two autopsies on the Bordens, including the exhumation of the remains, their decapitation and the boiling of the heads so their skulls could be examined in a coroner’s inquest and at Lizzie’s trial in front of her. 

An ax blade missing a handle, found in the basement, was even fit into the cavity at the top of Andrew Borden’s head during the trial to demonstrate it was the alleged murder weapon.

During his Oct. 13 talk, Little focused on the business arguments between Lizzie’s Uncle John Morse and her father in his book, “Cold Case to Case Closed: Lizbeth Borden, My Story.”

“We’re here to talk about poor Lizzie and she can’t wait to tell her story,” Little had said to open his program.

“Despite what you’ve heard, it was not the hottest day of the year,” he said. “It was actually a rather cool Thursday morning – so cold, that when Bridget Sullivan [the Borden’s maid] got up early that morning, she had a shawl on.”

At the trial, however, and echoed in the Delvena Theatre production on Oct. 20, it was referred to as “one of the hottest days of the summer.”

“The summer had been hot,” Little said. “But in August, it had started to cool off.”

As Little, put it, 32-year-old Lizzie Borden had two lives – the one before Aug. 4, and the one after. She had been a world traveler, embarking on a European vacation famed at the time as “the Grand Tour,” along with some of her friends. Active in civic events, Lizzie had volunteered for the Hospital League and was treasurer of the Ladies’ Flower and Fruit Society – church group that sent floral and fruit baskets to people who had been in the hospital. She also taught English to immigrants.

“She was really involved in society, and was really a pillar of society, until Aug. 4,” he said.

Where the play refers to them as the murders, Little called the deaths “the tragedies” in his talk.

Little focused on the backgrounds of the people staying in the house that day – the victims, Lizzie, Bridget and Morse, who was the brother of the first Mrs. Borden, who had died when Lizzie was a small child. Morse and Mr. Borden were in business together, shipping horses and cattle from Iowa to Swansea.

Morse, Little said, being in the livestock business, was also trained as a butcher.

“He carried with him at all times, an implement to do that,” he said. “It really looks similar to a hatchet, but it’s a type of cleaver. … This is, who I think, was the culprit.”

He theorized that the murder of Mrs. Borden was an act of rage because she was trying to talk her husband into dissolving the business. Morse returned to Iowa after the murders.

“That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it,” Little said.

Lizzie’s father had been a successful businessman, as well as a slum lord by some accounts and his livestock business was having problems that caused an argument between him and Uncle John Morse, according to Lizzie’s testimony. Mr. Borden’s estate would be valued at close to $13 million in today’s currency.

Zamparelli and Moulton focused on the inheritance in much of their play, as they acted out a portion of the transcript of her inquest testimony before the audience, serving as the jury, were invited to ask their own questions.

Lizzie explained that her tearful, often contradictory testimony was due to the heavy doses of morphine she was given after the murders.

Little also spoke of the amount of morphine with which Lizzie had been dosed. He also mentioned that the annual Fall River Police Department excurison to Rocky Point – attended by half the department – rendered the police at half-strength that day.

In the play, Lizzie also, in a winking aside, reported that the judge in her trial, was appointed to the bench by her lawyer when he was governor of Massachusetts.

“He and the governor were very dear friends,” she said, on the audience’s promise not to tell anyone. “So, it made it a lot easier being put on trial in front of Justice Dewey.”

In character as a spoiled, well-connected woman of society before the suffrage movement, Moulton’s “Lizzie” told her lawyer that the women of the audience wouldn’t know what he was talking about as “Robinson” explained the cross-examination process at her trial.

Audience questions ranged from when and why Lizzie burned her clothes, who stood to inherit her father’s money before his death, where she was during the murders, why she was allegedly shopping for poison before the murders and why she was so heavily medicated.

“You ladies understand this, don’t you?” Moulton said. “Your husband puts you on lots and lots of morphine to keep you quiet.”

Little said a doctor had given Lizzie morphine for her anxiety.

He initially gave her four-grain tablets.

“Then he doubled the dose to eight to take as needed,” Little said. “She was on morphine on Friday and the funeral was Saturday.”

Motive has been a subject of conjecture over the years, with focus honing in on Mr. Borden’s estate and his past refusal to spend much on his daughters.

“My sister and I were single women – we’re unclaimed treasures, as they say,” Moulton’s “Lizzie” said, outlining her anger over Andrew Borden’s purchase of a house for their step-mother’s sister. “We were going to need that property to take care of us as we aged – we were quite upset about it.”

Older sister Emma Borden was visiting in Fairhaven at the time of the murders. With the death of both parents, the sisters divided the estate.

When an audience member asked about whether Lizzie was coming upstairs or going downstairs when her father’s body was discovered, she said – “Oh, my goodness, she was paying attention during the inquest! Were the rest of you paying attention during the inquest?”

The district attorney asked the woman’s name.

“Angie, it is a pity you are a woman, you could be an attorney, that’s an exellent question,” he said.

The murders have become the stuff of New England legend, and people may never agree on Lizzie’s guilt or innocence – so, what do you think?

Volunteers Casey Coots and Gail Clement, above, quality check some of the nearly 1600 pumpkins for sale at Whitman First Congregational Church, 519 Washington St. last weekend. Sophia Coletti, right, hoists a hefty pumpkin. Pumpkins are available from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Friday and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday.  Proceeds help the church’s mission and operating programs as well as Pumpkin Patch USA mission programs. See more photos, page 6.

Photos by Carol Livingstone

HANSON – It was a slow commute either by road or rail through Hanson Friday evening as an MBTA Commuter Rail train 055 broke down at the Route 27 crossing of the 1100 block of Main Street, blocking traffic for about three hours.

MBTA announcements in South Station indicated that train 055 had been terminated in Hanson “due to fire department activity,” according to published reports.

No injuries were reported and there is no official information about the potential cause of the damage. No additional information about the cause of the fire was available from Keolis this week.

According to the Hanson Fire Department, firefighters were called to the scene for a fire in the engine compartment aboard the train at 4:52 p.m.

“The train was evacuated as a precaution and crews investigated a smoke condition in the cab,” according to a statement on the department’s Facebook page. “Fire crews quickly found and isolated a piece of electrical equipment that had caught fire. The electrical equipment was removed and the incident was isolated.”

Fire officials emphasized that no water or extinguishing agents were needed and passengers were not in danger at any time.

Keolis representatives, MBTA Transit Police and Hanson Police were on scene, clearing just after 7 p.m.

Main Street in Hanson (Route 27) was blocked during the incident.

Train 058 on the Kingston Line was delayed by nearly two and a half hours between South Station and Hanson. Trains were making flag stops so riders were told to make themselves visible on the platform, WATD radio reported that evening. 

Rain or shine, indoors or outside, All Saints Episcopal Church offered seasonal events for all ages over the past two weeknds. Above, an elaborate Halloween-themed quilt, created by Pat Clemons, had many admirers at the church’s Quilt Show on Saturday, Oct. 1. At left, Aaliyah Correia and Nike get ready to take a ride at the Saturday, Sept.24 Animal Fair at All Saint’s Church. Free pony rides, a petting zoo, Zoomobile and new animal-themed toys at reduced prices were featured at the event aimed at children ages 10 to 12. See more photos, page 6.

Photos by Carol Livingstone

WHITMAN — While the cause of the house fire at 137 West St., has not been determined, according to Deputy Fire Chief Al Cunningham —indicating it could have been anything from an electrical malfunction to a candle — what is known is that the house is uninhabitable. Damage has been estimated at between $100,000 and $150,000.

Cunningham said he knows that the family sleeping in upstairs bedrooms inside was lucky a passerby was out walking his dog at the time.

“It’s a good thing he pounded on the door,” said Cunningham, adding the family would likely have been unaware of the fire until smoke entered the building. “Good job on him for helping.”

The neighborhood had been buzzing in the immediate aftermath of the blaze over who the “Mystery man” could have been.

For Rock Street resident Kenneth Sheehan, however, there was no mystery — it was him.

Sheehan, a corrections officer in a rehabilitation center at the Bridgewater Corrections Facilty, he said he has walked his dog past the 137 West St., house just about every day at 5 a.m.

On Thursday, Sept. 15 as they were walking by, something caught his attention behind the house.

“I walk every day at 5 in the morning in that area around my block and I came across the house,” Sheehan said last week. “I thought someone was having a campfire at first, but then I got a little closer and it was a raging inferno — fire on the deck.”

He said the flames were already going up the side of the house when he walked down the family’s short driveway to see where the flames were coming from.

“I pounded on the front door and rang the bell,” Sheehan said. He said he has seen the couple when he has walked by in the past, but didn’t really know them. They’ve met a couple of times since, though.

 “They got up and got out just in time. If I had been a few minutes earlier, I might not have seen it. I might have been too late.”

Sheehan called 911, but said he left after he saw that everyone was safe and firefighters were on the scene.

The couple — who asked that the Express use only their first names Dave and Tiffany — are so glad Sheehan was there when he was. They and their three children escaped the fire along with the family dog, but the family’s two pet cats perished in the fire.

“I did not know what was going on before the gentleman knocked on the door,” Dave said Tuesday. “I kind of knew as soon as I woke up when he was banging on the door. I actually turned to my wide and said, ‘Is the house on fire?’ It’s not a normal thing first thing in the morning.”

He is a firefighter in Quincy and his wife is an employee of the EverSource call center. He said he was glad he was able to track down Sheehan’s number in order to call and thank him.

“He saved our lives,” Dave said. “We were very lucky to have had him coming by that day.”

On a day since the fire, when the couple was back in Whitman to check on the house and run a couple errands, Tiffany and their son recognized Sheehan and his dog and the two of them hopped out of the car and gave him a big hug.

Dave said his children are coping with the upheaval well enough, noting the oldest may be having a slightly harder time dealing with the loss of their home, even temporarily, but the younger ones are bouncing back.

“They feel like rock stars,” he said. “They like the attention.”

Sheehan said Monday revisiting the scene that, had he known there were two cats still in the house he would have tried going in with his black Lab, Syrus, to rescue them. He said he and Syrus  often plays a “find the cat” game with their feline.

“She was calm,” he said about her reaction to the fire. “I really didn’t pay much attention to her, I was just pulling her along with me.”

And, while Sheehan seemed flattered by talk of him being a hero, he said he would not refer to himself that way. The family disagrees.

“As much gratitude as that guy can get, he deserves it, 100 percent,” Dave said. “I hope people around town maybe get him a coffee or buy him a beer.”

“I just did what I had to do,” said Sheehan, who chalked his response up to reflex from 30 years on the job with the Department of Corrections. “I did my job and it was over.”

While he may not have known the family before, there have been hugs of thanks since.

“They called me to say thanks and that, ‘You’ve saved our lives,” he said. “They thought I did great and that I’m a hero. I don’t like to say that about myself, but somebody said it. It feels good that I saved a family of five.”

Dave said he considered the contents of his home a total loss because of smoke and water damage, but he said he has had a “ton of support from the community and friends” and the family is in a stable living situation until they can rebuild.

He is looking forward to returning to Whitman.

“We love Whitman and we want to continue to live there,” he said.

WHITMAN — Chief Timothy Clancy reports that the Whitman Fire Department, aided by firefighters from area towns including Rockland, extinguished a fire at a home on West Street Thursday morning, Sept. 15.

No injuries were reported as a result of the fire, but two cats owned by the family were killed in the blaze. All five people who live the home were out of the building by the time firefighters arrived on scene. It is reported that a passerby who was walking his dog saw the fire and alerted the occupants, allowing them to safely exit the building by the time crews arrived.

Smoke alarms in the house evidently went off as the residents escaped the fire, Whitman Deputy Chief Al Cunningham said in published reports

The identity of the “mystery man” has been the talk of the town in the week since the blaze.

At approximately 5:35 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, Whitman Fire received a call for a structure fire at a two-story residential home at 137 West St. in town. Upon arrival, firefighters saw heavy smoke and fire coming from the rear exterior of the second story of the home.

A second alarm was struck for additional manpower as firefighters began an aggressive attack. Upon entering the home firefighters found that the fire had extended into the first floor of the structure.

The fire was knocked down after approximately 30 minutes. Firefighters remained on scene for hours conducting overhaul of the building. Cunningham said, while it doesn’t appear that the house is a complete loss, it’ll be some time before anyone can live in it.

Fire crews from East Bridgewater, Brockton, Hanson and Rockland responded to the scene, as did ambulances from Halifax and Norwell. Bridgewater Fire provided station coverage.

The fire remains under investigation by the Whitman Fire Department and the State Fire Marshal’s Office.

You see them all over — little free libraries, adorned with the motto: “Take a Book, Leave a Book,” now one has become the Eagle Scout project of Alexander Nunes of Hanson, who is a member of Whitman’s Troop 59.

Lowe’s donated all the $640 worth of construction materials needed for the project.

“Since they donated the materials, I didn’t need to do fundraising,” he said. Nunes said he isn’t certain of the date for his upcoming Eagle Court of Honor yet, as he is still working to finish his last two merit badges — including hiking.

The project, worked on by a few fellow Scouts and adults who wielded the power tools, took about a month to construct.

“We could only get people together on the weekends, and there were a lot of small details,” he said. “It was well done.”

The kiosk is already in place ad being used, Nunes said, noting he doesn’t have a particular dedication ceremony planned.

“I just wanted to see if people would use it, and luckily, they are using it and enjoying it,” he said, noting that the public has been using it respectfully.

Nunes’ project is one of the Little Free Library [littlefreelibrary.org] non-profit (officially earning its 501(c) 3 designation in 2012) projects across the country. His project is posted at the Head Start building across the street from Whitman Park, looking like a trim, miniature house, painted white to match the Head Start building.

“There’s been a lot of them popping up and I thought one would be good to place near the park,” Nunes said in an interview last week. “I collected donations from anyone willing to give books.”

From here on out, Nunes said he will re-stock it occasionally if it gets too low, but it’s operated on the honor system of take a book/leave a book.

In some places the little free libraries had been stocked with new books, only to be cleaned out by thieve and needing to be completely restocked.

Despite the location in front of the Head Start building, the books weren’t specifically geared toward any particular age group.

He said the design of the miniature building his little free library, as well as the paint job, were meant to represent the town and the style of houses in the area.

The design of the kiosks is in keeping with the origin of the original Little Free Library built by Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisc., in 2009 — a model of a little red one-room schoolhouse in tribute to his mother, a teacher who loved to read. According to the littlefreelibrary.org site, he built more for neighbors and friends who loved the original and a friend, Rick Brooks of UW-Madison, joined the project.

“They were inspired by community gift-sharing networks, ‘take a book, leave a book’ collections in coffee shops and public spaces, and most especially by the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie” the website states.

Brooks and Bol set out to surpass the 2,508 Little Free Libraries — the number Carnegie sought to fund across the English-speaking world. They surpassed that goal in August 2012, a year and a half before their target date. By the end of 2012, there were more than 4,000 of the officially chartered Little Free Libraries in existence, up from 400 the year before.

The School Committee was updated on school start times. COVID protocols and heard updates on the strategic plan working groups at its Wednesday, Aug. 24 meeting.

The district’s schools opened for the 2022-23 school year on Wednesday, Aug. 31.

“We are ready to go,” Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said at the meeting. “School is ready to open. Professional staff – we’re fully staffed, but I’m going to make a plea to the public right now … I’m in dire need of paraprofessionals at all levels.”

Szymaniak said he also needs duty aides – lunchroom assistants for the elementary and middle schools – and long-term substitute teachers, especially at Conley and Indian Head schools and the high school.

Those positions are all posted on the SchoolSpring website [schoolspring.com].

He also said bus and van drivers are needed by both First Student and North River Collaborative.

“The lack of bus drivers will impact us in the future when people start calling out sick and things like that,” he said. 

Szymaniak said for the first time since the pandemic started, he had an extremely short COVID report.

“I asked [lead nurse] Lisa Tobin for an update and she said, ‘We’re as close to 2019 as ever,’ so we’re opening as normal,” he said. “We’re only asking students – if they test positive at home – to stay home for five days.”

Masks will only be required in the nurse’s office.

The strategic plan working groups provided an update on their work over the summer. Chair Christopher Howard said no votes were planned on the working groups’ reports.

Uniform start times

With the start of a new school year in mind, as well as requests over the summer from parents and students asking that start times be pushed back, Symaniak reviewed the work of the Uniform Start Times working group.

He has included further investigation of the issue in his years’ goals. Hurdles along the way include financial implications, teacher contract renegotiations, student work schedules, younger students at home alone after school, special education can availability and the impact on athletic schedules, among others. 

“We think 9 a.m. is a good start time, that will definitely have an impact on high school schedules and our league,” he said. “We need to dig deeper. There were a lot of what-ifs at our meetings.”

Benefits include more downtime for high school students at the end of the day, parents will have older students home with younger siblings after school or can find work and the lower grades administrations seem to be satisfied.

Szymaniak is also looking into what plans the state may have in mind regarding start times as well as the possible budget implications of any change.

Career readiness

“This is really supposed to be just an information share,” said Howard, who was a member of the Postgrad Readiness and Early College and Work group. “We really focused in on early college pathways, additional post-graduation type opportunities in terms of career readiness and then we looked at early college, as well.”

The group researched what other school districts and the state has to offer as part of their work, Committee member Beth Stafford said, including business innovation pathways programs.

“We’re hoping to do a medical one, because we feel that it’s not just about college,” Stafford said. “It’s about readiness for all different aspects of the world.”

Dual enrollment with Quincy College has also been discussed. The school already has a program with Quincy College involving courses in pre-calculus, sociology and accounting with the aim of adding marketing, anatomy & physiology and statistics. 

High School Guidance Counselor Ruth Carrigan said that a “robust” internship program is already in place for several years, in the past connected to a work-based learning program, which has lost some focus recently before COVID stopped it completely.

She said the plan is to bring it back.

Counselors also work closely with students to develop a post-graduate career plan.

“It’s not the same for everybody,” Committee member Fred Small said. “Everyone has a different need. Everyone has a different desire, and to be able to accommodate so many students in that aspect is fantastic.”

He did express concern about the sustainability of grants. Stafford also said someone had to be put in place to run the programs.

Related arts

The K-8 Related Arts working group’s blueprint includes foreign language — what a language is and how it looks like in today’s day and age, according to Assistant Superintendent George Ferro. The group analyzed how teachers are used today, how to bring in new staff and programs as well as how students learn best.

Starting with a STEM and robotics program, during a related arts period already offered, from K-8 was recommended because there is no impact from a personnel standpoint. Using library periods in earlier grades adds a literacy component including early coding and STEM aspects. In grades three to five use of an online program called Robotitfy works off an ingenuity platform that fits with all the students’ hand-held devices, again during time already allotted in their schedule. Middle school students already have STEM or technology application classes.

“This would be infused in it and would be a formal way for students to do it,” Ferro said. The cost starting point for a year would be $55,000 with that method.

Introducing foreign languages, too, could be built into the day for grades seven and eight through an online course that “doesn’t have to always be during the day,” Ferro said.

“You would offer online Spanish to all eighth-grade students in both middle schools, that way there are no equity issues,” he said. “We’re providing a service, we’re providing a device and we’ll talk about the support for that.”

Online programs also provide on-demand tutoring outside of school.

“We would hire one Spanish teacher as we begin this,” Ferro said, who would provide in-person support to interested students during academic extension time. The teacher would serve both middle schools, who could also offer a introductory cultural class in grade six and one school and grade seven in another.

The Spanish course would cost $24,000 per year for Whitman and Hanson combined through Imagine Inginuity with the on-demand tutoring option costing $4,400. The teacher would cost about $75,000.

“You would be making students competitive with other students locally, within the state and nationally,” Ferro said. Students would start with Spanish II at the high school. He argues it could open avenues for other courses.

While he admitted it would have to be explore it with the teacher’s union, Ferro said it could open different teaching opportunities for staff.

Learning a language – whether coding, ASL or a foreign language –  expands the mind’s ability to think critically and problem solve, making decisions quicker, as well as introducing them to a broader world.

Student culture

The Student Climate, Culture and Support working group will be collecting information over the coming school year to gauge where the culture is as a district before the meet again as a group to make recommendations.