Top 10 Strangest and Dangerous Airports

Engineers tasked with building an airport are faced with countless challenges: The ideal location needs ample space, endless flat ground, favorable winds and great visibility. But spots in the real world are rarely ideal, and engineers are forced to work with what they have, making sure that the end product is the safest possible structure for pilots. A survey of airports around the world turns up a mixed bag, ranging from dangerous and rugged landing strips to mega-size facilities that operate like small cities. Here, PM explores the world's most remarkable airports and why they stand out.

1: Kansai International Airport

Osaka, Japan 

Background:

Land is a scarce resource in Japan, so engineers headed roughly 3 miles offshore into Osaka Bay to build this colossal structure. Work on the manmade island started in 1987, and by 1994 jumbo jets were touching down. Travelers can get from the airport to the main island of Honshu via car, railroad or even a high-speed ferry. 

Why It's Unique:

Kansai's artificial island is 2.5 miles long and 1.6 miles wide—so large that it's visible from space. Earthquakes, dangerous cyclones, an unstable seabed, and sabotage attempts from protestors are just some of the variables engineers were forced to account for. As impressive as the airport is, Stewart Schreckengast, a professor of aviation technology at Purdue University and a former aviation consultant with MITRE, cautions that climate change and rising sea levels pose a very real threat to the airport's existence. "When this was built, [engineers] probably didn't account for global warming," he says. "In 50 years or so, this might be underwater."

2: Gibraltar Airport

Gibraltar 

Background:

Between Morocco and Spain sits the tiny British territory of Gibraltar. Construction of the airport dates back to World War II, and it continues to serve as a base for the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force, though commercial flights land on a daily basis. 

Why It's Unique:

Winston Churchill Avenue, Gibraltar's busiest road, cuts directly across the runway. Railroad-style crossing gates hold cars back every time a plane lands or departs. "There's essentially a mountain on one side of the island and a town on the other," Schreckengast says. "The runway goes from side to side on the island because it's the only flat space there, so it's the best they can do. It's a fairly safe operation as far as keeping people away," he says, "It just happens to be the best place to land, so sometimes it's a road and sometimes it's a runway."

3: Madeira International Airport

Madeira, Portugal 

Background:

Madeira is a small island far off the coast of Portugal, which makes an airport that is capable of landing commercial-size aircraft vital to its development. This airport's original runway was only about 5000 feet long, posing a huge risk to even the most experienced pilots and limiting imports and tourism. 

Why It's Unique:

Engineers extended the runway to more than 9000 feet by building a massive girder bridge atop about 200 pillars. The bridge, which itself is over 3000 feet long and 590 feet wide, is strong enough to handle the weight of 747s and similar jets. In 2004, the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering selected the expansion project for its Outstanding Structure Award, noting that the design and construction was both "sensitive to environmental and aesthetic considerations."

4: Don Mueang International Airport

Bangkok, Thailand

Background:

From a distance Don Mueang International looks like any other midsize airport. However, smack-dab in the middle of the two runways is an 18-hole golf course. 

Why It's Unique:

Schreckengast, who has worked on consulting projects at this airport, says one of the major problems is that the only taxiways were located at the end of the runways. "We recommended that they build an additional taxiway in the middle, from side to side, and they said ‘absolutely not, that will take out a green and one fairway.'" The airport and the course were originally an all-military operation, but have since opened up to commercial traffic. Security threats, however, have limited the public's access to the greens.

5: Ice Runway

Antarctica

Background:

The Ice Runway is one of three major airstrips used to haul supplies and researchers to Antarctica's McMurdo Station. As its name implies, there are no paved runways here—just long stretches of ice and snow that are meticulously groomed. 

Why It's Unique:

There is no shortage of space on the Ice Runway, so super-size aircraft like the C-130 Hercules and the C-17 Globemaster III can land with relative ease. The real challenge is making sure that the weight of the aircraft and cargo doesn't bust the ice or get the plane stuck in soft snow. As the ice of the runway begins to break up, planes are redirected to Pegasus Field or Williams Field, the two other airstrips servicing the continent.

6: Congonhas Airport

Sao Paulo, Brazil

Background:

Most major cities have an airport, but rarely are they built just 5 miles from the city center, especially in metropolises like Sao Paulo. Congonhas' close proximity to downtown can be attributed in part to the fact that it was completed in 1936, with the city experiencing rapid development in the following decades. 

Why It's Unique:

While having an airport only 5 miles from the city center may be a convenience for commuters, it places a strain on both pilots and air traffic control crews. "It becomes a challenge in terms of safety to just get the plane in there," Schreckengast says. "Then you throw on noise restrictions and these terribly awkward arrival and departure routes that are needed to minimize your noise-print and it becomes quite challenging for pilots." Fortunately, Sao Paulo's many high-rise buildings are far enough away from the airport that they aren't an immediate obstacle for pilots landing or taking off.

7: Courchevel International Airport

Courchevel, France

Background:

Getting to the iconic ski resort of Courchevel requires navigating the formidable French Alps before making a hair-raising landing at Courchevel International Airport. The runway is about 1700 feet long, but the real surprise is the large hill toward the middle of the strip. 

Why It's Unique:

"You take off downhill and you land going uphill," Schreckengast says. He adds that the hill, which has an 18.5 percent grade, is so steep that small planes could probably gain enough momentum rolling down it with no engines to safely glide off the edge. Landing at Courchevel is obviously no easy task, so pilots are required to obtain certification before attempting to conquer the dangerous runway.

8: Princess Juliana International Airport

Simpson Bay, Saint Maarten

Background:

Nothing says fun in the sun like roaring engines and the smell of jet exhaust. Landing on this Caribbean island forces pilots to fly over a small strip of beach, clear a decent-size fence and pass over a road just before hitting the runway. 

Why It's Unique:

Not many airports are flanked by oceanfront property filled with tourists standing under incoming aircraft. While the tourists are not really in harm's way—with the exception of their hearing—Schreckengast says that trucks driving on the small road between the beach and the runway could be at risk. "The challenge is to make sure there's not a big semi truck coming through when the plane is landing. It becomes a vertical obstacle, and, if the truck is light, the jet blast could blow it over.

9: Svalbard Airport

Svalbard, Norway

Background:

Svalbard is a cluster of Norwegian islands sitting in the Arctic Ocean. While there are three airports within the archipelago, two of which are used mainly to transport miners, Svalbard Airport is open to commercial travel, making it the world's northernmost airport that tourists can book tickets to. 

Why It's Unique:

Engineers used the region's brutally cold climate to their favor during construction and built the runway on a layer of permafrost. The airport was completed in 1975, but slight seasonal changes caused sections of the runway to become uneven, forcing the need to repave the runway on several occasions. A project was launched in 1989 aimed at insulating troublesome sections of the runway from the ground, which proved relatively successful. However, a 2002 study indicates that rising temperatures in the area may increase the need and frequency of maintenance efforts and repaving.

10: Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport

Saba, Netherlands Antilles

Background:

Getting to this paradise-like island can be a bit distressing thanks to a 1300-foot-long runway, slightly longer than most aircraft carrier runways. 

Why It's Unique:

Large planes aren't landing here, but the small runway is difficult even for Cessnas and similar aircraft. "The little X means don't land there," says Schreckengast, a former Navy pilot who is no stranger to landing on less than lengthy runways. "It's challenging, but if you don't have something like that, the people here don't get things they routinely need, like mail." Given the limited amount of land and rolling topography of the island, not many other options exist.

Down... on the Ground

This post was intended to analyze the similarities and differences between Up in the Air, Fish Tank and An Education, but unfortunately it proved to be a rather uninteresting exercise in surface observations and difficult prose. So I scrapped the idea, but salvaged the only thing worth taking from it: my disdain for Up in the Air. So apologies for the jumpiness and inconclusive arguments, but I thought it might be of some interest regardless. For those who haven't seen the films, I wouldn't recommend reading as this is infested with “spoilers.”

As we’re nearing the half-way point in 2010, I took a look back at what few ’09 releases I actually saw, and one trend really stood out: marital and parental escapism. In three of the notable award contenders of 2009—Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank and Lone Scherfig’s An Education—the very same third act revelation appears as the protagonists make an uninvited visit to the homes of their respective lovers, discovering that their romantic flames are not only frauds, but frauds with spouses and children.

For Up in the Air’s Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), a man whose views of romance are mirrored (of course) by his on-the-go career which keeps him in transit for the majority of his time, a hotel bar encounter with a woman like Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga) leads to the most ideal of no-strings-attached affairs. Alex is a woman, seemingly, like Ryan: professional, mature, horny and uninterested in anything related to our traditional notions of maintaining a romantic relationship with someone. Through several different scenarios where Ryan is forced to interact with people whose notions of relationship stability greatly differ from his own, he undergoes a change of heart and falls for Alex in a way he’s likely never felt for anyone else.

In an attempt to compare/contrast An Education and Fish Tank, I hit a dead end, as they’re almost too similar. Both feature teenage girls as protagonists, their older love interests (Peter Sarsgaard, Michael Fassbender) are deceptively charming and both films happen to be directed by women. The only thing truly dividing them from a narrative perspective is their place in time and the issue of class. An Education’s Jenny (Carey Mulligan) comes from a typical middle class English family in the early 1960s, while Fish Tank’s Mia (Katie Jarvis) lives in the outskirts with her young, hot, single mother (Kierston Wareing) and little sister (Rebecca Griffiths). Their differences in quality, which is a steep one, can best be chalked up to the flatness and dryness of Scherfig’s images against the vividness and vibrancy of Arnold’s.

With surprising consistency, Jenny, Mia and Ryan’s worlds are all crushed through uninvited visits to their respective lovers’ homes. It was, after all, too good to be true for each of them, but the lessons aren’t all the same. For Up in the Air, Alex’s “other life” becomes just one of the film’s infuriatingly heavy-handed views of the traditional family structure. Alex is not only villainized through the revelation but all of the refreshing qualities that Ryan found in her morph into the traits of an unhappy wife and mother acting out. While it seemed relatively clear that Ryan’s young co-worker/traveling companion Natalie Keener’s (Anna Kendrick) function in the film was to give (false) validation to Ryan’s beliefs, Natalie’s purpose changes when the film places its scarlet letter upon Alex, as she starts to work as a defense for the screenwriters (and novelist, I suppose, though I haven’t read the book) in showing us that all women aren’t cruel, manipulative, heart-stomping adulteresses. It’s hard to determine whether the simple, vile justification of Alex’s away-from-home behavior or the nauseating placement of the interview footage of the real people laid off from their jobs where they all emphasize the importance of family is what ultimately destroys Up in the Air, but both elements certainly succeed in ridiculing the protagonist… or maybe we should have never trusted a filmmaker who tried to garner sympathy for a character who crushes other people’s lives as a trade.

All three films are available on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK. Up in the Air and An Education are available on Blu-ray and DVD in the US, and Fish Tank will be released by Criterion later in the year.

Phenomenal Wonders Of The Natural World

The classical natural wonders are huge and hard to miss – vast canyons, giant mountains and the like. Many of the most fantastic natural phenomena, however, are also least easy to spot. Some are incredibly rare while others are located in hard-to-reach parts of the planet. From moving rocks to mammatus clouds and red tides to fire rainbows, here are seven of the most spectacular phenomenal wonders of the natural world.
 Halo (optical phenomenon)   

 

A halo also known as a nimbus, icebow or Gloriole) is an optical phenomenon produced by ice crystals creating colored or white arcs and spots in the sky. Many are near the sun or moon but others are elsewhere and even in the opposite part of the sky. They can also form around artificial lights in very cold weather when ice crystals called diamond dust are floating in the nearby air.

Sailing Stones

The mysterious moving stones of the packed-mud desert of Death Valley have been a center of scientific controversy for decades.Rocks weighing up to hundreds of pounds have been known to move up to hundreds of yards at a time. Some scientists have proposed that a combination of strong winds and surface ice account for these movements. However, this theory does not explain evidence of different rocks starting side by side and moving at different rates and in disparate directions. Moreover, the physics calculations do not fully support this theory as wind speeds of hundreds of miles per hour would be needed to move some of the stones.

Aurora polar lights

 Auroras, also known as northern and southern (polar) lights or aurorae are natural light displays in the sky, usually observed at night, particularly in the polar regions. They typically occur in the ionosphere.  Aurorae occur deeper inside the polar regions, but these are infrequent occurrences, and these are often invisible to the naked eye.

Raining fish

Columnar Basalt

When a thick lava flow cools, it contracts vertically but cracks perpendicular to its directional flow with remarkable geometric regularity in most cases forming a regular grid of remarkable hexagonal extrusions that almost appear to be made by man. One of the most famous such examples is the Giant's Causeway on the coast of Ireland (shown above), though the largest and most widely recognized would be Devil's Tower in Wyoming. Basalt also forms different but equally fascinating ways when eruptions are exposed to air or water.

Blue Holes

Blue holes are giant and sudden drops in underwater elevation that get their name from the dark and foreboding blue tone they exhibit when viewed from above in relationship to surrounding waters. They can be hundreds of feet deep

and while divers are able to explore some of them they are largely devoid of oxygen that would support sea life due to poor water circulation - leaving them eerily empty. Some blue holes, however, contain ancient fossil remains that have been discovered, preserved in their depths.

Red Tides

Red tides are also known as algal blooms sudden influxes of massive amounts of colored single-cell algae that can convert entire areas of an ocean or beach into a blood red color. While some of these can be relatively harmless, others can be harbingers of deadly toxins that cause the deaths of fish, birds and marine mammals. In some cases, even humans have been harmed by red tides

though no human exposure are known to have been fatal. While they can be fatal, the constituent phytoplankton in ride tides are not harmful in small numbers.

Ice Circles

While many see these apparently perfect ice circles as worthy of conspiracy theorizing, scientists generally accept that they are formed by eddies in the water that spin a sizable piece of ice in a circular motion. As a result of this rotation other pieces of ice and flotsam wear relatively evenly at the edges of the ice until it slowly forms into an essentially ideal circle. Ice circles have been seen with diameters of over 500 feet and can also at times be found in clusters and groups of different sizes as shown above.

Mammatus Clouds

True to their ominous appearance, mammatus clouds are often harbingers of a coming storm or other extreme weather system. Typically composed primarily of ice, they can extend for hundreds of miles in each direction and individual formations can remain visibly static for ten to fifteen minutes at a time. While they may appear foreboding they are merely the messengers appearing around, before or even after severe weather.

Fire Rainbows

A circumhorizontal fire rainbow arc occurs at a rare confluence of right time and right place for the sun and certain clouds. Crystals within the clouds refract light into the various visible waves of the spectrum but only if they are arrayed correctly relative to the ground below. Due to the rarity with which all of these events happen in conjunction with one another, there are relatively few remarkable photos of this phenomena.

Sinkholes

Sinkholes are one of the world's scariest natural phenomena. Over time, water erodes the soil under the planet's surface until in some cases, quite suddenly,

the land above gives way and collapses into the earth. Many sinkholes occur naturally while others are the result of human intervention. Displacing groundwater can open cavities while broken pipes can erode otherwise stable subterranean sediments. Urban sinkholes, up to hundreds of feet deep have formed and consumed parts of city blocks, sidewalks and even entire buildings.

Penitentes

Named after peak-hooded New Mexican monks (lower right above), penitentes are dazzling naturally-forming ice blades that stick up at sharp angles toward the sun. Rarely found except at high altitudes, they can grow up taller than a human and form in vast fields. As ice melts in particular patterns, 'valleys' formed by initial melts leave 'mountains' in their wake. Strangely, these formations ultimately slow the melting process as the peaks cast shadows on the deeper surfaces below and allow for winds to blow over the peaks, cooling them.

Lenticular Clouds

Ever wonder the truth about UFOs? Avoided by traditional pilots but loved by sailplane aviators, lenticular clouds are masses of cloud with strong internal uplift that can drive a motorless flyer to high elevations. Their shape is quite often mistaken for a mysterious flying object or the artificial cover for one. Generally, lenticular clouds are formed as wind speeds up while moving around a large land object such as a mountain.

Light Pillars

Light pillars appear as eerily upright luminous columns in the sky, beacons cast into the air above without an apparent source.these are visible when light reflects just right off of ice crystals from either the sun (as in the two top images above) or from artificial ground sources such as street or park lights. Despite their appearance as near-solid columns of light,the effect is entirely created by our own relative viewpoint.

Sundogs

Like light pillars, sundogs are the product of light passing through crystals. The particular shape and orientation of the crystals can have a drastic visual impact for the viewer, producing a longer tail and changing the range of colors one sees. The relative height of the sun in the sky shifts the distance the sundogs appear to be on either side of the sun. Varying climactic conditions on other planets in our solar system produce halos with up to four sundogs from those planets' perspectives. Sundogs have been speculated about and discussed since ancient times and written records describing the various attributes of our sun date back the Egyptians and Greeks.

Fire Whirls

Fire whirls (also known as fire devils or tornadoes) appear in or around raging fires when the right combination of climactic conditions is present. Fire whirls can be spawned by other natural events such as earthquakes and thunderstorms, and can be incredibly dangerous, in some cases spinning well out of the zone of a fire itself to cause devastation and death in a radius not even reached by heat or flame. Fire whirls have been known to be nearly a mile high,have wind speeds of over 100 miles per hour

and to last for 20 or more minutes.

Orange Moons

This last phenomena is something most people have seen before beautiful orange moon hanging low in the sky. But what causes this phenomena and, for that matter, does the moon have a color at all? When the moon appears lower on the horizon, rays of light bouncing off it have to pass through a great deal more of our atmosphere which slowly strips away everything but yellows, oranges and reds. The bottommost image above is true to the hues of the moon. but has enhanced colors to more clearly show the differences in shade

that illustrate the mixed topography and mineralogy that tell the story of the moon's surface. Looking at the colors in combination with the craters one can start to trace the history of impacts and consequent material movements across the face of our mysterious moon.

Deathday: James Gordon Bennett, Sr. 1795-1872 "New York Herald" Newspaperman

James Gordon Bennett (1 September 1795 – 1 June 1872) was the founder, editor and publisher of the New York Herald and a major figure in the history of American newspapers.

Born to a prosperous Catholic family in Newmill, Banffshire, Scotland, at 15 Bennett entered the Catholic seminary in Aberdeen, where he remained for four years[1]. After leaving the seminary he read voraciously on his own and traveled throughout Scotland. In 1819 he joined a friend who was sailing to North America. After four weeks they landed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Bennett briefly worked as a schoolmaster till he had enough money to sail to Portland, Maine, where he again taught school in the village of Addison, moving on to Boston by New Year's 1820.[2] He worked as a proofreader and bookseller before the Charleston Courier hired him to translate Spanish news reports. He moved to New York City in 1823 where he worked as a freelance paper writer and editorial assistant.

In May 1835, Bennett began the Herald after years of failing to start a paper. In April 1836, it shocked readers with front–page coverage of the murder of prostitute Helen Jewett; Bennett conducted the first-ever newspaper interview for it. The Herald initiated a cash–in–advance policy for advertisers, which became the industry standard. Bennett was also at the forefront of using the latest technology to gather and report the news, and added illustrations produced from woodcuts. In 1839, Bennett was granted the first ever exclusive interview to a United States President, Martin Van Buren.[3]

The Herald was officially independent in its politics, but endorsed William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, James K. Polk, Franklin Pierce, and John C. Frémont. Bennett supported James Buchanan as tensions rose over slavery. He endorsed John C. Breckinridge for the 1860 presidential campaign, then shifted to John Bell. He promoted George B. McClellan in 1864, but endorsed no candidate. Although he opposed Abraham Lincoln, Bennett backed the Union, then took the lead to turn the president into a martyr after his assassination. He favored most of Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction proposals.

By the time Bennett turned control of the Herald over to his son James Gordon Bennett Jr. (below) in 1866, it had the highest circulation in America. However, under the younger Bennett's stewardship, the paper declined, and, after his death, it was merged with its arch-rival, the New York Tribune.

The phrase "Gordon Bennett" which denotes exasperation or shock derives from the son, or amongst the FDNY where it is highest medal a New York City Firefighter can earn (compared to the Medal of Honor for the US Military), "That meal was so good, it should win the Gordon Bennett!"

He also has a street named for him from West 181st to Hillside Ave in Northern Manhattan a.k.a. Washington Heights, a park named in his honor is also along Fort Washington Ave.

Bennett's account of the Helen Jewett murder in the Herald was selected by The Library of America for inclusion in the 2008 anthology True Crime.

References

1.^ Bennett's New York Herald and the Rise of the Popular Press James L. Crouthamel et al. Syracuse University Press, 1989.
2.^ Ibid.
3.^ Paletta, Lu Ann and Worth, Fred L. (1988). "The World Almanac of Presidential Facts."

Deathday: Lizzie Borden 1860-1927 Murderer?

Lizzie Andrew Borden [2] (July 19, 1860 – June 1, 1927) was a New England spinster who was the central figure in the hatchet murders of her father and stepmother on August 4, 1892 in Fall River, Massachusetts in the United States. The murders, subsequent trial, and following trial by media became a cause célèbre. The fame of the incident has endured in American pop culture and criminology. Although Lizzie Borden was acquitted, no one else was ever arrested or tried, and she has remained notorious in American folklore. Dispute over the identity of the killer or killers continues to this day.

Murders

During the morning of August 4, 1892, Borden's father, Andrew Jackson Borden (above), and her stepmother, Abby Durfee Borden (below), were murdered in the family home. The only other people present at the residence at the time were Lizzie and the family maid, Bridget Sullivan. Emma Borden, Lizzie's sister, was away from home.[2] The Borden sisters' uncle, John Vinnicum Morse, brother of Andrew Borden's first wife, was visiting at the time, but was also away from the house during the time of the murders.[2]

That day, Andrew Borden had gone into town to do his usual rounds at the bank and post office. He returned home at about 10:45 a.m. About a half-hour later, Lizzie Borden found his body. According to Sullivan's testimony, she was lying down in her room on the third floor of the house shortly after 11:00 a.m. when she heard Lizzie call to her, saying someone had killed her father, whose body was found slumped on a couch in the downstairs sitting room. Andrew Borden's face was turned to the right hand side, apparently at ease as if he were asleep.[3]

Shortly thereafter, while Lizzie Borden was being tended by neighbors and the family doctor, Sullivan discovered the body of Mrs. Borden upstairs in the guest bedroom. Mr. and Mrs. Borden had both been killed by blows from a hatchet, which in the case of Andrew Borden, not only crushed his skull but cleanly split his left eyeball.[4]

Motive and methods

Over a period of years after the death of the first Mrs. Borden, life at 92 Second Street had grown unpleasant in many ways, and affection between the older and younger family members had waned considerably if any was present at all.[5] The upstairs floor of the house was divided. The front was the territory of the Borden sisters, while the rear was for Mr. and Mrs. Borden. Meals were not always eaten together. Conflict had increased between the two daughters and their father about his decision to divide valuable property among relatives before his death. Relatives of their stepmother had been given a house, and John Morse, brother to the deceased Sarah Borden (the mother of the Borden daughters), had come to visit that week. His visit was to facilitate transfer of farm property, which included what had been a summer home for the Borden daughters. Shortly before the murders, a major argument had occurred which resulted in both sisters leaving home on extended "vacations." Lizzie Borden, however, decided to end her trip and returned early.

She was refused the purchase of prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide) by local druggist Eli Bence, which she claimed was for cleaning a seal skin cloak.[6]

Shortly before the murders, the entire household became violently ill. As Mr. Borden was not a popular man in town, Mrs. Borden feared they were being poisoned, but the family doctor diagnosed it as bad food.[7]

The trial

Lizzie Borden was arrested on August 11, 1892, with her trial beginning ten months later in New Bedford, Massachusetts.[7] Her stories proved to be inconsistent, and her behavior suspect. She was tried for the murders, defended by former Massachusetts Governor George D. Robinson and Andrew V. Jennings.[5] One of the prosecutors in the trial was William H. Moody, future United States Attorney General and Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

During the police investigation, a hatchet was found in the basement and was assumed to be the murder weapon.[5] Though it was clean, most of its handle was missing and the prosecution stated that it had been broken off because it was covered with blood. However, police officer Michael Mullaly stated that he found it next to a hatchet handle. Deputy Marshall John Fleet contradicted this testimony. Later a forensics expert said there was no time for the hatchet to be cleaned after the murder.[8] The prosecution was hampered by the fact that the Fall River police did not put credence in the new forensic technology of fingerprinting, and refused to take prints on the hatchet.[9]

No blood-soaked clothing was found as evidence by police. A few days after the murder, Borden tore apart and burned a blue dress in the kitchen stove, claiming she had brushed against fresh baseboard paint which had smeared on it.[5]

Despite incriminating circumstances, Lizzie Borden was acquitted on June 20, 1893 by a jury (below) after an hour and a half's deliberation.[5] The fact that no murder weapon was found and no blood evidence was noted just a few minutes after the second murder pointed to reasonable doubt. Her entire original inquest testimony[specify] was barred from the trial. Also excluded was testimony regarding her attempt to purchase prussic acid.[6] Adding to the doubt was another axe murder in the area, perpetrated by José Correira, which took place shortly before the trial. While many details were similar, Correira was not in the country when the Borden murder took place.[10]

After the trial Borden and her sister moved to a new house called Maplecroft.[5] In June 1905, the two argued over a party Lizzie gave for Nance O'Neil and a group of actors.[11] Shortly after that, Emma moved out of the house, and Lizzie Borden began using the name "Lizbeth A. Borden."[12][7]

Death

Lizzie Borden died of pneumonia on June 1, 1927 in Fall River, Massachusetts.[13] Borden's funeral details were not made public and only a few people attended her burial.[14] Borden was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery under the name "Lizbeth Andrew Borden", her footstone reading "Lizbeth".[15] Never married, Borden's will, probated on June 25, 1927, left $30,000 to the Fall River Animal Rescue League.[16][17] She also left $500 in perpetual trust for the care of her father's grave.[1] Nine days later, her estranged sister, Emma Lenora Borden (below), died from a fall in Newmarket, New Hampshire, on June 10, 1927.[15]

The house on Second Street (below) where the murders occurred is now a bed and breakfast.[18] Maplecroft, the mansion Borden bought after her acquittal, on then-fashionable French Street in the "highlands" is privately owned, and only occasionally available for touring.

Conjecture

Several theories have been presented over the years suggesting Lizzie Borden may not have committed the murders, and that other suspects may have had possible motives. One theory is that the maid, Bridget Sullivan, did it; possibly out of outrage for being asked to clean the windows, a taxing job on a hot day, just a day after having suffered from food poisoning. [19] Another potential culprit was forwarded by Arnold R. Brown in his work, Lizzie Borden: The Legend, The Truth, The Final Chapter, in which Brown theorizes that the true culprit was an illegitimate paternal half-brother named William Borden, as a revenge killing in his failed efforts to extort money from his father.

Yet another theory is that Borden suffered petit mal seizures during her menstrual cycle, at which times she entered a dream-like state, and unknowingly committed the murders.[20]

Nance O'Neil

The book Lizzie by Evan Hunter posed the theory that Lizzie Borden had an affair with the actress Nance O'Neil, whom she met in Boston in 1904. In the early 20th century, it was still considered socially unacceptable for women to become actresses. O'Neil was a spendthrift, always in financial trouble, and Borden came from a wealthy background. The two got along, despite Borden's notoriety.[11]

While there has never been any significant evidence that the two were intimate, the friendship was cited as the cause of Borden's final separation from her sister, Emma.[11] O'Neil was later a character in the musical about Lizzie Borden, entitled Lizzie Borden: A Musical Tragedy in Two Axe, where she was played by Suellen Vance. Feminist Carolyn Gage refers to O'Neil as an overt lesbian,[8] and although there are few documented details of any affairs, Gage claimed that her sexual orientation was well known in entertainment circles, despite her marriage.

Public reaction

The trial received a tremendous amount of national publicity. It has been compared to the later trials of Bruno Hauptmann, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and O.J. Simpson as a landmark in media coverage of legal proceedings.[21][22][23][24][25][26]

The case was memorialized in a popular skipping-rope rhyme:

Lizzie Borden took an axe

And gave her mother forty whacks.

When she saw what she had done

She gave her father forty-one.

The anonymous rhyme was made up by a writer as an alluring little tune to sell newspapers even though in reality her stepmother suffered 18[27] or 19[8] blows, her father 11. Though acquitted for the crimes, Lizzie Borden was ostracized by neighbors following the trial.[8] Lizzie Borden's name was again brought to the public forefront when she was accused of shoplifting in 1897.[15]

Genealogy

Borden was distantly related to the American milk processor Gail Borden (1801–1874) and Robert Borden (1854–1937), Canada's Prime Minister during World War I.[28]

Elizabeth Montgomery (above as Lizzie) and Lizzie Borden were sixth cousins once removed, both descending from 17th-century Massachusetts resident John Luther. Rhonda McClure, the genealogist who documented the Montgomery-Borden connection, said, "I wonder how Elizabeth would have felt if she knew she was playing her own cousin."[29]

Borden and culture

Ballet

Morton Gould wrote a ballet on the subject of Lizzie Borden, Fall River Legend, which premiered in a production by Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City on April 22, 1948 with Alicia Alonso in the lead role. He later abridged the music into a suite which is the more commonly performed version. Choreography by Agnes de Mille.
Nashville Ballet premiered Lizzie in October 2006 with choreography by Paul Vasterling, set to Fall River Legend. His interpretation investigates allegations of sexual abuse as the motive for the murder.

Comics

Rick Geary used the device of a fictional journal written by a Fall River contemporary of Lizzie as the basis of his comic book The Borden Tragedy: A Memoir of the Infamous Double Murder at Fall River, Massachusetts, 1892. NY: NBN Pub., 1997. It was an entry in his series A Treasury of Victorian Murder.
A regularly published newsletter: The Lizzie Borden Quarterly featured a comic strip titled Princess Maplecroft.

Music

Borden was the topic of The Chad Mitchell Trio's aptly named "Lizzie Borden/You Can't Chop Your Poppa Up in Massachusetts." It was written by Michael Brown for New Faces of 1952.
She was the subject of the operas Lizzie Borden (1965) by Jack Beeson and Lizbeth by Thomas Albert.
She was the subject of the cockney knees-up style song "Oh, Mother Borden" by late 80s UK musical satirists The Dubious Brothers.
The song "She Took An Axe" by the thrash metal band Flotsam and Jetsam tells Borden's story, portraying her as a demon-inspired woman, treating the subject with humour.
American glam metal band Lizzy Borden is named after her.
Melora Creager, of Rasputina, wrote her first song at the age of six, which was called "Ballad of Lizzie Borden" [30]

Prose fiction

Angela Carter wrote two short stories about Borden, one entitled Lizzie's Tiger is about a trip to the circus as a young girl, the other, The Fall River Axe Murders, focuses on the events leading up to the murders.
Evan Hunter (aka Ed McBain) wrote a fictional account of the murder in his book Lizzie.[31]
Elizabeth Engstrom wrote a novel titled Lizzie Borden, published by Tor Books in 1981. Most of the known facts of Borden's life are integrated into the fictional tale.
In Maxine O'Callaghan's short story, "An Insignificant Crime," a shopkeeper and his son-in-law debate whether or not to stop the young lady who comes to the store and steals small items, because her father is so influential. They decide not to stop her shoplifting that day. In the final lines it is revealed that the shoplifter's name is Miss Borden, and that the small item she chose to steal on this day was an axe.

Radio

The radio anthology series Suspense aired adaptations of the Borden story twice, once as "The Fall River Tragedy" on January 14, 1952, and once as "Goodbye, Miss Lizzie Borden" on October 4, 1955. Other radio adaptations include "Crime Classics: The Bloody Bloody Banks Of Fall River" from 1953, CBS radio's "Second Look At Murder," and "Unsolved Mysteries: Lizzie Borden."

Television and film

An episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents entitled "The Older Sister" retold the Borden story, in which Emma had murdered her parents due to a mental illness she suffered, while Lizzie covered for her.
Armstrong Circle Theatre, Season 12, Episode 1, "Legend of Murder – The Untold Story of Lizzie Borden" (first aired October 11, 1961), was a dramatization of Edward D. Radin's book Lizzie Borden: The Untold Story (Simon and Schuster, 1961), which put forth the theory that Bridget Sullivan was the actual murderess. Lizzie was played by Clarice Blackburn, Bridget by Mary Doyle.

Elizabeth Montgomery depicted Borden in William Bast's two hour television movie, The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975). In the movie, Lizzie Borden performs the murders after stripping naked (thus explaining the lack of bloodstained clothing). (see above)

The Sci-Fi Channel Ghost Hunters "TAPS" team investigated the Lizzie Borden house for paranormal activity in episode 12 of season 2.
On January 23, 2007, the Crime & Investigation Network aired a documentary on the Lizzie Borden story.
In 2004, the Discovery Channel aired an investigative documentary called Lizzie Borden Had an Axe. In the episode, a pair of detectives used modern forensics to exonerate Sullivan and prove Lizzie could have been the killer.
In 2008, The History Channel's series MonsterQuest visited the Borden home looking for ghosts.
The Travel Channel's show Scariest Places on Earth featured the Borden home as the #1 most scary place on earth.
The Lizzie Borden Minis is a series of short documentaries produced by Garden Bay Films and filmed at 92 Second Street where the Borden murders occurred in 1892.[32]

Theatre

The anthology of short plays, "Sepia and Song", contained a play called "A Memory of Lizzie," with scenes from Lizzie Borden's childhood interpersed with quotes from her trial.[33]
Blood Relations by Sharon Pollock premiered at Theatre Tree, Edmonton Canada in 1980. The play is set in 1902, with its "dream thesis" set in 1892, at Fall River, Massachusetts. It explores the events leading up to the trial.
The Testimony of Lizzie Borden by Eric Stedman, a docudrama staged in an accurate reproduction of the Borden sitting room which re-created much of Lizzie's actual inquest testimony, premiered at Theatre on the Towpath in New Hope, Pa. in 1994 and was presented in Fall River in 1995.
Lizzie Borden's Tempest by Brendan Byrnes played the New York International Fringe Festival in 1998. As Lizzie reads the role of Miranda in The Tempest with her local theatre club, Shakespeare's storm resurrects and reunites the Borden Family. The play's central idea is based on an actual program displayed at the Fall River Historical Society that lists a "Miss Borden" playing the role of Miranda in The Tempest.
Lizzie Borden, a rock musical adaptation of Lizzie's story created by Tim Maner, Steven Cheslik-deMeyer, and Alan Stevens Hewitt, will be produced by Took An Axe Productions in New York, NY, Sept 10-Oct 17, 2009, at The Living Theatre. This version assumes Lizzie's guilt and explores the events leading up to the murders and the trial.[34]

References

1.^ "Bequest for Tomb of Slain Father" (fee required). The New York Times. June 8, 1927.
2.^ "Inquest Testimony of Lizzie Borden". University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law.
3.^ "Testimony of Bridget Sullivan in the Trial of Lizzie Borden". University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law: Famous Trials.
4.^ Porter, Edwin H. (1893). The Fall River Tragedy: A History of the Borden Murders. Fall River: Press of J.D. Munroe.
5.^ Linder, Doug. "The Trial of Lizzie Borden". University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law: Famous Trials.
6.^ "Prussic Acid In The Case". New York Times. June 15, 1893.
7.^ Cantwell, Mary (July 26, 1992). "Lizzie Borden Took an Ax". The New York Times.
8.^ Adams, Cecil (March 13, 2001). "Did Lizzie Borden kill her parents with an ax because she was discovered having a lesbian affair?". The Straight Dope.
9.^ "On this day in crime history." The Washington, D.C. Examiner. August 4, 2008.
10.^ Noe, Denise (October 1999). "The Murderer Who Inadvertently Helped Miss Lizzie". The Lizzie Borden Quarterly: 8.
11.^ "Sisters Estranged Over Nance O'Neill". The San Francisco Call. June 7, 1905.
12.^ "Cast of Characters". LizzieAndrewBorden.com.
13.^ "Lizzie Borden Dies" (fee required). The New York Times. June 3, 1927. 
14.^ "Few at Borden Burial" (fee required). The New York Times. June 6, 1927.
15.^ "Dates in the Borden Case". Fall River Historical Society.
16.^ "Lizzie Borden's Will Is Probated". The New York Times. Associated Press. June 25, 1927.
17.^ "Lizzie Borden's Last Will and Probate Records" (PDF). Lizzieandrewborden.com.
18.^ "Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast". http://www.lizzie-borden.com/.
19.^ Kent, David (1992). "4". Forty Whacks: New Evidence in the Life and Legend of Lizzie Borden (1 ed.). Emmaus, PA: Yankee Books. p. 39. ISBN 0899093515.
20.^ Lincoln, Victoria (1967). "1". A Private Disgrace: Lizzie Borden by Daylight (Book Club ed.). New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. pp. 44–60. ISBN 0930330358.
21.^ Chiasson, Lloyd Jr (1997). The Press on Trial: Crimes and Trials as Media Events. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313300224.
22.^ Knox, Sara L. (1998). Murder: A Tale of Modern American Life. Duke University Press. ISBN 0822320533.
23.^ Cramer, Clayton E. (1994). "Ethical Problems of Mass Murder Coverage in the Mass Media". Journal of Mass Media Ethics 9.
24.^ Beschle, Donald L. (1997). "What's Guilt (or Deterrence) Got to Do with It?". William and Mary Law Review 38.
25.^ Eaton, William J. (December 1995). "Just like O.J.'s Trial, but without Kato". American Journalism Review 17.
26.^ Scott, Gina Graham (2005). Homicide by the Rich and Famous: A Century of Prominent Killers. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0275983463.
27.^ "Lizzie Borden Took An Ax". Crime Library.
28.^ Cole, Michael S. M.D. (1994). Cowan Connections. Privately published. pp. 374–380.
29.^ Pylant, James (2004). "The Bewitching Family Tree of Elizabeth Montgomery". Genealogy Magazine. Rhonda R. McClure. Finding Your Famous (& Infamous) Ancestors. (Cincinnati: Betterway Books: 2003), pp. 14-16."
30.^ "Rasputina Biograph". Rasputina.com.
31.^ Hunter, Evan (May 1985). Lizzie. Dell Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0440148166.
32.^ "The Lizzie Borden Minis."
33.^ Foxton, David (1987). Sepia and Song: A Collection of Historical Documentaries. Nelson Thornes. pp. 1–32. ISBN 978-0174324096.
34.^ "Fellner, Birnbaum, Arcilla and Cimma Will Rock Lizzie Borden in September". Playbill.

Further reading

A number of works expounding the facts and different theories have been written about the crime. These include:

Asher, Robert, Lawrence B. Goodheart and Alan Rogers. Murder on Trial: 1620—2002 New York: State University of New York Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0791463772.
Brown, Arnold R. Lizzie Borden: The Legend, the Truth, the Final Chapter. Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press, 1991, ISBN 1-55853-099-1.
de Mille, Agnes. Lizzie Borden: A Dance of Death. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1968.
Kent, David Forty Whacks: New Evidence in the Life and Legend of Lizzie Borden. Yankee Books, 1992, ISBN 0-89909-351-5.
Kent, David The Lizzie Borden Sourcebook. Boston: Branden Publishing Company, 1992, ISBN 0-8283-1950-2.
King, Florence. WASP, Where is Thy Sting? Chapter 15, "One WASP's Family, or the Ties That Bind." Stein & Day, 1977, ISBN 0-552-99377-8 (1990 Reprint Edition).
Lincoln, Victoria. A Private Disgrace: Lizzie Borden by Daylight. NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1967, ISBN 0-930330-35-8.
Masterton, William L. Lizzie Didn’t Do It! Boston: Branden Publishing Company, 2000, ISBN 0-8283-2052-7.
Pearson, Edmund Lester. Studies in Murder Ohio State University Press, 1924.
Pearson, Edmund Lester. Trial of Lizzie Borden, edited, with a history of the case, Doubleday-Doran, 1937. Main text is a transcript of the trial.
Radin, Edward D. Lizzie Borden: The Untold Story Simon and Schuster, 1961.
Rebello, Leonard. Lizzie Borden: Past & Present Al-Zach Press, 1999.
David Rehak. Did Lizzie Borden Axe For It? Angel Dust Publishing, 2008.
Spiering, Frank. Lizzie: The Story of Lizzie Borden. Dorset Press, 1991, ISBN 0-88029-685-2.
Sullivan, Robert. Goodbye Lizzie Borden. Brattleboro, VT: Stephen Greene Press, 1974, ISBN 0-14-011416-5.
Hunter, Evan has a video out called Reopened: Lizzie Borden with Ed McBain.