Lizzie Borden and Hyman Lubinsky

Carlisle believes, and Dickerson concurs, that Andrew may have molested first Emma and then Lizzie. Writing about the change, Carlisle states that "research on serial abuse," while "sketchy," suggests that a "shift from one sibling to another often takes place as the older child begins to resist the abuse."

Dickerson believes Andrew may have at some point stopped his improper fondling of Lizzie, enabling the family to return to a semblance of a normal life. But he sees her ambiguous statement to Alice Russell on the day prior to the murders as indicating unease with a dark undercurrent.

According to the trial transcript, Alice Russell testified that Lizzie had visited her the day before the murders. On that visit Lizzie said, "I feel depressed. I feel as if something was hanging over me that I cannot throw off, and it comes over me at times, no matter where I am. . . . father has so much trouble. . . . I feel afraid sometimes that father has got an enemy. . . . I feel as if I wanted to sleep with my eyes half open -- with one eye open half the time -- for fear they will burn the house down over us."

Dickerson thinks this statement indicates that, after several years cessation, Andrew had started molesting Lizzie again. He believes "father has so much trouble" really means "father IS so much trouble." He also sees significance in her saying she does not want to go to sleep, as Andrew's nocturnal visits to her bedroom may have been what she dreaded.

However, Lizzie was no longer a child or adolescent but an adult. She was not going to permit herself to be regularly abused again. Her father had an enemy all right and that enemy, as Lizzie well knew, planned to act.

This leads us to the question of why Abby was killed and killed viciously by eighteen blows to her head and one to her shoulder. Abby was not the sexual abuser but Lizzie had at least as much fury, if not more, at her as she had at her father. Why? Dickerson feels that Lizzie may have complained to Abby about the fondling and been disbelieved or blamed. A stepmother who reacted to a distressed, molested child by lashing out at her as "lying" or "sinful" would be hated as much or more than a father who betrayed his parental role through that abuse.

After Lizzie's acquittal, it is unlikely that she and Hyman Lubinsky saw much of each other. If they did, they would have had to have been even more circumspect than they had been before the crimes since people were constantly watching Lizzie because of the cloud of notoriety that hung over her. However, it seems likely that the wealthy heiress might have funneled some money to the young man who had served her so well, either in person or through an intermediary or simply by placing envelopes (perhaps without return addresses) in the mail.

The addresses where Hyman Lubinsky resided offer clues as to his life after the trial. As noted above, the teenager lived on Spring St. at the time of the slayings and remained there until 1911. Then Lubinsky moved to a residence on Ferry St. in 1912. In 1913 he moved to an abode on Washington St. where he resided until 1916. Rebello writes that, in 1917, Lubinsky moved to "230 Second Street, the Borden house." Some readers may be confused by the address because they know the murders were committed at 92 Second St. Hatchet contributor Harry Widdows wrote to this writer, "92 Second and 230 Second are one and the same. In 1896, all streets were renumbered in Fall River."

Why would Hyman Lubinsky have wanted to live in the house where the murders were committed? The house may have possessed fond memories for him if the pair had arranged to have trysts or meetings there. He might also have liked moving into the home once occupied by people who had so bitterly wronged a woman he cared about, especially knowing that he had helped that woman avenge herself against them. It is also possible that the residence gave him a reason to keep in touch with Lizzie that would not arouse suspicion. According to Widdows, "The Borden sisters sold #92 in June 1918 so Lubinsky would have been a boarder there for at least a portion of the time they still owned it."

This move also indicates that Lubinsky's economic situation had improved rather dramatically. While the residence at 92 Second St. was below Andrew Borden's means, it represents something of an elevation for an ice-cream peddler. There is no evidence that he ever held a high-paying job and Rebello writes that he labored as "a peddler and packer." Perhaps a grateful Lizzie charged him less than other tenants or allowed him to live there free of charge.

It is also possible that the absence of a continuing connection to Lizzie after the Borden sisters sold the property in 1918 led Lubinsky to move back to Washington St. in 1920. According to Rebello, he was still living there when he died of pulmonary tuberculosis on January 23, 1923 and "was buried in the Hebrew Cemetery in Fall River" (88). He was either 47 or 49 depending on which account of the year of his birth is correct.

Rebello writes that Lubinsky "was married and later listed in the Federal Census (1920) as divorced" (88). Although the time period is edging out of the Victorian era and into the Roaring Twenties, this was still a culture in which divorce was extremely rare and considered dishonorable. Something drastic must have impelled either Hyman Lubinsky or his wife to such a course. In the intimacy of marriage, could he have confided something of his involvement in the murders to a wife who was horrified by it? Or could his continuing feelings for another woman, whether or not he actually saw her, have weakened the marital bond? The possibilities are tantalizing.

We cannot know what Hyman Lubinsky's feelings were but, if David Lee Dickerson's theory is correct, Lubinsky may have enjoyed a peculiar sense of triumph after the trial in keeping and taking to his grave the knowledge of the bloody secrets hidden in a humble ice-cream wagon.