There is no better way to experience a crime story than to do the lens of an author born

and brought up at the scene of the crime. Arnold R. Brown's book titled Lizzie Borden,

The Legend of the Truth, The Final Chapter, is oddly optimistic because it takes a different outlook on the murder.

Brown must have been aware that the authors before him tried to claim that they knew the ignigma of the Borden murders,

but could convince very few of their knowledge. There was always something missing, always something wrong,

no matter the proof gathered, court documents cited, and witness testimonies mentioned, nobody was ever satisfied,

because none of it ever led to a final answer. The question always remained, but who did it?

Brown tells us in his introduction that he was born and brought up in Fall River, and that Lizzie Borden had died just eight days before his second birthday.

He believed the mainstream story of the Borden murders was true, Lizzie was evil, and the Sunday school teacher got away with it,

so it wasn't until he left that little bubble and moved to Florida that his outlook changed.

He encountered a man from his hometown, Louis Peterson. Naturally, their conversations drifted to the Borden case, arguably the story that put their little town on the map.

It turned out that Louis Peterson's father-in-law, Henry Hawthorne, claimed to have met and even known the murderer.

Brown asked, are you referring to Lizzie, and Peterson replied, no way I'm referring to the person who actually murdered them.

According to Peterson, at age 89, Henry Hawthorne had written an accurate account of the murders, all in an attempt to clear his head,

and come to terms with reality, as death loomed over his head.

It was the most detailed, and by Brown's words, compelling argument they had of the case.

According to the Hawthorne version, some motives provided a semblance of logic to what had always been senseless acts.

Eventually, these motives and reasons would become too dangerous to reveal.

As a result, Brown felt compelled to explore these accusations.

He claims to have spent two years investigating the case and comparing the facts to Hawthorne's own writings.

He found an eerie degree of similarity.

We spent the last episode exploring different angles, but Hawthorne's account does not incriminate any of the usual suspects.

...