FALL RIVER, Mass. — “Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41.”
That rhyme has been passed down through the generations to describe the horror that took place at the Borden household in 1892. While it's not entirely accurate, the rhyme does reflect the ongoing fascination some people have with the double murder in Fall River, Massachusetts, as they line up to take a tour or even stay overnight at the crime scene now known as Lizzie Borden House.
October has long been considered the spookiest month, and as Halloween approaches, many tourists find it the ideal time to visit a home with a gruesome past or descend into a darkened basement clutching a lantern. While there is no scientific evidence that homes can be haunted or ghosts exist, polls indicate that one-third or more of Americans believe in such phenomena. For many others, the tours represent nothing more than a bit of spine-tingling fun.
And there are plenty of savvy business owners who know how to capitalize on the fear, mystery and wonder that has surrounded death since the dawn of humankind.
“I believe Lizzie did this,” tour guide Richard Sheridan tells a group of spellbound tourists as he shows them a mannequin on a bedroom floor spattered in fake blood, placed there to represent Borden's slain stepmother.
In fact, Borden was tried and acquitted of killing her father, a wealthy investor, and her stepmother, despite the strong evidence against her. That left the murders officially unsolved, and the outcome only added to people's fascination with the case.
Sheridan said he thinks the murders left behind an eeriness that remains today.
“I firmly believe they imprinted on the house. I think it's what you would call a haunting," he said.
On the other side of the U.S. in Portland, Oregon, tourists walk down steep steps into a cavernous basement in Old Town Chinatown. Once the site of a hotel, these days it's home to a pizzeria and brewery. The tourists are promised a lesson in Portland’s dark history and to hear tales about Nina, who supposedly is the resident underground ghost.
Portland's history certainly is disturbing: Men were kidnapped to work on ships, or were tricked into working as sailors by unscrupulous operators who got them drunk or ensnared them in debt. The practice came to be known as “Shanghaiing," named after the Chinese port city where some of the ships were headed. Women were also trafficked for prostitution, and criminals smuggled opium and alcohol.
But whether any of those activities actually took place in the underground “Shanghai Tunnels" that are central to the tour is less clear.
One local history buff, Joe Streckert, said nobody's found any artifacts to support the theory. Rather more mundanely, he said, some of the interconnected basements were used for storing merchandise.
“We don’t have any evidence that underground structures were part of the whole Shanghaiing infrastructure," said Streckert, who wrote a book on the history of Portland and once gave tours in Old Town.
But that doesn't stop the excitement of tourists.
“I kept getting shivers up the spine," said tourist Kate Nelson, who added it wasn't the temperature. “You're going downstairs, you're going through tunnels, you're going through places where other energies have been.”
Tourist Drew Smith said he thought he saw something weird in a hole, and his camera kept going out of focus.
“It was trying to pick up on something random in spots when there was nothing there,” he said.
And the ghost? In a hushed voice, in the darkened basement surrounded by tourists holding their lanterns, guide Natasha Cimmiyotti said Nina died down there after falling down an elevator shaft.
“Whatever you think ghosts or spirits may be, that is not up to me to tell you,” Cimmiyotti said, adding with a sly smile: “There have been experiences here, even as a healthy skeptic, I cannot tangibly explain.”
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Rush reported from Portland, Oregon, and Perry from Meredith, New Hampshire.
