Most of the officers who interviewed Lizzie reported that they disliked her "attitude"some said she was too calm and poised. Despite her behavior and changing alibis, she was not checked for bloodstains. Police did search her room, but it was a cursory inspection, at the trial they admitted to not doing a proper search because Lizzie was not feeling well. They were subsequently criticized for their lack of diligence. In the basement, police found two hatchets, two axes, and a hatchet-head with a broken handle.The hatchet-head was suspected of being the murder weapon as the break in the handle appeared fresh and the ash and dust on the head, unlike that on the other bladed tools, appeared to have been deliberately applied to make it look as if it had been in the basement for some time.However, none of these tools were removed from the house.Because of the mysterious illness that had stricken the household before the murders, the family's milk and the victims' stomachs (removed during autopsies performed in the Borden dining room) were tested for poison;none was found.Residents suspected Lizzie of purchasing "hydrocyanic acid in a diluted form" from the local druggist. Her defense was that she inquired about using the acid to clean her furs, despite the local medical examiner's testimony that it did not have antiseptic properties. Lizzie and Emma's friend, Alice Russell, decided to stay with the sisters the night following the murders while Morse spent the night in the attic guest room, contrary to later accounts that he slept in the murder-site guest room. Police were stationed around the house on the night of August 4, during which an officer said he had seen Lizzie enter the cellar with Russell, carrying a kerosene lamp and a slop pail. He stated he saw both women exit the cellar, after which Lizzie returned alone though he was unable to see what she was doing, he stated it appeared she was bent over the sink. On August 5, Morse left the Borden residence and was mobbed by hundreds of people, police had to escort him back to the house. The following day, police conducted a more thorough search of the house, inspecting the sisters' clothing and confiscating the broken-handled hatchet head. That evening a police officer and the mayor visited the house, and Lizzie was informed that she was a suspect in the murders. The next morning, Russell entered the kitchen to find Borden tearing up a dress. She explained that she was planning to put it on the fire because it was covered in paint. It was never determined whether it was the dress she had been wearing on the day of the murders. Lizzie's trial took place in New Bedford starting on June 5, 1893.Prosecuting attorneys were Hosea M.Knowlton and future United States Supreme Court Justice William H. Moody, defending were Andrew V. Jennings, Melvin O. Adams , and former Massachusetts governor George D. Robinson. Five days before the trial's commencement, on June 1, another axe-murder occurred in Fall River. This time the victim was Bertha Manchester, who was found hacked to death in her kitchen. The similarities between the Manchester and Borden murders were striking and noted by jurors. Jose Correa de Mello, a Portuguese immigrant, was later convicted of Manchester's murder in 1894, and was determined not to have been in the vicinity of Fall River at the time of the Borden murders. A prominent point of discussion in the trial, and press coverage of it, was the hatchet-head found in the basement, which was not convincingly demonstrated by the prosecution to be the murder weapon. Prosecutors argued that the killer had removed the handle because it would have been covered in blood.One officer testified that a hatchet handle was found near the hatchet-head, but another officer contradicted this.Though no bloody clothing was found at the scene, Russell testified that on August 8, 1892, she had witnessed Lizzie burn a dress in the kitchen stove, saying it had been ruined when she brushed against wet paint.
