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Our first installment of Why I Launched A Podcast features Kate Lavender who is clearly fascinated by the Lizzie Borden story. Lavender says she’s the first person to ever record 100% of Lizzie Borden’s criminal case into a series of podcasts. The name of her podcast is Lizzie Borden Audio.
Lavender tells PBJ she had no experience in podcasting or social media when she started this project 2.5 years ago. “In fact, I could not afford to Xerox the 3,000 pages of trial testimony for the actors. I taught myself how to use Audacity with Youtube videos by Pat Flynn. I launched 84 days ago and have 1,100 downloads which I think is remarkable in a pandemic.”
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Kate Lavender[/caption]
In the podcast Lavender goes to great lengths to re-enact the trial of Borden, who was born in 1860, and was the main suspect in the August 4, 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. Lavender says, “whether you’re a law student, a writer, a true-crime aficionado or a history buff you can take your research to the next level with trial reenactment. With short musical interludes, it’s much more fun than reading.”
So, why Lizzie Borden? “Lizzie’s story woke my brain up after a long bout of writer’s block. In many ways, the crimes of this little 32-year-old spinster were similar to the OJ Simpson trial. The evidence was wholly circumstantial yet she was protected by a series of chances which might not happen again in a thousand years. Despite her attempts to buy poison the day before the murders, they could not find the bloody murder dress or the hatchet she used (later found on the roof of her neighbor’s barn). Mrs. Borden was dead 2 hours prior and the only one there was Lizzie. Yet, the jury of all men could not see how she could have done it and she was acquitted. A documentary is needed.”
She says of greatest importance is Lizzie’s Inquest testimony. “It was excluded at the trial and the public has never heard it in its entirety, until now.”
Lavender, who lives in Portland, Oregon, was featured in a recent edition of “The Herald News” which is the home of Lizzie’s trial in Fall River, MA.
Check out the podcast HERE on Buzzsprout. She also got a nice write-up about the podcast in The Herald News in Fall River, MA.