Suspense: The Fall River Tragedy (

Suspense: 01/14/52, episode 455
Brought to you by the Old Time Radio Researchers, courtesy of The Suspense Project
Agnes Moorehead stars in one of several radio adaptations of the 1892 Borden family murders in Fall River, Massachusetts. This telling is by Gil Doud and has Moorehead playing Lizzie Borden as she recounts the events of the trial that exonerated her. Public perception was a different matter. A schoolyard poem, used in the production, taunted her and the courtroom verdict:
Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks,
And when she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.
The wording is slightly different in this production. The actual facts of the murders are somewhat inaccurate, but they wouldn’t rhyme as well as these.
It is a good performance by all, but not your typical challenging Moorehead broadcast that includes much fear and terror. It’s not an exciting or breakthrough script but it is called a “true story of murder.” Moorehead is identified as “The First Lady of Suspense,” a moniker that was not used until Elliott Lewis became producer.
The Lizzie Borden story seemed to be a favorite of Suspense. It is important to remember the history and Suspense timeline to understand why the Borden events might still be interesting to the listening audience. It wasn't that far removed from the life experiences of many in the audience, especially in the Northeast. The trial was in 1892, and Borden died in 1927. If you were born in 1880, you were 12 years old for the verdict of the trial and just 62 when the first Suspense adaptation was done in the Summer 1942 season (a missing episode). If you were born in 1917, you were 10 when Borden died and the story returned to the news, and just 38 when the last of the Suspense adaptations was broadcast in 1955.
The first time the real-life story was on Suspense was in an adapted/disguised version. The others were clear, and different productions. Lewis also used it on his series Crime Classics.
1942-07-01 The Life of Nellie James was broadcast just 15 years after Borden died. The script was by Harold Medford. It is not known why the names of the characters were changed in the Medford story. Perhaps there was a legal reason or producer Charles Vanda or others wanted to have more dramatic license in the production and avoid having it judged as a historical drama. There is a good chance Medford wrote it with the intention of using the original names. There is an instance of “Lizzie” in a draft of the original script that slipped through the revision process.
This 1952 script was by Gil Doud. The actual names of persons involved in the story were used. It was ten years after the first Suspense production, and it fit the “actual events” theme. The story was so well known that changing names may have seemed strange under the heavily promoted “semi-documentary” strategy, and they went full throttle with “a true story of murder.”
Elliott Lewis used the story for Crime Classics 1953-09-14 as The Bloody, Bloody Banks Of Fall River with a script by Mort Fine and David Friedkin.
The broadcast of 1955-10-04 Goodbye, Miss Lizzie Borden with a script by Lillian de la Torre was the final time it was offered on the series. It was adapted by Antony Ellis from de la Torre’s 1948 stage play.
Cast: AGNES MOOREHEAD (Lizzie), Joseph Kearns (Moody), Peggy Webber (Bridget), Herb Butterfield (Bowen), Rolfe Sedan (Clerk), Will Wright (Harrington), Stuffy Singer (Child), Larry Thor (Narrator)
COMMERCIAL: Tom Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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