Sororcide.

The Murder of Lizzie Anderson

Josie Fay was standing at the corner of Bowker and Sudbury Streets in Boston’s West End, on the evening of January 19, 1880. Stella Vannell approached her and asked if she had seen Ida King. Josie pointed down Bowker Street, where Ida stood talking with a young man named Michael Tolan. Stella walked up to the couple, called out to Ida, and began making disparaging remarks about Tolan. The women exchanged angry words, and the argument escalated until, in a flash, Stella drew a large clasp-knife and plunged it into Ida’s breast. Both women were drunk at the time of the incident, and both were using assumed names. In fact, they were sisters, Maggie and Lizzie Anderson.

The Andersons emigrated to America from Limerick, Ireland, when Lizzie was five years old and Maggie was seven. Each of their parents, John and Helen, had been married before, and each had a son from the previous marriage.  The family settled in Holyoke, Massachusetts, where John worked as a laborer. As soon as they were able, both girls were put to work at a textile mill. 

Maggie Anderson

At an early age, Maggie became wild and hard to control. She was arrested for larceny and spent two years in a workhouse. Shortly after her return, Maggie had a quarrel with her mother during which she pushed her down a flight of stairs. Helen never fully recovered from the fall and died soon after. John returned to Ireland, leaving the house in the charge of the two stepbrothers. Maggie could not stay out of trouble and spent another two years in Bridgewater Prison. Upon her release, she moved to Boston.

Lizzie was quiet and possessed an even temper, but had intemperate habits and a fondness for the company of men. When Lizzie got into trouble, the brothers refused to put up with her and sent her out of the house. She went to Boston and moved in with her sister.

Shortly after her arrival in Boston, Lizzie was arrested for drunkenness and spent thirty days in jail. She was arrested again, for night-walking, which, in Massachusetts, referred to soliciting prostitution on the streets. She served several terms at Sherburn Prison. At one time, both Lizzie and Maggie were serving time in Sherburn. One day, the matron told Lizzie to wash the floor, and she refused, saying she was too tired. The matron was about to lay violent hands on Lizzie when Maggie came by and commenced to beat the matron. Lizzie joined in, and both sisters were put in solitary confinement, where they spent the remainder of their sentences.

In Boston, the sisters lived together peacefully for a time, but Maggie began associating with black men, and Lizzie disapproved. When Maggie married a black man named Vannell, Lizzie moved out. Their relationship became so contentious that Lizzie would scarcely recognize her sister on the street. After moving out of her sister’s apartment, Lizzie took up residence in a house of ill-fame on Bowker Street and went by the name Ida King. 

After the stabbing on January 19, Maggie dropped the knife and ran from the scene. Josie Fay, who witnessed the crime, ran for a doctor. A police officer arrived first and asked Lizzie several times, “Do you know who stabbed you?”

Lizzie rolled in pain. “Let me alone,” were the last words she said. The Medical Examiner arrived and ordered her body be taken to the morgue. Tolan, who had tried to interfere and was badly cut about the head and hands. He had to be carried to the police station, but his wounds were not fatal.

Maggie was apprehended soon after, drinking at Doc Young’s saloon on Sudbury Street. The bartender said Maggie had been drinking there earlier in the evening and had become so boisterous that he had to shut her up. He said she left the saloon with the knife in her hand, saying she was going to put it into her sister before the evening was out.

At the police station, Maggie gave her version of the story. She said she was looking for her sister and wanted to tell her that the man she was with was no good. 

“You see, sir,” she said, “my sister had been drinking; she was pretty full, and I did not want her to go with him at all, because I did not like the looks of him.”

She said she called Tolan a dirty pimp, and he rushed at her with a knife. Lizzie jumped between them and was stabbed. Maggie twisted the knife from his hand, cutting her hands in the process, then aimed a blow at him.

“I know I must have stabbed him somewhere,” she said,  “but I know I did not cut my sister; I would not do it for the world…I love her very much, because she is all the relation I have in the world that I care for, and  I would not do anything to harm her.”

Maggie was arraigned on January 21 for the murder of her sister. She pleaded not guilty. When the case went before the Supreme Judicial Court on May 7, she changed her plea to guilty of manslaughter, and the court accepted it. Sheriff Clark testified that since her arrest, Maggie expressed a great deal of grief for the loss of her sister. The judge sentenced her to three years of hard labor in the Suffolk County House of Correction.

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Sources: 

“Another Murder at Boston,” New Haven Evening Register, January 20, 1880.
“The Hawkins Street Murder,” The Boston Globe, May 7, 1880.
“Horrible Harlotry,” Illustrated Police News, January 31, 1880.
“Killed Her Sister,” The Washington Post, January 20, 1880.
“Margaret Anderson,” The Boston Globe, January 20, 1880.
“Margaret Anderson,” The Boston Globe, January 21, 1880.
“Murder,” The Boston Globe, January 20, 1880.
“Sororicide,” Buffalo Weekly Courier, January 28, 1880.