author
Edwin H. Porter
A Fall River journalist turned one of America’s most notorious murder cases into a vivid early true-crime account. His firsthand reporting on the Lizzie Borden case still gives the story much of its urgency and local detail.
1 Audiobook
The Fall River Tragedy: A History of the Borden Murders
by Edwin H. Porter
About the author
Working as a police reporter for the Fall River Daily Globe, Edwin H. Porter covered the 1892 Lizzie Borden murders close to the source, in the same Massachusetts city where the crime unfolded. His book The Fall River Tragedy drew on official testimony and contemporary reporting to tell the story for a wide public audience.
Porter’s writing stands out because it sits so near the events themselves. Rather than treating the case as distant history, he wrote as a newspaper man following the investigation and trial as they happened, which gives his account a direct, immediate feel.
Some basic details about his life are less clearly documented in the sources reviewed than details about his book and reporting career, so this overview focuses on what can be confirmed: he was an early chronicler of the Borden case, and his work remains a notable piece of American crime writing from the late nineteenth century.