Headstone Manor is part of Harrow Museum. It is a 14th century moated manor house formerly the home of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is located in Headstone, in the London Borough of Harrow.

Built in circa 1310, the moated manor house known as Headstone Manor is the earliest surviving timber framed building in Middlesex. Described as ‘one of the most interesting domestic complexes in the whole country’, the fabric of Headstone Manor contains examples of high quality work dating from the 14th, 17th and 18th centuries. Headstone Manor is a Grade I listed building.

Headstone Manor is surrounded by the only surviving filled moat in Middlesex. The moat is contemporary in date to the oldest part of the building, and was constructed as a status symbol to reflect the wealth of the manor’s owner.

The land on which Headstone Manor stands is recorded to have belonged to Wulfred, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 825AD. The construction of Headstone Manor began in c.1310, as revealed by the tree-ring dating of the building’s oldest timbers. John Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury, purchased even more land around the site in 1344 and used the site as his main residence in Middlesex. Headstone Manor remained in the ownership of the Archbishops of Canterbury until 1546, when it was surrendered to Henry VIII. Soon after, Henry VIII sold it to one of his court favourites, and it remained in private ownership for almost four centuries.

The numerous owners of Headstone Manor made dramatic extensions and changes to the building, such as adding extra wings and changing the appearance of the interior and exterior of the house. Examples of this include the panelling of the great hall in 1631, and the addition of a fashionable brick façade in the 1770s which gives Headstone Manor the appearance it has today.

Over time, Headstone Manor fell into a state of disrepair, and much of its surrounding land was sold off. In 1925 Hendon Rural District Council bought the site. It then passed into the control of the London Borough of Harrow after local government reorganisation. After years of increasing dilapidation, the decision was made to turn the site into the home of Harrow Museum, which officially opened in 1986. The first stage of restoration at Headstone Manor began in the autumn of 2004, focussing on the oldest parts of the building. Due to the delicate nature of this historic site, only tours are available in order to view Headstone Manor.

The manor has a timber framed aisled hall, and the building is Grade I listed. The building was extensively restored in 2004-5. The manor has records dating to 825AD, and the estate is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Harrow museum[link]

The site also houses Harrow Museum. This includes a Grade II* listed Tithe Barn of 1506, restored in the 1970s. There is also an 18th century Grade II listed Granary, restored and moved from another site in 1991, and a Grade II listed 16th century "small Barn", restored in 1995.

Coordinates: 51°35′41″N 0°21′15″W / 51.59472°N 0.35417°W / 51.59472; -0.35417

The House of Death refers to a serial killing site in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, where executions were committed by members of the Juárez Cartel, some allegedly with the knowledge and participation of a United States undercover informant known by the pseudonym "Lalo", who had infiltrated the cartel. According to policy of the United States Department of Justice, undercover informants are not permitted to participate in acts of violence.

Guillermo Eduardo Ramírez Peyro, AKA "Lalo", was a former Mexican Highway Patrol officer and a paid informant of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. "Lalo" also reported to the DEA. After infiltrating the Juárez Cartel,^[1] he worked with Heriberto Santillán Tabares and helped him murder people in Mexico. "Lalo" had foreknowledge of planned killings and claims that he informed his US handlers of the intended crimes.^[2] It has been asserted that US officials, including Johnny Sutton, the United States Attorney of United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, were aware of the murderous activities of the informant, but failed to intervene.^[2][3] Juanita Fielden, Assistant US Attorney, is a defendant in a law suit for wrongful death brought forward by families of victims of the "House of Death".^[1]

Torture and executions of suspected rivals and suspected informants took place until January 2004. Once the Mexican government became aware of the activities, a mass grave containing at least twelve bodies was found in a house on 3633 Calle Parcioneros, Ciudad Juárez, which came to be dubbed the "House of Death."^[2] Santillán was convicted of trafficking by Johnny Sutton, but in a plea bargaining agreement, he was not accused of murder, and "Lalo", the former informant for the US government, now sits in a high-security prison awaiting extradition to Mexico, which will be according to him tantamount to a death sentence.^[2] "Lalo" also claims that the United States Government still owes him money.^[1]

Subsequent to the publication of the "House of Death" story, the investigative journalist of Narco News, Bill Conroy, received visits at his office, his home, and to his employer from officers of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, an event that prompted a letter by former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney reprimanding Johnny Sutton for "an attempt ... to intimidate a journalist who has reported facts that are embarrassing to him".^[4]

See also[link]

Mexico portal

• War on Drugs
• Vicente Carrillo Fuentes
• Mexican Drug War

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b c} Dave Montgomery (2007-05-20). "Questions linger about the "House of Death"". http://www.star-telegram.com/national_news/story/108624.html. Retrieved 2007-05-24. ^{[dead link]}
2. ^ ^{a b c d} The Observer (2006-12-11). "The House of Death". The Guardian (London). http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1962643,00.html. 
3. ^ Bill Conroy (2005). "Ex-DEA El Paso Chief Slams U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton Over “Murders Gov’t Could Have Prevented”". http://www.narconews.com/Issue38/article1374.html. 
4. ^ Letter of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney

External links[link]

• House of Death Article Collection

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2011)

Vincent Price
from the trailer for the film Laura (1944)
Born	(1911-05-27)May 27, 1911 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Died	October 25, 1993(1993-10-25) (aged 82) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1935–93
Spouse	Edith Barrett (1938–48) Mary Grant Price (1949–73) Coral Browne (1974–91; her death)

Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic performances in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.

Early life and career[link]

Price was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Marguerite Cobb (née Wilcox) and Vincent Leonard Price, Sr., who was the president of the National Candy Company.^[1][2] His grandfather, Vincent Clarence Price, invented "Dr. Price's Baking Powder," the first cream of tartar baking powder, and secured the family's fortune.^[3]

Price attended St. Louis Country Day School. He was further educated at Yale in art history and fine art. He was a member of the Courtauld Institute, London. He became interested in the theatre during the 1930s, appearing professionally on stage for the first time in 1935.

Career[link]

As Mr. Manningham in Angel Street, in which he had a three-year run, photo by Carl Van Vechten, 1942.

He made his film debut in 1938 with Service de Luxe and established himself in the film Laura (1944), opposite Gene Tierney, directed by Otto Preminger. He also played Joseph Smith, Jr. in the movie Brigham Young (1940) and William Gibbs McAdoo in Wilson (1944) as well as a pretentious priest in The Keys of the Kingdom (1944).

Price's first venture into the horror genre was in the 1939 Boris Karloff film Tower of London. The following year he portrayed the title character in the film The Invisible Man Returns (a role he reprised in a vocal cameo at the end of the 1948 horror-comedy spoof Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein).

In 1946 Price reunited with Tierney in two notable films, Dragonwyck and Leave Her to Heaven. There were also many villainous roles in film noir thrillers like The Web (1947), The Long Night (1947), Rogues' Regiment (1948), and The Bribe (1949) with Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, and Charles Laughton. His first starring role was as conman James Addison Reavis in the 1950 biopic The Baron of Arizona. He also did a comedic turn as the tycoon Burnbridge Waters, co-starring with Ronald Colman in Champagne for Caesar. He was active in radio, portraying the Robin Hood-inspired crime-fighter Simon Templar in The Saint that ran from 1943 to 1951.

In the 1950s, he moved into horror films, with a role in House of Wax (1953), the first 3-D film to land in the year's top ten at the North American box office, then The Mad Magician (1954), and then the monster movie The Fly (1958) and its sequel Return of the Fly (1959). Price also starred in the original House on Haunted Hill (1959) as the eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren. He played Dr. Warren Chapin, in The Tingler, a 1959 horror-thriller film by the American producer and director William Castle. Price also appeared to great effect in the radio drama Three Skeleton Key, the story of an island lighthouse besieged by an army of rats. He first performed the work in 1950 on Escape and returned to it in 1956 and 1958 for Suspense.^[4]

Outside of the horror genre, Price played Baka (the master builder) in The Ten Commandments. In the 1955–1956 television season he appeared three times as Rabbi Gershom Seixos in the ABC anthology series, Crossroads, a study of clergymen from different denominations. About this time he also appeared on NBC's The Martha Raye Show.

1960s[link]

In the 1960s, Price had a number of low-budget successes with Roger Corman and American International Pictures (AIP) including the Edgar Allan Poe adaptations House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), Tales of Terror (1962), The Comedy of Terrors (1963), The Raven (1963), The Masque of the Red Death (1964), and The Tomb of Ligeia (1965). He starred in The Last Man on Earth (1964), the first adaptation of the Richard Matheson novel I Am Legend. In 1968 Price portrayed witchhunter Matthew Hopkins in Witchfinder General^[5] (released in the US as The Conqueror Worm). He starred in comedy films, notably Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965) and its sequel Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966). In 1968 he played the part of an eccentric artist in the musical Darling of the Day opposite Patricia Routledge.

Price often spoke of his pleasure at playing Egghead in the Batman television series. One of his co-stars, Yvonne Craig (Batgirl), said Price was her favorite villain in the series. In an often-repeated anecdote from the set of Batman, Price, after a take was printed, started throwing eggs at series stars Adam West and Burt Ward, and when asked to stop, replied, "With a full artillery? Not a chance!", causing an eggfight to erupt on the soundstage. This incident is reenacted in the behind-the-scenes telefilm Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt. In the 1960s, he began his role as a guest on the game show Hollywood Squares, even becoming a semi-regular in the 1970s, including being one of the guest panelists on the finale in 1980.^[6] He was known for usually making fun of Rose Marie's age, and using his famous voice to answer questions in a playfully menacing tone.

Later career[link]

During the early 1970s, Price hosted and starred in BBC Radio's horror and mystery series The Price of Fear. Price accepted a cameo part in the Canadian children's television program The Hilarious House of Frightenstein (1971) in Hamilton, Ontario, on the local television station CHCH. In addition to the opening and closing monologues, his role in the show was to recite poems about the show's various characters, sometimes wearing a cloak or other costumes.^[7] He appeared in The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), its sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972), and Theatre of Blood (1973), in which he portrayed a pair of campy serial killers. That same year Price appeared as himself in Mooch Goes to Hollywood, a film written by Jim Backus. Price recorded dramatic readings of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories and poems, which were collected together with readings by Basil Rathbone.

Price greatly reduced his film work from around 1975, as horror itself suffered a slump, and increased his narrative and voice work, as well as advertising Milton Bradley's Shrunken Head Apple Sculpture^[8]. Price's voiceover is heard on Alice Cooper's first solo album, Welcome to My Nightmare from 1975, and he also appeared in the corresponding TV special Alice Cooper: The Nightmare. He starred for a year in the early 1970s in a syndicated daily radio program, Tales of the Unexplained. He made guest appearances in a 1970 episode of Here's Lucy showcasing his art expertise and in a 1972 episode of ABC's The Brady Bunch, in which he played a deranged archaeologist. In October 1976, Price appeared as the featured guest in an episode of The Muppet Show.

In the summer of 1977, Price began performing as Oscar Wilde in the one-man stage play Diversions and Delights. Written by John Gay and directed by Joe Hardy, the play is set in a Parisian theatre on a night about one year before Wilde's death. The original tour of the play was a success in every city that it played, except for New York City. In the summer of 1979, Price performed it at the Tabor Opera House in Leadville, Colorado, on the same stage from which Wilde had spoken to miners about art some 96 years before. Price would eventually perform the play worldwide. In her biography of her father, Victoria Price stated that several members of Price's family and friends thought that this was the best acting that he ever performed.^[3] In the spring of 1979, Price starred with his wife Coral Browne in the short-lived CBS TV series Time Express.

	Vincent Price – "Thriller" noicon excerpt from the voiceover session for the 1982 album.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

In 1982, Price provided the narrator's voice in Vincent, Tim Burton's six-minute film about a young boy who flashes from reality into a fantasy where he is Vincent Price. That same year, he performed a sinister monologue on the title track of Michael Jackson's Thriller album. A longer version of the rap, sans the music, along with some conversation can be heard on Jackson's 2001 remastered reissue of the Thriller album. Part of the extended version can be heard on the Thriller 25 album, released in 2008. Price appeared as Sir Despard Murgatroyd in a 1982 television production of Gilbert & Sullivan's Ruddigore (with Keith Michell as Robin Oakapple). In 1983 Price played the Sinister Man in the British spoof horror film Bloodbath at the House of Death starring Kenny Everett, and he also appeared in the film House of the Long Shadows, which teamed him with Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and John Carradine. While Price had worked with each one of them at least once in the prior decade, this was the first teaming of all of them together. One of his last major roles, and one of his favorites, was as the voice of Professor Ratigan in Walt Disney Pictures' The Great Mouse Detective in 1986.^[9]

From 1981 to 1989, he hosted the PBS television series Mystery! In 1985, he provided voice talent on the Hanna-Barbera series The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo as the mysterious Vincent Van Ghoul, who aided Scooby-Doo, Scrappy-Doo, and the gang in recapturing 13 evil demons. During this time (1985–1989), he appeared in horror-themed commercials for Tilex bathroom cleanser. In 1984, Price appeared in Shelley Duvall's live-action series Faerie Tale Theatre as the Mirror in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", and the narrator for "The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers". In 1987, he starred with Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, and Ann Sothern in The Whales of August, a story of two sisters living in Maine, facing the end of their days. In 1989, Price was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame. His last significant film work was as the inventor in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands (1990).

A witty raconteur, Price was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, where he once demonstrated how to poach a fish in a dishwasher. Price was a noted gourmet cook and art collector. He also authored several cookbooks and hosted a cookery TV show, Cooking Pricewise.

From 1962 to 1971, Sears-Roebuck offered the "Vincent Price Collection of Fine Art", selling about 50,000 pieces of fine art to the general public. Price selected and commissioned works for the collection, including works by Rembrandt, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí,^[10] and Nate Dunn.^[11]

Personal life[link]

Price was married three times and fathered a son, Vincent Barrett Price, with his first wife, former actress Edith Barrett. Price and his second wife, Mary Grant Price, donated hundreds of works of art and a large amount of money to East Los Angeles College in the early 1960s in order to endow the Vincent and Mary Price Gallery there. The Vincent Price Art Museum was built to house art works and present exhibits. Their daughter, Mary Victoria Price, was born in 1962. Price's last marriage was to the Australian actress Coral Browne, who appeared with him (as one of his victims) in Theatre of Blood (1973). He converted to Catholicism to marry her, and she became a U.S. citizen for him.

One example of his outspoken political action came when he concluded an episode of The Saint titled "Author of Murder",^[12] which aired on NBC Radio on July 30, 1950.^[13] While concluding the episode, Price denounced racial and religious prejudice as a form of poison and stated that Americans must actively fight against it because racial and religious prejudice within the United States fuels support for the nation's enemies.^[14] Price was later appointed under the Eisenhower Adminstration and his remarks were, "which is kind of a surprise since I am a Democrat^[15]."

Death[link]

Price was a lifelong smoker. He suffered from emphysema and Parkinson's disease; his symptoms were especially severe during the filming of Edward Scissorhands, making it necessary to cut his filming schedule short.

His illness also contributed to his retirement from Mystery!, as his condition was becoming noticeable on-screen.^{[citation needed]} He died of lung cancer on October 25, 1993, at UCLA Medical Center at the age of 82. He was cremated and his ashes scattered off Point Dume in Malibu, California.^[16]

Legacy[link]

In 1951, impressed by the spirit of the students and the community's need for the opportunity to experience original art works first hand, Price donated some 90 pieces from his own collection to East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park, California, thus establishing the first "teaching art collection" owned by a community college in the U.S. The collection contains over 9,000 pieces and has been valued in excess of $5 million.^[17]

The A&E Network aired an episode of Biography the night following his death, highlighting Price's horror film career, but because of its failure to clear copyrights, the show was never aired again. Four years later, A&E produced its updated episode, a show titled Vincent Price: The Versatile Villain, which aired on October 12, 1997. The script was by Lucy Chase Williams, author of The Complete Films of Vincent Price (Citadel Press, 1995). In early 1991, Tim Burton was developing a personal documentary with the working title Conversations with Vincent, in which interviews with Price were shot at the Vincent Price Gallery, but the project was never completed and was eventually shelved.^{[citation needed]}

Price was an Honorary Board Member, and strong supporter until his death, of the Witch's Dungeon Classic Movie Museum located in Bristol, Connecticut. The museum features detailed life-size wax replicas of characters from some of Price's films, including The Fly, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, and The Masque of the Red Death.^[18] A black box theater at Price's alma mater, Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School, is named after him.

Director Tim Burton directed a short stop-motion film as a tribute to Vincent Price called Vincent, about a young boy named Vincent Malloy who is obsessed with the grim and macabre. It is narrated by Price. "Vincent Twice, Vincent Twice" was a parody on Sesame Street. He was parodied in an episode of The Simpsons ("Sunday, Cruddy Sunday"). Price even had his own Spitting Image puppet, who was always trying to be "sinister" and lure people into his ghoulish traps, only for his victims to point out all the obvious flaws. The October 2005 episode of the Channel 101 series Yacht Rock featured comedian James Adomian as Vincent Price during the recording of Michael Jackson's "Thriller". Starting in November 2005, featured cast member Bill Hader of the NBC sketch comedy/variety show Saturday Night Live has played Price in a recurring sketch where Vincent Price hosts botched holiday specials filled with celebrities of the 1950s and '60s. Other cast members who have played Price on SNL include Dan Aykroyd and Michael McKean (who played Price when he hosted a season 10 episode and again when he was hired as a cast member for the 1994–95 season).

In 1999, a frank and detailed biography written by his daughter, Victoria Price, about her father was published by St. Martin's Press. In late May 2011, an event was held by the organization Cinema St. Louis to celebrate what would have been Price's 100th Birthday.^[19] It included a public event with Victoria at the Missouri History Museum and a showcase of ephemeral and historic items at the gallery inside the Sheldon Concert Hall.^[20][21]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Price, Vincent, I Like What I Know – A Visual Autobiography, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, copyright 1959.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Vincent Price

• Vincent Price at the Internet Movie Database
• Vincent Price at the Internet Broadway Database
• Vincent Price at AllRovi
• Vincent Price at TV Tropes
• Vincent Price Gallery
• St. Louis Walk of Fame
• Profile @ Turner Classic Movies
• Vincent Price Papers catalog
• Vincent Price at Virtual History
• Three Skeleton Key on Escape: March 17, 1950. Radio drama starring Vincent Price.

Lizzie Borden
Lizzie Borden, circa 1889
Born	Lizzie Andrew Borden (1860-07-19)July 19, 1860 Fall River, Massachusetts, United States
Died	June 1, 1927(1927-06-01) (aged 67) Fall River, Massachusetts, United States
Resting place	Oak Grove Cemetery
Nationality	American
Known for	Murder trial defendant
Net worth	~$1,000,000 (1927)[1] ($25 million today)
Parents	Andrew Jackson Borden (1822–1892) Sarah Anthony Morse (1823–1863), mother Abby Durfee Gray (1828–1892), stepmother
Relatives	Emma Lenora Borden (1851–1927), sister Alice Esther Borden (1856–1858), sister John Vinnicum Morse, uncle

Lizzie Andrew Borden^[2] (July 19, 1860 – June 1, 1927) was a woman in New England who was tried for killing her father and stepmother with an axe on August 4, 1892, in Fall River, Massachusetts. The murders, subsequent trial, and ensuing trial by media became a cause célèbre. Although Lizzie Borden was acquitted, no one else was ever arrested or tried and she has remained a notorious figure in American folklore. Dispute over the identity of the killer or killers continues to this day. Lizzie's life before the murder trial was quite mundane. When Lizzie Borden was at the proper age she went to the Morgan Street School where she had her primary and grammar training.^[3] She had a relatively religious upbringing and was a regular face at the Central Congregational Church. After graduating high school she became more involved with her church as means to escape her uncomfortable home life. She taught Sunday school class to immigrant children and became the secretary-treasurer of the Christian Endeavor. Lizzie Borden also became involved with the politics and social problems of her day and became active in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.^[4]

Murders[link]

The body of Andrew Borden

On August 4, 1892, Abby Durfee Gray was hit nineteen times by a weapon that was in the similar fashion of a hatchet. This occurred on the second floor in the guest bed room. Andrew Borden had gone into Fall River to do his usual rounds at the bank and post office. He returned home at about 10:45 am While napping he was hit ten times with a similar weapon.^[5] Lizzie Borden claimed that she found his body about 30 minutes later.^{[citation needed]}

During the murder trial, the Bordens' twenty-six-year-old maid, Bridget Sullivan, testified that she was lying down in her room on the third floor of the house shortly after 11:00 am when she heard Lizzie call to her, saying someone had killed her father; his body was found slumped on a couch in the downstairs sitting room. Andrew Borden's face was turned to the right-hand side, apparently at ease, as if he was asleep.^[6]

Shortly thereafter, while Lizzie was being tended by neighbors and the family doctors, Sullivan discovered the body of Abby Borden in the guest bedroom located upstairs. Both Andrew and Abby Borden had been killed by crushing blows to their skulls from a hatchet. Andrew Borden's left eyeball was cleanly split in two.^[7]

Motive and methods[link]

The upstairs floor of the house was divided. The front was occupied by the Borden sisters, Lizzie and Emma while the rear was occupied by Andrew and Abby. Meals were seldom eaten together. Andrew was known by family, friends, and business associates as tight-fisted and generally rejected modern conveniences. He was born of modest means in Fall River, but became quite wealthy over the years as an investor. When he died he was the president of the Union Savings Bank and director of the Durfee Safe Deposit and Trust Co.^[8] Though far from poor, the family still threw their excrement buckets (slops) onto the backyard.^[9] The two daughters, both of whom were spinsters, were well past marriage age by 1890s standards, and gladly entered the modern outside world whenever they visited friends.

Conflict had increased between the two daughters and their father about his decision to divide the valuable properties among relatives before his death. Relatives of their stepmother had been given a house, and the two sisters demanded and received a rental property. They later sold this property to their father for cash.^[2][10] John Morse, brother to the deceased Sarah Borden, had come to visit on the week of the murders. His visit was to facilitate transfer of Swansea farm property, which had been the summer home for the Borden family. Shortly before the murders, a major argument had occurred which resulted in both sisters leaving home on extended "vacations".

Furthermore, it was well known that Lizzie and her stepmother had had a falling out years before the murder. Her entire life Lizzie had called Abby Borden by the common matronly moniker “Mother” but according to her sister in the trial documents, about five or six years before the untimely demise of the two parents she had taken to calling her “Mrs. Borden” instead.^[11]

The barn behind the home did not see much use after Andrew sold the horse. Lizzie had some pigeons in cages on the second floor that she fed and watered. She arrived one day to find the pigeons lying on the ground with their heads chopped off. Andrew said he killed them with an axe because the birds were attracting young boys in the neighborhood to the barn, and he felt they might get hurt or start a fire.^[10]

Lizzie had attempted to purchase prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide) from local druggist Eli Bence, but Bence refused. Lizzie claimed she planned to use it to clean a seal skin cloak;^[12] the defense argued that this incident was not admissible evidence.

Shortly before the murders, the entire household became violently ill. As Mr. Borden was not a popular man in Fall River, Abby feared they were being intentionally poisoned. The family doctor, however, diagnosed their illness as food poisoning. Andrew Borden had purchased cheap mutton for the family to eat, and they left it on the stove for days, used for multiple meals. The family believed the milk was being tainted by someone; after the murders, the milk was tested but nothing was found that could be connected to their illness. Both murder victims had their stomachs removed in an autopsy performed in the Borden dining room on the day of their deaths. The stomachs, with their contents, were packaged and sent to Harvard Medical School to be examined for toxins; nothing was found.^[13]

The trial[link]

Lizzie Borden was arrested and jailed on August 11, 1892; a grand jury began hearings on November 7, 1892. After evidence was presented, a bill of indictment for murder was delivered on December 2, 1892. Her murder trial at New Bedford, Massachusetts was not until June 1893.^[13] She was defended by former Massachusetts governor George D. Robinson, Andrew V. Jennings,^[14] and Melvin O. Adams. One of the prosecutors in the trial was William H. Moody, a future United States Attorney General and Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1893 trial jury

During the police investigation, a hatchet was found in the basement and was assumed to be the murder weapon.^[14] Though it was clean, most of its handle was missing and the prosecution stated that it had been broken off because it was covered with blood. Police officer Michael Mullaly testified that he found the head of the hatchet next to a hatchet handle; Deputy Marshall John Fleet contradicted this testimony. Later, a forensics expert said there was no time for the hatchet to be cleaned after the murder.^[15] The prosecution was hampered by the fact that the Fall River police did not put credence in the then-new forensic technology of fingerprinting, and refused to take prints from the hatchet.^[16]

No blood-soaked clothing was found as evidence by police. A few days after the murder, Lizzie tore apart and burned a blue dress in the kitchen stove, claiming she had brushed against fresh baseboard paint that had smeared on it.^[14]

Despite incriminating evidence and testimony presented by the prosecution, Lizzie was acquitted on June 20, 1893, after the jury deliberated only an hour and a half.^[14] The fact that no murder weapon was found and no blood evidence was noted just a few minutes after the second murder pointed to reasonable doubt. Her entire original inquest testimony^[2] was barred from the trial. Also excluded was testimony regarding her attempt to purchase prussic acid.^[12] Adding to the doubt was another axe murder which took place shortly before the trial and was perpetrated by a man named José Correira. While many of the details in both murders were similar, Correira was proven to be out of the country when the Borden murder took place.^[17]

Post trial[link]

After the trial, Lizzie and Emma Borden moved to a new house that Lizzie christened Maplecroft,^[14] located on French Street, then a fashionable neighborhood in Fall River. The large home included indoor plumbing and private bathrooms. They employed several different housekeepers, servants, and coachman/chauffeurs over the years, who roomed in the home, and were listed in each census.

The sisters settled all claims against them from Abby's side of the family, giving Abby Borden's family members everything they wanted in order to avoid further lawsuits. Because it was proven that Abby died before Andrew, all of her estate legally went to Andrew, with Andrew's estate going to his daughters. The settlement reached between the Borden sisters and Abby's two sisters was substantial.^[13][18]

In June 1905, after twelve years, Lizzie and Emma Borden became estranged over differences in their lifestyles. Shortly after arguing over a party Lizzie had given for Nance O'Neil and her theater friends,^[19] Emma moved out of the house to live with her close friend Alice Lydia Buck. After the separation from her sister, Borden began using the name "Lizbeth A. Borden", rather than "Lizzie".^[13][18]

Death[link]

Following the surgical removal of her gallbladder, Lizzie was ill the last year of her life. Her private staff were the sole witnesses to her decline. Borden died of pneumonia on June 1, 1927 in Fall River, Massachusetts. Borden's funeral details were not made public and few people attended her burial.^[20] Borden was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery under the name "Lizbeth Andrew Borden", her footstone was inscribed "Lizbeth".^[21] Borden had never married, and her will, probated from June 25, 1927 through March 24, 1933, left $30,000 to the Fall River Animal Rescue League.^[22][23] She also left $500 in perpetual trust for the care of her father's grave. Much of her wealth was transferred to her cousin Grace H. Howe, and her closest friend Helen Leighton. The final probate in 1933 gave them almost $6,000 each in the middle of the Great Depression.^[1]

Nine days later, on June 10, 1927,^[21] her sister Emma died from chronic nephritis^[9] in the home she shared with her friend and nurse Annie C. Connor, located in Newmarket, New Hampshire. She moved there due to the infirmities of old age, and to get away from the notoriety brought on by a new book about the murders.

The house on Second Street where the murders were committed is currently a bed and breakfast.^[24] Maplecroft, Borden's house at 306 French Street, is a privately-owned residence, but the owners will conduct tours, by appointment only.^[25]

Conjecture[link]

The Borden house as it appears now; it is located in the Corky Row Historic District of Fall River

Some believe that Lizzie may have been inspired to commit patricide by James McDougall, Jr., a fellow Fall River resident who killed his father in 1882.^[26][27]

Several theories have been presented over the years suggesting Lizzie Borden may not have committed the murders, and that other suspects may have had motives. One theory is that the Bordens' maid, Bridget Sullivan, actually committed the murders. This theory suggests that Sullivan was angry with the Bordens for being asked to clean the windows, a taxing job on a hot day, and just one day after having suffered from food poisoning.^[28] Another potential suspect was suggested by Arnold R. Brown in his work, Lizzie Borden: The Legend, The Truth, The Final Chapter. In his book, Brown theorizes that the murderer was William Borden, Andrew Borden's illegitimate son and the half-brother of the Borden sisters. Brown believes that Lizzie's half brother committed the murders out of revenge following his failed efforts to extort money from his father.

Yet another theory is that Lizzie suffered temporal lobe seizures during her menstrual cycle. During these seizures, Lizzie was known to enter a fugue state which, as this theory suggests, would have allowed her to unknowingly commit the murders.^[29]

Nance O'Neil[link]

Two Borden biographers, Evan Hunter and David Rehak, contend that Lizzie had an intimate relationship with actress Nance O'Neil, whom she met in Boston in 1904.^[10] The pair got along well, despite Lizzie's notoriety.^[19] The friendship was cited as the cause of Emma's final separation from her sister.^[19]

O'Neil was later portrayed as a character in a musical about Borden, entitled Lizzie Borden: A Musical Tragedy in Two Axe. Actress Suellen Vance originated the role.^[30]

Public reaction[link]

The trial received a tremendous amount of national publicity. It has been compared to the later trials of Bruno Hauptmann, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and O.J. Simpson as a landmark in media coverage of legal proceedings.^{[31][32][33][34][35][36]}

The case was memorialized in a popular skipping-rope rhyme:^[37]

Lizzie Borden took an axe

And gave her mother forty whacks.

When she saw what she had done

She gave her father forty-one.

Folklore says the rhyme was made up by an anonymous writer as a tune to sell newspapers. Others attribute it to the ubiquitous, but anonymous "Mother Goose".^[38] In reality Lizzie's stepmother suffered 18^[39] or 19^[15] blows and her father just 11 blows. Even though she was acquitted, Lizzie was ostracized by neighbors after the trial.^[15] Lizzie Borden's name was again brought into the public eye when she was accused of shoplifting in 1897.^[21] In 1961, the folk group The Chad Mitchell Trio recorded a humorous song called "Lizzie Borden" about the murders.

Genealogy[link]

Andrew Jackson Borden married Sarah Anthony Morse on December 25, 1845. They had three children: Emma Lenora in 1851; Alice Esther in 1856; and Lizzie Andrew in 1860. Alice Esther died in 1858. Sarah Anthony Borden died in 1863. Andrew married a second wife, Abby Durfee Gray, on June 6, 1865. Andrew and Abby Borden died in 1892, and Emma and Lizzie died in 1927. They are all buried in the Borden Family Plot in Oak Grove Cemetery.

Lizzie was a distant relative of the American milk processor Gail Borden (1801–1874) and Robert Borden (1854–1937), Canada's Prime Minister during World War I.^[40]

Lizzie Borden and actress Elizabeth Montgomery, who coincidentally portrayed Lizzie in a television movie about the murders and trial, were sixth cousins once removed. Both women descended from 17th-century Massachusetts resident John Luther. Rhonda McClure, the genealogist who documented the Montgomery-Borden connection, said, "I wonder how Elizabeth would have felt if she knew she was playing her own cousin."^[41]

Television and film[link]

• Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 1, episode 17, "The Older Sister" (first aired 1956), was a fictional story suggesting that it was Emma Borden who committed the murders, and that Lizzie endured the trial and subsequent notoriety to protect her older sister. A similar story titled "Goodbye Miss Lizzie Borden" was a 1955 episode of Suspense.
• Armstrong Circle Theatre, season 12, episode 1, "Legend of Murder – The Untold Story of Lizzie Borden" (first aired October 11, 1961), was a dramatization of Edward D. Radin's book Lizzie Borden: The Untold Story (Simon and Schuster, 1961), which put forth the theory that Bridget Sullivan was the actual murderess. Borden was portrayed by Clarice Blackburn and Bridget by Mary Doyle.
• Elizabeth Montgomery depicted Borden in William Bast's two hour television movie, The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975).
• In 2004, the Discovery Channel aired an investigative documentary called Lizzie Borden Had an Axe. In the episode, a pair of detectives used modern forensics to exonerate Sullivan and indicate that Borden could have been the killer.
• The April 20, 2012 episode of the Travel Channel series Dead Files centered around the Lizzie Borden house and murders.
• Ghosthunters there are images shown of Lizzie Borden and the rooms that she had lived in during the investigation of the original house that the murder of her parents were committed.
• The October 21, 2011 episode of the Travel Channel series Ghost Adventures revolves around the team being locked in overnight at the Lizzie Borden House.

Theater[link]

• Composer Morton Gould and choreographer Agnes de Mille created a ballet based on the life of Borden in 1948, entitled Fall River Legend.^[42]
• Composer Jack Beeson, librettist Kenward Elmslie, and scenarist Richard Plant created an opera, Lizzie Borden, in 1965.
• The anthology of short plays, "Sepia and Song," contained a play called "A Memory of Lizzie," with scenes from Borden's childhood interpersed with quotes from her trial.^[43]
• American composer and educator, Thomas Albert, composed a one-act opera, Lizbeth, based on the legend of Lizzie Borden in 1976. The work, with libretto by Lindé Hayen Herman, was commissioned by a grant from the National Endowment from the Arts, and was a finalist in the 1988 National Opera Association's chamber opera competition.
• Blood Relations by Sharon Pollock premiered at Theatre Tree, Edmonton, Alberta Canada in 1980. The play is set in 1902, with its "dream thesis" set in 1892, at Fall River, Massachusetts. It explores the events leading up to the trial.^{[citation needed]}
• The Testimony of Lizzie Borden by Eric Stedman, a docudrama staged in an accurate reproduction of the Borden sitting room which re-created much of Borden's actual inquest testimony, premiered at Theatre on the Towpath in New Hope, Pa. in 1994 and was presented in Fall River in 1995.^{[citation needed]}
• Lizzie Borden's Tempest by Brendan Byrnes played the New York International Fringe Festival in 1998. As Borden reads the role of Miranda in The Tempest with her local theatre club, Shakespeare's storm resurrects and reunites the Borden Family. The play's central idea is based on an actual program displayed at the Fall River Historical Society that lists a "Miss Borden" playing the role of Miranda in The Tempest.^[44]
• In New Faces of 1952, there is a song skit entitled "Lizzie Borden" which is a mini-play, involving the cancellation of the hoedown, due to the trial of Lizzie Borden, who does get a trial at the hoedown on that same day and is acquitted. It features the memorable line: "You can't chop your papa up in Massachusetts", because "Massachusetts is a far cry from New York".
• In 2010, ensemble members of famed Annoyance Theatre wrote and produced a comedic musical about Lizzie Borden's trial and the events that led up to it. The show, called '40 Whacks', was well received^[45] and went on to win a 2010 Orgie Theatre Award^[46] .

See also[link]

• A.J. Borden Building
• Corky Row Historic District
• Parricide

Citations[link]

Further reading[link]

A number of works expounding the facts and different theories have been written about the crime. These include:

• Asher, Robert, Lawrence B. Goodheart and Alan Rogers. Murder on Trial: 1620—2002 New York: State University of New York Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-7914-6377-2.
• Brown, Arnold R. Lizzie Borden: The Legend, the Truth, the Final Chapter. Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press, 1991, ISBN 1-55853-099-1.
• de Mille, Agnes. Lizzie Borden: A Dance of Death. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1968.
• Kent, David Forty Whacks: New Evidence in the Life and Legend of Lizzie Borden. Yankee Books, 1992, ISBN 0-89909-351-5.
• Kent, David The Lizzie Borden Sourcebook. Boston: Branden Publishing Company, 1992, ISBN 0-8283-1950-2.
• King, Florence. WASP, Where is Thy Sting? Chapter 15, "One WASP's Family, or the Ties That Bind." Stein & Day, 1977, ISBN 0-552-99377-8 (1990 Reprint Edition).
• Lincoln, Victoria. A Private Disgrace: Lizzie Borden by Daylight. NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1967, ISBN 0-930330-35-8.
• Masterton, William L. Lizzie Didn’t Do It! Boston: Branden Publishing Company, 2000, ISBN 0-8283-2052-7.
• Pearson, Edmund Lester. Studies in Murder Ohio State University Press, 1924.
• Pearson, Edmund Lester. Trial of Lizzie Borden, edited, with a history of the case, Doubleday-Doran, 1937. Main text is a transcript of the trial.
• Radin, Edward D. Lizzie Borden: The Untold Story Simon and Schuster, 1961.
• Rebello, Leonard. Lizzie Borden: Past & Present Al-Zach Press, 1999.
• David Rehak. Did Lizzie Borden Axe For It? Angel Dust Publishing, 2008.
• Spiering, Frank. Lizzie: The Story of Lizzie Borden. Dorset Press, 1991, ISBN 0-88029-685-2.
• Sullivan, Robert. Goodbye Lizzie Borden. Brattleboro, VT: Stephen Greene Press, 1974, ISBN 0-14-011416-5.
• Hunter, Evan (see Artistic depictions/Prose Fiction, below) has a video out called Reopened: Lizzie Borden with Ed McBain.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lizzie Borden

• The Hatchet: The Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies
• R. Digati (Jan 1, 2001). "Lizzie Andrew Borden". Alleged Murderess. Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=115. Retrieved Aug 18, 2011. 

Penn & Teller (Penn Jillette and Teller) are American illusionists and entertainers who have performed together since the late 1970s, and are known for their numerous stage and television shows. Their current Las Vegas show is an amalgam of illusion and comedy. Penn Jillette is a raconteur; Teller generally does not speak while performing, although his voice can occasionally be heard during their performance. They specialize in gory tricks, exposing frauds, and performing clever pranks. More recently they have become associated with atheism, scientific skepticism, and libertarianism, particularly through their television show Penn & Teller: Bullshit!.

Career[link]

Penn Jillette and Teller were introduced to one another by Weir Chrisimer, and they performed their first show together at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival on 19 August 1975.^[1] From the late 1970s through 1981, Penn, Teller, and Chrisimer performed as a trio called "The Asparagus Valley Cultural Society" which played in San Francisco at the Phoenix Theater. This act was sillier and less "edgy" than today's Penn & Teller act.^{[citation needed]} Chrisimer helped to develop some bits that continued, most notably Teller's "Shadows" trick, which involves a single red rose.

By 1985, Penn & Teller were receiving rave reviews for their Off Broadway show and Emmy award-winning PBS special, Penn & Teller Go Public.^[2] In 1987, they began the first of two successful Broadway runs. Through the late 1980s and early 1990s, the duo made numerous television appearances on Late Night with David Letterman and Saturday Night Live, as well as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Today, and many others.

Penn & Teller had national tours throughout the 1990s, gaining critical praise. They have also made television guest appearances on Babylon 5^[3] (as the comedy team Rebo and Zooty), The Drew Carey Show, a few episodes of Hollywood Squares from 1998 until 2004, ABC's Muppets Tonight, FOX's The Bernie Mac Show, an episode of the game show Fear Factor on NBC, NBC's The West Wing, in a two-part episode of the final season of ABC's Home Improvement in 1998, four episodes during season 1 of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch in 1996, NBC's Las Vegas, and Fox's The Simpsons episodes "Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder" and "The Great Simpsina" and the Futurama film Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder in 2009. They also appeared as three-card Monte scam artists in the music video for "It's Tricky" by Run-DMC in 1987, and were thrown out of a Las Vegas hotel room in the music video for "Waking Up in Vegas" by Katy Perry in 2009.

Their Showtime network television show Bullshit! took a skeptical look at psychics, religion, the pseudoscientific, conspiracy theories, and the paranormal. It has featured critical segments on gun control, astrology, Feng Shui, environmental issues, PETA, weight loss, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the war on drugs.

On Bullshit!, the duo described their social and political views as libertarian.

They have also described themselves as teetotalers. Their book, Penn & Teller's How to Play in Traffic, explains that they avoid absolutely all alcohol and other drugs, including caffeine, though they do appear to smoke cigarettes in some videos. Penn has said that he has never even tasted alcohol, and that his tolerance for certain drugs is so low that his doctor only had to administer a minute amount of anesthetic relative to what one would expect necessary for a man of his size to undergo surgery.

The pair have written several books about magic, including Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks For Dear Friends, Penn & Teller's How to Play with Your Food, and Penn & Teller's How to Play in Traffic. Since 2001, Penn & Teller have performed six nights a week (or as Penn put it on Bullshit!: "Every night of the week ... except Fridays!") in Las Vegas at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino.

Penn Jillette hosted a weekday one-hour talk show on Infinity Broadcasting's Free FM radio network from January 3, 2006 to March 2, 2007 with cohost Michael Goudeau.^[4][5] He also hosted the game show Identity, which debuted on December 18, 2006 on NBC.

Their new television series Penn & Teller Tell a Lie premiered on the Discovery Channel on October 5, 2011.

Penn & Teller have also shown support for the Brights movement^[6] and are now listed on the movement's homepage under the Enthusiastic Brights section.^[7] According to an article in Wired magazine, their license plates are customized so they read, "Atheist" and "Godless", and when Penn signs autographs, he often writes "there is no God" with his signature.^[8]

Off-stage relationship[link]

Penn Jillette has told interviewer Larry King that a big part of the duo's success and longevity is due to them never having been close friends. They enjoy working together immensely, but have little in common besides magic. As a result of their drastically different lifestyles and interests, they rarely socialize or interact when not working. Jillette believes that their partnership succeeds precisely because they give each other a great deal of space off-stage.

Tricks[link]

Their tricks include Teller hanging upside-down over a cushion of spikes in a straitjacket, Teller submerged in a huge container of water, Teller being run over by an 18-wheel tractor-trailer, Teller swinging going through Penn's hands. Many of their effects rely heavily on shock appeal and violence, although presented in a humorous manner.

Sometimes, the pair will claim to reveal a secret of how a magic trick is done, but those tricks are usually invented by the duo for the sole purpose of exposing them, and therefore designed with more spectacular and weird methods than would have been necessary had it just been a "proper" magic trick. For example, in the "reveal" of one trick, while Teller waits for his cue, he reads magazines and eats a snack.^{[clarification needed]} Another example is their rendition of the cups and balls, using transparent cups.

Penn and Teller perform their own adaptation of the famous bullet catch illusion. Each simultaneously fires a gun at the other through small panes of glass and then "catches" the other's bullet in his mouth. They also have an assortment of card tricks in their repertoire, virtually all of them involving the force of the Three of Clubs on an unsuspecting audience member as this card is easy for viewers to identify on television cameras.^[9]

The duo will sometimes perform tricks that discuss the intellectual underpinnings of magic. One of their acts, titled "Magician vs. Juggler", features Teller performing card tricks while Penn juggles and delivers a monologue on the difference between the two: jugglers start as socially aware children who go outside and learn juggling with other children; magicians are misfits who stay in the house and teach themselves magic tricks out of spite.

In one of their most politically charged tricks, they make a U.S. flag seem to disappear by wrapping it in a copy of the United States Bill of Rights, and apparently setting the flag on fire, so that "the flag is gone but the Bill of Rights remains." The act may also feature the "Chinese bill of rights", presented as a transparent piece of acetate. They normally end the routine by restoring the unscathed flag to its starting place on the flagpole; however, on a TV guest appearance on The West Wing this final part was omitted.^[10]

One of their more recent tricks^[when?] involves a powered nail gun with a quantity of missing nails from the series of nails in its magazine. Penn begins by firing several apparently real nails into a board in front of him. He then proceeds to fire the nailgun into the palm of his hand several times, while suffering no injuries. His pattern builds as he oscillates between firing blanks into his hand and firing nails into the board. While performing he states that the trick is merely memorization, and explains that the fact that he does not flinch when he could be firing a nail into his hand should be a sign that the trick is not actually dangerous. A later revision to the trick replaced the false claims of memorization with a more open explanation, allowing the audience to enjoy the rhythm of the nail gun without fear of a serious mishap.^[11]

A trick introduced in 2010 is a modern version of the bag escape, replacing the traditional sack with a black trash bag apparently filled with helium. Teller is placed in the bag which is then pumped full of helium and sealed by an audience member. For the escape, the audience are blinded by a bright light for a second and when they are able to see again, Teller has escaped from the bag and Penn is holding it, still full of helium, above his head, before releasing it to float to the ceiling. The duo had hoped to put the trick in their mini-tour in London; however, it was first shown to the public in their Las Vegas show on 18 August 2010. In June 2011, Penn and Teller performed this trick for the first time in the United Kingdom on their ITV show Fool Us.^[12]

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

Books[link]

• Penn & Teller's How to Play in Traffic (1997, ISBN 1-57297-293-9)
• Penn & Teller's How to Play with Your Food (1992, ISBN 0-679-74311-1)
• Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends (1989, ISBN 0-394-75351-8)
• Sock 2004, ISBN 0-312-32805-2 (Penn Jillette sole author)
• How to Cheat Your Friends at Poker: The Wisdom of Dickie Richard 2006, ISBN 0-312-34905-X (Penn Jillette and Mickey D. Lynn)
• When I'm Dead All This Will Be Yours: Joe Teller—A Portrait By His Kid 2000, ISBN 0-922233-22-5 (Teller sole author)

Other Media[link]

Music[link]

• "The Horse You Rode In On" by Pigface (Penn Jillette only)
• "Spookshow" by Adil Omar (Penn Jillette only)
• "Penn & Teller Present: Music to Look at Boxes By" (With Mike "Jonesy" Jones)
• "Never Mind the Sex Pistols" by Bongos, Bass, & Bob (Penn Jillette with Dean J Seal and Bob "Running" Elk)
• "Tattoo of Blood" by the Captain Howdy (Penn Jillette with Mark Kramer)
• "Money Feeds My Music Machine" by the Captain Howdy (Penn Jillette with Mark Kramer)
• "It's Tricky" by Run–D.M.C. (Penn & Teller shown throughout the video and at the end appear to take over the persona of Run–D.M.C.)
• "Waking up in Vegas" by Katy Perry (Penn & Teller are kicked out of their hotel room by Perry and her boyfriend. They later kick Perry out again.)

Jillette also toured with the Residents during the Mole Show, and hosted Ralph Records' 10th Anniversary Radio Special (1982). There is some mild controversy and confusion surrounding this. While the premise of 10th Anniversary Radio Special revolved around Jillette having never heard of the label or any of the bands on it (the Residents included), he was credited as a collaborator on the 1981 album Mark of the Mole,^[16] and he can be heard giving news bulletins in the first track. This has led some to speculate that Jillette may have been a Resident at one point.

Theater[link]

In 2008 Teller co-directed a production of Macbeth in Red Bank, New Jersey and Washington, DC.^[17]

Video games[link]

• Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors 1995 – Absolute Entertainment for Sega CD & 3DO, Unreleased.
• Sabrina, the Teenage Witch: Spellbound 1998 – Simon & Schuster for PC – Voices for Drell & Skippy
• Desert Bus 2011 – Amateur Pixels.

The 1995 video game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors featured an unusual mini-game called Desert Bus in which the player drove a realistic bus route between Tucson and Las Vegas. This mini-game became popular due to the fact that it imitated a real 8 hour bus ride. Once reaching the destination, the player gets 1 point and, if desired, can then drive the return route. The game was long and boring, but found a cult audience due to the dark humor and weirdness behind the idea.

The game has since been used in an annual charity called "Desert Bus for Hope" run by website desertbus.org. The site invites celebrities play the game streamed live online, with all proceeds being donated to Child's Play (charity). on November 14, 2011 an iOS port of Desert Bus was created and released in the Apple Inc iTunes store. The game was developed in conjunction with the Desert Bus for hope event and all profits from the game are donated to charity.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Penn & Teller

• Official website
• Penn's "Hydro-therapeutic stimulator" (aka Jill-jet) patent
• A man, a ball, a hoop, a bench (and an alleged thread)… TELLER!