As we near the month of October, Halloween costumes often come up for discussion. A site called Take Back Halloween has some interesting suggestions on costumes for women that they say are to “popularize knowledge of the past—the real stuff”, such as Lizzie Borden.

Lizzie Borden (1860-1927) is one of the most famous crime figures in American history. As the ditty goes, “Lizzie Borden took an axe/Gave her mother 40 whacks/When she saw what she had done/She gave her father 41.” Actually, it was her step-mother, not her mother; and the actual number of whacks was 18 and 11, respectively. More to the point, no one really knows if Lizzie was guilty.

Note how particular they are about setting the record straight. They also don’t sell anything directly but instead offer a specific shopping list of items, which point to other commerce sites.

1. Victorian costume dress with leg-o-mutton sleeves. This is being sold as a “vampiress” dress, but the late Victorian styling makes it a convenient get-up for Lizzie Borden. Unfortunately it’s rather small, so our next options are for you to assemble your own late-Victorian look.
2. Victorian blouse in scarlet. The store also offers these in black, white, and calico prints.
3. Victorian walking skirt in black.

Er, wait a minute. Black dress? Where does a black dress fit in a site dedicated to preserving history?

The “real stuff” based on knowledge of the past is a faded light blue dress, covered in paint and torn, that is infamously burned with a gas oven…as described within any of a huge number of history collections.

[Alice Russell, a family friend] recounted that when she asked Lizzie what she was doing with the blue dress, she replied, “I am going to burn this old thing up; it is covered with paint.” On cross-examination, defense attorney George Robinson attempted through his questions to suggest that a guilty person seeking to destroy incriminating evidence would be unlikely to do it in so open a fashion as Lizzie allegedly did.

A faded light blue garment in the trial was the pivotal piece of evidence in the “burned dress” defence.

Of course, costumes aren’t often very accurate, despite all kinds of marketing claims. A fake axe with fake blood, while pretending to be someone who died in 1927…none of it is going to be “real stuff.” Yet someone interested in the actual story might appreciate at least knowing the right color. It also is a great way to distinguish your Lizzie Bordens from your typically black-dressed vampiresses and witches.

Another example: Themistoclea is maybe assumed by some to have worn brown or black, based on pictures of objects from ancient Greece. However, her costume would be far more likely a red or green hue. In other words, if you care about being more “real” and knowledgeable don’t follow the instructions on Take Back Halloween. They tell you to order brown. Pick the “grape” colored cloth instead. Really.

Al Jazeera reports that Somalia’s national archives of voice recordings have survived sixty years of threats but now may be in danger of disappearing. As I mentioned in 2006, Somali history has been preserved through poetry and spoken word.

Wikipedia has a list of journalists killed recently in Somalia

The only American woman sentenced to death by direct order of Adolf Hitler was arrested on this day in 1942.

Mildred Fish was from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She met Arvid Harnack, a German Rockefeller Fellow, while he was at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin. They were married in 1928 and moved to Germany in 1929.

During the 1930s Mildred and Arvid traveled outside Germany but they continued residing there past the point when they knew their freedom would be severely restricted by the Nazis. This 1939 postcard from Mildred ends with the sentence “Better not write but don’t forget me…”

Eventually the couple helped establish an underground resistance group with hundreds of members. They alerted other countries of the Nazi Army’s brutal mistreatment of occupied civilans/POWs and of Hitler’s aggressive and expansive intentions. Mildred gave advance warning to the Soviet Union, for example, of Germany’s intention to break the 1940 trade / 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop pacts and invade in 1941 (Operation Barbarossa).

Precautions were taken by the Harnaks and underground members to protect communication but they were up against more than 20 years (since 1918) of decryption and surveillance expertise in the German government. In July 1942 the Nazi Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) Abteilung Fremde Heere West (FHW) or “High Command of the Army, Foreign Armies West” intelligence department intercepted and cracked the groups’ radio messages. In August the Gestapo began capturing members of the group, torturing them and putting them in jail. The Harnaks were arrested on September 7th, 1942.

Arvid Harnack was sentenced to death and executed just a couple months later. Mildred initially received a six year jail sentence but Hitler reversed the decision and ordered her put to death. She was beheaded by guillotine in 1943 in Ploetzensee Prison.

Wisconsin Public Television (WPT) has produced a video called “Wisconsin’s Nazi Resistance: The Mildred Fish Harnack Story”

WPT also has produced an interview with Andreas Sander, a Gestapo Prison expert on the Harnacks’ incarceration and interrogation.

Watch Andreas Sander on PBS. See more from WPT Documentaries.

“To and From the Guillotine” is a memorial poem by Mildred’s friend, Clara Leiser