Museum agrees to ax Lizzie Borden name, ending row

[October 08, 2008]  BOSTON (AP) -- A museum and a bed and breakfast have settled a trademark dispute over the macabre legacy of Lizzie Borden, a Sunday school teacher accused in the hatchet deaths of her father and stepmother, a museum official said Tuesday.

Leonard Pickel, manager and part-owner of The True Story of Lizzie Borden Gift Shop and Museum in Salem, said the agreement with the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast in Fall River allows the museum to use Borden's name in its tag line but not in the business' name.

Donald Woods, owner of the bed and breakfast, sued the museum in federal court, saying it infringed on his trademark of "Lizzie Borden Museum." He said the museum would siphon off business from Fall River, an industrial city 57 miles southwest of Salem where the slayings occured and where the Borden story remains a top tourist attraction.

The settlement was reached Monday, a day before the case was scheduled to go to trial in U.S. District Court.

Pickel said he can continue to sell merchandise with the current name until November, when his business will close for the winter. The new name, which has not yet been chosen, will be on the museum when it reopens next spring, he said.

Woods could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday. A woman who answered the phone at the bed and breakfast said he was out of state. His attorney, Jeremy Blackowicz, declined to comment.

Lizzie Borden, 32, was arrested six days after her wealthy father and stepmother were found dead from multiple blows from a hatchet on Aug. 4, 1892. Borden was acquitted but widely believed to be guilty. She remains a notorious figure in American folklore, in part through a famous poem about the killings.

[Associated Press; By DENISE LAVOIE]

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