It was pretty much the best Valentine's Day gift ever.
Modern day Fall River, Mass has a bit of a depressed mill town feel to it. What I believe are empty textile plants dot the coast line. For New England, it seems very diverse. Lots of Portuguese folks. (And if the immigration trends from the 1890s era have survived, Puerto Ricans too.) Mrs. RC and I ate at Terra Nostra, a fantastic Portuguese restaurant about three block's from the murder house.
The house itself is great, and the B&B setting actually really makes seeing it an experience. The down side is that because it's been featured on "The Most Haunted Places in America" on every channel from A&E to Discovery to Fangoria (!), they've decided to the whole "Ghost Hunter" route and bill it as a spiritual hub. After the tour, we had a "seance" in which Andrew and Abby, Lizzie's deceased parents showed up. It was pretty shaky . . . at best.
But man, have they gotten all the details as close to 1892 as possible. And the walking tour, when they aren't babbling on about ghosts, recreates the morning of the murders. It kind of takes you through different "character's" motions through the house that day. The discovery of mom upstairs is an especially cool moment.
Well worth the long drive and short trip. And I talked to the owner briefly about a possible film in the future, and she was very open.
I'll be back here soon with a list of out of print Lizzie books I need to get my hands on.