Edwin H. Porter (c. 1864-1904) was a local police reporter in Fall River, Massachusetts, who attended the trial of Lizzie Borden and lived only streets away from the Borden home with his young wife. After the trial, Porter "disappeared" and it was widely speculated he had either been murdered or bribed to disappear in order to suppress the book. His reappearance some time later put paid to the first theory. After his death at age 39 from tuberculosis, a new theory emerged, that he had been away for treatment while keeping his illness secret.