By Daniel Barbarisi
Journal Staff Writer

And then there are those who wed on Halloween, at the site of a double murder.

Yesterday, Derek Dumas and Stephanie Smigleski tied the noose at the Lizzie Borden house, site of the infamous murder of Andrew and Abby Borden. The 35 guests packed into the sitting room where Lizzie supposedly gave her father his famous “41 whacks,” and gave their blessing to the Salem couple.

It certainly didn't look like a traditional wedding. The groom wore a period-piece mortician's coat. Most of the well-wishers were dressed in black, or in burial robes. The only bow to tradition was the bride's white dress — although even that was cut to show off the giant snake tattoo wrapping its way up and around her left arm.

“My mom didn't think I was taking it seriously when I told them I was having a wedding at the Lizzie Borden house,” Smigleski said, adding without a hint of irony that she'd been so busy yesterday, “I thought I was going to die.”

Both Dumas and Smigleski are big horror fans. They spent an evening in the Borden house, now a murder-themed bed and breakfast, last summer, and loved it.

“I fell asleep right on the floor where the body was found, reading a book about the murders. It was a little spooky,” Dumas said.

Spooky, however, is right up his alley, and the rumor that the Borden house is haunted made it an even more perfect place to start their new life together.

“We loved it so much that we decided to have a spooky Halloween wedding.”

So Dumas, 29, and Smigleski, 28, who work at the same house-cleaning company, set up the second wedding in the 150-year history of the house, complete with ghouls as cake centerpieces and a bride's bouquet made of dead leaves mounted on a hatchet.

Friends of the bride and groom were unanimous in saying that they had always expected something like this from the couple, who they said were always full of surprises. Many were first-time visitors to the Borden house and loved looking at the grisly crime-scene photos and other memorabilia.

“I think this is beautiful. I think this is 10 times better than a church,” said Richie Martineau, who wore a blood-red bow tie with his black attire.

Even the justice of the peace got into the festivities. Janet Label has presided over hundreds of weddings, but this one, she said, will stick out.

“It's interesting, it's exciting. There's a mystery to it. The adrenaline's flowing,” she said.

Of course, not everyone was overjoyed with the location. Some, like Dumas's grandmother, Therese Dumas, would have preferred a more traditional location.

“I certainly wouldn't do it. But it's his wedding, not mine,” she said.

Still, even the elder Dumas was getting into the spirit of things. When asked whether her grandson had gotten any of his love of horror from her, she quipped, “They don't call me an old witch for nothing.”

Lizzie Borden became a nationwide media phenomenon when she was accused of killing her father and stepmother with an ax in 1892. Borden was acquitted on all charges, but she was never exonerated in the eyes of the public. To this day, people still repeat the famous rhyme, “Lizzie Borden took an ax and gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41.”

The house, long a private residence, was reopened five years ago and restored to its original decor and condition on the morning of the murders. It is rumored to be haunted, and curious visitors can take tours daily, sit on the couch where Andrew Borden was slain, stay in Lizzie's old room, or even sleep in her parents' bed.