In 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were found hacked to pieces with an axe in their own home in Fall River, Massachusetts — Andrew struck roughly 10 times as he napped on the couch, Abby even more upstairs. The prime suspect: Andrew’s own daughter, Lizzie, a 32-year-old Sunday school teacher with a bitter relationship with her stepmother. The evidence was circumstantial, the trial was a media circus, and in 1893 an all-male jury acquitted her — but the case was never solved, and Lizzie spent the rest of her life shadowed by suspicion until she died in 1927.
More than 130 years after an all-male jury cleared Lizzie Borden. The murders of her father and stepmother remain officially unsolved.
Andrew and Abby Borden were found dead in their Fall River, Massachusetts, home on August 4, 1892. Andrew, a wealthy and famously frugal businessman, had been struck roughly 10 times while resting on a couch. Abby was found upstairs with even more wounds.
Suspicion quickly fell on Andrew’s 32-year-old daughter, Lizzie, a Sunday school teacher who lived in the house and had a strained relationship with Abby. Lizzie was arrested and tried for both killings, but the physical evidence against her was largely circumstantial. She was acquitted in 1893, at a time when many struggled to believe that a Victorian woman could commit such violence.
Lizzie remained in Fall River until her death in 1927. The case followed her for the rest of her life and later inspired the children’s rhyme that begins, “Lizzie Borden took an axe,” along with books, documentaries and screen adaptations.
The latest is Netflix’s eight-episode Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan. Ella Beatty plays Lizzie, Rebecca Hall plays Abby and Charlie Hunnam plays Andrew. The season follows Monster installments about Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers, returning to the question that has outlived Lizzie herself: Who killed Andrew and Abby Borden?
