The body of Andrew Borden, Lizzie Borden's father.

The body of Abby Borden, Lizzie Borden's step-mother.

Murders

On the morning of August 4, 1892, Borden's father, Andrew Jackson Borden, and her stepmother, Abby Durfee Borden, were murdered in the family home. The only other people present at the residence at the time were Lizzie and the family maid, Bridget Sullivan. Emma Borden, Lizzie's sister, was away from home.^[1] The Borden sisters' uncle, John Vinnicum Morse, brother of Andrew Borden's first wife, was visiting at the time, but was also away from the house during the time of the murders.^[1]

That day, Andrew Borden had gone into town to do his usual rounds at the bank and post office. He returned home at about 10:45 a.m. About a half-hour later, Lizzie Borden found his body. According to Sullivan's testimony, she was lying down in her room on the third floor of the house shortly after 11:00 a.m. when she heard Lizzie call to her, saying someone had killed her father, whose body was found slumped on a couch in the downstairs sitting room. Andrew Borden's face was turned to the right hand side, apparently at ease as if he were asleep.^[2]

Shortly thereafter, while Lizzie Borden was being tended by neighbors and the family doctor, Sullivan discovered the body of Mrs. Borden upstairs in the guest bedroom. Mr. and Mrs. Borden had both been killed by blows from a hatchet, which in the case of Andrew Borden, not only crushed his skull but cleanly split his left eyeball.^[3]

Motive and methods

The Borden's house in Fall River, Massachusetts, where the murders took place.

Over a period of years after the death of the first Mrs. Borden, life at 92 Second Street had grown unpleasant in many ways, and affection between the older and younger family members had waned considerably if any was present at all.^[4] The upstairs floor of the house was divided. The front was the territory of the Borden sisters, while the rear was for Mr. and Mrs. Borden. Meals were not always taken together. Conflict had come to a head between the two daughters and their father about his decision to divide up valuable property among relatives before his death. A house had been turned over to relatives of their stepmother, and John Morse, brother to the deceased Sarah Borden (the mother of the Borden daughters), had come to visit that week. His visit was to facilitate transfer of farm property, which included what had been a summer home for the Borden daughters. Shortly before the murders, a heated argument had taken place which resulted in both sisters leaving home on extended "vacations." Lizzie Borden, however, decided to cut her trip short and returned early.

She was refused the opportunity to purchase prussic acid by a local druggist, which she claimed was for cleaning a seal skin coat. ^[5]

Shortly before the murders, the entire household became violently ill. As Mr. Borden was not a popular man in town, Mrs. Borden feared they were being poisoned, but the family doctor diagnosed it as bad food.^[6]

The trial

The guest room where Mrs. Borden was murdered.

During the police investigation, a hatchet was found in the basement and was assumed to be the murder weapon.^[4] Though it was clean, most of its handle was missing and the prosecution stated that it had been broken off because it was covered with blood. However, police officer Michael Mullaly stated that he found it next to a hatchet handle. Deputy Marshall John Fleet contradicted this testimony. Later a forensics expert said there was no time for the hatchet to be cleaned after the murder.^[7] The prosecution was hampered by the fact that the Fall River police did not put credence in the new forensic technology of fingerprinting, and refused to take prints on the hatchet.^[8]

The Borden's House, present day.

Despite incriminating circumstances, Lizzie Borden was acquitted by a jury after an hour and a half's deliberation.^[4] The fact that no murder weapon was found and no blood evidence was noted just a few minutes after the second murder pointed to reasonable doubt. Her entire original inquest testimony was barred from the trial. Also excluded was testimony regarding her attempt to purchase prussic acid (better known in modern times as cyanide).^[5] Another axe murder in the area, perpetrated by José Correira, which took place shortly before the trial was a great stroke of luck for Borden.^[9]

After the trial Borden and her sister moved to a new house, called Maplecroft.^[4] In June 1905, the two argued over a party Lizzie gave for Nance O'Neil and a group of actors.^[10] Shortly after that, Emma moved out of the house, and Lizzie Borden began using the name "Lizbeth A. Borden".^[11][11][6]

Death

Lizzie Borden died of pneumonia on June 1, 1927 in Fall River, Massachusetts.^[12] The funeral details were not made public and few people attended her burial.^[13] Borden was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery under the name "Lizbeth Andrew Borden", her footstone reading "Lizbeth".^[14] Her will, probated on June 25, 1927, left $30,000 to the Fall River Animal Rescue League.^[15][16] She also left $500 in perpetual trust for the care of her father's grave.^[17] Nine days later, her estranged sister, Emma Leonora Borden, died from a fall in Newmarket, New Hampshire, on June 10, 1927.^[14]

Legacy

The house on Second Street where the murders occurred is now a bed and breakfast.^[18] Maplecroft, the mansion Borden bought after her acquittal, on then-fashionable French Street in the "highlands" is privately owned, and only occasionally available for touring.

Conjecture

Several theories have been presented over the years suggesting Lizzie Borden may not have committed the murders, and that other suspects may have had possible motives. One theory was that any number of townspeople could have carried out a grudge against Mr. or Mrs. Borden. Another theory is that the maid, Bridget Sullivan, did it, possibly out of outrage for being asked to clean the windows, a taxing job on a hot day, just a day after having suffered from food poisoning. ^[19] Another potential culprit was forwarded by Arnold R. Brown in his work, Lizzie Borden: The Legend, The Truth, The Final Chapter, in which Brown theorizes that the true culprit was an illegitimate paternal half-brother named William Borden, as a revenge killing in his failed efforts to extort money from his father.

Yet another theory is that Borden suffered petit mal epileptic seizures during her menstrual cycle, at which times she entered a dream-like state, and unknowingly committed the murders then.^[20]

Nance O'Neil

The book Lizzie by Evan Hunter posed the theory that Lizzie Borden had an affair with the actress Nance O'Neil, whom she met in Boston in 1904. In the early 20th century, it was still considered socially unacceptable for women to become actresses. O'Neil was a spendthrift, always in financial trouble, and Borden came from a wealthy background. The two got along, despite Borden's notoriety.^[10]

While there has never been any significant evidence that the two were intimate, the friendship was cited as the cause of Borden's final separation from her sister, Emma.^[10] The termination of the relationship two years later in 1906 was a significant loss to Borden, and she is alleged to have had difficulty in recovering emotionally. O'Neil was later a character in the musical about Lizzie Borden, entitled Lizzie Borden: A Musical Tragedy in Two Axe, where she was played by Suellen Vance. Feminist Carolyn Gage refers to O'Neil as an overt lesbian,^[7] and although there are few documented details of any affairs, Gage claimed that her sexual orientation was well known in entertainment circles, despite her marriage.

Public reaction

The trial received a tremendous amount of national publicity, a relatively new phenomenon for the times. It has been compared to the later trials of Bruno Hauptmann and Ethel and Julius Rosenberg as a landmark in media coverage of legal proceedings.

The case was memorialized in a popular jump-rope rhyme:

Lizzie Borden took an axe

And gave her mother forty whacks.

And when she saw what she had done

She gave her father forty-one.

The anonymous rhyme was made up by a writer as an alluring little tune to sell newspapers even though in reality her stepmother suffered 18^[21] or 19^[7] blows, her father 11. Though acquitted for the crimes, Lizzie Borden was ostracized by neighbors following the murders.^[7] Lizzie Borden's name was again brought to the public forefront when she was accused of shoplifting in 1897.^[14]

Genealogy

Borden was distantly related to the American milk processor Gail Borden (1801-1874), Robert Borden (1854-1937), Canada's Prime Minister during World War I, and the American actress Elizabeth Montgomery (1933-1995), who actually portrayed Borden's life story in a 1975 movie.

Borden and culture

Ballet

• Morton Gould wrote a ballet on the subject of Lizzie Borden, Fall River Legend, which premiered in a production by Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City on April 22, 1948 with Alicia Alonso in the lead role. He later abridged the music into a suite which is the more commonly performed version. Choreography by Agnes de Mille.
• Nashville Ballet premiered Lizzie in October 2006 with choreography by Paul Vasterling, set to Fall River Legend. His dark interpretation investigates allegations of sexual abuse as the disturbing motive for the murder.

Comics

• Rick Geary used the device of a fictional journal written by a Fall River contemporary of Lizzie as the basis of his comic book The Borden Tragedy: A Memoir of the Infamous Double Murder at Fall River, Massachusetts, 1892. NY: NBN Pub., 1997. It was an entry in his series A Treasury of Victorian Murder.
• A regularly published newsletter: The Lizzie Borden Quarterly featured a comic strip titled Princess Maplecroft.

Film

• The film National Lampoon's Class Reunion (1982) takes place at the fictitious Lizzie Borden High School.

Music

• Borden was the topic of The Chad Mitchell Trio's aptly named "Lizzie Borden/You Can't Chop Your Poppa Up in Massachusetts." It was written by Michael Brown for New Faces of 1952.
• She was the subject of the operas Lizzie Borden (1965) by Jack Beeson and Lizbeth by Thomas Albert.
• She was the subject of the cockney knees-up style song "Oh, Mother Borden" by late 80s UK musical satirists The Dubious Brothers.
• The song "She Took An Axe" by the thrash metal band Flotsam and Jetsam tells Borden's story, portraying her as a demon-inspired woman, treating the subject with humour.
• American glam metal band Lizzy Borden is named after her.
• Melora Creager, of Rasputina, wrote her first song at the age of six, which was called "Ballad of Lizzie Borden"

Prose fiction

• The fifth book in Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, Haunted features the character Eve Levine, who meets Lizzie in the ghost world, forced to relive the day of her crimes forever.
• Angela Carter wrote a short story, entitled The Fall River Axe Murders, on the events leading up to the murders.
• Evan Hunter (aka Ed McBain) wrote a fictional account of the murder in his book Lizzie.^[22]
• W.O. Mitchell's The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon features Borden as a minor character.
• Elizabeth Engstrom wrote a novel titled Lizzie Borden, published by Tor Books in 1981. Most of the known facts of Borden's life are integrated into the fictional tale.
• In Maxine O'Callaghan's short story, "An Insignificant Crime", a shopkeeper and his son-in-law debate whether or not to stop the young lady who comes to the store and steals small items, because her father is so influential. They decide not to stop her shoplifting that day. In the final lines it is revealed that the shoplifter's name is Miss Borden, and that the small item she chose to steal on this day was an axe.

Radio

• The radio anthology series Suspense aired adaptations of the Borden story twice, once as "The Fall River Tragedy" on January 14, 1952, and once as "Goodbye, Miss Lizzie Borden" on October 4, 1955.

Television

• An episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents entitled "The Older Sister" retold the Borden story, in which Emma had murdered her parents due to a mental illness she suffered, while Lizzie covered for her.
• In an episode of Ally McBeal (Season 1) entitled "The Inmates", the legal firm of Cage and Fish defend a woman suspected of murder who claims to have been Lizzie Borden in a past life.
• Armstrong Circle Theatre, Season 12, Episode 1, "Legend of Murder - The Untold Story of Lizzie Borden" (first aired October 11, 1961), was a dramatization of Edward D. Radin's book Lizzie Borden: The Untold Story (Simon and Schuster, 1961), which put forth the theory that Bridget Sullivan was the actual murderess. Lizzie was played by Clarice Blackburn, Bridget by Mary Doyle.
• Elizabeth Montgomery depicted Borden in William Bast's two hour television movie, The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975). In the movie, Lizzie Borden performs the murders after stripping naked (thus explaining the lack of bloodstained clothing).
• The Sci-Fi Channel Ghost Hunters "TAPS" team investigated the Lizzie Borden house for paranormal activity in episode 12 of season 2.
• On January 23, 2007, the Crime & Investigation Network aired a documentary on the Lizzie Borden story.
• In 2004, the Discovery Channel aired an investigative documentary called Lizzie Borden Had an Axe. In the episode, a pair of detectives used modern forensics to exonerate Sullivan and prove Lizzie could have been the killer.
• In 2008, The History Channel's series MonsterQuest visited the Borden home looking for ghosts.

Theatre

• The anthology of short plays, "Sepia and Song", contained a play called "A Memory of Lizzie," with scenes from Lizzie Borden's childhood interpersed with quotes from her trial.^[23]
• Blood Relations by Sharon Pollock premiered at Theatre Tree, Edmonton Canada in 1980. The play is set in 1902, with its "dream thesis" set in 1892, at Fall River, Massachusetts. It explores the events leading up to the trial.
• The Testimony of Lizzie Borden by Eric Stedman, a docudrama staged in an accurate reproduction of the Borden sitting room which re-created much of Lizzie's actual inquest testimony, premiered at Theatre on the Towpath in New Hope, Pa. in 1994 and was presented in Fall River in 1995.
• Lizzie Borden's Tempest by Brendan Byrnes played the New York International Fringe Festival in 1998. As Lizzie reads the role of Miranda in The Tempest with her local theatre club, Shakespeare's storm resurrects and reunites the Borden Family. The play's central idea is based on an actual program displayed at the Fall River Historical Society that lists a "Miss Borden" playing the role of Miranda in The Tempest.
• The Massachusetts premiere of Lizzie Borden: The Musical with book and music by Christopher McGovern and lyrics by Amy Powers was held in 2004 at the Stoneham Theatre in Massachusetts.^[24]
• Lizzie Borden Live a one-woman show by Jill Dalton was presented in October 2007 at the East Lynne Theater Company in West Cape May, New Jersey.^[25]

References

Further reading

A number of works expounding different theories have been written about the crime. These include:

• Asher, Robert, Lawrence B. Goodheart and Alan Rogers. Murder on Trial: 1620-2002 New York: State University of New York Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0791463772.
• Brown, Arnold R. Lizzie Borden: The Legend, the Truth, the Final Chapter. Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press, 1991, ISBN 1-55853-099-1.
• de Mille, Agnes. Lizzie Borden: A Dance of Death. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1968.
• Kent, David Forty Whacks: New Evidence in the Life and Legend of Lizzie Borden. Yankee Books, 1992, ISBN 0-89909-351-5.
• Kent, David The Lizzie Borden Sourcebook. Boston: Branden Publishing Company, 1992, ISBN 0-8283-1950-2.
• King, Florence. WASP, Where is Thy Sting? Chapter 15, "One WASP's Family, or the Ties That Bind." Stein & Day, 1977, ISBN 0-552-99377-8 (1990 Reprint Edition).
• Lincoln, Victoria. A Private Disgrace: Lizzie Borden by Daylight. NY: G.P. Putnam?s Sons, 1967, ISBN 0-930330-35-8.
• Masterton, William L. Lizzie Didn?t Do It! Boston: Branden Publishing Company, 2000, ISBN 0-8283-2052-7.
• Pearson, Edmund Lester. Studies in Murder Ohio State University Press, 1924.
• Radin, Edward D. Lizzie Borden: The Untold Story Simon and Schuster, 1961.
• Spiering, Frank. Lizzie: The Story of Lizzie Borden. Dorset Press, 1991, ISBN 0-88029-685-2.
• Sullivan, Robert. Goodbye Lizzie Borden. Brattleboro, VT: Stephen Greene Press, 1974, ISBN 0-14-011416-5.
• Hunter, Evan (see Artistic depictions/Prose Fiction, below) has a video out called ''Reopened: Lizzie Borden with Ed McBain''. In it he has several historians present their theories on who killed the Bordens. At the end, he then gives his theory based on his work of fiction, Lizzie.

External links

• Famous Trials page about Lizzie Borden
• ''The Borden Collection''. Fall River Historical Society.
• Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast in Fall River, Massachusetts
• The Lizzie Borden Society Forum
• The Hatchet: The Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies
• Unsolved Mysteries: Lizzie Borden

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