Content warning for discussions of murder and descriptions of gore.
“Lizzie Borden took an axe.”
Around 130 years ago, Lizzie Borden allegedly hacked her way into infamy by brutally murdering her father and stepmother with an axe. Despite what the famous rhyme claims, the pair only sustained a combined 29 whacks as opposed to the supposed 81, but all the same — you’ve got to be at least a little insane to hit your stepmother with an axe 18 times.
Hello and welcome back to The Modern Monster! In case you missed it, this is a brand-new weekly column talking about all things scary. And if we’re lucky, we’ll also dive into the deeper meanings of the things that hide under everyone’s beds.
The Lizzie Borden story is a very old one, originating in the 1890s, at the tail end of the Gilded Age and moving into the Progressive Era. Although the case was already groundbreaking at the time for reasons we’ll get into, Borden’s story is mostly remembered for the infamous schoolyard rhyme. If you haven’t heard it, it goes like this:
“Lizzie Borden took an axe,
And gave her mother forty whacks,
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.”
For the longest time, I assumed our girl Lizzie was just that: a girl. I assumed she was at most 16 years old but was likely around 12. After all, she’s known as “Lizzie.” But Borden was 32 years old at the time and had killed her stepmother Abby, not her long-dead biological mother.
Borden’s father was a man named Andrew, and her older sister was named Emma. Borden and her family — including Abby — lived together in what is now known as the “Lizzie Borden House,” along with Lizzie’s uncle named John Morse at the time of the murder. The family also employed a maid named Bridget “Maggie” Sullivan.
Aside from Lizzie herself, Sullivan is perhaps one of the most important figures in this case. The only people at the Borden house — that we know of — were Lizzie, Abby, Andrew and Sullivan. With the courts unable to gather much evidence that wasn’t just circumstantial, the case rested on Sullivan’s testimony.
Much of the case revolved around Lizzie’s relationship with Abby and Andrew, although Abby was the focus. Abby had sustained 18 whacks instead of Andrew’s 11, and her body was cold when investigators arrived. Andrew’s body was still warm, meaning the killer would’ve waited before attacking Andrew, possibly as an afterthought.
Both Sullivan and Emma stated that Lizzie had a good relationship with her parents. This didn’t align with the current rumors at the time.
Interestingly, Lizzie had supposedly attempted to buy poisonous prussic acid at a pharmacy beforehand. Lizzie’s friend Alice Russell testified that the day before the murder, Lizzie mentioned that her parents were having stomach problems. Russell also said that she had seen Lizzie burning a blue dress a few days after the murders. Lizzie had been seen wearing a blue dress on the day Abby and Andrew were killed.
Although Lizzie was the most likely suspect, nothing concrete linked her to the murder. She was ultimately acquitted and later moved to a house called “Maplecroft” with Emma.
Now, did she do it?
Smithsonian Magazine argues that Lizzie was acquitted due to a mix of sexism, nativism and classism. The wealthy Bordens could afford a high-quality lawyer, and her gender meant people just didn’t view her as capable of murder. Furthermore, she was Christian.
There aren’t many modern takes on the story aside from something similar to what the Smithsonian said. Most people argue that Lizzie did it.
The University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law has a whole list of reasons on their Famous Trials website as to why Lizzie did it. This includes Lizzie’s lies, her unstable relationship with her parents and the fact that there are no other suspects.
There’s also a theory out there that Lizzie and the 25-year-old Bridget Sullivan were lovers. The theory goes that Abby caught the pair together and Lizzie killed her for it, hence Sullivan’s defense of Lizzie. There isn’t really any evidence to back this up, but it’s a fun spin on an old tale.
My personal theory is that Lizzie did kill her parents, but Emma backed her up. Famous Trials confirms that Lizzie did not get along with her parents, might’ve been a thief and most likely lied about where she was in the house during the murders. Emma would’ve known at least some of this, but she still supports her sister and even lives with her after the incident. If I had to guess, I’d say the Bordens paid Sullivan off.
Furthermore, there has long been speculation on the mental state of Lizzie. The severity of the murder implies that someone would’ve had to be literally insane to do it, given the 29 total whacks. Famous Trials also notes that Sullivan heard Lizzie laughing upstairs, where Abby’s corpse would have been at the time. It’s possible she suffered from bipolar disorder or was a psychopath in a time when she would’ve been unable to get care.
Lizzie Borden’s story will forever be etched into the stone walls of New England legend. The case is so old and muddled that very few people have any connection to it in the modern day.You can still visit the scene of the crime today. The Lizzie Borden House is a bed-and-breakfast offering both ghost tours and hunts, and you can even sleep in the room where Abby was murdered. There’s something sort of ugly about the idea of turning the site of such a brutal crime into a tourist attraction. Mentally unstable or not, the modern public has mostly agreed that Borden was a vicious axe-wielding killer. And now you can buy a bobblehead of her.
From Bundy to Dahmer, America loves its killers. The story of Borden goes down a little easier if we consider how old it is. Maybe we can take comfort in the fact that Borden might’ve done it out of love, or out of mental distress or in an attempt to escape a miserable life with her parents. And there’s something nice about the idea that Emma stood by her side.
We’re a lot more comfortable with murder when we can explain it away.