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Thomas BORDEN
Notes
561. Elizabeth "Lizzie" Andrew BORDEN
LIZZIE BORDEN
Axe Murderer?
1860-1927
Lizzie Borden took an ax
And gave her mother forty whacks;
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one!
She was not convicted of murder, but Lizzie Borden was considered guilty by the townspeople of Fall River, Massachusetts, and most of the scandalized American public. Her father and stepmother were brutally killed with a sharp instrument on August 4, 1892, a day that Lizzie had spent at home. Though one spot of blood was found on her skirt, the clothing worn that day was suspiciously burned before the trial. Though a broken hatchet was found, the evidence was circumstantial.
Regardless of her acquittal, the mystery of the Borden murders would grow in myth and fascination. The axe murders were never solved and Lizzie inherited considerable wealth, but she was shunned by her church and sensationalized in literature and film. Now the house in which the murders took place is The Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast.