Lizzie Borden

Lizzie Andrew Borden (July 19, 1860 – June 1, 1927) was a New England spinster and a central figure in the case surrounding the brutal axe double-murder of her father and stepmother on a sweltering day, August 4, 1892 in Fall River, Massachusetts. Borden was acquitted when brought to trial, but no one else was ever tried, and she has remained a notorious figure in American folklore. The slayings, trial, and following trial by media became a cause célèbre and have endured in American pop culture and criminology as one of the most celebrated incidents of the Victorian era. Dispute over the identity of the killer continues to this day.

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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 O.J. Simpson 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.

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 9 blows, her father 11 — some believe that this has served to ensure Lizzie Borden's place in American folklore.

Alleged lesbian affair with actress Nance O'Neil

In 1904, actress Nance O'Neil met Lizzie Borden in Boston. In the early 20th century, it was still considered socially unacceptable for women to become actresses. O'Neil was a notorious spendthrift, always in financial trouble, and Borden came from a wealthy background. The two had an intense relationship, despite Borden's notoriety. O'Neil was married at the time.

While it has never been definitively proven that the two were intimate, 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, and although there are few documented details of any affairs other than Borden, Gage claimed that her sexual orientation was well known in entertainment circles, despite her marriage. The book Lizzie by Evan Hunter (real name Salvatore Lombino, and also famous for writing under the name Ed McBain) is the chief source of this conjecture.

Legacy

Some who knew Lizzie believed she was not guilty. Nevertheless, despite her acquittal, Lizzie Borden remains in popular imagination as a brutal murderess. This is due in part to the following:

The murders were never solved.
For a number of years, on the anniversary of the murders, the more sensational press re-accused her of the crime.
The infamous doggerel endured, insinuating her guilt into the public mind thereafter.

The home on Second Street where the murders occurred is now a bed and breakfast which enjoys considerable popularity. The house is also open for daily tours. When the home was owned by a previous owner some years ago, at least one hatchet was found during renovations. It was given to the police. Nothing came of it. Ongoing work has restored the home to a close approximation of its 1892 condition.

"Maplecroft," the mansion Lizzie bought after her acquittal, on then-fashionable French Street in the "highlands" is privately owned, and only occasionally available for touring.

Genealogically speaking

This infamous New England spinster was distantly related to the American milk manufacturer Gail Borden (1801-1874), Robert Borden (1854-1937), Canada's Prime Minister during World War I and the late US actress Elizabeth Montgomery (1933-1995) who had also portrayed her life story in the 1976 movie.

Artistic depictions

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

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.
Foxton, David "A Memory of Lizzie" is a short play in a drama anthology called "Sepia And Song" 1987 ISBN 0-17-432409-X
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, 1999
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

There is a scholarly journal published on Lizzie Borden, Fall River, and Victorian era America:

The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies. PearTree Press.

There is also a 1975 film adaptation of the crime:

The Legend of Lizzie Borden at IMDb starring Elizabeth Montgomery.

She was the subject of the operas Lizzie Borden (1965) by Jack Beeson and Lizbeth by Thomas Albert.

Ballet Theatre commissioned Fall River Legend with choreography by Agnes de Mille and music by Morton Gould, who chose as subject matter the Lizzie Borden case.

Lillian Gish played "Effie Holden," a character based on Miss Borden in 1933's Nine Pine Street.

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."

Miss Borden also appears as a character in Monkeybone (2001), Joe Killionaire (2004), and Saturday the 14th Strikes Back (1988), played by Shawnee Free Jones, Alice Alyse, and Lauren Peterson, respectively.

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.

Borden was depicted in The Simpsons episodes "Treehouse of Horror IV" (1993), and "Cape Feare" (same year).

A figure of Borden appears on Captain Spaulding's 'Murder Ride' in Rob Zombie's film House of 1000 Corpses.

Lizzie 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 also the subject of the cockney knees-up style song "Oh, Mother Borden" by late 80s UK musical satirists The Dubious Brothers.

The Disney Channel show Smart Guy alluded to the Borden murders in an episode in which Yvette and a few friends pretend to be axe murderers and chant the well-known rhyme.

Angela Carter wrote a short story, entitled "The Fall River Axe Murders", on the events leading up to the murders, as well as a short story entitled "Lizzies Tiger", a strange little story written as a mock children's tale.

W.O. Mitchell's "The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon" features Miss Borden as a minor character.

Alexander Woollcott of The New Yorker magazine, was fascinated by Lizzie and commented on her during his 1930's radio broadcasts. He was the inspiration for the Sheridan Whiteside character in the George S. Kaufman and Moss Hartplay The Man Who Came to Dinner including his interest in the Borden murders.

The song She Took An Axe by the thrash metal band Flotsam and Jetsam tells Lizzie's story, portraying her as a demon inspired woman, treating the subject with humour.

In Mary Higgins Clark novel, No Place Like Home, the main character is compared to Lizzie Borden for having killed her mom as a child