Lizzie Andrew Borden (July 19, 1860 – June 1, 1927) was an American woman who was tried and acquitted of the August 4, 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts.

[3] The Borden murders and trial received widespread publicity in the United States, and have remained a topic in American popular culture depicted in numerous films, theatrical productions, literary works, and folk rhymes around the Fall River area.

[9] Her father, who was of English and Welsh descent,[10] grew up in very modest surroundings and struggled financially as a young man, despite being the descendant of wealthy and influential local residents.

He was also president of the Union Savings Bank and a director of the Durfee Safe Deposit and Trust Co.[11] At the time of his murder, his estate was valued at $300,000 ($10,000,000 in 2024).

[12][15] Lizzie and her older sister, Emma Lenora Borden (1851–1927),[16] had a relatively religious upbringing and attended Central Congregational Church.

[17] As a young woman, Lizzie was very involved in church activities, including teaching Sunday school to children of recent immigrants to the United States.

Lizzie later stated that she called her stepmother "Mrs. Borden" and demurred on whether they had a cordial relationship; she believed that Abby had married her father for his wealth.

[20] Bridget Sullivan (whom they called Maggie), the Bordens' 25-year-old live-in maid, who had immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland,[21] testified that Lizzie and Emma rarely ate meals with their parents.

The night before the murders, John Vinnicum Morse, Lizzie and Emma's maternal uncle, visited and was invited to stay for a few days to discuss business matters with Andrew, leading to speculation that their conversation, particularly about property transfer, may have aggravated an already tense situation.

Morse left around 8:48 am to buy a pair of oxen and visit his niece in Fall River, planning to return to the Borden home for lunch at noon.

[29] She was first struck on the side of the head with a hatchet, which cut her just above the ear, causing her to turn and fall face down on the floor, creating contusions on her nose and forehead.

[33] She testified that she was in her third-floor room, resting from cleaning windows, when just before 11:10 am she heard Lizzie call from downstairs, "Maggie, come quick!

[42] Because of the mysterious illness that had stricken the household before the murders, the family's milk and the victims' stomachs (removed during autopsies performed in the Borden dining room) were tested for poison;[46] none was found.

[citation needed] Police were stationed around the house on the night of August 4, during which an officer said he had seen Lizzie enter the cellar with Russell, carrying a kerosene lamp and a slop pail.

She often contradicted herself and provided alternating accounts of the morning in question, such as saying she was in the kitchen reading a magazine when her father arrived home, then saying she was in the dining room doing some ironing, and then saying she was coming down the stairs.

[42][52] Contemporaneous newspaper articles noted that Lizzie possessed a "stolid demeanor"[53] and "bit her lips, flushed, and bent toward attorney Adams;" it was also reported that the testimony provided in the inquest had "caused a change of opinion among her friends who have heretofore strongly maintained her innocence.

[57] Prosecuting attorneys were Hosea M. Knowlton and future United States Supreme Court Justice William H. Moody; defending were Andrew V. Jennings,[58] Melvin O. Adams, and former Massachusetts governor George D.

[61] A prominent point of discussion in the trial, and press coverage of it, was the hatchet-head found in the basement, which was not convincingly demonstrated by the prosecution to be the murder weapon.

[63] Though no bloody clothing was found at the scene, Russell testified that on August 8, 1892, she had witnessed Lizzie burn a dress in the kitchen stove, saying it had been ruined when she brushed against wet paint.

[73] Evidence was excluded that she had sought to purchase prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide), purportedly for cleaning a sealskin cloak, from the local druggist on the day before the murders.

[74] The presiding Associate Justice, Justin Dewey, who had been appointed by Robinson when he was governor, delivered a lengthy summary that supported the defense as his charge to the jury before it was sent to deliberate on June 20, 1893.

[84] In her later years, Lizzie was rumored to be a lesbian, but there was no such speculation about Sullivan, who later married a man she met while working as a maid in Butte, Montana.

[86] Another significant suspect is John Morse, Lizzie's maternal uncle, who rarely met with the family after his sister died but had slept in the house the night before the murders; according to law enforcement, he had provided an "absurdly perfect and over-detailed alibi for the death of Abby Borden".

[96] Nine days later, Emma died from chronic nephritis in a nursing home in Newmarket, New Hampshire,[94][97] having moved to this location in 1923 both for health reasons and to avoid renewed attention following the publication of another book about the murders.

[98] Scholar Ann Schofield notes that "Borden's story has tended to take one or the other of two fictional forms: the tragic romance and the feminist quest ...  As the story of Lizzie Borden has been created and re-created through rhyme and fiction it has taken on the qualities of a popular American myth or legend that effectively links the present to the past.

[111] Other plays based on Borden include Blood Relations (1980), a Canadian production written by Sharon Pollock that recounts events leading up to the murders, which was made into a television movie in Calgary.

In 1959, The Legend of Lizzie by Reginald Lawrence attracted praise for Anne Meacham in the title role, but still closed after just two performances.

[113] The folk singing group The Chad Mitchell Trio recorded a black comedy song, Lizzie Borden by Michael Brown, for their live 1961 album Mighty Day on Campus.

In 1936, the radio program Unsolved Mysteries broadcast a 15 minute dramatization titled "The Lizzie Borden Case",[121] which presented a possible scenario in which the murders were committed during a botched robbery attempt by a tramp, who then escaped.

The Lizzie Borden case was partly dramatized on an episode of the 2022 BBC Radio podcast series Lucy Worsley's Lady Killers.