Although the film is based on fact, it is a stylized retelling of the events of August 4, 1892, the day the father and step-mother of New England spinster Lizzie Borden were found brutally murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home.

The subsequent incarceration of the prime suspect (Lizzie herself) as well as the coroner's inquest and the trial are faithfully depicted, using actual testimony.

Churchill, do come in, someone has killed father.” Andrew Borden’s body reclines on the living room sofa with multiple hatchet wounds across his face.

Andrew was in the house 15 to 20 minutes while Lizzie was in the barn looking for an iron sinker for her fishing line for a trip the following Monday.

With Emma’s support and her share of her father’s $250,000 estate, Lizzie retains a “dream team,” headed by George Robinson, former governor of Massachusetts.

The press and public are sympathetic to Lizzie, a Sunday school teacher and a devoted worker for temperance, Christian aid, and foreign missions.

At the trial, friend Alice Russell testifies that the evening before the murder Lizzie said her father was having trouble with business associates, was afraid someone would harm him, and the house had been broken into in broad daylight when family members were at home.

The local chemist testifies that Lizzie attempted to purchase prussic acid a few days before the murders, ostensibly to clean a sealskin cape.

A forensic expert testifies that the broken hatchet found by police matches wounds on Mr. Borden’s skull.

Months after her acquittal Lizzie moved into a mansion in the fashionable section of Fall River, where she lived until she died in 1927, at the age of 66.

Elizabeth Montgomery and Lizzie Borden were sixth cousins once removed, both descending from 17th-century Massachusetts resident John Luther.

Rhonda McClure, the genealogist who documented the Montgomery-Borden connection, said, "I wonder how Elizabeth would have felt if she knew she was playing her own cousin.

Irish actress Fionnula Flanagan was cast in the part of the Borden's maid, Bridget Sullivan, who was originally from Ireland.

[4] It also won two Emmy Awards, for Costume Design (presented to Guy C. Verhille) and Film Editing (John A. Martinelli), and received nominations in three other Emmy categories: Lead Actress (Montgomery), Art Direction (Jack De Shields), and Sound Editing (Harry Gordon).