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The Poe Show
True Crime of the 19th Century: Lizzie Borden
The Poe Show is finally entering the true crime genre! There is a plethora of true crime cases from the 19th century that I could feature on this podcast, but for this episode I chose the axe murder trials of Lizzie Borden. A grisly murder, a surprising suspect, and twists and turns that will have you engaged from the very start!
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On August 4th of 1892, the city of Fall River, Massachusetts was shocked by a terribly gruesome scene. An elderly married couple had been found brutally murdered with an ax in their own home. The wife had been found upstairs, with her head smashed into unrecognizable chunks of muscle and flesh. The husband was found lying on the living room couch in a pool of his own blood, pouring from his face…which had been nearly split in two. The victims: Andrew and Abby Borden. The suspect: their youngest daughter, a 32 year old woman named….Lizzie Borden.
The Poe Show podcast proudly presents an American True Crime story from the 19th century, unsolved for over 130 years. A double homicide in 1892, which captured the attention of the nation. With music and narration by Tynan Portillo.
Today’s episode…the ax murder trials of Lizzie Borden.
Lizzie Borden took an ax
And gave her mother forty whacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one
Lizzie Borden was born July 19th, 1860 in Fall River, Massachusetts. Her sister, Emma Borden, was ten years older. The girls’ birth mother, Sarah Borden, died at the age of 39. Lizzie was only 2 years old at the time of her mother’s death. After Sarah’s death, Lizzie’s father, Andrew Borden, remarried to a woman named Abby Gray, when Lizzie was 5 years old. Since their marriage, Lizzie would only refer to her stepmother as “Mrs. Borden.”
Regardless of his decent upbringing, Andrew Borden had his own financial struggles, which he managed by crafting and selling caskets, and becoming a successful property manager. Eventually, he became a bank president and very successful businessman. At the time of his sudden death, his estate was valued at $300,000, equating to about $10,000,000 today.
And yet, because of the well known tendency of Andrew to pinch pennies, the Bordens lived in a home that spoke of an opposite lifestyle. The family lived in a house much too small for all 4 of them, with connecting rooms and no privacy. And although it was a usual accommodation for wealthy people of this time, the Borden household lacked any indoor plumbing or gas-lighting. The Borden family was one of the wealthiest in Fall River, but lived as one of the poorest. Between Lizzie and her father, there were many heated arguments about what was and was not appropriate for spending money on. It was also told by the Borden maid, Bridget Sullivan, that the family rarely ever ate meals all together.
It became the dream of the Borden girls to buy a house “up on the hill” or, on the nice side of town where they would enjoy all the fanciful things they could afford. Things their father forbade them from enjoying in their current household. Tensions grew as Andrew Borden used his amassed wealth to purchase a home for his sister-in-law, as she was being evicted. This angered the Borden daughters tremendously, and their father attempted to quell their vexations by granting them one of their grandfather’s rental homes. Not for free, of course. They still had to purchase the property from their father, for $1. The Borden daughters now had a small income to make for themselves, but still no place to live of their own.
Lizzie Borden was a dedicated churchgoer, Sunday school teacher and a vocal advocate of the temperance movement, a social idea flooding America which supported the prohibition of alcohol. Lizzie had a very little amount of friends, and it seemed her only social life came from involving herself in church activities. She was often trusted by organizations she joined to hold positions of importance and leadership, controlling funds in responsibilities such as treasurer. By the time she was 32 years old, she had not married or been courting seriously with any man, a fact her father had not let her forget.
On the morning of August 4th, 1892, a neighbor of the Borden’s, Adelaide Churchill, had been tending to chores about her home. According to her testimony, she had witnessed Andrew Borden around 9am, standing on the steps of his home. A while later, about 11am, she had returned recently from the market and began washing dishes, when she saw Lizzie Borden looking alarmed at the Borden house side screen door. She asked Lizzie what was the matter, to which Lizzie had replied, “Oh, Mrs. Churchill, do come over. Someone has killed Father.”
Abby Borden had been the first to die. She was found in the upstairs guest room of the Borden house, lying face down in her spilled blood. The back and side of her skull had been splayed open, suffering 19 blows by a blunt force object. Such an erratic force had been behind the murder that Abby’s hair was mostly matted with blood, but a clump of red-soaked hair had been flung onto the nearby wall. Splotches of blood splatter littered the nearby bedspread and pillows. In the middle of the bed, a switch of false hair, one which Abby Borden had used herself many times. Perhaps before her assailant had begun their attack, they attempted pulling Abby’s hair in order to gain control to attack.
Andrew Borden, taking a midday nap on the family sofa downstairs, had been murdered in his sleep. A series of 10 strikes had pulverised his skull and split his face nearly in two, and a pool of his own blood now covered the sofa and floor. He was completely unrecognizable. When police had arrived to investigate the murders, Andrew’s body was still warm. Abby, it’s thought, must have been murdered about 90 minutes earlier.
Despite the nature of the murders having surely been quite noisy, Bridget Sullivan, who had been in the home at the time of the murders, claims to have heard nothing. Lizzie Borden claimed to have heard nothing. No other neighbors had even seen anything suspicious. And no one else was present in the Borden household.
So who was responsible for the horrifying murders of Andrew and Abby Borden?
Police investigations have a number of protocols in our modern day in order to prevent tampering with evidence and to keep any individual from changing the nature of the crime scene. During 1892 however, the police of Fall River were woefully behind in this matter. Not only was the crime scene not properly closed off to the public, but there were an estimated 2,000 visitors roaming freely about the scene of the Borden murders over a number of days. Journalists, photographers, doctors, police, and even strangers who had wandered in to see what was the matter had polluted the entire environment. Many people of Fall River, Massachusetts, and subsequently, across the nation, had wanted to make sense of the Borden murders themselves.
During this time in America, murder was still a relatively new crime which had little news coverage. So little in fact, that many theorized Jack the Ripper had made his way to America because of the horrendous nature of these murders. Once the murder had been reported, the newspaper called The Fall River Herald sent out their next issue with the headline “Shocking Crime: A Venerable Citizen and his Aged Wife Hacked to Pieces in their Home.”
Suspects were eventually determined and interviewed. One suspect was Andrew Borden’s brother, John Vinnicum Morse, as he had decided to stay with the Borden’s the night just before the murders. He carried few possessions and seemed to arrive without a word or reason. But he had a solid alibi, having been seen in town during the time of the murders. He was quickly taken off the list of suspects.
Perhaps Bridget Sullivan could be a suspect. But no, there wasn’t any motive. Whoever had committed this atrocious act must have been filled with malice towards the couple. Andrew Borden himself was not a very well-liked man in the town. The front door had been triple locked, the back door locked as well. The only door open to the outside was the side screen door of the house. The murderer had to have the physical ability, the knowledge of the house’s openings and the motive for carrying out the crime. Emma Borden was not at home during the time of the murders either, and had to be sent a telegram of her parents’ deaths while visiting friends.
The main suspect of the murders was then easily determined.
Their daughter, Lizzie Borden.
Police began an inquest and gained a testimony from Lizzie; a testimony which didn't seem to add up. She was getting details mixed up, confusing times and places she had been between 9-11am. When she had been asked about her murdered mother, Lizzie had clarified, “She’s not my mother. She’s my stepmother. My mother died when I was a child.” Along with these chilling facts was the realization of what Lizzie might gain in her father’s will. If Andrew Borden had died before his wife, according to his will, Abby Borden’s family would have received a portion of the inheritance money. With Abby being the first to die, the money was all for Lizzie and Emma’s taking.
Based on this evidence, and after a week of investigating, officers arrested Lizzie Borden for the murder of her parents. Ten months later, Lizzie Borden would be brought to the Superior Court in New Bradford, Massachusetts, and the ax murder trials of Lizzie Borden would begin.
Lizzie Borden’s trial would go on for 3 weeks, and because Lizzie never testified in court herself, the only words she was recorded speaking were, “I am innocent. I leave it to my counsel to speak for me.” At this time, the only other theory crafted for the possible murderer was an unknown crazed madman passing through the town. Lizzie’s attorney, Andrew Jennings, was the Borden family attorney, and was joined by George Robinson, a former Governor of Massachusetts, who took over leadership of the defense. The lead prosecutor was named Hosea M. Knowlton. Hosea was a well respected attorney and former senator. The jury for the ax murder trials of Lizzie Borden was comprised of 12 men, as women wouldn’t serve as jurors in a Massachusetts court until 1950.
To begin the trials, in order to shock the jury with the violent nature of the murders, provide evidence, and perhaps even to gauge the emotional reaction of Lizzie in court, Hosea Knowlton claimed to have the skulls of the victims present with him in the court. Hearing this, Lizzie Borden had fainted. In reality, Knowlton had plaster replica skulls made to bring to court. But with the permission of the court, Lizzie was allowed to leave the room while the analysis of the victims’ wounds were explained.
The Bordens’ bodies were absent of any defensive wounds, which Hosea argued meant that the victims were comfortable around their killer before dying. And where would a crazed madman hide while waiting to strike his second victim? The murders were approximately 90 minutes apart. Could a stranger truly not be found in the small, cramped house within that time? The sheer number of blows to each victim, as well as the frantic order of them, suggested the murders were a crime of passion. A passion which Lizzie could most certainly fill. He argued that not only could Lizzie Borden have physically committed the murders, but that police had found the theorized murder weapon. Whatever had caused the blunt force trauma to the Bordens’ skulls would be a small, handheld weapon that could’ve been discarded close to the scene of the crime. Days after the murders had been first reported, while police were searching the premises, the small head of an old hatchet had been found in the basement among abandoned tools, the broken handle not far away. The break in the handle appeared fresh, and the ash and dust on this weapon looked as if it had been deliberately sprinkled on top of it, instead of caking it with age as the other tools were nearby. According to police reports, the hatchet matched their theory for the murder weapon. It was the right weight and size, and could easily be handled by a healthy adult woman. Would a madman have taken the time to hide his weapon so delicately? Would a crazed murderer akin to Jack the ripper have so carefully left this hatchet, and taken the time to make it look undisturbed? To add to this argument, the hatchet in question had been used by Andrew Borden himself, to kill some pigeons in their barn. Pigeons which Lizzie had kept as personal pets, even constructing a coop for them before her father dispatched of the birds.
For all intents and purposes, Lizzie Borden was the most obvious culprit of the crime.
However, during the trials many concerning details about the initial investigation were unfurled. For instance, the police officers who had responded to the crime scene and interviewed Lizzie in the first place, admitted that they had not thoroughly searched her room for evidence. She’d said she was feeling unwell, and that was reason enough for them to abandon their search. During their investigation, police had found an almost damning piece of evidence: an undergarment of Lizzie’s which was splotched with blood. And in her washroom, a bucket of bloody cloths. Lizzie asserted that she had been menstruating, and the police abandoned this pursuit as well. If that wasn’t enough, the day after her parents’ funeral, Lizzie had been seen burning a dress of hers in the kitchen stove. When questioned, Emma protested, saying that she was the one telling her sister to burn the dress because it was stained with paint, and was not an important piece of evidence. And the hatchet? Although it fit the wounds of the skulls of Andrew and Abby, it had no traces of human hair or blood on it.
While cross examining witnesses, George Robinson was sure to reiterate to the court the testimony of Adelaide Churchill. As stated by Mrs. Churchill, when Lizzie was spotted at the side door of the Borden home, she had not one drop of blood on her person. The murderer should have almost certainly been caked in the liquid red evidence of their crimes, but Lizzie was spotless. This became a major pillar for Lizzie’s defense.
One of the biggest factors the police had previously failed to mention was the legitimacy of Lizzie's statement given during the inquest. Before the officers had begun the inquest about the murders, Lizzie had been given a sedative to calm her nerves by a neighbor, Dr. Bowen. And not just any sedative, but morphine sulfate. During this same inquest, police had denied Lizzie the presence of an attorney, resulting in her refusing to answer certain questions altogether. Because of these two vital facts, judges for the case ruled that Lizzie’s testimony could not be used during the trial. The jury would never know what Lizzie had said the day of the inquest.
This was not the only thing the jury would never know.
A crucial event had occurred the day before the murders, an event that would be, arguably, necessary for any members of the jury to know. A druggist had testified previously that someone who claimed to be Lizzie Borden had wandered into his pharmacy looking for prussic acid, a deadly poison. The self-identified individual said they were looking for the acid in order to work on a sealskin cape. Lizzie Borden was known to wear sealskin capes. But the judges of the case deemed this revelation irrelevant to the murder trial. The most likely reason the poison would have been considered irrelevant was this: poison was the generalized weapon of women during the Victorian era, a more dainty form of assassination without the need for physical violence, and the murders had been committed with a blunt weapon. Surely, if a woman were to commit murder, she’d use a stealthier and less confrontational method.
Many who learned of Lizzie Borden rose to her defense during her arrest and trial, asserting that she was incapable of murder. Women’s groups throughout the nation also contributed by sending letters to the authorities and publishing articles in newspapers in support of Lizzie’s innocence. Lizzie’s case became a prevalent example used to argue that women should be allowed to sit on juries, so women like Lizzie Borden could be tried fairly by her peers. Other letters flooded Hosea Knowlton’s mail, filled with unsolicited analyses and theories on Lizzie’s case. Numbered among them were speculations on Lizzie committing the murders while nude, having a long garment over her dress during the murder, and even psychic readings on her method for killing her parents. Concerningly, there were also a few who wrote confessing that they were the evil-doer, all who had been proven to be pranks. Many were dividing the attention wherever they could get it.
The ultimate justification for Lizzie’s defense happened to be related more to her character than anything. Lizzie Borden was a woman. In court, an obviously feminine and gentile soul, lacking the ability to go through with the detestable murder of her own parents. She was a churchgoing, God-fearing, conscious heavy woman who would never be able to live with the guilt of a contemptible crime such as murder. A motive might exist, the opportunity might exist, suspicion might exist…but it was undeniably impossible for Lizzie Borden, a woman of the 19th century, to commit murder. She was thought to be incapable of it, as a woman. A woman wouldn’t murder in this fashion. And even if she could have, she was spotless. No blood was ever found on her clothes.
But, with all facts considered, the jury convened to choose their verdict.
The jury decided their verdict within 2 hours.
Silence filled the courtroom as the foreman delivered the verdict. The jury had found Lizzie Borden…not guilty of the murder of Andrew and Abby Borden, ruling that a woman was incapable of committing a murder of this nature. In response, those sitting in the courtroom, as well as all bystanders awaiting the same news outside the courtroom, erupted into a cacophony of cheers. Meanwhile, Lizzie Borden reverently fell forward and rested her head on a rail.
Emma and Lizzie Borden inherited today’s equivalent of ten million dollars from their father’s estate, using some of it to buy what they had both always wanted. A house up on the hill. The sisters eventually stopped socializing with each other, and Lizzie Borden lived her latter years as a recluse in her new home, spending her newfound wealth generously, enjoying quite a lavish life until she died in 1927. She never was able to outrun the story of her parents’ murders, and was a person of fame and infamy in Fall River.
Today the Borden household is used as a bed and breakfast and museum, still present in Fall River, Massachusetts. Replicas of the skulls of Andrew and Abby Borden, as well as many artifacts important to the case, are on display in the home. Many historians and investigators still contemplate the trials of Lizzie Borden. In 2020, the TV program “48 Hours” aired on CBS with a special replica trial of the Borden murders to see if a modern day jury would find her guilty today.
Decades later, the nation is still fascinated with the ax murder trials of Lizzie Borden. What possible evidence had been lost during the investigation of the murders? Why had nobody heard or seen anything suspicious? Was it truly a crazed madman who had wandered in one unfortunate morning? Was there another enemy of the Bordens who had been overlooked? Or did Lizzie Borden get away with murder?
Whatever the truth is, whatever the identity of the real culprit, those answers are lost to time. But…
Who do you think is responsible for the axe murder trials of Lizzie Borden?
Hello and welcome back to The Poe Show. If you enjoyed this 19th century true crime episode, subscribe to and follow this podcast, give it a 5 star rating, and share this episode with someone who loves true crime. If you’d like me to work with you on a voiceover or narration project, I am listed as an audiobook narrator on ACX for Audible, or you can email poeshowpod@gmail.com with the details. Use the link in the description to send any fan mail, leave a comment on Spotify or YouTube, and you can email the show at poeshowpod@gmail.com.
This episode was a LOT of work, but I thoroughly enjoyed researching and writing and composing music for all of it. All of this was done by me alone, so again, if you like, follow, subscribe, share it and give it a 5 star rating, you’re gonna make my day. Links to some of the documentaries I used as research for this episode will be in the description by the way.
I thought of this idea about a year ago and I had to put it off and put it off for so many reasons, but I kept working on it. And there are plenty of historical figures that I can make more true crime episodes about, like Jack the Ripper or Big Harper and Little Harper, and many others. So if you want to hear more true crime episodes like this, some 19th century true crime, please do share this episode with more people. Let’s get the algorithm to make this viral so I can give people more of what they want.
As anyone can guess, the hardest part of this episode was the amount of research that went into it. Then formulating it all into writing, and what to mention when and why, all of that stuff was really difficult to determine. I didn’t just look it up on Wikipedia either! I did a lot of digging; I watched documentaries, I read articles upon articles of information, I looked at historical references, photos and testimonies from the trials and I had to determine what was speculation or legend and what was a true fact in the case of Lizzie Borden. Even composing the music for this episode wasn’t as difficult because I could just kind of put a few tunes on a loop and then run those through the whole thing. But I think it all paid off for an extremely well-made episode.
One of the things I like about this story is it shows how women were thought of during this time in history. It was literally ruled that a woman was incapable of committing murder like this, and that’s why Lizzie was acquitted. She said she was on her period, so police stopped investigating her bedroom. I mean, it’s very sexist but she definitely used that to her advantage to win the case. But if I’m honest, I think she did it.
I don’t have too much else to talk about cause that’s what the episode essentially did anyway, so always remember you can send in fanmail via text using the link in the description and I’ll answer your questions on the podcast. Listen to The Poe Show on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts and wherever else you get your podcasts. Just visit thepoeshow.com. Follow on Instagram @theposeshowpodcast and on TikTok @poeshowpodcast.
That’s all for now, but you’ll hear from me again on the next episode of The Poe Show podcast.
