Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story Fact-Checked: What Netflix Got Right and Wrong About the 1892 Ax Murders

Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story has just landed on Netflix, and like the previous Monster seasons covering the Menendez brothers and Ed Gein, it takes a lot of creative liberties with the real history. Getting past the fantasy sequences, sex, style and punk rock attitude of the show, Lizzie Borden's actual life was a lot more low key, at least at first, and it is worth separating the fact from the fiction.

Lizzie Borden's Wealthy but Frugal Family Before the 1892 Murders

Lizzie Andrew Borden was born on July 19, 1860, in Fall River, Massachusetts, the third child of Sarah and Andrew Borden. Her sisters were Emma and a third sister who died at 22 months old, in a time when child mortality rates were far higher than today, which left Lizzie and Emma close to each other growing up. Andrew Borden descended from wealth and, despite early financial struggles, became a successful property developer who expanded into furniture, textiles and commercial property. He was also anointed president of the Union Savings Bank and was estimated to be worth over 300,000 dollars, which adjusted for inflation puts his estate at around 11 million dollars, an estate Lizzie eventually inherited.

Sarah died, and Andrew married Abby Gray just three years later. Abby was suspected of marrying Andrew for his wealth, and Lizzie was forced to call her Mrs. Borden. Lizzie was highly involved with the family's church, teaching Sunday school and eventually acting as treasurer. Despite the family's wealth, the home was sparse compared to others in the area because Andrew was frugal and refused to invest in indoor plumbing, which a lot of wealthy homes had at the time. The family also had a live-in maid, 25-year-old Irish immigrant Bridget Sullivan, nicknamed Maggie, who became a key witness at trial and the basis for the show's Maggie character. The relationship between Andrew and his daughters was said to be strained, and the sisters never ate meals with their parents.

Lizzie built a pigeon coop, and while the show gets a little freaky with it, it was a major flashpoint for real reasons. Andrew apparently killed the birds with a hatchet because he thought they were spreading disease, which caused further friction with Lizzie and is thought to have played into the murders. Arguments got so bad that Lizzie and Emma took an extended vacation, and Lizzie stayed at a private house for several days upon returning before going home. Andrew had started distancing himself from his daughters and giving away properties to Abby's family, including gifting a house to their stepmother's sister, which clearly did not sit well with Lizzie.

Because Andrew was so frugal with his daughters, they resented him, and they fought with him until he sold them their childhood home for a dollar, which they later sold back to him for 5,000 dollars. Many of their arguments centered on property, money and the transfer of wealth. Andrew had a lot of enemies in the area, and Abby suspected they had been poisoned days before the murders, though this may have been caused by lamb left on the stove too long. No poison was found at autopsy, but the suspicion still added to suspicions about other people. Andrew's brother-in-law John Morse also visited to discuss property and business, which caused tensions to flare further.

The August 4, 1892 Ax Murders of Andrew and Abby Borden

Thursday, August 4, 1892 began with Andrew, John, Abby and Bridget having breakfast together. John left to visit his niece and Andrew went for his morning walk while Abby went upstairs to clean the guest room, where she was brutally attacked with a hatchet. She was struck 18 times in what was described as a frenzy.

When Andrew returned home he could not unlock the door, so Bridget went down to let him in. According to her testimony, she heard Lizzie laughing from the second floor, a spot suspected to have had a line of sight to Abby's body. Lizzie strongly denied being there. Bridget then apparently helped Andrew remove his boots before he went to nap on the sofa, though this was contested since photos of his body show him still wearing his boots.

Bridget went back to work and traveled to the third floor to clean windows, where she then heard Lizzie screaming that her father was dead and that someone had come in and killed him. Andrew had been struck over the head ten times with a hatchet while he slept. Whoever committed the murders had killed Abby, stayed in the home, and then killed Andrew.

Bloody Rags, an Acid Purchase and a Hatchet Made to Look Old

Lizzie became the prime suspect, and police found her accounts of her whereabouts contradictory, ranging from hearing noises in one telling to hearing nothing in another. She had also inquired about buying acid from a local chemist, telling the trial it was to clean her furs, though the acid did not have antiseptic properties, so that explanation didn't hold up. The pharmacist turned down the request, leading to theories that Lizzie may have turned to another murder weapon, though the judge ruled the acid statement out of trial as unimportant.

Lizzie was also described as relatively calm for someone whose family had just been slaughtered in the home she was staying in. Police initially believed a woman could not have committed the crime and ruled her out, failing to check her for bloodstains or properly search her room, an oversight that was later criticized at trial. A search of the basement turned up numerous axes and hatchets, including one with a recently broken handle that had dust applied to it, apparently to make it look older than it was, feeding the theory that the hatchet head could have been rinsed off, thrown into ash to obliterate blood, and tossed in the cellar to look like old junk.

Bloody rags were also found at the scene, which Borden explained as menstruation, an answer that men at the time found awkward to press further on and simply accepted without more questioning. Lizzie was informed the next day by the mayor and police that she was a suspect, though she wasn't immediately taken into custody. Her and Emma's friend Alice, who stayed with the sisters after the murders, said she saw Lizzie and Emma arguing in the kitchen over a paint-stained skirt that Lizzie said she was going to burn, which she then ripped up and destroyed the day after her father's funeral.

As one voice in the 48 Hours documentary that formed much of the research for this piece put it, "For me, the most valuable piece of evidence is the dress that Lizzie burned. If she's responsible for this, it would have blood from the victims on it, and that would be very difficult for Lizzie to explain." Police also reportedly saw Lizzie cleaning something in a cellar sink. Lizzie separately claimed Abby had received a note to visit a sick friend, saying someone should go look for her, which is when Bridget and a neighbor found the body partway up the stairs.

The Inquest, Arrest and a Verdict That Took Only 90 Minutes

On August 8, Lizzie attended an inquest and her behavior was described as erratic, with conflicting accounts of her whereabouts that day. She had been given morphine to calm her nerves, which was later blamed for the inconsistencies. She was also denied an attorney because inquests were held privately at the time, a decision handled so badly that her inquest testimony was ruled inadmissible at her later trial. Lizzie was arrested on the 11th, and the case gained national attention, with a similar ax murder happening in Fall River just days before the trial began, adding to speculation the crimes could be connected even though the man suspected in that case was not in the area during the Borden killings.

The police themselves gave contradicting statements throughout the trial about where the hatchets and the dress had been located, on top of the underlying question of whether a woman was even capable of the crime. Both Andrew and Abby's skulls were shown at trial, reportedly causing Lizzie to faint in the aisles. Without the advanced forensics available today, the case rested heavily on witness statements and circumstantial evidence, and the jury did not buy the prosecution's case. Within 90 minutes, an all-male jury, since women were not allowed to sit on juries at the time, acquitted Lizzie Borden.

It's reported the foreman could barely contain his excitement and simply blurted out "Not guilty." Lizzie fell into her chair as if shot and put her head on the rail while the courtroom erupted into cheers that could reportedly be heard a mile away.

Life After Acquittal and Suspicion That Never Fully Lifted

After the trial, Lizzie moved into a large house in Fall River and began using the name Elizabeth. She and Emma inherited their father's fortune because Abby died first, meaning the estate technically passed to Andrew before going to his daughters. Abby's family settled with the sisters and put a claim on several properties, but Lizzie never shook public suspicion and remained the prime suspect in the murders until her death.

She was caught shoplifting in 1897, and she and Emma eventually had an argument so severe that Emma moved out and never spoke to her again. The reason for the argument isn't known, though people have theorized it was connected to tensions from the murders reaching a boiling point.

Lizzie had her gallbladder removed at 65 and died of pneumonia at 66 on June 1, 1927. Emma died nine days later, on June 10. The sisters were buried side by side in the same cemetery as their father and Abby. Lizzie's money went to an animal rescue shelter along with some of her closest friends and cousins.

Alternate Theories: Maggie, John Morse and an Illegitimate Son

The crime remains officially unsolved, though most people suspect Lizzie did it. In 1984, Evan Hunter released a novel titled Lizzie, theorizing that Lizzie committed the murders after Abby caught her in an intimate moment with Maggie, killing Abby to keep the secret before confessing to her father, who reacted badly and was then killed too. That theory has added to a belief that Lizzie was a lesbian, something the Netflix series runs with, even though it was never substantiated. Maggie herself, the real Bridget Sullivan, actually married a man later in life and reportedly said on her deathbed that she had lied in court to protect Lizzie as much as possible. Others have claimed Lizzie was abused by her father, though again there is little to no evidence to support it.

John Morse comes up as a suspect from time to time because his alibi was thought to be almost too detailed and perfect, raising suspicion he had planned things out. Andrew was also thought to have an illegitimate son, who some suspect may have tried to extort him, with Andrew's refusal leading to the murders, though there is little if any evidence for that theory either. Lizzie is said to be the only person who had both the motive and the opportunity, but the jury clearly didn't believe it.

From a Nursery Rhyme to a 48 Hours Mock Trial: Lizzie Borden's Lasting Legacy

Borden has been a talking point for decades and was immortalized in the nursery 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." She has since appeared in plays, books, musicals, songs, television shows and movies. Alfred Hitchcock Presents even ran an episode titled "The Older Sister" proposing that Emma was the real killer, though the majority of people still believe it was Lizzie.

48 Hours held a mock trial using the same evidence originally presented at the real trial, assembling a new jury for a 41-minute documentary that revisited the case from a modern perspective. Its biggest challenge was the fact there was no blood found on Lizzie. The burning dress, while a key factor, wasn't fully connected to the crime under closer address, and there was no blood found on the clothes that would have been worn on top of it, making it seem extremely difficult to have pulled off the murders without being covered in blood. The mock jury ended up hung and unable to decide. As one voice in that documentary summed it up, "I feel like we've solved the mystery of Lizzie Borden. We just haven't solved whether she should have been found guilty or not."

How Monster Turns Maggie Into a Co-Conspirator Inspired by Elizabeth Báthory

The Netflix series frames Borden as a key point in the manifestation of female rage. In the show, Maggie is abused by Andrew as well and has just as much reason for committing the crime. She gets married, as she did in real life, but the show has her leave her husband after nearly murdering him too, before returning to Lizzie once Emma has left. In the series they become co-conspirators, driven to the murders by humiliation, misery, the controlling stepmother Abby and Andrew's actions, with the killings drawn out far more than in reality.

The show's figures are also inspired by the story of Elizabeth Báthory, which is itself given a lot of historical liberties. Báthory was thought to have enslaved and murdered hundreds of girls before being imprisoned in her castle, where she died in her sleep, a fate the show mirrors for its Báthory-inspired figure, albeit made more agonizing.

The Ending Explained: Trial of the Century, the Suffragette Twist and the Final Reunion

Episode 7, titled Trial of the Century, has Lizzie performing well for the all-male jury, who can't get past the idea that a Sunday school teacher committed the murders, and the show matches the real acquittal. Episode 8 centers on Lizzie's inability to move past the rhyme she helped create. She feels suffocated, her sister Emma leaves the house, and some brightness returns with Maggie, which did not happen in real life. She then fights for women's rights and becomes a suffragette campaigning for the vote, another creative leap since Lizzie had no real part in the suffrage campaigns even though the show paints her as a figurehead.

Lizzie and Maggie celebrate winning the vote, and the show then jumps to Aileen Wuornos's execution. In death, Wuornos wakes to find Lizzie and Maggie standing over her, taking her to the afterlife, and rather than a punishing hell they tell her that all is forgiven and all is understood. The suggestion is floated that this could be a hallucination as the drugs rush into her brain, before a jump cut to the audience and the curtains closing, mirroring how the series opened. The show doesn't fully shy away from suggesting women shouldn't be held accountable, but it tries to frame the violence as a response to cruelty visited upon her. In reality there's an argument that Lizzie got her freedom but with it came loneliness, whereas the show depicts a far more positive ending with her reunited with Maggie and cast as a pioneer of women's rights.

My Verdict: Monster's Best Filmmaking Undercut by Its Contradictions

As with all the Monster seasons, I think this one is going to rub a lot of people the wrong way. Ryan Murphy always seems to glamorize serial killers to the point of parody, and it often tips into the absurd, leaving a show that at points feels like Hitler the musical. The longer his career has gone on, the more he seems to push the envelope, and it's strange that we live in a society where people get cancelled for jokes from ten years ago while the public can't get enough of serial killers. I saw a tweet that said the series treats the characters like they're MCU villains, and these are real people who allegedly murdered real people. Unlike the other subjects covered in Monster, not much is known about Borden since she never gave interviews and there is no reel of trial footage, so Murphy takes way more creative license here than usual, turning things like Borden being unmarried in her 30s into commentary aimed more at modern issues than anything substantial about Borden herself. Everyone comes across like a caricature turned up to eleven in wickedness, the victims aren't really treated as victims, and the killers or suspected killers are sold as the innocent ones, which feels like a bit of a disservice to the story.

Four seasons in, it's clear Murphy wants his shows to go beyond the central figures, much like Ed Gein got flourishes about who he inspired with lots of time jumping. It feels like he wants to do what he did with the Hotel season of American Horror Story, with killers interacting across time, and this series does that too.

As much as I've been critical, the performances really sell the material, and for as hammy as it gets, almost to the point of a stage play, the actors are clearly making the most of it. The actress playing Aileen Wuornos especially sells the role, to the point I kind of wish the show had just been about her. The production is also genuinely impressive, especially how episode 8 opens looking so authentic that it blew me away, unlike a lot of period recreations that you can tell were shot recently with extra effects layered on. The material also felt really well made, like a Robert Eggers film at points, and some of the best work Murphy has done.

The series also sheds light on a group often overlooked in true crime, since men make up the majority of serial killers and it's rare to get a show focused solely on women, exploring what drives them to kill in a way that at points is genuinely nuanced. But it also feels at odds with itself, depicting how brutally women were treated by men throughout history while also asserting that Borden did it, when in fact she was never found guilty and, for all intents and purposes, may not have committed the crime. On one hand the show is progressive about women winning the vote and making their place in society, and on the other it paints Lizzie as someone who doesn't deserve accountability for killing her family. It ends up feeling like the best and worst of Murphy's sensibilities.

Have you watched the series yet, and what are your thoughts on Ryan Murphy's work in general?