Lizzie Borden was an American woman tried and acquitted of the 4th August 1892 murders of her father and stepmother.
Lizzie Borden was born in Massachusetts, her father, Andrew, was known to be very frugal with money and Lizzie and her sister, Emma, had a relatively religious upbringing. Three years after the death of Lizzie's birth mother her father married again, a woman named Abby. Lizzie was unhappy about the new marriage believing that her new stepmother had married her father for his wealth, the father made gifts of real estate to his Abby's family which angered the sisters. The live-in-maid testified that Lizzie and Emma rarely ate with their father and stepmother. Family arguments were common including one over Lizzie's father killing pigeons she had built a roost for following this argument the sisters took extended vacations away from the family home. For several days before the events took place the entire household had been sick, friends suggested this was due to food poisoning from bad meat but Abby had worried it was due to poisoning.
On 4th August 1982, Abby went upstairs to clean. She was attacked; struck first on the side of the head with a hatchet causing her to fall to the ground and then she was struct 17 times directly in the back of her head, killing her. When Andrew arrived home his key failed to open the door he could not because his key jammed, the maid heard Lizzie laughing upstairs (a significant detail as Abby's dead body would be visible to anyone upstairs) and the maid let Andrew into the house. Lizzie claims she then removed her father's boots (an anomaly- crime scene photographs show him wearing them when he died) and laid him down for a nap. The maid then testified she heard Lizzie call for her to come and that her father was dead. Andrew was slumped on the couch downstairs and had been struck 10 or 11 times with a hatchet, one of his eyeballs was split suggesting he had been asleep when he was attacked, the kill had been very recently, possibly as recent as 10 minutes ago. The police were called.
In an interview, Lizzie's answers were strange, contradictory and she repeatedly changed them. She was found to have destroyed items of clothing, purchased acid from the drug store and the murder weapon was found in the basement she had been seen cleaning items in. Lizzie Borden was acquitted at trial and left the courthouse telling reporters she was 'the happiest woman in the world.'
After the trial, Lizzie gained all family possessions, including those of Abby. As Abby had died first, her property had gone to Andrew and after his death to Lizzie. Money was given to Abby's family as a settlement. Emma later moved out of the house and never saw her sister again. Lizzie eventually died of pneumonia in 1927.
No one was ever charged with the murders and the case remains unsolved although there is heavy speculation Lizzie was the murderer. Lizzie Borden has remained a prominent figure in pop culture with the folklore 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 truth of what really happened remains a mystery.