The Morbidly Fascinating Page
This Month's Subject:
Lizzie Borden
IN THE ARCHIVES:
Autopsy
Dissections
Making the Dead Look Alive
Early Ghost Photography
Paget’s Disease
Death Scenes
Puente House
Andrew Borden, above
Abby Borden
Andrew and Abby Borden when alive
The Murder Weapon
Andrew Autopsy
Andrew skull on the left, Abby skull on the right
Lizzie Borden
Lizzie Borden
The House
Lizzie Borden's grave, where someone placed a doll
Lizzie Borden took an axe,
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.
This old nursery rhyme may be easy to remember, but it's inaccurate. According to a pathologist who analyzed the victims' skulls, Lizzie Borden's stepmother received nineteen whacks, and her father received eleven. Today such numbers would be considered to be overkill and that is usually done by someone close to the victim. Overkill is personal, with anger as the common underlying drive.
Still, it is up for dispute whether Lizzie wielded the deadly axe herself, since she was ultimately acquitted. All that is known for sure is that on August 4, 1892, someone viciously hacked Andrew and Abby Borden to death.
Today, there is a bed and breakfast in the original Lizzie Borden House, located in Fall River, Massachusetts, where there is a museum exhibiting murder memorabilia. You can find the Lizzie Borden bed and breakfast at: http://www.lizzie-borden.com/
To learn more about Lizzie Borden, see HERE.
WHAT ABOUT THE TRIAL?
The jurors (above)
The trial of Lizzie Borden opened on June 5, 1893 in the New Bedford Courthouse before a panel of three judges. A high-powered defense team, including Andrew Jennings and George Robinson (the former governor of Massachusetts), represented the defendant, while District Attorney Knowlton and Thomas Moody argued the case for the prosecution.
See the trial evidence HERE
A graphic novel by Rick Geary describing the details about Lizzie and the evidence about the murders can be found HERE:
Abby autopsy (above)
The family plot (above)