Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story initially opens with Ella Beatty, who plays the titular heiress, wearing a delicate white Victorian chemise as she wields a hatchet in a grisly, blood-spattered scene.
It’s the latest instalment in Ryan Murphy’s Monster franchise, which turns its attention from its previous male subjects, Jeffrey Dahmer, Lyle and Erik Menendez and Ed Gein, to a woman at the centre of one of America’s most infamous murder cases.
Set in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1892, the series follows Lizzie Borden (Beatty), who was the prime suspect in the brutal murders of her father (Charlie Hunnam) and stepmother (Rebecca Hall).
The case ignoted a sensational courtroom drama in the late nineteenth century, with public fascination fuelled not only by the brutality of the crime, but by the prevailing belief that a respectable, wealthy woman was incapable of such violence. And while the real-life case was extraordinary, Murphy’s retelling pushes the story into more outlandish territory.
The question of Lizzie’s guilt, meanwhile, has endured for more than a century. But how much of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is grounded in historical fact, and where does Netflix venture into creative freedom?
Ahead, everything we know about the real life and crimes of Lizzie Borden.
Who Was Lizzie Borden? The Life & Crimes Of The Netflix Serial Killer
Lizzie Borden, born in Massachusetts on July 19, 1860, was the youngest daughter of Andrew Borden and his first wife, Sarah Morse. Lizzie had two sisters, Emma and Alice, although Alice died shortly before her second birthday, two years before Lizzie was born.
Following Sarah’s death, Andrew remarried Abby Durfee Gray in 1865. Despite his considerable fortune (valued at roughly $300,000 or $11 million today), accumulated through his career as a self-made businessman, he was reportedly renowned for his frugality, particularly when it came to his daughters.
Lizzie and Emma were said to have subsequently resented their living arrangements, as well as their father’s generosity towards their stepmother’s relatives. Neither woman had married by the time of the murders, and both continued to reside in the family home. In Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, this tension forms a major source of animosity between their stepmother and the sisters, particularly Lizzie.
On the morning of August 4, 1892, when Lizzie was 32 years old, Abby, 64, and Andrew, 70, were discovered dead inside their home, both having suffered fatal injuries believed to have been inflicted with a hatchet.
Abby was killed first, while Andrew met the same grisly fate after returning from a series of errands more than an hour later. Abby was stabbed approximately 18 or 19 times, while Andrew received about 10 or 11 blows.
So, Did Lizzie Borden Actually Kill Her Parents?
Initially, authorities had little reason to suspect Lizzie, who maintained a seemingly unassuming public life and taught at Fall River’s Central Congregational Church.
However as investigators began piecing together the events of that day, inconsistencies in her account drew increasing scrutiny. At the time of the murders, only Lizzie and the family’s maid, Bridget Sullivan, were believed to be inside the house.
Emma Borden was away, while John Morse, Lizzie’s maternal uncle, who had been staying with the family, had left that morning to run errands. Suspicion deepened following reports that Lizzie had attempted to purchase prussic acid, a rapidly acting poison, from a local pharmacist the day before the murders.
Months later, another allegation emerged when a friend testified that she had seen Lizzie burn a dress shortly after the killings. Lizzie was charged with the murders and brought to trial in 1893.
The proceedings quickly became a sensational courtroom spectacle, with the brutality of the crimes compounded by the era’s deeply entrenched assumptions about women, and how a crime of this magnitude couldn’t have been commited by anyone other than a man.
Lizzie was defended by Andrew Jackson Jennings and former Massachusetts Governor George D. Robinson. Ultimately, the prosecution’s case rested largely on circumstantial evidence. The murder weapon was never conclusively identified, while evidence relating to Lizzie’s reported attempt to purchase poison was ruled inadmissible.
After a brief deliberation, the all-male jury acquitted Lizzie on June 20, 1893, and while the verdict cleared her in the eyes of the law, it did little to quiet public suspicion. No one else was ever tried for the murders, and Lizzie remained a controversial figure for the rest of her life, with many continuing to believe that she was responsible for the brutal killings.
More than a century later, the case remains unresolved, its unanswered questions providing fertile ground for generations of writers, filmmakers and conspiracy theorists, all returning to the same enduring mystery of what really happened inside the Borden home.
Were Lizzie Borden & Bridget “Maggie” Sullivan In A Relationship?
In Ryan Murphy’s Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, Lizzie and her Irish maid, Bridget “Maggie” Sullivan, are portrayed as being not only conspirators but romantically involved.
The series’ depiction draws on a longstanding mythology surrounding Lizzie’s sexuality, much of which has centred on her close friendship with actress Nance O’Neil following her acquittal. O’Neil, who is played by Jessica Barden in the Netflix series, has also been the subject of speculation about the nature of her relationship with Lizzie. A fictional romance between Lizzie and Maggie was also previously explored in Evan Hunter’s 1984 novel Lizzie.
In truth, Maggie had been working for the Borden family when Andrew and Abby were murdered and was the only other person known to have been on the property during the periods in which both killings took place.
She later testified that she had heard no sounds indicating that an attack was taking place and had seen no unfamiliar visitors around the property that morning. There is no historical evidence that Sullivan and Lizzie were ever romantically involved, nor is there evidence that Sullivan was having an affair with Andrew, as the series also depicts.
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