Oct. 31, 2025
Halloween Special - "LIZZIE BORDEN TOOK AN AXE: THE TRIAL THAT LET A KILLER GO FREE"
Reid Carter examines America's most famous unsolved murder on Halloween. August 4, 1892, Fall River, Massachusetts—someone took an axe to Andrew Borden and his wife Abby. Eleven blows crushed Andrew's skull. Seventeen mutilated Abby's head. Daughter Lizzie claimed she found them. Burned a dress three days later. Changed her story. Had no alibi. June 1893 trial: all-male jury acquitted her in one hour. Lived in Fall River until 1927, wealthy but shunned. The house is now a B&B where guests stay on Halloween. Everyone knows the rhyme—but Lizzie Borden probably got away with murder.
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Calarogu Shark Media. Good morning, I'm read Carter. Friday, October
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thirty first, twenty twenty five, Halloween. Everyone knows the rhyme
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Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whax.
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When she saw what she had done, she gave her
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father forty one cute, catchy Wrong, It wasn't forty whax.
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Andrew Borden's skull was crushed by eleven blows. His wife,
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Abby took seventeen or eighteen, depending on which medical examiner
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you believe. And Abby wasn't Lizzie's mother, She was her stepmother,
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the woman Lizzie hated. But the rhyme captured something true.
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Lizzie Borden probably murdered her father and stepmother with an
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axe on August fourth, eighteen ninety two, in Fall River, Massachusetts,
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and she got away with it. Here's what makes this
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case perfect for Halloween. The Lizzie Borden House, ninety two
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Second Street, Fall River still stands Victorian gothic, three stories,
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white clapboard, black shutters. The rooms where Andrew and Abbey
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died are exactly as they were in eighteen ninety two.
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It's a bed and breakfast. Now you can sleep in
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Lizzie's room. You can eat breakfast in the dining room
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where Andrew's body was found. You can walk up the
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stairs Lizzie walked down, covered in her parents' blood, allegedly.
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And on Halloween, every room is booked. Ghost hunters, true
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crime tourists, people who want to spend the night where
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two people were butchered with an axe. Some say you
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can hear footsteps. Some say you see a woman in
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victorian dress. Some say you feel cold spots where the
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bodies fell. I don't believe in ghosts, but I believe
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in evidence, and the evidence says Lizzie Borden murdered her
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father and stepmother, burned her blood soaked dress, lied to police,
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changed her story multiple times, and convinced an all all
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male jury she was too refined, too feminine, too proper
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to commit murder. She was thirty two years old when
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they died, lived off their money for another thirty five years,
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died in nineteen twenty seven at age sixty six, wealthy, comfortable, free,
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never confessed, never showed remorse, never explained what happened that
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August morning. I'm reed, Carter, this is celebrity trials today,
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the murders, the investigation, the trial, the acquittal, and why
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Lizzie Borden, Spinster Sunday school teacher, proper Victorian lady probably
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took an act to her parents and got away with it.
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Happy Halloween. Fall River, Massachusetts, eighteen ninety two. Textile milltown,
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working class. Wealthy mill owners lived on the hill. Everyone
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else lived downtown. Andrew Jackson Borden lived at ninety two
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Second Street, down town, not on the hill, even though
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he could afford it. Andrew was seventy years old, self
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made man, undertaker turned real estate investor, owned rental properties
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across Fall River. Served on bank boards worth approximately half
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a million dollars about fifteen million in today's money. He
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was cheap, refused to install indoor plumbing, no gas lighting,
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used kerosene lamps, didn't heed bedrooms in winter, penny pincher miser.
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His family lived in a house worth far less than
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what he could afford. He'd been married twice. First wife, Sarah,
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died in eighteen sixty three, left him with two daughters,
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Emma Leonora born eighteen fifty one and Lizzie Andrew born
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July nineteenth, eighteen sixty, Andrew married Abby Durfey Gray. Abby
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was thirty six, never married before, probably relieved to finally
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find a husband, took on raising Andrew's two daughters, Emma
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and Lizzie, hated her, called her missus Borden, never called
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her mother or stepmother to her face, refused to accept
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her as family. By eighteen ninety two, Emma was forty one, unmarried,
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lived at home, no prospects, bitter. Lizzie was thirty two,
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also unmarried, no prospects, Sunday school teacher at Central Congregational Church,
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secretary treasurer of Christian Endeavor Society, Charitable Work Proper, Victorian spinster.
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But tension cracked the house apart. Andrew had given Abby's
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sister a house years earlier, Abby's family, benefiting from his wealth.
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Emma and Lizzie were furious. They saw it as their
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inheritance being given away to Abby's relatives. Andrew tried to
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smooth things over gave Emma and Lizzie a rental property,
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but the damage was done. The sisters stopped eating meals
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with Andrew, and Abbey barely spoke to them. The house
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became two households under one roof the layout matters. Three stories.
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First floor sitting room where Andrew would die, dining room, kitchen,
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second floor, Lizzie's room, guest room where Abbey would die,
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Andrew and Abbey's room, third floor, Emma's room in the
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maid's room. Bridget Sullivan, the livin' Irish maid, kept the
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house running, cooked, cleaned, witnessed the family's dysfunction. Everyone called
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her Maggie, the name of the previous maid. The Bordens
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couldn't be bothered to learn her actual name. By August
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eighteen ninety two, the house was unbearable. Emma had left
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for a two week visit to friends in fair Haven.
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Escaped the tension, left Lizzie alone with Andrew, Abby, and Bridget.
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August second, eighteen ninety two, two days before the murders,
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the entire household got violently ill, vomiting diarrhea, food poisoning
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or poison. Abby went to the doctor, told him she
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thought someone was trying to poison them. The doctor dismissed it.
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Probably bad food happens. August third, eighteen ninety two, Lizzie
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went to the pharmacy tried to buy prussic acid hydrogen cyanide,
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extremely poisonous. Told the pharmacist she needed it to clean
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a sealskin cape. The pharmacist refused to sell it to her,
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too dangerous, required a witness and documentation. Lizzie left empty handed.
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That afternoon, Lizzie visited her friend Alice Russell. Told her
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she was worried, said she had a premonition something terrible
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was going to happen. Said she felt like Andrew had enemies,
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that someone might hurt him, that the house wasn't safe.
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Alice tried to reassure her, probably just stress, but Lizzie
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insisted something bad was coming. August fourth, eighteen ninety two.
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The something bad arrived, Make it make sense. The whole
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family gets mysteriously ill. Abby thinks someone's poisoning them. Lizzie
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tries to buy poison, then tells her friend she has
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a premonition of violence. Twenty four hours later, Andrew and
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Abbey are dead. Either Lizzie was psychic, or she knew
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what was coming because she planned it. The murders ten minutes.
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August fourth, eighteen ninety two, Thursday, hot, mid nineties, no
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air conditioning, windows open, trying to catch a breeze. The
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morning started normally Andrew left around nine am to run errands,
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check his properties, visit the bank, his usual routine. Abby
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was home upstairs in the guest room making the bed.
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Bridget was washing windows outside. Lizzie was somewhere. Her story
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kept changing about where she was that morning. Around nine
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thirty am, Abby was in the guest room. Someone came
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up behind her, raised a hatchet, small axe, and brought
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it down on her head seventeen blows some sources say eighteen.
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Medical examiner counted carefully seventeen distinct strikes to Abby's head,
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crushed her skull, shattered the bone, brain matter, exposed, blood everywhere.
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Abby fell forward, faced down between the bed and the dresser.
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Blood pooled around her head, soaked into the floorboards. The
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killer kept swinging even after she was dead, kept hitting,
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kept crushing. This wasn't just murder, This was rage, This
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was overkill, This was personal. The killer left Abby's body there,
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stepped over the blood, left the guest room, closed the door,
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went downstairs, cleaned up, changed clothes, hid the weapon. Waited
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ten thirty am. Andrew returned home. Tried his key. Door
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was locked from inside unusual triple locked. He couldn't get in,
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started knocking. Bridget upstairs heard the knocking, came down to
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let it men. As she unlocked the door, she heard
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Lizzie laugh upstairs on the landing, watching Bridget struggle with
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the locks. Laughing. Andrew came inside, sat in the sitting room,
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removed his shoes, lay down on the sofa for a
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nap common for him after running errands in the heat.
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Bridget asked if she could go upstairs to her room,
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feeling unwell, still recovering from whatever made everyone sick two
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days earlier. Lizzie said yes. Bridget went to her third
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floor room, lay down, Andrew fell asleep on the sofa.
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Sometime between ten forty five am and eleven am, someone
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approached Andrew while he slept, raised the hatchet brought it
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down on his head eleven blows. The first struck his
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eye went so deep it cut through the socket, split
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the bone, destroyed the eyeball. The other ten crushed his skull,
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pulverized bone, brain matter splattered on the wall behind the sofa.
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One blow split his face in half, left side, completely
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separated from right. Medical examiner noted the extreme violence. Andrew
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never woke up, never defended himself, died in seconds, blood
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everywhere on the walls, on the floor, on the sofa,
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Andrew's face unrecognizable, destroyed. Eleven ten am, Lizzie called upstairs
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to Bridget. Maggie, come down quick. Father's dead. Somebody came
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in and killed him. Bridget rushed downstairs, saw Andrew's body,
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the blood, the destruction, started screaming. Lizzie told her to
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go get doctor Bowen, their neighbor. Bridget ran across the street.
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Doctor Bowen wasn't home, his wife sent a messenger to
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find him. Lizzie told Bridget to go get Alice Russell too,
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Lizzie's friend from the day before, the one she'd told
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about her premonition. Bridget ran to Alice's house. Then Lizzie remembered,
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or pretended to rememb Abby told someone, Adelaide Churchill, another
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neighbor who'd rushed over, that Abby had received a note
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that morning someone was sick needed help. Abby left to
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tend to them. I thought I heard her come back
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in check upstairs. Adelaide and Bridget went upstairs, opened the
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guest room door, found Abby face down, blood dried. She'd
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been dead for an hour and a half, maybe longer.
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Cold to the touch. Two bodies ninety minutes apart, same weapon,
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same method, same house. Doctor Bowen arrived, examined both bodies,
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pronounced them dead. Nothing to be done. Police arrived started investigating.
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Everyone assumed it was an intruder. Someone broke in, murdered Andrew,
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maybe Abby surprised them or vice versa. But then they
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started asking questions and Lizzie's story fell apart. Where was
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she when Andrew was murdered? First she said she was upstairs,
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then said she was in the barn looking for fishing sinkers,
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then said she was in the kitchen, then back to
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the barn, four different locations. Why didn't she hear anything?
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Andrew was murdered violently, eleven blows. Blood splattered everywhere. The
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couch was fifteen feet from where she claimed to be.
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No screams, no sounds, nothing, Where was the weapon? Police
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searched the house found two hatchets in the basement. One
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had been cleaned recently, looked like someone tried to remove blood.
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The handle had been broken off. Suspicious. What about Abby's note,
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the one calling her away that morning, the note saying
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someone was sick and needed help. Police asked for it.
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Lizzie said Abby must have taken it with her, but
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Abby never left. She died upstairs. No note was ever
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found because it never exists. Did what was Lizzie wearing?
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She said a blue dress, house dress. Witnesses saw her
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in different dresses. Her stories didn't match, and the kicker.
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Three days after the murders, Lizzie burned a dress in
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the kitchen stove. Said it had paint on it was ruined.
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Burned it while Alice Russell watched. Alice was horrified, told
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her not to. Lizzie did it anyway, burned evidence destroyed
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the dress she was probably wearing when she murdered her
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father and stepmother. August eleventh, eighteen ninety two, one week
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after the murders, Lizzie Borden was arrested and charged with
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three counts of murder Abby Borden, Andrew Borden and both together.
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She pleaded not guilty, maintained her innocence, said police were
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framing her because they couldn't find the real killer. Make
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it make sense. Lizzie tries to buy poison the day before,
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has a premonition of violence. Next day, both parents are
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murdered with a hatchet. While she's the only other person
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in the house claims she didn't hear anything, changes her
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story multiple times, makes up a fake note to explain
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Abbey's whereabouts. Burn's address three days later. Either the most
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unlucky innocent person in history or guilty as hell. We'll
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be right back with the trial of Lizzie Borden June
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eighteen ninety three, New Bedford, Massachusetts. All male jury, Victorian
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gender bias, and an acquittal that let a murderer go free.
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The trial ten minutes June fifth, eighteen ninety three, Superior
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Court of Bristol County, New Bedford, Massachusetts. The Commonwealth of
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Massachusetts versus Lizzie Andrew Borden. Trial moved from Fall River
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to New Bedford. Too much publicity, too many opinions, jurypool contaminated,
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fair trial, required a change of venue. Three judges presided,
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Chief Justice Albert Mason, Associate Justices Caleb Blodgett and Justin Dewey.
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Massachusetts allowed multi judge panels for major cases. The jury
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twelve men, all white, all middle class, are wealthy, seven farmers,
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one real estate agent, one mason, one machinist, one photographer,
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one retired, not a single working class man. Not a
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single mill worker, not a single person who could relate
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to Andrew Borden's cheapness or Lizzie's resentment. Women couldn't serve
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on juries, women couldn't even vote. This was eighteen ninety three.
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Victorian America. Gender roles were rigid. Women were delicate, refined,
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incapable of violence, especially wealthy white women. That would be
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Lizzie's entire defense. JOSEA. Nolton, District attorney for Bristol County,
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prosecuted strong case circumcis stantial but overwhelming. No eye witnesses
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rare in murder cases, but motive, opportunity, behavior all pointed
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to Lizzie. Andrew Jennings and George Robinson defended Lizzie. Robinson
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was former governor of Massachusetts, connected, respected, perfect choice to
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humanize Lizzie. Opening statements Knowlton laid out the commonwealth's case.
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Lizzie had motive, hated Abbey, resented her father's control, wanted inheritance,
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wanted freedom. Lizzie had opportunity. Only person home besides Bridget.
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Bridget was upstairs when Andrew died. No one else entered
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the house, doors were locked. Lizzie's behavior after the murders
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was suspicious, contradictory stories, fake note about Abby burning the dress,
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showing no emotion. Robinson encountered the Commonwealth has no evidence,
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no bloody weapon connected to Lizzie, no eye witnesses, no confession,
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just speculation. The prosecution wants you to convict a respectable
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Christian woman because they can't find the real killer. Then
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came the witnesses. Bridget Sullivan, the maid, testified about the
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morning Andrew coming home, Lizzie calling her downstairs, finding the bodies.
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She couldn't say definitively where Lizzie was when Andrew died,
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hadn't seen her, didn't hear screams or struggles. Doctor Bowen
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testified about the bodies, described the injuries eleven blows to Andrew,
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seventeen to Abby, extreme violence, overkill rage. Medical examiner doctor
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William Dolan testified about the autopsies. Confirmed Abby died first,
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at least ninety minutes before Andrew. Confirmed the same weapon
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used for both small hatchet narrow blade. Police officers testified
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about searching the house, finding two hatchets in the basement,
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one recently cleaned handle broken off, suspicious Alice Russell, Lizzie's
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friend testified the hardest testimony for the defense. Alice described
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