Lizzie Borden

The Lizzie Borden House, located in Fall River, MA, brags that it is the most haunted home in the U.S. and there are plenty of accounts from visitors and investigators alike to confirm this claim.

The murder of Andrew and Abby Borden has fascinated people for over a hundred years. Their daughter, Lizzie Borden, was accused and tried for the murders but was found not guilty; however, she was haunted by the accusation for the rest of her life and still today.

The 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 Crime

On August 4, 1892, at 11 AM, Andrew was found by Lizzie. She cried out to the maid Bridget (whom they called Maggie, even though Maggie was actually the maid prior) and told her that her father had been killed. Specifically, she said, “somebody came in and killed him.” After the police arrived, they found Abby, Lizzie’s stepmother, in the upstairs bedroom. The coroner testified that Abby must have been dead at least an hour or more before Andrew.

There was testimony from a few neighbors that there were suspicious characters on the street. Dr. Benjamin Handy claimed he saw a man walking around the home slowly, and his account was held in high regard by the state. However, the press marked Lizzie only a few days after the murder. Violent crime by women, especially in the 19th century, was extremely rare. Not that they didn’t kill people off, but it wasn’t usually with an axe.

Why?

So why was a single woman who was a church going girl with no real history of violence or mental illness, be accused of brutally murdering her parents?

First off, the whole family had succumbed to a bad stomach illness the day before. They believed it to be food poisoning of some kind. All members of the house had vomiting and diarrhea (and in a house with no plumbing, during the hottest day of the year, I can imagine no one was getting along). The clerk at the local drug store said Lizzie had entered the shop to purchase prussic acid, which could be lethal. There was also intent that marked her. The papers claimed that she and her stepmother did not get along and Lizzie was always resentful of her father for marrying her. Also, even though the Bordens were wealthy and could afford a nicer home (one with plumbing, for instance) her father chose to stay in an older, less appealing house to save money. He was also known for having a temper. There is one account of Lizzie being fond of birds (she would become an animal activist later in life) and Andrew taking a hatchet to them to keep them away from his house. Lizzie was also a very active member of her church.

Her trial was full of contradictions as far as her whereabouts and what else had happened that morning. Abby supposedly had gone up to change the pillow cases, but also said, per Lizzie, that she was to visit a sick friend. Why she would do that while she was still ill, I’m not really sure. The police were pretty convinced that the murderer came from inside the home because Andrew always locked the door. Even when they were home. Anyone who left was to lock the door behind them. This was due to a burglary the year before. Lizzie did have a sister, Emma, but she was not in the home at the time of the murders. The maid, Bridget (Maggie), testified that Lizzie was the only one in the home, but she also came to her side, saying she never saw any tensions between Lizzie and her stepmother, as was being printed in the papers. Other witnesses refuted this claim.

The Hauntings

The trial alone could have its own page, but the thing about the Lizzie Borden home that is so intriguing is that you can still visit it. A lot of historic murder sites are off limits, but not this one! You can even sleep there if you’re so inclined. You can reserve a room by name (the Andrew and Abby room, for example) or book the whole house. Because the house was converted when Andrew purchased it in 1872, there were no hallways when Lizzie lived there, and the upstairs water had been turned off, so the only faucet was downstairs. I assume that this is no longer the case if you do want to stay the night. The house has sparked claims of hauntings by visitors, hotel guests, and paranormal investigators. Abby Borden’s room is apparently the most active of all the spooky spots in the house. Movement, apparitions, sounds, and even children haunting the attic have been reported.