Was Lizzie Borden guilty

Answer 1

If modern criminal behaviour and forensics are applied to evidence from the Borden case, it points to one person only. Motive and opportunity are key in this case. An understanding of the dynamics within the Borden family is also an important factor. All these components, when assembled, tell the story of resentments that simmered for years, and on August 4, 1892, finally boiled over in the double ax murder of Fall River's finest.

Just hours prior to the murders Lizzie tried to buy prussic acid (cyanide). Andrew, Abbey and Bridget Sullivan (Borden's maid) were very sick the day before the murders. Oddly, Lizzie claimed to feel ill but showed no obvious signs of illness.

Abbey Borden was killed in the guest room on the second floor of the home. She received over a dozen blows to the head and neck with a small hatchet or axe. She died 90 minutes before Andrew, who received 11 blows with what looked like the same weapon. This fact is not consistant with an intruder. The risk of discovery would have been too great to take a chance. Lizzie and Bridget were busy with chores earlier, there were few places to safely hide while people walked from room to room.

Lizzie's behaviour was inconsistant for a grieving daughter. Lizzie changed her story several times. She finally settled on one, she was in the barn loft looking for lead to make fishing sinkers. Police checked the loft, thick dust on the floor proved she was not there. Since Emma was away visiting friends in another town the only people that had the opportunity was Lizzie and Bridget. Bridget had nothing to gain by her employer's deaths. Her behaviour was appropriate. Lizzie resented her stepmother, referring to her as 'Mrs. Borden'. Lizzie greatly resented her father for his penny-pinching lifestyle he inflicted on his family. And Andrew was making adjustments to his will, giving Abbey's family real estate that the younger Borden's felt should remain with blood relatives. Trouble had been brewing for years, resentments simmered to the point of gross dysfunction.

Shortly after the murders Lizzie and Emma's friend Alice Russell witnessed Lizzie burning a dress in the woodstove, her story being she brushed against wet paint. This point alone is a huge red flag. In the 19th century, even for wealthier families, a ruined dress would have been used for rags. And Andrew ran a tight ship. He would not even permit Bridget to throw out the suspect mutton stew. Nothing was wasted.

In conclusion, Lizzie was the only person with the motive, opportunity, personality to commit this crime. She gave herself away numerous times in small and large ways. She lied, destroyed evidence, and benefited to the tune of $500,000 with the death of her father and stepmother, whom she would share equally with Emma. This of course is not a complete list of the points in the Borden case. Lizzie's crimes have filled many books and been the subject of movies but there really is no mystery to this double murder. An intruder would not have been able to come into the house that morning, it was locked from the inside. Bridget had trouble letting Andrew back in after he had forgotten his key. So nobody went in or out. Nobody was home but Lizzie and Bridget, the maid napping on her bed in the attic. That leaves Lizzie. After her aquittal, she took full advantage of her inheiritence, buying a big home in a more fashionable neighborhood, and changing her name to 'Lizbeth'. At the time of her death she had spent a great portion of her share of the money, Emma had most of her share, unspent, sitting in a bank account. Lizbeth died following complications of gall bladder surgery on June 1, 1927. Nine days later Emma Borden died also. The sisters had been estranged for years, which is such a sad footnote to this case. Although Lizzie was aquitted of criminal charges, she was found guilty by the citizens of Fall River, MA. She never achieved the social status she felt was her right. She is buried in the family plot with her father, mother, Emma, and a sister that died before Lizzie was born.

*The Borden case has abundant material available. I recommend 'The Cases That Haunt Us' by former FBI profiler John Douglas and Mark Olashaker. They sum up the case very well and their facts can be trusted as true, not part of the myth that surrounds this old case.

Answer 2

Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the murders of her father and stepmother in 1892. Despite public suspicion and circumstantial evidence, there was not enough conclusive evidence to convict her. Therefore, legally speaking, she was not found guilty.