7. Andrew and Abby Borden Were Chopped To Bits
One blazing hot summer day in 1893, Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally murdered with a hatchet in their own home in Fall River, Massachusetts. Andrew’s daughters, Lizzie and Emma, were in their 30’s and 40’s and yet they were still not married. They were living with their father and stepmother, and they were considered too old to ever have hope of finding a husband and leaving the nest, so they needed their father’s financial support. Their family had begun to argue a lot, because all of the father’s money was going to the stepmother, Abby Borden. Andrew Borden was very rich, but he was extremely stingy, and made a lot of enemies with people in town.
On the day of the murders, the only other people home at the time were daughter Lizzie Borden, the maid Bridget, and Lizzie’s Uncle, John Morse, who showed up unexpectedly the night before. The morning of the murders, he announced that he was leaving to visit nearby relatives, which became his alibi. Bridget, the maid, claimed that she took a very short 10-minute nap, and in that time span, Andrew Borden was murdered. They discovered that Abby Borden was killed roughly 3 hours before her husband in an upstairs bedroom. This means the killer was likely inside the house the entire time. However, Lizzie would have been covered in blood if she actually did kill her parents. She was only alone for about 10 minutes during the time when Andrew was killed, which would have not been enough time to clean up and hide the evidence, especially since the house did not have electricity or running water. This leans more towards the theory that one of her father’s enemies, or even her uncle, John Morse, could have killed them.
Lizzie Borden was taken to trial for the death of her parents. However, there was only circumstantial evidence, and not enough to convict her of murder. She was sent free, and she inherited a fortune from her father. There are nearly a dozen different theories about who killed the Bordens, but no one knows the full story.