5. Lizzie Borden is widely believed to have brutally killed her father and step-mother with an ax, before being acquitted at trial for their murders
Lizzie Borden (b. 1860 CE) was an American who in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1892 allegedly murdered her father and stepmother with an ax. Following the natural death of her mother in 1863, Lizzie was raised by her stepmother Abby Gray; whilst not openly hostile, Lizzie later became convinced the marriage was merely for her family’s considerable wealth as opposed to love. With tensions rising over their father’s gifts of real estate to their stepmother’s family, both Lizzie and her sister took an extended break in New Bedford. Upon their return Lizzie would stay at a local boarding house, only returning to the family residence four days prior to the murders.
On August 4, 1892, at some time between 0900 and 1030, Abby Gray went upstairs to make the guest bed. Forensic examinations discovered she had been struck on the side of the head by a hatchet just above the ear, before being brutally and fatally struck by a further 17 direct hits to the back of her head. Just before 1110, Lizzie called the maid from the downstairs living room shouting: “Maggie, come quick! Father’s dead. Somebody came in and killed him”; Andrew Borden was found with his eyeballs split in two, the product of 10 or 11 strikes with a hatchet.
After police discovered a broken-handled hatchet concealed in the basement, and with Lizzie noted as entering the basement twice in the middle of the night prior, Lizzie was questioned in connection with the deaths and on August 11 was charged with the murders. Despite being caught burning a dress in the aftermath of the murders and purchasing prussic acid in the days before, the presiding judge issued a defensive summary and instruction to the jury prior to deliberations; unsurprisingly, the jury consequently rendered a verdict of not guilty. Lizzie Borden is acquitted of double homicide.
Whilst John Moore, Lizzie’s paternal uncle, and Bridget “Maggie” Sulivan, the household maid, have been suggested as possible suspects, the focus of historical attention has always surrounded Lizzie. Bridget Sullivan provided a deathbed confession in 1948 that she knew Lizzie indeed murdered the family, wherein she told her sister she had falsified her testimony at trial to protect Lizzie from prosecution; it is generally believed that Lizzie was, in fact, the murderer, either committing the attacks in response to past sexual assaults, to cover up a lesbian relationship with Bridget or whilst in a fugue state.