Why Lizzie Borden Was Accused of Killing Her Father and What Motive Prosecutors Argued

Lizzie Borden was tried and acquitted of the August 4, 1892, axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts, and no one else was ever charged. That unresolved ending is why the question of why Lizzie Borden was accused of killing her father still draws readers more than a century later. Because she was acquitted, the killings of Andrew and Abby Borden remain officially unsolved.

Fresh attention has come from Netflix’s ‘Monster’ series about the case, which stars Ella Beatty as Lizzie and Rebecca Hall as Abby. Oxygen describes the series as a fictionalized retelling of the crime. What follows sets out what prosecutors argued, what investigators found, and what later writers have suggested.

Lizzie Borden’s Alleged Motive According to the Prosecution

The prosecution claimed that Lizzie acted out of both greed and hatred, arguing that she resented her stepmother and wanted to stop Andrew from changing his will in Abby’s favor. Prosecutors also pointed to strained relationships with both her father and stepmother, rooted in inheritance and property Andrew had given to Abby.

One episode stood out in that argument. Five years before the murders, Andrew bought half of a house in Abby’s name for her sister, and Lizzie testified at the inquest that both daughters took offense at the gift. She said she stopped calling Abby mother around that time, though she described their relationship as cordial.

Money shaped the wider picture as well. Andrew had assets worth at least five hundred thousand dollars, yet he chose to live downtown instead of in the fashionable part of Fall River. Crime scene investigator Erin Rubas told ’48 Hours’ that the sisters wanted a better life and “really resented their father for not providing that for them.”

Why Investigators Believed Lizzie Borden Killed Her Father

Investigators considered other suspects, including John Morse and a Portuguese laborer who had worked for Andrew, but none could be tied to the murders through credible evidence. With no signs of forced entry, authorities increasingly concluded that the killer had been someone already inside the home.

Lizzie’s own statements added to the suspicion. At the inquest she gave differing accounts of where she was when her father came home, saying at one point that she was coming down the stairs and at another that she was in the kitchen. She also placed herself in the barn loft, first to find iron for fishing sinkers and then to eat pears.

Other details drew attention as well. The day before the murders, Lizzie tried to buy prussic acid from a local drugstore, saying she needed it to protect a fur cape from moths. Police found a hatchet head in a cellar tool box that appeared consistent with the wounds, with a handle that looked recently broken off, and they learned that Lizzie and Emma burned one of Lizzie’s dresses the day after the killings.

Lizzie was arrested on August 11, 1892, following an inquest that lasted a week, and a grand jury indicted her that December on two counts of murder.

What Happened at the Lizzie Borden Trial

The trial opened in New Bedford on June 5, 1893, and newspapers from across the country descended on the city. A jury of twelve men acquitted her on June 20, 1893. One account says the jury deliberated for about an hour.

Some of the strongest material never reached the jurors. The judge ruled her inquest testimony inadmissible because he felt she lacked adequate legal counsel when she gave it, and he also excluded the druggist’s testimony about the poison. The evidence that remained was largely circumstantial.

The defense pressed its own points. It called an expert who testified there was no blood on the hatchet head and noted that the dress Lizzie said she wore that day carried only a small drop of blood. Her lawyers also cited her strong reputation in Fall River society and earlier burglaries at the home and barn.

Life after the verdict brought comfort and isolation in equal measure. Two months after the murders, Lizzie and Emma moved into a large Victorian house in the wealthy part of town, supported by an inheritance that ’48 Hours’ reported would equal about ten million dollars today. Smithsonian Magazine noted that the town where she remained for the rest of her life did not believe she was innocent.

Other Theories About the Lizzie Borden Murders

Over the years, authors have cast Lizzie as a woman who killed for love, as someone who acted during an epileptic fit, and as a loyal sister covering for Emma, while others have pointed toward Bridget Sullivan and John Morse. Other speculation held that the killings were revenge for Andrew’s treatment of pigeons Lizzie looked after, or that she was tired of living modestly despite her father’s wealth.

A 1992 essay in American Heritage argued that jealousy and greed, the only motives available in the nineteenth century, seem inadequate to explain the extreme violence of the crime. Author Marcia R. Carlisle suggested that patterns of family conflict and possible hidden abuse might explain what greed could not, while acknowledging that with everyone involved long dead, the idea can only remain speculation.

Mental Floss observes that all of the facts about that morning may never be uncovered. Smithsonian Magazine makes a similar point, noting that anyone who knew for certain, including Lizzie herself, is long dead. Lizzie died in 1927, Emma died nine days later, and the sisters were buried alongside their father and stepmother. As Netflix’s ‘Monster’ brings the case to a new audience, readers are welcome to share in the comments whether the financial grievances described by prosecutors seem enough to explain the violence inside the Borden home.