In August 1892, an axe attack in Fall River, Massachusetts, clamed the lives of Andrew and Abby Borden. Their daughter, Lizzie Borden, faced trial for the killings but was acquitted, a case now reimagined in Ryan Murphy's Monster on Netflix.
The fabricated romance with Bridget Sullivan and other Netflix inventions
The Netflix series Monster portrays a romantic bond between Lizzie Borden and the family maid, Bridget Sullivan, but this is a creative invention. according to the source report, there is no documented evidence to suggest that Lizzie Borden and Bridget Sullivan were friends, let alone romantic partners. this narrative choice reflects a broader trend in modern true-crime dramatizations where historical figures are retrofitted with contemporary identities to create more compelling character arcs.
Further discrepancies appear in the show's portrayal of Lizzie Borden as a femiinist fighter for women's voting rights. The historical record does not support the claim that Lizzie Borden was a suffragist. Additionally, the series includes a scene where Abby Borden kills doves, yet the source notes there is no proof Lizzie Borden ever kept birds; the only mention of avian life in the original inquest involved Andrew Borden bringing dead birds into the home.
Even the more macabre details in Monster lack a factual basis. The claim that Andrew Borden cut off the feet of dead bodies is described by the report as an unsubstantiated rumor . By filling these gaps with speculative dialogue and invented relationships, Ryan Murphy's production moves further away from a historical account and closer to a fictionalized psychological thriller.
Nineteen strikes for Abby and ten for Andrew
The actual violence of August 4, 1892, was far more brutal than a stylized drama can convey. According to Smithsonian Magazine, Abby Borden was struck nineteen times with an axe, while Andrew Borden was hit ten or eleven times, resulting in severe facial damage. These attacks occurred roughly ninety minutes apart during the afternoon, a timing that shocked the Fall River community because the crimes happened in broad daylight in a visible neighborhood.
Lizzie Borden became the primary suspect because she possessed the motive, means, and opportunity. As the daughter of Andrew Borden, she lived in the home and had unrestricted access to both victims. The investigation was further complicated by the fact that Lizzie Borden could not provde a strong alibi for the window of time during which the murders took place.
The 1911 forensic threshold and the failure to convict
The acquittal of Lizzie Borden was not necessarily a reflection of her innocence, but rather a reflection of the primitive state of American law. Forensic evidence did not become widely admissible in United States courts until 1911, nearly two decades after the Borden trial. Without modern DNA testing or fingerprint analysis, the prosecution in 1892 could not conclusively link the blood, fibers, or weapons found in the house to Lizzie Borden.
Beyond the technical failures, latent sexism played a pivotal role in the courtroom. As the report says, many jurors and members of the public found it impossible to believe that a woman could commit such a visceral and violent act. This gender bias created a high threshold for conviction that the circumstantial evidence of the time simply could not clear .
The mystery of the burned dress and the poison purchase
Despite the acquittal, several pieces of evidence remain hauntingly ambiguous. Investigators flagged Lizzie Borden's attempt to purchase poison shortly before the murders and her statement the night before the attack that an enemy might try to kill Andrew Borden. Most notably, the prosecution pointed to the burning of a dress that was believed to have red stains, a detail that Monster dramatizes but which remained circumstantial in court.
While police found two axes, two hatchets, and a hatchet head in the basement of the Borden home, they could never prove which, if any, were the murder weapons. This leaves a lingering question: if Lizzie Borden did not commit the crimes, who else had the access and the brutality to strike Abby and Andrew Borden dozens of times without being detected by the neighbors?
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