It’s fair to say jaws were left firmly on the floor after the release of ‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story‘, and before audiences have even caught their breath, Ryan Murphy‘s anthology series has already dropped its next killer’s name. The hit Netflix show is heading into season four, and this time, it’s featuring one of the most haunting and debated figures in American crime history: Lizzie Borden.
As we are already aware, each season of Monster is about a notorious real-life case. In Season 1, we saw Evan Peters as Jeffrey Dahmer, while Season 2 focused on the Menendez Brothers, and the third shocked viewers with Ed Gein, the grave-robbing murderer who turned human remains into furniture. Now, season four is going to focus on a crime that’s almost a century old.
Who Was Lizzie Borden?
Lizzie Borden was born in 1860 in Fall River, Massachusetts, into a wealthy but emotionally cold household. Her father, Andrew Borden, was a successful businessman known for his frugality, while her stepmother, Abby Borden, never truly bonded with Lizzie or her sister Emma. Fast forward to 1892, and we saw the New England home become the scene of one of the most gruesome crimes in American history.
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While Andrew was out on business, Abby was killed in an upstairs guest room. Reports say she suffered approximately 18 axe blows. When Andrew returned home later that morning, he too was struck repeatedly in the head. Only Lizzie and the family maid, Bridget Sullivan, were present in the house at the time. And unfortunately, Lizzie was the one who discovered the bodies, or so she claimed.
Next came a media storm unlike anything the town of Fall River had ever seen. The well-bred, church-going woman quickly became the centre of suspicion. And her every gesture and statement was brought under the radar. Despite the lack of concrete evidence, no bloodstained clothing, no witnesses, and a weapon that couldn’t even be definitively linked, Lizzie was arrested and charged with both murders in 1893.
While the prosecutors painted her as a cold-blooded killer, the defence argued she was a victim of circumstance and Victorian gender bias. After weeks of testimony, the jury acquitted Lizzie Borden, leaving everyone surprised. But even with her freedom, she never escaped the shadow of what had happened.
The Trial That Divided America
Lizzie lived the rest of her life in Fall River amidst the neighbours who saw her as the ‘alleged murderer‘. They whispered about her in the shops and branded her by the chilling rhyme that emerged from the case. The rhyme went like this: “Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother forty whacks; when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one.“
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Lizzie died in 1927, after living her whole life with such an allegation. However, she never confessed, nor was she ever proved innocent.
Today, the Borden family home in Fall River still exists. It has now been transformed into a bed and breakfast and museum dedicated to the crime that made it infamous. Marketed as ‘America’s most haunted house,’ it has been meticulously restored to resemble how it looked in 1892. Guests can stay overnight for around $260 per room. In fact, there’s also an optional late-night ghost hunt in the basement for the bravest visitors.
Netflix has officially begun production on ‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story.’ Soon, Ella Beatty will step into the shoes of Lizzie. Charlie Hunnam will join her as her stern father, Andrew, and Rebecca Hall as stepmother Abby. Billie Lourd will play Emma, Jessica Barden as Lizzie’s confidante, Nance O’Neill, and Vicky Krieps as the maid, Bridget Sullivan.
Following the pattern of past releases, fans can likely expect the series to arrive in autumn 2026. Maybe, after almost 130 years, ‘Monster‘ Season 4 will help us see Lizzie Borden through a different lens. Was Lizzie a victim of her time, or the monster everyone feared she was?
