Lizzie Borden Murder Essay

Did Lizzie Borden Take an Axe

“Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her father forty whacks. When she saw what she had done she gave her father forty-one.” This nursery rhyme is just one of the ways the murder of Andrew and Abby Borden has infiltrated popular culture. From movies, plays, and books to large national conferences, podcasts, and school papers, the murders have taken on a life of their own. Maybe one of the reasons is that despite the amount of time, money, and resources spent on the mystery, it remains that: a mystery. The perpetrators of the murders of Andrew and Abby can be summed by two theories: Lizzie Borden took an axe and that one of Andrew’s many enemies did the deed.

The famous who-done-it has intrigued millions for almost

In 1845, Andrew Borden married Sarah Morse who died in March of 1863 leaving two young daughters. Andrew remarried Abby Gray in 1865 with no objection from his two daughters, Lizzie and Emma. The two were civil with Abby in the beginning but as time went on, the openly quarreled with her and each other (Newton 25). This shows the degradation of their familial bond and their relationships in the days leading up to the couples untimely death. Later, on June 24, 1891, jewelry and money disappeared from the Borden house. Andrew and Abby thought that it was Lizzie who had been accused of shoplifting before. They made sure to lock all doors behind them after that (26). A week and a half later, on August 4, 1892, Andrew Borden came home from work around 10:30 AM for a nap. Lizzie greeted him at the door, as she usually did. Then, at 11:10 AM, Lizzie would call to

At the time of their death, the family was not the most tight-knit group. Weeks before the fateful day, Lizzie and her sister, Emma, had found out of a plan to put a new farm in Abby’s name. The sisters saw this as a plot to rob them of their rightful inheritance (WASP Look). Then, in the days leading up to the murder, Andrew and Abby fell ill. Abby suspected poison and went to the doctor. Andrew, being the stingy man he was, reprimanded her for wasting money. A few days earlier, Lizzie was seen trying to buy a large amount of prussic acid, a known poison. She was denied access because of her lack of prescription (WASP Look). Without her having a lethal poison at her disposal, she may have experimented with less deadly poisons. Then, seeing her home-grade concoctions didn’t work, she graduated to a much quicker way of death, beating their heads in with a hatchet. Three days after the murder, Lizzie was seen burning a dress because she had gotten paint on it. Anyone who knew that family knew that they would never burn a dress because of a stain. It doesn’t help that the “paint” was the color of dried blood (Borden Took an Axe). Finally, at the trial, despite her many glaring contradictions in her testimony, she was declared innocent. One may ask why when she had such obvious motive and trouble keeping her story straight. The answer is sexism or chivalry as many would like to