Lullacide

Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, gave her father forty-one. At least, that's how the rhyme goes. The actual numbers were nineteen and eleven. But who's counting? Children's rhymes have never been big on accuracy.

The famous rhyme exaggerates. Abby Borden received approximately 19 blows, Andrew Borden about 11.

Lizzie lived in a nice house in Fall River, Massachusetts, with her father Andrew and her stepmother Abby. Andrew was very rich but very cheap. No indoor plumbing in 1892! The family ate mutton stew for days until it turned. Lizzie wanted to live on the fancy side of town. Andrew said no. This made Lizzie cross.

Andrew Borden was wealthy but notoriously frugal. The family lived modestly despite his fortune.

On a very hot August morning, someone took a hatchet to Abby Borden while she was making the bed in the guest room. About an hour later, someone did the same to Andrew while he napped on the sofa. Lizzie said she was in the barn the whole time, looking for fishing sinkers. In August. In a stifling hot barn. For twenty minutes.

The murders occurred on August 4, 1892. Lizzie claimed to be in the barn during both attacks.

Lizzie burned a dress in the kitchen stove a few days after the murders. 'It had paint on it,' she explained. Her lawyer winced. The maid, Bridget, had a headache that day and saw nothing useful. The police found no blood on Lizzie, which was either a miracle or very good planning.

Lizzie burned a dress days after the murders. No blood evidence was found on her person.

The jury said: Not Guilty. Lizzie moved to the fancy side of town after all, to a big house she named Maplecroft. The neighbors never quite warmed to her. She lived there quietly for thirty-four more years. And the children of Fall River sang their little song. Lizzie never commented on the rhyme. But she probably didn't care for it.

Borden was acquitted in June 1893. She lived in Fall River until her death in 1927, socially ostracized but free.