Final Question

So, as this blog comes to a close we need to know, do you think Lizzie Borden killed her parents? You have read the evidence and possibly looked up some of your own online. So leave your comments, and tell us what your final decison would be. Take yourself back to the jury and imagine seeing this woman on the stand, what would you decide?

Lizzie Borden Timeline

*August 3, 1892 -- Lizzie goes to drugstore to purchase deadly poison, but drugstore wouldn't let her.

*August 4, 1892 -- Borden Murders Committed

*August 6, 1892 -- Newspaper printed suggestive murderer of Mr. and Mrs. Borden; Lizzie Borden.

*August 9, 1892 -- District Attorney questions Lizzie Borden.

*August 11, 1892 -- Lizzie Borden arrested.

*August 12, 1892 -- Lizzie pleaded not guilty to the charges.

*August 22, 1892 -- Returned to Fall River for preliminary hearing, at the end of which the judge pronounced her, "probably guilty." And ordered her to face a grand jury, and consequences for the possible charges of the murders of her parents.

*November -- Grand jury meets, Alice Russell, family friend of the Borden's gave testimony that Lizzie had burned a blue dress because, she claimed that "it had old paint on it." When the murders occurred, Bridget Sullivan, the servant in the Borden household, had reported that Lizzie was wearing a blue dress before the murders, and a different dress afterwards. This was very substantial evidence that Lizzie had killed her parents.

*June 5, 1893 -- The trial of Lizzie Borden opened before a panel of three judges, and later, a panel of twelve in a state case.

*1893 -- Lizzie pronounced not guilty of the murder of Mr. Andrew Borden, and Mrs. Abby Gray Borden. Case Closed. Or is it.....?

This murder at that time was definatly a new murder in its class. Although you read the evidence and think she for sure killed her parents, but at that same point another question comes to mind; did she really? There was no doubt, motive to kill her stepmother, the woman she hated ever since her father had remarried. Then you begin to wonder why did she continue this gruesome act and kill her father? After all, many people, including Lizzie herself, loved him. Could it have been that her hate towards her stepmother had become so great that she now hated the man who had cared for her all these years? Is it possible that her hate became so great that she began to hate her father for ever marrying Abby? The case suggests that an ax was used in the murders with a combined 29 whacks or blows the head. They say that when the father was found his head was almost in complete pulp which would suggest a lot of anger and hate from whoever killed him. Just one blow would have done it. It makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Lizzie Borden

Lizzie Borden took an axe,

and gave her mother forty whacks.

And when she saw what she had done,

she gave her father forty-one.

On August 4, 1892, Lizzie Borden murdered her father and step-mother in their victorian home. Or did she? There was never a verdict as to who really murdered Andrew Jackson Borden and Abby Durfree Gray Borden. There were only two people in the house at the time of the murders. Lizzie, and Briget the servant. Lizzie's uncle John was out on business at the time of the murders, but oddly, was the first person accused of killing the Bordens. Later, the evidence pointed to Lizzie.

Briget heard Lizzie scream late in the afternoon, "Hurry, come quick! Father's dead!" Briget entered the room and saw that Andrew Borden, had been hit over and over again with an axe. His face was bloody and demolished. A neighbor heard Lizzie's screams and rushed over to the old house. She asked about her stepmother, and Lizzie said she felt that Abby was dead too. And sure enough, the neighbor went upstairs into the uncle's bedroom and found Abby Borden dead.

Even today there is still speculation about this murder. Why an axe? Why Mr. and Mrs. Borden? Why then? And of course, the most famous question of all, did Elizabeth Borden really kill her father and step-mother? It's time for you to decide the verdict. Tell us whether you think Lizzie committed the murders, or whether you think she didn't. Be sure to vote on our poll!!! :D ~KJ