The Backstory: What Do O.J. Simpson and Lizzie Borden Have in Common?

Lizzie Borden was a church going New England heiress . . who was suspected of taking an ax to the heads of her father and stepmother back in 1892. But what led to the murders and the surprising verdict from the jury? Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . on Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
No doubt you've heard of Lizzie Borton. She of course
was a very proper New England heiress who in eighteen
ninety two allegedly hacked her father and stepmother to death
with an axe and then was acquitted and a hugely
publicized but very speedy trial. But did she do it?
If so, what motivated her and why was she acquitted?

(00:20):
I'm Patty Steele. The post trial life of Lizzie bordon
after those infamous forty wax has been compared to Oj
Simpson's life after his acquittal. That's next on the backstory.
We're back with the backstory. Lizzie Borden was born on
July nineteenth, eighteen sixty to Andrew and Sarah Borden. Her

(00:43):
dad had grown up in a family that was historically wealthy,
but he was part of a family branch that didn't
have much money, and that could explain a whole lot
more about the story than you might think. Andrew Borden
worked really hard to grow his wealth. He started a
casket company, which was successful. He went on to become
the president of a major bank in his hometown of

(01:04):
Fall River, Massachusetts. He bought a lot of property and
he was the director of three major cloth mills. Problem is,
he was always afraid of losing his money, and that
impacted the family's lifestyle. When Lizzie was two years old
and her sister Emma was twelve, their mother died. It
was March twenty sixth, eighteen sixty three, and pretty quickly

(01:26):
Andrew decided he needed a wife and his girls needed
a mother. Enter Abby Gray. She was thirty seven years old,
considered to be an old maid by the time she
and Andrew got married, but it was a marriage that got
them both what they wanted. She got respect and social
status and money, and he got a housekeeper and someone
to raise his daughters. It wasn't the perfect life. Despite

(01:49):
all his money, Andrew had never given them a home
that matched their social status. He bought a two family house,
which he converted into a one family, but it was
in a more working class part of town near factories,
which was unusual for a family that today would be millionaires.
When he redid the house, he refused to put in electricity,
running water, or even bathrooms. Meantime, Lizzie and Emma never

(02:13):
married and were embarrassed to bring friends and potential boyfriends
to their home. Friend say Lizzie was in a difficult spot.
Although she was very involved in her church and charitable activities,
she wasn't particularly pretty and she had a difficult home life.
She couldn't match up with guys beneath her in social status,
but guys who did match your status weren't interested in

(02:36):
an unattractive young woman who lived in a sketchier part
of town. There were a few young guys interested in her,
but her dad considered them inferior and would chase them off,
claiming they were just fortune hunters. On top of that,
the relationship between Lizzie and her stepmother Abby was less
than warm. She was convinced that Abby had married her

(02:56):
dad for his money. By the time she turned thirty two,
Lizzie was more and more frustrated with her lot in life.
There was tension with her stepmother and arguments with her
father over money. He'd apparently decided to give some money
and real estate to Abby's family, which upset both Lizzie
and Emma. Plus, her dad infuriated Lizzie by using an

(03:17):
axe to kill some pigeons she'd been caring for in
the family's barn. That was the spring of eighteen ninety two.
Then in July of that year, the sisters had a
really intense argument with their parents. They decided to leave
town for a short vacation. When they came home, Lizzie
opted to stay in a boarding house for several days.

(03:37):
Now it's the morning of August fourth, eighteen ninety two,
Emma is once again out of town, and Lizzie claims
she was in the barn that morning. When she came
back into the house, she found Andrew and Abbey. They'd
been hacked to death. Abby's head had been split open.
She had been struck eighteen times with an axe. Abby
was found in the guest room, while Andrew was killed

(03:59):
on the sitting room couch, his head and face, they say,
nearly destroyed by multiple blows from the same hatchet. Who
could have done this? Lizzie was the primary suspect since
the story she told the cops had a lot of inconsistencies,
plus there had been no forced entry into the house,
but the live in housekeeper insisted she hadn't heard anything

(04:20):
and she believed that Lizzie was in the barn during
the morning. During the trial, there was testimony that Lizzie
had tried to buy cyanide the day before the murders,
allegedly to clean something. There was also some brief talk
that perhaps she'd been sexually abused by her father, But
throughout the case, Lizzie stayed totally calm, except when the

(04:40):
cracked skulls of Andrew and Abbey were brought into the
courtroom as evidence for the jury to see. Newspapers just
like today, were all over this story, talking about the contradictions.
The upright church lady accused of a horrific, bloody crime.
The public loved it, and within days the case was
national obsession. Fall River's quiet little streets filled with reporters,

(05:05):
sketch artists, and folks who were just curious. But in
the end, the lack of definitive forensic evidence for one thing,
the murder weapon was never confirmed, led to her acquittal.
As she left the courtrooms, he told the press, I'm
the happiest woman in the world. Lizzie was thirty two
years old when the murders occurred. She inherited a huge

(05:26):
amount of money when she was found not guilty. Pretty
soon she fell into a sketchy circle of friends, partiers,
theater people, bohemian artist types. She and her sister bought
a fancy new house with all the amenities they always wanted,
including live in maids and cooks. She was quickly spending
her newfound wealth. At one point she was suspected of

(05:48):
taking on a well known actress as a lesbian lover,
which was the last straw forer Emma, who moved out
and never spoke to her sister again. Finally, Lizzie just
couldn't escape hermous name. She had chosen not to leave
Fall River, even though it meant she was constantly under suspicion.
Lizzie died in nineteen twenty seven. She was sixty six

(06:10):
years old. She planned her own funeral weirdly. She left
a list of the people she wanted to be invited,
but when they arrived, they were told the funeral had
taken place the night before. That was the way she
wanted it. She left her fortune to friends and family
and to causes she loved animals. She was buried with
the rest of her family at Oak Grove Cemetery in

(06:32):
Fall River. Her sister Emma died just nine days later
after falling and breaking her hip. The case has been
compared to the O j. Simpson murder trial that happened
one hundred years after Lizzie's trial. An upstanding citizen suspected
of a terrible, bloody crime who rightly or wrongly, is
found not guilty, but afterwards lives a life as an

(06:56):
ostracized outsider. So the question is Lizzie Borden guilty? Did
she get away with it because she was a church
going society girl or did someone else wield the acts.
Either way, it seems the real killer got away with murder.
Hope you're enjoying the Backstory with Patty Steele. Please leave
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(07:18):
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I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is a production of iHeartMedia,
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(07:42):
Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We
have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to
reach out to me with comments and even story suggestions
on Instagram at real Patty Steele and on Facebook at
Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the backstory with Patty Steele,
the pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.