Lizzie Borden took an ax… or did she?
Most of us true crime fans are familiar with the Lizzie Borden story: a woman’s father and stepmother are found one day in the home, viciously murdered. The murder weapon is believed to be one of the few axes found in the home, and the murderer is believed to be Lizzie herself. The story has been recounted hundreds of times in hundreds of ways. My preference is to watch those ghost hunter shows that theorize that the Borden house, now a bed and breakfast, is haunted.
Atlas Obscura
What we generally don’t hear about is what happened after the murders. We usually hear a short sentence that Lizzie is not found guilty, but that’s about it. Lifetime has shown their own take of what Lizzie did after she was acquitted, an almost childlike, frivolous frenzy of purchasing a large house and fancy clothes, all the while throwing lavish parties.
Cara Robertson addresses Lizzie’s life post- murders in her book, The Trial of Lizzie Borden. Along with supporting Lifetime’s reporting that Lizzie started living a more fun and fancy-free lifestyle, she painstaking reports an essentially blow-by-blow account of Lizzie’s trial. In what can only be a well-researched book, Robertson takes the reader from the day of the murders, to Lizzie’s arrest, to the trial, to post-trial. Robertson studs the book with well-placed quotes and photos and seems to leave no stone unturned.
Unfortunately, the information becomes a little dry and the trial becomes a rehashing and dissection of the presented evidence, of which there is very little. Of course, because this all happened in the late 1800s, there is little biological evidence, and what biological evidence that exists is shaky at best. The trial is filled with witness accounts that clash, and the incompetence of everyone involved was frustrating. One of the most sickening details was to know how the skulls of the victims were cleaned before the trial. It’s common knowledge that they made an appearance at the trial, but I doubt the horrifying fact that the skulls were cleaned by placing them in lobster pots for sea life to do the work, was not. Talk about not leaving out any details. Don’t get me started about the female hysteria during menstruation theory, either. Don’t get me wrong, though, Robertson is able to provide some more fascinating, sometimes odd or funny details, which I will let future readers discover themselves.
All in all, an incredibly well-researched book, but with its dull moments due to the back and forth between the prosecution and defense. It also took mental gymnastics to follow Lizzie’s whereabouts on the day of the murder. But of course, these things cannot be left out just because they’re uninteresting, and Robertson is a thorough reporter.
Lifetime
