Lizzie Borden Research Paper

“Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one.” The grisly murders of Andrew and Abby Durfee Gray Borden remain to be one of the most sensational double murders in American history, rivaling even the likes of the O.J. Simpson trials. The “Lizzie Borden took an axe” rhyme is supposed to chronicle the macabre accounts of the murders. However, the rhyme possesses several historical inaccuracies. Lizzie’s “mother” in this rhyme was actually Lizzie’s stepmother and was “only” struck nineteen times with a hatchet not with an axe. Lizzie’s father, Andrew, received about ten blows to the head ( ). Though the children's rhyme is not quite historically accurate the

Sarah Cloice, in her effort to prove her sisters were innocent ends up showing how this situation was really rooted in attacks against poor, elderly women who lived in the less affluent fringe areas of Salem. They were easy targets. There have been many theories why the accusers acted the way they did including LSD effects due to bad bread, financial and property gains, and self preservation; name someone else to save yourself.

“Was Lizzie Borden Really Innocent” The number of kids that kill their parents is unbelievable. They usually have a motive. Lizzie Borden didn’t.

Lizzie Borden was a suspect in the murder of the Borden parents which were killed with an ax in August of 1892, they lived in a greenhouse in Maryland in the town called fall river. Although she was not convicted of the murder of Andrew and Sarah Borden. I think lizzie borden killed her parents and this is why.There was many weird things about lizzie borden.Why would she kill her own parents? Her dad was very wealthy and her stepmom was greedy but if her father died she would inherit what would now 7 million dollars and she felt like she owed it to her real mom, who had been “replaced” her stepmom after her mom's random death. She had some weird behaviors before the murders and after. Before her parent's murder, she tried to buy poisonous acids for cleaning the house and they found one of her white dress with inconsistent dark red spots that were hidden in one of her drawers.In this case none was arrested but 2 people including lizzie were tried.Why wasn't Lizzie Borden or anybody else arrested, Lizzie was not arrested because she was just Sunday school teacher, so the court thought that a teacher of Jesus would never do such a thing and, she had a clean record.

Lizzie’s behavior was suspicious when she was talking about her parents to the police. The author notes that “Lizzie tried purchasing poison, Prussic Acid”. Lizzie was found burning one of her dresses three days later. She said she was burning it cause it was all stained up. She yelled that someone came in and murdered her parents. How would Lizzie know if someone came in unless she seen that person or if she did it. She was also suspicious because she said all that, but there was no signs of breaking or entering into the house found out by the police. The night before the murder witnesses say that Lizzie went to a friend’s house, and she said that she thought someone was going to kill her parents. This is evidence of how she could have killed

Twenty-six-year-old Bridget Sullivan, testified that Lizzie was the only person she saw in the home at the time her parents were murdered, though she provided some consolation to the defense when she said that she had not witnessed, during her over two years of service to the family, signs of the rumored ugly relationship between Lizzie and her stepmother. "Everything was pleasant," she said. "Lizzie and her mother always spoke to each other. Sullivan also testified that Andrew and Abby Borden experienced stomach pains on the day before the murder and told jurors that at the presumed time of Abby's murder, Lizzie claimed she was washing outside windows. Sullivan testified that she opened the door for Andrew Borden after he returned home from his walk about town, and then described hearing Lizzie's cry for help a few minutes after eleven o'clock.

Andrew Borden estate was worth $300,000 dollars, which as of 2016 would be $7,901,111. This was a lot of money during the late 1800’s. Lizzie was reported to have arguments with her father regarding a property settlement over the divorce between Andrew and Mrs. Borden. If the investigation was in my hands, I would have thoroughly questioned Lizzie, and requested a full physiological evaluation. I would have also tried to submit the hatchet into evidence, proving that the split in the skull could match that of a hatchet. The repetitive Hatchet blows to the back of Abby Borden’s head shows it was killing out of rage. The only person to have shown signs of animosity towards these individuals was Lizzie Borden. The dispute over property of a wealthy man as Andrew Borden, the dislike people had for him, the divorce Lizzie went through, and her father killing her pet birds leads me to believe there was a motive.

Lizzie Borden might have slaughtered Abby and Andrew Borden. To point out, detectives have more evidence of her than anyone else. There was no evidence to support Lizzie’s alibi. So, Lizzie Borden lied about what she was doing during the assassinations of her parents. For instance, Lizzie Borden could have slaughtered her parents and hid the murder weapon. Lizzie and her stepmother (Abby) not once got along. She continuously assumed Abby Borden was after her father’s (Andrew) money.; Lizzie Borden hated Abby Borden.

Because they thought she was burning it because there was blood on it. Later in her jail time she was let go. Because of this she had gone to trial with 12 men. During the trial she had shown no emotions to her parents death witch had concerned the 12 men. In the trial Lizzie never took stand for the 12 men. For this reason I think Lizzie did try to kill her parents with the poison but someone else killed them, that’s why she had shown no emotions. That someone who problem killed Abby and Andrew Borden could have been the person who Andrew was having trouble with. As saying that Andrews employers has rumors that a customer did not like him and that Andrew owed him something but never gave it to him. June 20th , 1893 Lizzie was found not guilty and acuanted. Lizzie commited the crime she had done to avoid the evidence. For this reason Lizzie was found not guilty on June 20th 1893. Lizzie and Emma inhareted their fathers estate. Thry had bought a house for themselves. Emma had died 10 days later from the flu then Lizzie died 3 days later. The case had then been set for a mystery formany years, and many people has many different opinions on who killed Abby and Andrew

“Women cannot be murderers.” Even though this was not explicitly stated in the newspapers, The Boston Herald in its article “Lizzie Borden” conveys the perception that the feminine ways associated with women would make it impractical for women to commit murder. Lizzie Borden, a young lady accused of brutally killing her stepmother and father with multiple blows to their heads with a hatchet was described as a religious, sincere, and modest human being in The Boston Herald’s article covering Lizzie’s life before and after the murders. During Lizzie’s youth, she suffered from isolation because of her reserved personality and belief that nobody appreciated her presence, but in womanhood turned her life around and attain friendships who vouched for her good character during the time of the investigation. The Boston Herald’s article “Lizzie Borden: Her School and Later Life - A Noble Woman, Though Retiring”, successfully persuades the reader of Lizzie Borden’s innocence with the focus on her femininity through diction and logic.

You may think that the dress was burnt because of blood stains, not paint stains. There is no way to figure that out. One reason why I believe Lizzie Borden was innocent is because there was no physical evidence that Lizzie Borden was guilty. There are only assumptions and theories. In the article, “Lizzie Borden: Murderess or Media Sensation?,” it states, “There was no physical evidence linking her to the murders. A hatchet had been discovered in the basement of the Borden home, but its blade was clean and the handle had been broken off.” There are theories about the prussic acid, the burnt dress stained by paint stains, and how there were no footprints in the dirt by the barn, but there is could be an explanation for each of those. The prussic acid could have actually been for the sealskin coat, the dress could have actually been stained by paint, and the wind could have picked up dirt and swept the footprints away. People just took everything and made it seem like evidence, but nobody actually took a second to think; maybe Lizzie Borden was actually telling the truth about the stuff she did. One person made an assumption and all of a sudden, they had the entire world thinking the same thing.

On a hot morning on august 4, 1892, Mr. Andrew Borden and his wife, Abby Borden, were brutally murdered. A daughter of the victims, Lizzie Borden was arrested, tried and acquitted of the crime. “ She was a woman of spotless character and reputation, and more than that she was educated, refined and prominently connected with the work of the Christian church in the Fall River”(Gates 2).The town and the country were divided in their opinions of who could commit such horrifying murders. Many theories have been made to explain that day; the finger has been pointed in every direction- even a Chinese Sunday school student of Lizzies. To this day people are unsure as to weather or not Lizzie brutally murdered her parents.

	What makes the Fall River murders so confusing is that the motive, the weapon, and the opportunity for such a crime are all absent. They found no money or jewelry missing, not even small amounts of change were taken in the daytime break-in at the Borden home a year earlier. The home had been locked up as usual, the maid Bridget Sullivan-an Irish immigrant, 26, that had been working at the household since 1889-was washing windows, and daughter Lizzie was inside the house reading a magazine. Even if both were involved for some reason in this shocking crime, what became of the blood so conspicuously missing from the bludgeoned corpses?

Purposeful death in the United States is a common thing, sadly, but how many are actually murder? According to Statista.com, in 2014 there were 5.1 deaths per 100,000 residents in the US. Not many of these murders were familicides, but they still happen, and in the case of Lizzie Borden, she killed her parents. It is crystal clear that Lizzie Borden killed her parents, and there is plenty of evidence to prove it.

Have you ever been so angry you thought about killing your parents with an axe? Well many people think Lizzie Borden did this exact thing. Lizzie Borden was accused of murdering her step mother and father with a hatchet on August 4, 1892. While on trial, the jury found her innocent, but many other people think her to be guilty. I think that Lizzie Borden is innocent of the murder of Andrew and Abby Borden because she loved her father, didn’t have a problem with her stepmother, and there was no physical evidence found at the crime scene. Lizzie Borden was found innocent by law, so why should it be questioned?