Lizzie Borden

Lizbeth Andrew "Lizzie" Borden was born in 1860 to Sarah Anthony Morse and Andrew Jackson Borden, a decade after her sister Emma. Lizzie's mother died when Lizzie was two years old and her father married Abby Durfee Gray two years later. The family lived in a house on 92 Second Street in Fall Lizzie Borden. (AP/Wide World Photos)
River, Massachusetts. Fall River was a country town that had grown into an industrial city by the 1890s.

Lizzie's father had started his career as a fish peddler but worked his way up in the community until he was a successful businessman and landlord. Although wealthy, Andrew Borden kept the modest house on Second Street he had purchased with his first wife. He did not even add the modern comforts of plumbing and electric or gas lighting as they became available. Originally built as a two family home, the narrow two and a half story house used two sets of stairs to get to the upstairs bedrooms. The Bordens used stairs off the kitchen and Lizzie, Emma, and any guests used stairs off the front entrance. After a daytime robbery of jewelry and cash, her stepmother and father suspected Lizzie, who had a history of shoplifting. They installed a series of locks and bars throughout the house. By the time Lizzie was in her early twenties, the tension between the girls and their stepmother had grown. The addition of further locks separated both home and family.