Lizzie Borden - Fall River Home, Family Tragedy, A Good Daughter, William H. Moody, Her Day In Court
trial murders history accused
Born July 19, 1860 (Fall River, Massachusetts)
Died June 2, 1927 (Fall River, Massachusetts)
Accused murderer
Lizzie Borden was accused in the gruesome double homicide of her father and stepmother in 1892. The violent nature of the murders and the gender of the accused killer made the case a national sensation. The trial had all the elements of a media drama, ensuring the high profile case a place in American legal legend and folklore. Most people in the late nineteenth century could not accept that a woman from a socially prominent family might be capable of such a crime. The matter was settled in the court of public opinion long before it ever went to trial. Numerous books, plays, and movies have been devoted to the murders. More than a century after the Borden trial, the case remains one of the most notorious in American history.
For More Information
Books
Hixson, Walter L. Murder, Culture and Injustice: Four Sensational Cases in American History. Akron, OH: The University of Akron Press, 2001.
Porter, Edwin H. The Fall River Tragedy: A History of the Borden Murders. Portland, ME: King Philip Publishing Company, 1985.
The Supreme Court of the United States: Its Beginnings and Its Justices— 1790–1991. Washington, DC: Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution, 1992.
Additional Topics
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 …
On August 4, 1892, Lizzie's uncle, John Morse, was in Fall River on business and he and Lizzie's father left the house early that morning. Lizzie's stepmother Abby was cleaning the second-floor guest room at around nine-thirty in the morning when she was struck from behind with a sharp instrument. The weapon, most likely a hatchet, hit her head and back nineteen times in all. …
Within a week it became evident that Lizzie Borden was a suspect in the murder of her father and stepmother. An inquest was held in which Lizzie contradicted herself and other
The couch where Andrew Borden was found murdered on August 4, 1892, displayed at the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast in Massachusetts. In a nationally sensational trial, Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the murder of both…
William H. Moody (1853–1917) graduated from Harvard College in 1876 and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1878. He practiced law in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and soon became interested in politics. Moody was appointed U.S. district attorney for the state's Eastern District in 1890. This led to his being a part of the team prosecuting the high profile Lizzie Borden murder case …
Moody gave a persuasive opening argument. He emphasized the resentments inside the Borden home as well as the vast inheritance Lizzie and Emma stood to gain. He noted motive and opportunity and stressed the absence of forced entry or burglary in the tightly secured home. Moody questioned Lizzie's alibi of being alone in the barn for the crucial few minutes when Andrew was attacked. The othe…
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