The Lizzie Borden House could be a sweet little bed and breakfast if you didn’t think too hard about the murders. But with photos of the victims and hatchet iconography plastered throughout the Greek Revival–style 1845 build, it’s impossible not to. And what else would bring you to this particular six-bedroom residence in Fall River, Massachusetts?
I recently ventured from NYC to the real-life dwelling where 32-year-old Lizzie Borden may or may not have butchered her father and stepmother, Andrew and Abby Borden, the morning of August 4, 1892. My morbid curiosity was piqued by the news that the scandal would be receiving the Ryan Murphy treatment as the latest installment of the superproducer’s watch-through-your-fingers anthology series Monster. (Previous seasons explored the crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer, the Menendez brothers, and Ed Gein.)
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story premieres today on Netflix, and though it kicks off a new cycle of Borden buzz, Murphy is by no means the first to take a whack at adapting the story. In the 130 years since the incident, there have been movies, operas, plays, ballets, Halloween costumes, and a macabre nursery rhyme about Lizzie and the case.
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Our enduring fascination with the killings has transformed the true crime into something more like a campfire tale, with Lizzie cast as a folk villain. But buried underneath all of these retellings is the real story: Andrew and Abby were bludgeoned to death with a hatchet inside their home and their daughter Lizzie stood trial for murder in the first degree. And today, the house where it happened operates as a museum and an inn welcoming guests for tours, overnight stays, and breakfast.
