Lizzie Borden Took an Axe

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1:43It's an amazing story. It really is. It's a story of one very unhappy family in a house.

1:52It is a morning like so many other mornings in a small town in New England. A father, a stepmother, living with his two adult daughters. Lizzie, 32, and Emma, 41. Lizzie was seen by the next door neighbor, and the neighbor asked, what's the matter? and she announces that her father has been killed.

2:18Erin Moriarty:Law enforcement personnel arrived and found a gruesome murder. Two bodies, a lot of blood. There is a husband downstairs, 10 wounds to his head. And almost half of his face is obliterated. And just on the second floor was his wife. She was face down with a tremendous amount of injury to the back of her head It seems like the most likely murder weapon was a hatchet with a three and a half inch blade When someone is struck multiple times with a hatchet to the head, that's personal You know, one of the most fascinating parts of this case is that except for around the bodies, there's no blood found anywhere You would think that whoever was the perpetrator would be covered with blood, blood spatter, nothing.

3:14Suspicion turned to the people in the house. And the only people in the house are his daughter and their housekeeper. It was so shocking for the police to come to the conclusion that the daughter had killed her father and stepmother. You would have to believe that this sweet, seemingly harmless woman did this horrific thing. Women are as capable as men, not only for the good, but for the bad as well. On August the 4th, 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were hacked to death in their Fall River, Massachusetts home. Every generation has that one really terrible case that we don't have any answers to. There is only one plausible explanation.

4:10Who do you believe killed Andrew and Abby Borden? Lizzie. Lizzie's responsible for these murders. It was Lizzie Borden who intended to murder and did murder Abby and Andrew Borden. It was not until I read about this case that I learned that I was wrong, and all of us are wrong. Lizzie Borden was acquitted, so no one has ever been held accountable for the crime. But if not her, then who? This is somebody who may have quite literally gotten away with murder.

4:45Erin Moriarty:Lizzie Borden took an act and gave her mother 40 whacks. When she seen what she had done, she gave her father 41.

4:59The crimes were so violent

5:04that many thought that Jack the Ripper had come to America. It was an unspeakable crime, a double homicide that captured the attention of the entire nation. Tonight, on a special 48 Hours, we're taking a fresh look at a cold case. A really cold case. It occurred in 1892, and we're presenting it to a new jury to see if they can separate fact from fable. The defendant was a 32-year-old daughter of the victims. Her name? Lizzie Borden. I began studying Lizzie Borden when I was an undergraduate. Los Angeles author Cara Robertson has been living with Lizzie Borden for a long time. I was interested in trying to find a topic for my college thesis.

5:58Thirty years later, her thesis became this, a remarkably detailed look at the accusations against Lizzie Borden and her high-profile trial, published by Simon & Schuster. Fundamentally, the case was about whether or not someone like Lizzie Borden could have committed these brutal crimes And in 1893, a jury of 12 men agreed she couldn't, returning a unanimous verdict of not guilty This was the kind of crime that just could not have been committed by a woman But despite being acquitted, time and popular culture has forever cast Lizzie as one of America's most notorious killers. So did she do it?

6:49Or not? To help get to the bottom of this mystery, we brought together a team of paid consultants, two extremely experienced lawyers. My name is Anna Siga Nicolazzi. I was a prosecutor for 21 years at the Brooklyn DA's office. My name is Matthew Traiano. I'm a criminal defense attorney in New Jersey. And equally seasoned investigators.

7:18Erin Moriarty:My name is Erin Rubis, and I am a crime scene investigator and a former homicide detective. I'm Andrew Schweikart. I'm a criminalist at the New York City office of the chief medical examiner. I was sucked right in. I was sucked in from the perspective that this happened over 100 years ago. I think it's relevant now the same way it was relevant then, and it's just a fascinating story. That story begins here. Fall River, Massachusetts, 1892. Prominent local businessman Andrew Borden was wealthy, but also frugal, choosing to live here with his second wife, Abby Borden, just a block from the center of town.

8:04The house is modest, even by 1890s standards, with almost no indoor plumbing or gas lighting. He was cheap. He was known to be at the extreme end of Yankee frugality.

8:23And we're coming up to the Lizzie Borden house. Wow. You can't analyze the crime without seeing where it all took place. So we brought crime scene investigator Erin Rubis here. What is important? What do you really want to see for yourself?

8:41Erin Moriarty:I want to be able to take myself back into the crime scene based on what I've read. I want to be able to kind of put those pieces together that are missing. And she's able to do that because the house, oddly enough, so this is it, is now a bed and breakfast and restored in the style of the time, complete with actual crime scene photos. Here it is. Then displays. To your left is a replica of Andrew Borden's skull, and to your right is Abby. I would definitely say that whoever did this, This was personal. This was a lot of anger and a lot of rage. Lizzie Bordens is a fairly unremarkable woman. She was unmarried.

9:28She was active in her local church. Emma Borden is Lizzie Borden's older sister. Always played a bit of a maternal role with respect to Lizzie. Emma, at the time of the murders, had been out of town for two weeks visiting friends. And Abby Borden, how would you describe Abby Borden? Abby Borden, she's often cast in the story as the evil stepmother. But in fact, she may well have been the nicest person in the house. Which brings us to the late morning of August 4, 1892. Lizzie, standing at the side door of the house, tells her next door neighbor, Adelaide Churchill, that her father has been killed.

10:13And does the neighbor see any blood on Lizzie? The neighbor comes over directly and sees absolutely no blood. Nothing on her face, her hands, her clothing. Nothing. She seems perfectly presented. And this is how police found Lizzie's father, stretched out on the couch in the sitting room, bludgeoned to death.

10:37Erin Moriarty:It's pretty brutal. I mean, his entire face is brutally bashed in. But what of Andrew's wife, Abby? Lizzie, sitting in the kitchen with that neighbor, Adelaide Churchill, offers an answer. She remarks that she thinks perhaps she heard her stepmother come in. At which point, Bridget Sullivan and Adelaide Churchill, the next door neighbor, go upstairs and find the body of Abby Borden. This right over here is where Abby Borden was found dead face down. That scene is, if anything, more horrible. Abby suffered 19 blows. She's face down. Much of her, the back of her head has been hacked. You can imagine the pressure that was on the police to come upon a scene like that.

11:42The assumption at first was that it must have been a deranged outsider because the crimes were so shocking. But when it became clear that, you know, no one had been spotted in the vicinity, then suspicion turned to the people in the house. The house was triple locked in the front door and the back door was locked. And the only door that could have been unlocked was the side door. They had to find a suspect, and they fastened upon Lizzie Borden as an obvious choice. She is the only one that could have committed these crimes.

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14:00On Saturday, August 6, while Andrew and Abby Borden were being laid to rest, news of their murder was spreading far and fast. The brutality of the murders alone was enough to make this front-page news across the country. At the same time, the Fall River Police Department was beginning its investigation. How would you describe the state of forensics in 1892? It was very primitive. I think in many ways it was the perfect time for somebody to potentially get away with a crime like this. Besides police, the Borden house was crowded with doctors, reporters, neighbors, and even several passersby. So anything really that was discovered at that crime scene was seriously compromised because we don't know when or by whom it was deposited.

14:55They take out pieces of carpet. They count bloodstains. They search for evidence, blood on any clothing. What they find, though, are more questions than answers. One fact is clear. Abby was killed before Andrew. His death was so recent that his injuries were noted to have been oozing wet liquid blood. He was also warm to the touch. On the other hand, Abby, who was upstairs, had matted, coagulated blood, dark blood on her injuries. She was also cold to the touch. Five days later, during a police inquest, Lizzie gives her version of what happened that morning. Five people wake up in the Borden house.

15:40Andrew and Abby Borden, Lizzie Borden, the housemaid, Bridget Sullivan, and Lizzie's uncle, John Morse. Andrew's brother-in-law, John Morse, visiting from out of town, was staying in the guest room. This is where John Morse had stayed the night before. We know that John Morse left in the morning to go visit other relatives in a different part of town. and Andrew Borden walked into the center of town to visit some of the buildings that he owned. Abby Borden went upstairs to clean up the guest room. Lizzie says that she was in the dining room. She was actually ironing. And Bridget Sullivan was outside washing windows when about 9.30 in the morning, police believe Abby Borden fell to the floor, murdered.

16:34Abby Borden was a short woman, but she weighed about 200 pounds. And did Lizzie hear anything at all? She claims not to have heard anything. According to Lizzie's testimony, Andrew returned home at 1045, greeting both the housekeeper and Lizzie, and then retired to that sitting room to take a nap on the couch. According to the medical examiner, 45 minutes later, Andrew Borden was also dead.

17:03Erin Moriarty:That was the opportunity right there. He's on that couch and he's sleeping. And there was your opportunity. Police were sure they had the when, but there was still the question of why. What was the motive? Lizzie may have given police that answer during the inquest. Lizzie and her sister, Emma, both really desired to live a way better life And they really resented their father for not providing that for them Andrew decided essentially to bail out his wife's half-sibling By buying a house and putting it in Abby's name And thereafter you find that the house is a scene of a cold war Clearly, Lizzie was not happy that that house was going to go to her stepmother's sister.

18:00But enough to provide a motive for that kind of vicious killing? They were brutal. Certainly brutal enough to mark the perpetrator with evidence.

18:11Erin Moriarty:I would think that there would definitely be blood on her. And yet... One of the most fascinating parts of this case is that except for around the bodies, there's no blood found anywhere. If in fact Lizzie Borden is the killer, how did she not have any blood spatter on her? Her neighbors said she was spotless. So where was the blood? Police searched the house and only found two instances of blood evidence. A minute spot on one of Lizzie's undergarments and a bucket of bloody cloths in the cellar washroom. Lizzie gave them a very personal explanation for both. She was menstruating. I think that was such a personal issue that, let's face it, who's going to challenge that?

18:59If we were to have that today, could we show, okay, is this Lizzie's blood or is it Andrew and Abby's blood? Also puzzling and very suspicious, Lizzie's choice to burn a dress in the kitchen stove the day after her father's funeral. Lizzie and Emma claimed that the dress had been stained with paint and it needed to be burned, and they thought that was as good a time as any. For me, the most valuable piece of evidence is the dress that Lizzie burned. If she's responsible for this, it would have blood from the victims on it, And that would be very difficult for Lizzie to explain. And with no dress, there was nothing to explain.

19:40It seemed the more they looked, the less investigators found. Until, down in the cellar, it's in here that the hatchet was found. A particular hatchet head was found in a box of abandoned tools. It became known as the handleless hatchet and would be a subject of debate for years to come. It only had a piece of a handle. And according to the police, it was a fresh break. This particular hatchet head almost looked like it had been deliberately covered with a layer of ash. It's about three and a half inches of a cutting blade. And that seemed consistent with the wounds on Andrew and Abby's body. She could have quickly rinsed off that hatchet head, thrown it in a pile of ash to obliterate any lingering blood, and then just tossed it in the cellar to make it look like an old piece of junk.

20:39Erin Moriarty:I mean, there are endless places in this house to hide stuff. If it was the murder weapon, police later discovered it might not have been Lizzie's first weapon of choice. Someone who was identified as Lizzie Borden tried to buy prussic acid the day before the murders. In 1892, prussic acid, a lethal poison, was only available with a doctor's prescription. The woman said that she needed it to put an edge on a sealskin cape. And we know that Lizzie Borden did in fact have sealskin capes. But the pharmacist said he never heard of it used that way and refused to sell it to her. And then because she was unable to get the poison, she turned instead to a readily available household implement.

21:29The hatchet. That's right. It would seem the police came to the same conclusion. At the close of the inquest, the chief of police placed Lizzie Borden under arrest for murder.

22:00On June 5th, 1893, 10 months after her arrest, Lizzie Borden sat in the Superior Court in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in this very chair on trial for murder. The first day of Lizzie Borden's trial attracted a massive crowd. Reporters were detailed from around the country. People waited for hours online. It was called the trial of the century, the 19th century. What I think is striking is that many of the people most interested in the case were women. But why? Why are these women willing to put aside their lives to attend the trial? This was the trial of a woman who seemed to have transcended the limits of her sex in such a violent way.

22:52The women, I think, were curious to see the monster. While they were welcome to watch, at the time, women were not allowed to sit on the jury. There won't be, in fact, women jurors until 1951 in Massachusetts. Despite the rigid standards of the times, the proceedings of the trial were surprisingly familiar to our consulting attorneys. From what I've read, you could take this trial transcript and put it into 2020, and it would basically be the same. Both the prosecutors and the defense attorneys came in with a lot of the same arguments that I would imagine today. In front of a panel of three judges and a jury of 12 men, the prosecutor began his opening statement with a simple premise.

23:43That Lizzie Borden is the only person with the opportunity and the motive to have committed the crimes. But it was how he wrapped up his open that stunned the courtroom. He alludes to the fact that he has the skulls of the victims. The actual heads of the victims in the courtroom? Yes. And Lizzie Borden responds by fainting.

24:13Over the next week, the jury hears from a parade of prosecution witnesses. The prosecution works very methodically and lays out the evidence. Evidence of who was killed first. If Andrew had been killed first, then automatically Abby's family will get part of the money where she's killed first. Everything is just for the girls. Evidence matching the skulls to the suspected murder weapon. To show that the dimensions of the injuries on the skull aligned with the dimensions of the most probable murder weapon, which was the hatchet. And testimony of Lizzie's ability to wield that hatchet. The medical experts all said that a woman of ordinary build and ordinary strength could have committed the murders.

25:08But there is one thing the judges don't allow the jury to hear. Some of the prosecution's best evidence is kept from the jury. Most notably, her alleged attempts to buy prussic acid before the murders. If she's out there getting poisoned, that is absolutely something the jury should consider when two people in her home were found dead the next day. Was it right to keep that out? As a defense attorney, sure, right? Hugely prejudicial, not really relevant. After nine days, the prosecution rests and Lizzie's defense team goes to work. The defense is much more interested in telling a story, that she's just an ordinary person caught in this unbelievably horrible situation.