Netflix’s Monster anthology is back. After dramatizing the cases of Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers, creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan are turning their focus to America’s original true-crime sensation: Lizzie Borden.
The series, Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, brings a fresh lens to the infamous August 1892 double homicide that has puzzled historians for over a century.
The Grisly Reality of 1892
Most people know the classic schoolyard rhyme: "Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks..."
But the historical reality is slightly different. The weapon was actually a light hatchet, and the victim count was far lower. On a hot summer morning in Fall River, Massachusetts, someone brutally murdered 64-year-old Abby Borden, Lizzie's stepmother. Roughly an hour later, her father, a wealthy but notoriously miserly real estate developer named Andrew Borden, was hacked 11 times while resting on his living room sofa.
Only Lizzie, then 32, and the family maid, Bridget Sullivan, were inside the house during the timeline of the murders. While Lizzie claimed she was elsewhere, her inconsistent alibis, an attempt to buy lethal prussic acid the day before, and her burning of a blue dress just days after the killings quickly made her the prime suspect.
Why Lizzie Was Acquitted
Despite a mountain of circumstantial evidence, Lizzie’s June 1893 trial ended in a full acquittal.
According to historian Joseph Conforti, Lizzie’s defense team masterfully played to Victorian gender biases before an all-male jury. She appeared in court tightly corseted, dressed in flowing black clothes, holding a fan and a bouquet of flowers—presenting herself as a helpless maiden incapable of "feral" depravity.
Because the murder weapon was never recovered and the suspicious pharmacy visit was ruled inadmissible, she walked free. However, she lived the rest of her life shunned under a cloud of local suspicion.
What Netflix’s 'Monster' Explores
While past Hollywood adaptations have painted Lizzie as either a cold-eyed sociopath or a victim of patriarchal abuse, Netflix’s version stars Ella Beatty and aims to dissect "female rage" within the constraints of Victorian society.
In a unique creative twist, the season also features Sarah Paulson as 1990s Florida highway serial killer Aileen Wuornos. By weaving these two disparate timelines together, the show explores how female violence manifests across different eras, asking whether these "monsters" were born or made by their circumstances.
