Damn you, Discovery Channel...

[may_child]

...now I am interested in yet another notorious crime from a way-bygone era.

There I was, innocently channel-surfing, and then I landed on a Discovery channel program about Lizzie Borden. I've heard of her, of course; just about every self-respecting true crime fan or horror-phile (I'm the latter) has heard of Lizzie Borden, if not the ghoulish

Comments

[lazypadawan]

Lizzie is the only one in the picture who had anything to gain from the murders. She was an old maid by 1890s standards with no prospects and she felt she was entitled to a lifestyle that her father wouldn't provide for her. He was a live below your means kind of man. I've heard and read many alternate theories but I haven't been convinced that it could have been anyone else besides Lizzie. At the very least she had something to do with it if she wasn't actually the one wielding the ax.

But like the Jack the Ripper case or the Black Dahlia case, it's one of those things you'll never solve to everyone's satisfaction and it's way too late for justice to be done, at least not in this world.

[may_child]

Lizzie's sister Emma had something to gain from the murders; their father's sizable estate would be split between the two of them. However, even if Emma had something to do with the murders, IMO Lizzie was in all likelihood the one who actually committed them, and the one who masterminded the whole thing.

I agree that at this distance in time, it is impossible to solve the case to everyone's satisfaction.

[ghanistarkiller]

The saddest, most tragic thing about the whole thing (and I don't mean the murders because the Bordens were truly awful people and while I don't condone murder, boy do I understand why Lizzie would have done it) is that Emma never forgave Lizzie. She lived with her at Maplecroft for twelve or thirteen years, but--and they like to blame Lizzie's interest in the theater and her friends at the time--kind of cut ties after that and truly never publicly defended her sister. I think by the end of her life, she was extremely bitter about the whole thing.

Ann's best friend was obsessed with the case (and still is, I learned from Facebook, LOL!) in college, and I know it's definitely worth getting into because there's so many pieces of information hidden in cracks. Did you know that murder was already in Lizzie's family? Her... great uncle? Hm, I can't remember who it was but it was one of the only cases to use "spectral evidence" in a trial!