On a hot summer day in August 1892, a double murder took place in Fall River, Massachusetts. Mr and Mrs Andrew Borden were killed in their own home by a person or persons unknown who attacked them with an axe or hatchet-type implement. As of today, the case is still unsolved and open. Many millions of words have been written about the events of that day, and people still go to the home (now a Bed and Breakfast) on Second Street and think about the bloody crime that happened there so long ago. This book will take you back to the crime scene and bring to light the name and face of the one who stood over those victims with a bloody hatchet in her hand -- Emma Borden! In folklore, however, it is Lizzie and not Emma that killed their father. Except for Professor Masterson who maintained Lizzie's innocence in his book "Lizzie Didn't Do It", with Elaine Watson, Emma Borden now takes centre stage. Did Emma do it?

WINNER OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY BOOK AWARD In Cara Robertson’s “enthralling new book,” The Trial of Lizzie Borden, “the reader is to serve as judge and jury” (The New York Times). Based on twenty years of research and recently unearthed evidence, this true crime and legal history is the “definitive account to date of one of America’s most notorious and enduring murder mysteries” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). When Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally hacked to death in Fall River, Massachusetts, in August 1892, the arrest of the couple’s younger daughter Lizzie turned the case into international news and her murder trial into a spectacle unparalleled in American history. Reporters flocked to the scene. Well-known columnists took up conspicuous seats in the courtroom. The defendant was relentlessly scrutinized for signs of guilt or innocence. Everyone—rich and poor, suffragists and social conservatives, legal scholars, and laypeople—had an opinion about Lizzie Borden’s guilt or innocence. Was she a cold-blooded murderess or an unjustly persecuted lady? Did she or didn’t she? An essential piece of American mythology, the popular fascination with the Borden murders has endured for more than one hundred years. Told and retold in every conceivable genre, the murders have secured a place in the American pantheon of mythic horror. In contrast, “Cara Robertson presents the story with the thoroughness one expects from an attorney…Fans of crime novels will love it” (Kirkus Reviews). Based on transcripts of the Borden legal proceedings, contemporary newspaper accounts, unpublished local accounts, and recently unearthed letters from Lizzie herself, The Trial of Lizzie Borden is “a fast-paced, page-turning read” (Booklist, starred review) that offers a window into America in the Gilded Age. This “remarkable” (Bustle) book “should be at the top of your reading list” (PopSugar).

With murder, court battles, and sensational newspaper headlines, the story of Lizzie Borden is compulsively readable and perfect for the Common Core. Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one. In a compelling, linear narrative, Miller takes readers along as she investigates a brutal crime: the August 4, 1892, murders of wealthy and prominent Andrew and Abby Borden. The accused? Mild-mannered and highly respected Lizzie Borden, daughter of Andrew and stepdaughter of Abby. Most of what is known about Lizzie’s arrest and subsequent trial (and acquittal) comes from sensationalized newspaper reports; as Miller sorts fact from fiction, and as a legal battle gets under way, a gripping portrait of a woman and a town emerges. With inserts featuring period photos and newspaper clippings—and, yes, images from the murder scene—readers will devour this nonfiction book that reads like fiction. A School Library Journal Best Best Book of the Year "Sure to be a hit with true crime fans everywhere." —School Library Journal, Starred

Annotation On 4 August 1892, an elderly couple living in Fall River, Massachusetts were slaughtered with a hatchet. Their daughter, Lizzie was accused of the crime, tried and acquitted. Yet 'conventional wisdom' and Fall River society have always considered her guilty, asking the question, "If Lizzie didn't swing the hatchet, who did?" Now, after more than a century. Professor Masterton uses modern forensics and extensive research to answer that question convincingly.

The full title of this near-contemporaneous account of the infamous Borden ax murders, written by journalist Edwin H. Porter, is The Fall River tragedy : a history of the Borden murders : A plain statement of the material facts pertaining to the most famous crime of the century, including the story of the arrest and preliminary trial of Miss Lizzie A. Borden and a full report of the Superior Court trial, with a hitherto unpublished account of the renowned Trickey-McHenry affair: Compiled from official sources and profusely illustrated with original engravings.

“One of America’s most notorious murder cases inspires this feverish debut” novel that goes inside the mind of Lizzie Borden (The Guardian). On the morning of August 4, 1892, Lizzie Borden calls out to her maid: Someone’s killed Father. The brutal ax-murder of Andrew and Abby Borden in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts, leaves little evidence and many unanswered questions. In this riveting debut novel, Sarah Schmidt reimagines the day of the infamous murders as an intimate story of a family devoid of love. While neighbors struggle to understand why anyone would want to harm the respected Bordens, those close to the family have a different tale to tell―of a father with an explosive temper, a spiteful stepmother, and two spinster sisters desperate for their independence. As the police search for clues, Lizzie’s memories of that morning flash in scattered fragments. Had she been in the barn or the pear arbor to escape the stifling heat of the house? When did she last speak to her stepmother? Were they really gone and would everything be better now? Shifting among the perspectives of the unreliable Lizzie, her older sister Emma, the housemaid Bridget, and the enigmatic stranger Benjamin, the events of that fateful day are slowly revealed through a high-wire feat of storytelling.