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 Based on transcripts of the Borden legal proceedings, contemporary newspaper accounts, unpublished local accounts, and recently unearthed letters from Lizzie herself, The Trial of Lizzie Borden is “a fast-paced, page-turning read” (Booklist, starred review)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

Most people could probably tell you that Lizzie Borden “took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks,” but few could say that, when tried, Lizzie Borden was acquitted, and fewer still, why. In Joseph A. Conforti’s engrossing retelling, the case of Lizzie Borden, sensational in itself, also opens a window on a time and place in American history and culture. Surprising for how much it reveals about a legend so ostensibly familiar, Conforti’s account is also fascinating for what it tells us about the world that Lizzie Borden inhabited. As Conforti—himself a native of Fall River, the site of the infamous murders—introduces us to Lizzie and her father and step-mother, he shows us why who they were matters almost as much to the trial’s outcome as the actual events of August 4, 1892. Lizzie, for instance, was an unmarried woman of some privilege, a prominent religious woman who fit the profile of what some characterized as a “Protestant nun.” She was also part of a class of moneyed women emerging in the late 19th century who had the means but did not marry, choosing instead to pursue good works and at times careers in the helping professions. Many of her contemporaries, we learn, particularly those of her class, found it impossible to believe that a woman of her background could commit such a gruesome murder. As he relates the details, known and presumed, of the murder and the subsequent trial, Conforti also fills in that background. His vividly written account creates a complete picture of the Fall River of the time, as Yankee families like the Bordens, made wealthy by textile factories, began to feel the economic and cultural pressures of the teeming population of native and foreign-born who worked at the spindles and bobbins. Conforti situates Lizzie’s austere household, uneasily balanced between the well-to-do and the poor, within this social and cultural milieu—laying the groundwork for the murder and the trial, as well as the outsize reaction that reverberates to our day. As Peter C. Hoffer remarks in his preface, there are many popular and fictional accounts of this still-controversial case, “but none so readable or so well-balanced as this.”

Employing a rich fund of shocking, never-before-published evidence, this tour de force of investigative journalism unmasks the real murderer of Andrew and Abby Borden--someone who has never previously been considered a suspect. "Highly recommended".--Booklist. Includes Lizzie Borden's testimony.

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.

Now, for the first time, this famous American crime is examined by someone with all the proper credentials: Victoria Lincoln is a native of Fall River and thus knows the never-revealed "inside" story of the crime

It certainly can be argued that the brutal killings of Andrew and Abby Borden in Fall River, Massachusetts, on August 4, 1892, was the first nationally reported murder case in the United States, other than presidential assassinations. The focus in The Case Against Lizzie Borden is on the murders and the victims. Lizzie Borden is an integral part of the book, but only as to her possible involvement in the crimes. The book was not undertaken with the notion to prove or disprove Lizzie's guilt, but rather to see where the facts might lead us.This book is based on witness statements and the sworn testimonies at the inquest, preliminary hearing, and trial. Censuses, birth, marriage and death records, and similar sources are also employed. We look at Fall River itself and how it played a role in the murders and how the ethos of the times affected the subsequent investigation, arrest, and trial. We delve into the lives of the victims, as well as those around them or who had connection to the case. The events of the case are presented in chronological order according to the statements of those involved. We see the natural progression of the case against Lizzie Borden and the drama that began on the day of the murders and only intensified over the subsequent ten months through the end of the trial. The Borden murders will never be solved conclusively. But herein the reader will have the information to be able to make his or her own determinations.