Lizzie Borden

A hot morning in Fall River, a burned dress, and the most famous acquittal in America.

Andrew Borden was one of the wealthiest men in Fall River, and one of the most careful with money. On a sweltering August morning in 1892 he and his second wife, Abby, were killed in their own home. The only people known to be in or around the house were the family's maid, Bridget Sullivan, and Andrew's 32-year-old daughter, Lizzie.

The puzzle

Lizzie said she had been out in the barn looking for fishing weights when her father was attacked. Her accounts of the morning shifted under questioning. The day before, a druggist said, a woman he identified as Lizzie had tried to buy prussic acid, and been refused.

What happened next

Lizzie Borden's trial in June 1893 was a national sensation. Much of the prosecution's best evidence was ruled inadmissible, no bloodstained clothing or certain weapon was ever produced, and the jury acquitted her in about an hour and a half.

She stayed in Fall River, bought a larger house, and lived there until her death in 1927, largely shunned by local society. No one else was ever charged.

Why it still fascinates

A skipping-rhyme made her name immortal, and the house is now a museum. Whether she did it, and how she could have without being seen, has been argued over in books, plays and an opera ever since.