She’s one of the most notorious true-crime figures ever to live, infamously known for murdering her father and stepmother via several blows to the head with a hatchet in 1892. Yet Lizzie Borden was actually acquitted of the killings, and the case, largely considered the crime of the 19th century, remains unsolved to this day. In the court of public opinion, though, Lizzie has long been deemed guilty – so much so that a popular children’s rhyme has been inexorably linked to her ever since the deaths. Mention her name to virtually anyone and they’ll likely retort back, “Lizzie Borden took an ax and gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one.”
The rhyme, though catchy, plays a bit loosey-goosey with the facts. In truth, on the morning of August 4, 1892, Abby Borden, Lizzie’s stepmother of 27 years, was struck 18 to 19 times while Andrew was hit 11. But, as noted by a Quora commenter, “That doesn’t rhyme and you can’t skip rope to that!” The couple was killed in their home, a three-story Greek Revival located in Fall River, Massachusetts, about 50 miles south of Boston. Abby was butchered in an upstairs guest room while she was dusting and Andrew in his lower-level sitting room while napping. Lizzie, then 32, and the family’s housekeeper, Bridget Sullivan, were the only other people home at the time and Lizzie quickly emerged the sole suspect. Though there was no real evidence against her, Lizzie had famously longed for a more upscale life than the one her wealthy, spendthrift father provided. She was also known to have a strained relationship with her stepmother and she was seen burning a dress in the days following the murders, leaving many to wonder if she was getting rid of evidence.
But none of that was enough to convict Borden. A panel of 12 male jurors ultimately acquitted her after a two-week trial and Lizzie walked out of jail a free woman on June 20, 1893, though her name continues to live on in infamy. Even now, almost 130 years after the murders, Lizzie is still proving newsworthy! Case in point – two houses related to her have recently hit the market, setting tongues wagging.
In April, the residence where the murders occurred, which has operated as a bed and breakfast since 1996, sold to US Ghost Adventures owner Lance Zaal for $2 million after a scant few months on the market. And the grand Victorian where Lizzie moved with her older sister, Emma, following her acquittal is also looking for a new owner. Located just over a mile north of the murder house at 306 French St. in a fashionable neighborhood known as “the Hill,” the dwelling, dubbed Maplecroft, comes with an $890,000 price tag. (Please remember this is a private home. Do not trespass or bother the residents or the property in any way.) Knowing the mass interest that anything Lizzie-related generates, listing agent Suzanne St. John of Century 21 Platinum is asking for “serious inquiries only.”
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Image Credit: Realtor.com The house is being sold fully furnished by Donald Woods, the prior owner of the murder house, who purchased it in 2018 and renovated it to the tune of $200,000. Though the initial idea was to turn it into a sister bed and breakfast, the Covid-19 pandemic derailed those plans and Woods instead opted to retire, leaving Maplecroft available for purchase once again.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com A stunning example of turn-of-the-century Victorian architecture, the residence is precisely the sort of place Lizzie was looking to upgrade to following her acquittal. As detailed by author Rebecca F. Pittman in her 2016 book “The History & Haunting of Lizzie Borden,” “On January 22, 1894, Lizzie and Emma submitted ‘the first and final account’ of Andrew J. Borden’s estate, valued at between $300,000 to $500,000. In today’s dollars, it amounted to close to $14 million. The Borden ladies were wealthy and able to do as they pleased. And what they wanted most, especially Lizzie, was to move away from the tainted house on Second Street, and up to Fall River’s echelon of wealth and power: ‘the Hill.’”
The sisters purchased the 1887 Queen Anne on August 10, 1893 for $13,000. The dwelling was only six years old at the time and far more luxurious than the pad they had called home when their father and stepmother were alive, which lacked indoor plumbing, a major point of contention for Lizzie.
The new house featured a whopping four bathrooms complete with standalone clawfooted tubs, a luxury which Lizzie and Emma relished! Pittman writes, “There would be no more hip baths in front of the stove on Sunday morning; pouring hot water from a tea kettle into a metal tub. They ran their fingers over the porcelain surface of the sides, turned the faucets on and off, luxuriating in the feeling of hot running water.”
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Image Credit: Realtor.com Other luxe “modern” amenities that greeted the sisters on moving day? Pressed tin and coffered ceilings, handsome walnut wainscotting, inlaid parquet flooring, stained glass windows, six fireplaces (all with carved mantels) and, per Pittman, a kitchen “fitted with all the newest equipment” and an icebox with a “small door behind it where the iceman could deliver the ice from outside, without bothering the resident.”
Incredibly, the vast majority of those original elements – including the exterior icebox door! – are still intact today, 134 years after the property’s construction! Even many of the doorknobs remain in place from the time that Lizzie resided there!
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Image Credit: Realtor.com The abode also provided the sisters with plenty of room. Along with the four baths, the spacious digs boast seven bedrooms in 3,935 square feet, all of it sumptuously appointed. Victorian through and through, the living spaces feature rich velvet drapery and patterned wallpaper galore, some of it dating back to Lizzie’s day!
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Image Credit: Realtor.com During her tenure, Borden expanded the house, adding an entire rear section to the property in 1909 complete with a back porch and second-level room.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com Borden, who by then had taken to calling herself “Lizbeth,” also expanded her acreage on several occasions, sometimes to the detriment of her neighbors who weren’t exactly fans of the one-time murder suspect. Pittman writes, “Lizzie was making enemies throughout ‘the Hill,’ with her poison pen letters and overt actions. The first head to roll was Mr. James Kenney, who lived in the home to the east of her. Lizzie’s letters to the gentleman, asking him to sell or ‘shut up’ his dog, as well as wrangle his stray hens, culminated in her asking the man to move his entire house! She bought his home, through her agent Charles Cook, rented it back to Kenney, and then asked him to move it away so she could own the lot next to her and have ‘the space.’” James eventually complied and today Maplecroft’s oversized leafy lot measures a broad 0.41 acres and features a detached three-car garage that Borden commissioned in 1911.
Lizzie is also said to have erected numerous “spite fences” on her land as a result of disputes with neighbors, many of which currently still line the property.
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Image Credit: Lavonna Foster The Maplecroft name also came courtesy of Lizzie, who had calling cards and stationery embossed with “Lizbeth of Maplecroft” made in 1908, likely a nod to the maple trees that once dotted the grounds. The following year, Lizzie had the moniker carved into the top step leading up to the home. It was an amateur move for someone so hounded by the press, as Borden continued to be up until her death. As Pittman writes, “Unfortunately, Fall River, and especially her neighbors on ‘the Hill,’ found the chiseled name not only ostentatious but a grievous mistake. Now every curiosity seeker traveling up the tony streets in search of the famous Lizzie Borden’s home would know exactly where to find her.”
Emma wound up moving out of the property in 1905 and Lizzie lived out her final years in relative solitude and seclusion (aside from the lookie-loos who regularly stopped by), finally passing away from pneumonia at Maplecroft on June 1, 1927, at the age of 66. Incredibly, Emma died just nine days later from chronic nephritis.
According to Jerry Pacheco, operations manager of the bed and breakfast, Maplecroft has been the site of quite a bit of paranormal activity over the years – even more so than the murder house – leading many to believe that Lizzie might have chosen to spend eternity on the premises, forever wandering the halls of the place she viewed as her sanctuary.
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Image Credit: Travel Channel As such, paranormal investigators Adam Berry and Amy Bruni were called in to study Maplecroft for an episode of their series “Kindred Spirits” after employees reported “being grabbed, doors slamming and hearing disembodied voices” while at the property. At the end of their analysis, which was documented in the season three episode titled “The Search for Lizzie Borden,” Adam concluded, “Bottom line – 100 percent we found the ghost of Lizzie Borden.”
Amy even had some advice pertinent to visitors and potential buyers alike. At the end of the episode, she eerily counseled, “It’s all on the people who come in here to handle it respectfully, know where her headspace is, know that Lizbeth Borden is in this house.”