Lizzie Borden: Fall River Murders and Trial

Andrew Borden bought this house in 1872 and made it a single-family home. On 4 August 1892 his wife Abby was found dead in the upstairs guest room, and Andrew was found slumped on the sitting-room couch. The maid, Bridget Sullivan, heard Lizzie call out: "Father's dead! Somebody's come in and killed him!" The house number was 92 Second Street then; it became 230 in 1896. Today the house operates as a bed and breakfast, and has done since 1996, with tours.

Visitor guidance: Open as a bed and breakfast museum at 230 Second Street; check current tour times before you go.

Lizzie's trial took place in New Bedford, starting on 5 June 1893. When the skulls of the victims were shown in court, she fainted. The jury was sent out on 20 June, and it acquitted Lizzie Borden of the murders. Leaving the courthouse, she told reporters that she was "the happiest woman in the world". The trial has been compared to later landmark cases in press attention and public interest.

Location precision: The pin marks New Bedford city; the exact courthouse building is not identified in the sources used.

After the acquittal the Borden sisters moved to a large, modern house in The Hill neighborhood, which Lizzie called Maplecroft. They kept live-in maids, a housekeeper and a coachman. Even so, she was ostracized by Fall River society. In 1905 Emma moved out and never saw her sister again. Lizzie lived at Maplecroft until her death on 1 June 1927. It is a private house, so view it from the street, if at all.

Location precision: The pin marks French Street in Fall River; the sources place a house owned by Lizzie at the corner of French and Belmont Streets, not a verified building.

Lizzie's name returned to the headlines in 1897, when she was accused of shoplifting in Providence, Rhode Island. Around this time she had begun using the name Lizbeth A. Borden, and despite the acquittal Fall River society still shunned her. No store is named, so the pin marks the city where her notoriety resurfaced four years after the trial.

Location precision: The sources name only the city of Providence, not the store; the pin marks the city.

Lizzie died of pneumonia on 1 June 1927; funeral details were not published and few attended. She and her sister Emma were buried side by side in the family plot here. Andrew Borden and his wife Abby lie in the same cemetery, established in 1855 and entered through an arch of local Fall River granite. In her will Lizzie left $30,000 to the Fall River Animal Rescue League.

Visitor guidance: A city-run cemetery at 765 Prospect Street; ask for directions to the Borden plot if you visit.