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The Fall River Historical Society maintains the world's largest
collection of artifacts relating to the life and trial of Miss Lizzie
A. Borden, defendant in one of the most famous murder cases in American
history. Miss Borden, the thirty-two-year-old spinster daughter
of prominent Fall River businessman Andrew Borden, was accused of
the vicious murders of both her father and his second wife, Abby.
In August of 1892, the two were found brutally slain in their Fall
River home, their skulls smashed and shattered by what was later
determined to be a hatchet-like weapon. The sensational trial which
followed made headlines worldwide; it is considered to be the crime
of that century. Although Miss Borden was eventually acquitted of
both murders, even today the very mention of Lizzie's name can provoke
a heated, passionate debate…did she or didn't she?
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The saga of Lizzie Borden has never ended. A number of plays, musicals
and even an opera have been penned about her. The A&E Television
Network produced an hour-long Lizzie BIOGRAPHY (available on VHS
from our museum shop) and both the Discovery and History Channels
have produced programs about her life. From the Broadway musical
NEW FACES OF 1952 came the song "You Can't Chop Your Papa up
in Massachusetts" and, of course, who doesn't remember the
infamous rhyme "Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother
forty whacks…."
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It's all here
for you to see: the handleless hatchet, her prison lunch pail, the
police photographs taken at the scene of the crime, the billy club
the arresting officer carried, the pillow shams from the bedroom
that Abby was murdered in, the photographs of Andrew and Abby's
crushed skulls introduced as evidence, the braided hairpiece that
Abby was wearing when she was so nefariously attacked…and enough
material in our archive to attract historians, scholars, playwrights,
researchers and filmmakers from the far corners of the globe.
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For anyone
interested in the Borden case, the collection at the Fall River
Historical Society is a must-see. After all, when it comes to the
evidence and actual courtroom exhibits, we have it all. Examine
the evidence and decide for yourself: "Guilty" or "Not
Guilty."
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| Click HERE
for a chronological list of events in the Borden Case |
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