48 Hours - Lizzie Borden: Part 1 | My Life of Crime with Erin Moriarty

Episode Date: September 21, 2026

Erin Moriarty takes us to Fall River, Massachusetts, where one of the most sensational crimes of the 19th century took place. The crime inspired the dark nursery rhyme “Lizzie Borden took an ax and gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41."Despite what everyone thinks they know, there is a stunning verdict in the case. In part 1 of this unusual road trip, Erin takes us to the scene of the crime - the house where the murders took place is now The Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast/Museum. We learn about the Borden family and what happened on that fateful day in August of 1892. It was a brutal crime scene and there are actual death photos hanging in the house. Erin will spend the night here. She is looking for a motive, evidence and maybe a ghost or two.This episode from "My Life of Crime with Erin Moriarty" first aired on September 13, 2019. For more episodes like this one, follow "My Life of Crime with Erin Moriarty" wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, 48 hours listeners. It's Aaron Moriarty. As you may know, true crime fans are once again being introduced to the story of Lizzie Borden, the Massachusetts woman who was once acquitted of the hatchet murder of her parents in 1892. In 2019, we covered the Borden case in a two-part series in the first season of my 48 hours podcast series, My Life of Crime, with Aaron Moriarty. Here's part one in its entirety. And be sure to follow the series, My Life of Crime with Aaron Moriarty, wherever you get your podcast. Lizzie Borden took an ass and gave her mother 40 whack. When she seen, when she had that, she gave her father 41.

This is Abby's autopsy photo. I mean, we're talking about that's inside her skull. So you're struck in the back of the head 17 times. Andrew was struck 11 times in the face. I'm Aaron Moriarty 48 hours, and this is my life of crime. So I'm on a train on the way to Fall River, Massachusetts. Now, if that name sounds familiar, it's because Fall River is where one of the most sensational crimes of the 19th century took place. in the vernacular of the day, one of the most dastardly and diabolical crimes of the 19th century.

Lizzie Borden took an ax and gave her mother 41. If all you know is what is the Lizzie Borden nursery rhyme. When she seen, when she had that, she gave her father 41. Then you don't know anything. That's what we've been learning as we decided we were going to reinventing. investigate the Lizzie Borden case. Did she do it? Did she not? And I thought I knew everything about the Lizzie Borden case from that nursery rhyme. It turns out it was completely wrong. Charles Osgood, you may remember him from CBS Radio, can help set the stage for us, as he did for a

Sunday morning piece back in 2002. Andrew Borden, a leading businessman, was found murdered on his downstairs sofa, the victim of multiple blows to the head. His second wife, Abby, was found murdered in similar fashion upstairs. On the basis of largely circumstantial evidence, 32-year-old Lizzie Borden was arrested and charged with her father and stepmother's deaths. The murders actually occurred in August of 1892. Think about that. And yet what's odd is, who hasn't heard the name, Lizzie Borden? 127 years. years later, 127 years. Her name has become part of the popular culture. Outing, sonny. Yesterday and old Four River, Mr. Andrew Barton died. Now they got his daughter

Lizzie on a charge of home side. You're listening to Ronnie Graham. Others say, of course she did. He's singing in the film New Faces of 1954. Now, I don't remember that movie. You probably don't either, but you can't chop your papa up in Massachusetts, not even if it's planned as a surprise. Now, I don't remember that movie. You probably don't either, but you You may remember Elizabeth Montgomery. She was the witch from Bewitched. She also played Lizzie in a TV movie, The Legend of Lizzie Borton, back in 1975.

Mrs. Churchill, do come in. Someone has killed father. And more recently, Chloe Seventy played her in a 2018 film named Simply Enough Lizzie. To your nose. Which did your father have any enemies? This is America, sir. Every man with the pulse has enemies.

With so much written about Lizzie, what's left to learn? I have a feeling we may have some surprises for you. So let's start. First, I need to separate fact from fiction. So like any good reporter, I'm actually going to take you to the scene of the crime. Believe it or not, The real Lizzie Borden house, where she grew up, still exists. And it doesn't just exist.

It's actually a bed and breakfast. And here's the best part. We're all going to spend the night there. The actual Lizzie Borden house is kind of nondescripted. It's a frame house right across from a courthouse in Fall River. It's painted, dark green. It looks like any other mid-19th century. house, green shutters, green paint, two stories, but the side door is what they still use.

When you go into the dining room, you definitely go back in time. Inside, the rooms are small, with flowery wallpaper everywhere. There are delicate white lace curtains and tablecloths and armchairs covered in dark blue velvet. None of the original furniture actually exists. just reproductions. And there is now electricity in the house, and that was something the Bordons didn't have.

In the cramp kitchen, we find Rick Bertoldo. He's a tour guide. If you're crazy enough to want to spend the night in a house where two people were brutally murdered, Rick is more than happy to show you around. How many people come and spend the night here? Oh God, over the years, and we've had thousands of people from all over the world.

And are there some people who leave in the middle of the night? Well, quite often. We actually have a sign in the gift shop right near the register. There's no refunds for early departure. Time for a little honesty. In my career at 48 hours, I have never spent the night in a house, let alone slept in a room where a homicide has taken place. And as you can imagine, I'm getting very creeped out here. What do I face tonight?

We're spending the night. alone in the Lizzie Borden house where two people were brutally murdered. I'm sleeping in the room where one of them was chopped up. Can I say? Keep the doors locked. Okay. So let's go back to August 4, 1892. To best tell the story, we've turned to Kara Robertson.

You must be Kara Robertson. Hi. Nice to meet you. Very nice meeting you. And thank you for doing this. It's my pleasure. Kara is a lawyer. She first began researching the Lizzie Borden case nearly 30 years ago when she was a Harvard

undergraduate, and she just couldn't let go of the story. She just finished a nearly 400-page book called The Trial of Lizzie Borden. How would you describe Lizzie Borden how she looked who she was? Lizzie Borden was pretty average-looking. Attractive? Perfectly fine-looking. not particularly glamorous. Many of the people who retell the story

in a fictional way, whether it's film or theater, like to glamorize her and make a romance out of the story. But as the reporters at the trial noted, that she was about medium size, medium height, she had a very strong jaw. That was one of her noteworthy qualities. And Lizzie was also, at age 32, unmarried, as was her older sister Emma, who was 41.

They live with their dad, Andrew Borden, and they live with Abby Borden, who was actually their stepmom. Andrew married Abby after the girl's mother died when Lizzie was just two. And there was also the family's Irish maid, Bridget Sullivan. They were all living under one roof in that modest, not particularly happy, Victorian home.

Andrew Borden was a self-made man, but he was descended from one of the founding families of Fall River. So he had some claim to social status beyond his actual wealth. But he was known to be a miser, someone who was a lot more interested, as one journalist put it, in piling up dollars than in spending them. And it was thought that his daughters, Emma, and particularly Lizzie, resented not being able to live in a higher style.

Emma, however, was out of town, on that August morning in 1892. It was around 11 a.m. just before lunch when Lizzie says she discovered her dad dead on a couch in the dining room. He had been hit several times in the face with an axe. Andrew was struck 11 times in the face. And one of them was so severe,

it splits his eye socket right in half his eye popped out of her son's cheek. Hopefully that was the first strike. You probably never even knew it hit him. That's Rick Bertoldo, our tour guide again. He's so anxious to describe what happened that day in the room where we're standing that he shows me actual photos taken by investigators. I'm not kidding.

There are real death photos hanging in the house, and not just of Andrew, but also of his wife Abby. This is Abby's autopsy photo. Most of your injuries at the back of her. head so they shaved the back of her head. Wait a minute, what am I, what am I seeing here? This is the back of Abby's head. I mean, we're talking about that's inside her skull.

Correct. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Because as it turns out, shortly after finding Andrew Borden dead, his wife Abby was also discovered. She was on the floor of the guest bedroom. She had also been hit with an axe. She was struck in the back of the head 17 times.

She was caught completely off God by this person that she actually knew. So whoever killed her, she knew this person. And what makes you say that? She wasn't afraid of that person. Right. Oh, because it was someone in the room with her. Right. But then you're saying, Rick, it had to be...

Someone she knew. Either Lizzie? It's got to be either a family member or somebody else that she knew. Okay, let me clear something up here. Abby had actually been killed before Andrew, maybe an hour before, according to investigators who found the blood around her head congealed. Somebody who was really angry? It certainly looked like a, yeah, passion. I think Abby's murder probably took only seconds.

It was that quick. It was that brutal. So there were only three people then. If you believe it's someone she knows. So it either had to be John Morse, right? Mm-hmm. Bridget Sullivan. Mm-hmm.

Or Lizzie Bort. Mm-hmm. What I find very interesting at this point is that clearly our tour guide isn't convinced that Lizzie is the killer. One of the first suspects was John Morse. He was Lizzie's uncle. And he had been in the house the night before. But on the day of the murders, he had an alibi. So the police cleared him.

And then remember Bridget Sullivan, she was the family's Irish maid. She was also known as Maggie. It turns out she had been outside talking to the maid who lived next door. So police also cleared her. It leaves Lizzie. Lizzie would have had plenty of time to kill Abby, to clean up, put on a dress, and even go out for a walk. But Andrew's murder, it's only minutes after Lizzie discovers her father's body

that there are witnesses here in the house. Mrs. Churchill, the next-no neighbor, she arrives within two to three minutes. When Dr. Bone arrives, the blood is still seeping from Andrew's wounds. And yet, Lizzie has no blood on her whatsoever. Doesn't even look like she washed the blood off. And that's the thing that's really intriguing about it is, how could she have done this and not getting any blood on her? She didn't have the time to clean up.

And the other strange thing about this case that nobody ever talks about, both murder scenes, there's no trail of blood leaving the scene of the crime. Whoever did this in both murders cleaned up right after themselves. That's why the police believed it was the same person that committed both murders. Because in both situations, there's no trail of blood leaving the scene of the crime. Whoever did this cleaned up right then and there. This lack of a blood trail is really one of the most perplexing parts of this case. Because not a trace of blood was found on Lizzie.

So think about this. How could she hit her dad? all those times and not be covered with blood spatter. Do you want to hear Lizzie's alibi? Andrew's murder? This is what Lizzie says. She says that she was in the barn at the time that her dad sat down on this couch to take a nap. Correct.

And at this point then, the owner of the Lizzie Borden bed and breakfast joins us. Her name is Leanne Wilburne. And if you ask her who killed Andrew and Abby Borden, here's her response. After being here in this house for so long, knowing what I do about the case, you flip back and forth every once in a while. You'll read something new that you haven't read before and go, there's no way she could have done it.

And then you turn around and you look back at the house and you go, how could she had not? But on the other hand, there wasn't a lot of time between when she, quote-unquote, discovers her dad and then the police are called and there's no blood found on her. They never found blood-soaked dresses. And she would have had to be, if she was the one who was wielding that hatchet on her set mom and her dad, wouldn't she have had to have blood spatter on her? The eternal question, where did the blood go?

Now that's not the only question I have for Leanne. You know, I understand and couldn't even see why she might have turned the Lizzie Bourne's house into a museum because this case obviously continues to fascinate 127 years later. But what I don't get, a bed and breakfast? Why is it? Why do people want to stay here? You don't have any trouble running out rooms here to you. No. I mean, there are times you're full, completely booked and have to turn people away. Have you ever encountered anything you really couldn't explain in this house? Oh yeah Yes

Like what? I was sleeping in Bridget's room one night And I had my tea I had my book I'm in bed Turned the light off, I went to sleep Now in Bridget's room To the left of her bed is this child's rocking chair

And when I woke up in the morning The chair had moved around to the right Of the bed and was facing me Like it was watching me sleep all night The chair moved. Yes. Or someone moved the chair. Either way, it was not where I had left it when I went to bed.

Oh, my gosh. What room were you in? I'm in the room that Abby was killed in. Oh, good, you took my suggestion. Yes. Why? Why? Will there be anything I see?

No, no, no. You just, I think he, you seemed a little hesitant. So I was like, oh, put her in the murder room. Of course, of course. Put the one who's most scared in the murder room. You will be fine. So at this point, I say my good nights, grab my overnight bag, and head for the hallway. I don't think I'm going to get a lot of sleep tonight.

Check back for my next podcast, Part 2, to see what happened. I'm Erin Moriarty 48 hours. and that's my life of crime. This podcast series is developed by 48 hours in partnership with CBS News Radio. Judy Tigardt is our executive producer. Nancy Kramer is our executive story editor. Mike Fulet, the series producer editor. This episode was produced by Luis Haraldo, Jamie Halman, and Tamara Weitzman.

Morgan Canty and Emma Steele are our associate producers. Craig Swagler, the Vice President and General Manager of CBS News Radio. Charles E. Pavlunis is the Executive Vice President of Business Development and the CFO of CBS News. A special thanks to our guests, Kara Robertson and the team of the Lizzie Borden bed and breakfast. Finally, a shout out to all of you, our fans. We owe it to you. The millions of fans of 48 hours in the U.S. and around the world. Don't forget to join me online. I am at EF Moriarty on Twitter, and we are at 48 hours on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Tune in to CBS News every Saturday night at 10 p.m. Eastern as we begin, believe it or not, our 33rd season of Crime and Justice original reporting on 48 hours.