Quick answer: Lizzie Borden was tried for the 1892 killings of her father, Andrew Borden, and stepmother, Abby Borden, but a jury acquitted her in 1893. The crime remains officially unsolved. Netflix’s Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story uses the real case as its foundation, yet the trailer presents an explicitly fictionalized Lizzie and supplies motives, relationships and actions that are not established historical facts.
That legal distinction matters. Lizzie became the case’s enduring suspect and defendant, but she was never convicted. A careful true-story comparison therefore has to separate what happened, what prosecutors alleged, what the defense challenged and what the Netflix drama imagines.
What happened in the Lizzie Borden case?
On August 4, 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were killed inside the family home at 92 Second Street in Fall River, Massachusetts. The available timeline placed Abby’s death earlier in the morning. Andrew returned home later and was found dead in a downstairs sitting room shortly after 11 a.m. The details are grim, but they do not need to be repeated to understand why the case became a national sensation.
Lizzie Borden was at the house that morning, as was the family’s live-in maid, Bridget Sullivan. Lizzie called Sullivan downstairs after finding Andrew. Abby’s body was discovered upstairs soon afterward. Lizzie’s older sister, Emma, was away from home, while the Bordens’ guest John Morse had left after breakfast.
Investigators increasingly focused on Lizzie. They questioned her account of spending time in the barn while Andrew was killed, her uncertainty about Abby’s whereabouts and inconsistencies in her inquest answers. A family friend, Alice Russell, later testified that she saw Lizzie burn a blue dress several days after the killings. Lizzie said it was stained with old paint.
Those circumstances fueled suspicion, but suspicion is not a verdict. Police did not produce a murder weapon conclusively tied to Lizzie. Witnesses did not report incriminating blood on the dress she wore that morning, and no one testified to seeing her attack either victim.
Why was Lizzie Borden acquitted?
Lizzie’s trial opened on June 5, 1893, before three judges and a jury of 12 men. The prosecution argued that she had motive and opportunity. It relied on the disputed family tensions, her shifting statements, the dress-burning episode and the claim that no outsider could reasonably have entered, committed both crimes and escaped unnoticed.
The defense exposed serious gaps. There was no direct eyewitness, no weapon connected to Lizzie and no clear trail of physical evidence. It also challenged the prosecution’s narrow timeline and offered testimony about strangers seen near the house and recent activity in the barn loft.
Two evidentiary rulings weakened the state’s case. The judges excluded Lizzie’s contradictory inquest testimony because she had effectively been treated as a prisoner without the protections she should have received. They also excluded testimony that she had allegedly tried to buy prussic acid the day before the killings.
After roughly 90 minutes of deliberation, the jury returned a not-guilty verdict. That acquittal is the case’s legal endpoint. It does not identify another killer, and it does not authorize later storytellers to present an unproven allegation as settled history.
What does Netflix’s Monster change?
Netflix is not presenting a documentary reconstruction. Ella Beatty, who plays Lizzie, describes the production’s character as a “very fictionalized version” of the real woman. The trailer and Netflix’s preview frame that character as trapped by Andrew and Abby, drawn into an illicit affair with the new maid, Maggie, and pushed by Maggie toward murder.
That is a dramatic interpretation, not the established record. The historical maid was Bridget Sullivan, who was also called Maggie, but the surviving trial account does not establish that she and Lizzie were lovers. It does not establish that Sullivan encouraged the killings, selected a weapon with Lizzie or participated in a plan.
| Question | Established record | Netflix trailer framing |
|---|---|---|
| Was Lizzie legally found guilty? | No. She was acquitted. | The series depicts its fictionalized Lizzie as the killer. |
| Who were the victims? | Her father Andrew and stepmother Abby. | Charlie Hunnam and Rebecca Hall play Andrew and Abby. |
| Who was the maid? | Bridget Sullivan, also known as Maggie. | Vicky Krieps plays Maggie as Lizzie’s lover and an instigating force. |
| Is that affair established history? | No reliable trial record establishes it. | It is central to the show’s character story. |
| Is the killer known? | No. The case remains unsolved. | The drama chooses a specific culprit and motive. |
The most important change is therefore not a small date or costume detail. It is certainty. The historical case ends with an acquittal and unanswered questions. The Netflix story builds a psychologically specific protagonist, a romance and a path to violence so that its season has a definite dramatic arc.
Was there evidence of family conflict?
There was testimony pointing in different directions. Some witnesses described friction between Lizzie and Abby. One dressmaker recalled Lizzie speaking harshly about her stepmother, and property transfers within the family were presented as a possible source of resentment. Other testimony was less damaging. Bridget Sullivan said she had not witnessed the ugly relationship rumored outside the home, while Emma defended Lizzie’s relationships with both Andrew and Abby.
The split testimony is useful because it shows why a prestige drama can find several possible stories in the same file. It does not prove Netflix’s version. Household resentment, even if real, is not proof of murder, and it does not establish the sexual relationship or manipulation shown in the trailer.
What happened to Lizzie after the trial?
After her acquittal, Lizzie returned to Fall River. She and Emma bought a larger house they called Maplecroft. Lizzie attended the theatre and associated with actors and artists. Emma moved out in 1905, but Lizzie remained at Maplecroft until her death in 1927. She was buried in the family plot at Oak Grove Cemetery near Andrew and Abby.
The courtroom cleared her, but public fascination never did. The rhyme that turned the case into folklore exaggerated even the number of blows, a reminder that the popular Lizzie has always been a simplified character built over a complicated record.
How to watch Monster without confusing drama and history
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story arrives on Netflix on September 17, 2026. Watch it as a fictionalized interpretation of an unresolved case, not as a verdict the real jury failed to reach. Ella Beatty’s performance can explore a character created for television while the historical Lizzie remains a woman acquitted of the charges against her.
Netflix currently labels the series TV-MA. Families deciding whether it suits their household can use our guide to Netflix maturity ratings and parental controls. Readers interested in another careful history-versus-drama comparison can also see what Oppenheimer takes from the historical record.
Lizzie Borden true story FAQ
Was Lizzie Borden convicted of murder?
No. A jury found Lizzie Borden not guilty in 1893 after she was tried for the killings of Andrew and Abby Borden.
Who actually killed Andrew and Abby Borden?
The killer was never legally identified. Lizzie was the defendant, but she was acquitted, and the case remains unsolved.
Was Lizzie Borden romantically involved with Bridget Sullivan?
No established historical record proves a romance. Netflix uses that relationship as part of its explicitly fictionalized story.
Is Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story a documentary?
No. It is a fictionalized season of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s anthology series, built around the real 1892 case.
When is Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story on Netflix?
The series premieres on Netflix on September 17, 2026.