Lizzie Borden
Lizzie Borden was a small town Sunday School teacher who gained notoriety in 1893 as the accused murderer of her father and step-mother. A lifelong resident of Fall River, Massachusetts, Lizzie was tried and acquitted for the axe-murders of Andrew and Abby Borden in June of 1893, but the unusual nature of the crime led to a macabre children's rhyme that has since become more well-known than the case itself:
LIzzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one
The story goes that Andrew and Abby were chopped by an axe or hatchet multiple times on the morning of 4 August 1892, while the maid napped and Lizzie was -- she said -- in the barn. Speculation ever since has been fueled by the dramatic elements of the story: A community-oriented and respected woman (Lizzie) as the prime suspect; a resentful relationship with the step-mother, compounded by acrimony over finances; the brutal nature of the crime itself -- chopped to death by a hatchet or axe!; hints and rumors that the criminal investigation was ill-managed; and, significantly, the involvement of the then-new nationwide press. Although she was acquitted after a short trial (in which she did not testify), Borden was apparently shunned by the townsfolk during her remaining years in Fall River. Hobbyists and historians have examined the evidence for more than a century, but nobody really knows the truth.
Extra credit: Lizzie was 32 years-old at the time of the crime.