From the point after the murders and Lizzie’s acquittal, Lizzie lived a very plush lifestyle. Moving from the family home and site of the murders, into a newer more luxurious space with her sister, she was known to attend various plays and concerts in Boston. But her past certainly still haunted her, she was shunned from the social elite within Fall River due to all the circumstances surrounding her family’s demise, and she was even caught shoplifting in Rhode Island which at the time was extremely scandalizing.
It was even said that Lizzie and Emma, being the older woman they were without a husband, took in many animals to keep their household full and accompanied. Aka it sounds like Lizzie became the crazy cat lady she was always meant to be. That is until Lizzie and Emma had a falling out in 1905, causing Emma to move out of the house hold, and thus never seeing Lizzie again.
Lizzie died at the age of 66 in Fall River, Massachusetts of pneumonia on June 1st. 1927. But to this day her infamous legacy lives on, and it is said that she herself even lives on which is something I’ll get to a little further down the line.
Now as for me and my beliefs? Bish please that girl was guilty as all heck. There was no way she didn’t commit those murders. The only real thing I question is whether or not she truly acted alone or what other suspects may have secretly been involved. Overall I believe it was out of spite and the greed of inheritance, but some other theories would state some other intriguing cases. So lets hears a few.
The first theory claims that Lizzie did in fact kill her mother and father, but it wasn’t due to her longing to life a more lavished lifestyle, instead this theorist claims it was in a way a form of self defense. This theory claims that Andrew Borden would often times sexually assault and abuse Lizzie, and that incest ran within the household often. There was even a few theories that Lizzie and her uncle John were having an affair and plotted Andrew’s death together.
Another theory was that Maggie was completely involved in the murders and assisted
Lizzie in carrying them out. It was believed that at the time for Lizzie to be seen by investigators shortly after the murder took place in a clean gown would be extremely difficult to pull off on her own. Dresses at the time were extremely complicated and intricate, thus making it a prolonged process to get one on and off, especially within the time period Maggie noted between starting her nap and hearing Lizzie cry out. Theorist believe that Maggie assisted Lizzie in carrying out the murder by helping Lizzie change into a clean dress and hiding the blood stained one until it could be properly burned. Now the main question surrounding this theory is why? Why help? Some believe she was promised a some of the inheritance while others have a more romantic spin on the tale.
Some believe that Maggie and Lizzie were romantically involved, and were either caught by the Abby and Andrew or suspicions of the growing relationship were becoming
apparent. This would justify why Lizzie never married and chose to move back into the Borden household before the murders and why Maggie somehow didn’t heard Abby being hacked apart just a floor below her while she ‘rested.’ But what it does not answer is why Maggie would then move away shortly after the murders occurred or if she even got any piece in the inheritance the girls endowed. Then again Lizzie’s greed could have led to her decide against sharing her mass income with Maggie and ultimately ending their secret romance. There has even been a movie adaptation with Kirsten Stewart that portrays the theorized love between the pair.
The last main theories revolved around Lizzie having nothing to do with the murders at all. Investigators had John Morse as a suspect in the case for a period of time due to the fact that he rarely visited the family and just so happened to stay at the house the night prior to the murders. It was also said that he had a crystal clear alibi as to where he was at the time of Abby’s murder which seemed rather suspicious for how quickly he dished it out. The other idea was Maggie acted alone because she was enraged that the Borden’s had her cleaning the windows of the household on such a hot day that she went into a burst of rage. That one seems a little drastic to me honestly, I mean both do really.
ANYWAYS. Those are some of the key theories and plenty more can be found online if you find yourself in the mood to dive into a murderous googling wormhole later one. But for now we are going to see shortly how the legacy of the Borden House still lives on in Fall River to this day.
Toria's Tales 