The Mystery of Lizzie Borden – Dale’s Daily Data [VIDEO]

Lizzie Borden took an axe,

And gave her mother forty whacks;

When she saw what she had done,

She gave her father forty-one.

Even though a jury found her innocent of killing her parents, the suspicions followed Lizzie Borden until the day she died.  She was accused of killing her elderly, wealthy parents in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts.  Her father’s head had been split in half.  Her mother was savagely beaten.

Lizzie was the only other person in the house at the time of the murders, so police immediately suspected her and because it was such a gruesome crime, it attracted national attention.

Police in Europe were using fingerprints to solve crimes at that time, but the reliability of it was questioned in this country, so police never tested for prints on the murder weapon - a hatchet - found in the basement.  The prosecution tried to prove that Lizzie burned a dress similar to the one she was wearing on the day of the murders and bought a small axe the day before.  But Lizzie was so sweet-looking the jury took only 90 minutes to decide she could never have committed such a horrible crime.

She never married and when she died, Lizzie was buried in the family plot next to her parents.  It was on this day, August 4^th, 1892, that Lizzie Borden allegedly took that axe and began whacking away.