The Guilty: The Murder Of Lizzie Borden

Superior Essays
Lizzie Borden was acquitted from the murder case of her father and step mother, this left the case an unsolved mystery for almost one hundred and twenty four years. No other suspects of this murder were ever found or at least never brought to court. This means that Lizzie Borden was the only person that anyone thought may have committed this crime. These murders took place on August 4, 1892 and Lizzie Borden was found not guilty by 1893 and fulfilled the rest of her life normally. The Lizzie Borden verdict was incorrect because Lizzie Borden was the only one home at the time of the murders, and her behavior before and after this tragic loss made her the only reasonable suspect. Lizzie Borden was the only other person who was in the house at …show more content…
People knew of Lizzie’s hatred for her stepmother, Abby Borden. World Book Advanced Encyclopedia noted “The prosecution presented evidence that Lizzie hated her stepmother.” Borden’s hatred for her stepmother showed that she was one person with a known motive for killing her. Lizzie was even known to avoid her stepmother at all costs and refused to call her her mother and did not allow anyone else to refer to her as her mother. Her hatred may have been just enough motive for Lizzie Borden to commit the murders of her family members. Borden tried, but failed, to buy poison soon before the murder took place. During the trail “Evidence was excluded that Lizzie had sought to purchase prussic acid (for cleaning a sealskin cloak, she said) from a local druggist on the day before the murders” (Blanco). She was searching for poison the day before her parents were murdered. These could likely have been linked as this may have been her original plan for a murder before she resorted to the cruel fate of a vicious axe murder. Had this information been brought up in the trial the verdict may have been different. It was reported that Lizzie Borden feared that someone would poison her father. The Trial of Lizzie Borden: Chronology mentioned that the afternoon before the murder Borden talked to a neighbor, “She says she fears poisoning, that her father has enemies, and that she has seen suspicious characters around the family house.” This showed that Borden seemed to be the only one worried of murder leading up to the time it actually took place. The piece of evidence was reported to have happened only the day before the actual murder meaning that her fear was correct. It was very likely that she knew this because she was planning to kill her father the next day. Lizzie Borden acted strangely leading up to

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