A Victorian Nightmare: The Making of a Monster
Lizzie Borden wasn't the nation's first killer, but she was possibly the first who became a cultural phenomenon. Her 1892 trial for the axe murders of her father and stepmother gripped the American public and remains a source of fascination more than a century later.
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story reimagines Lizzie as a restless dreamer, constrained by the suffocating norms of her Victorian home. As co-showrunner Ian Brennan explained:
“You have to look at the environment that's around her. The job of the show was throwing into contrast this cage that any woman living in that time and that place would’ve felt—but particularly, this strange young girl who loved animals and who lived in a repressive household.”
Ella Beatty, who plays Lizzie, admitted she knew little about the case before joining the show:
“When the audition came up, I listened to every true crime [podcast] that I could find to learn the facts of the case. It’s very disputed. A lot of people have a lot of really different points of view on what could have happened and even have different points of view about Lizzie herself. That was an interesting entry point for me as an actor because I could have all of that as a jumping-off point.”
She emphasized that her main task was to portray the version of Lizzie that the showrunners had created:
“Mainly I felt my job was to explore the character that Ian and Ryan had created. I could take all the source material about the real person’s life and translate that into the very fictionalized version of the woman that we created for the show. I was exploring a person that we were imagining and creating using details from the real person’s life to animate and fill in the blanks.”
Fact, Fiction, and Bloody Legends
Did Lizzie Borden truly get away with murder? More than a century later, it remains a mystery—though some evidence pointed toward her guilt. In the series, Lizzie’s rigid home life with her father Andrew (Charlie Hunnam) and stepmother Abby (Rebecca Hall) is emphasized, portraying the couple's controlling and abusive behavior. A shift occurs when new housemaid Bridget “Maggie” Sullivan (Vicky Krieps) joins the household and becomes both Lizzie’s confidante and, in the show’s narrative, her partner in the murders.
The infamous rhyme—“Lizzie Borden took an axe…”—sensationalizes the crimes by claiming Abby and Andrew suffered over forty blows each. The truth is grislier in its own right: Abby was struck 19 times, Andrew 11. In Monster, the violence is depicted with a dramatic flair, leaving both parents brutally unrecognizable.
Ella Beatty pointed out the disturbing paradox at the heart of Lizzie’s image:
“There’s this juxtaposition between what it meant to be a woman at the time with a kind of fragility and physical beauty, and then this very bloody, intense, dirty, violent, other spiritual side.”
The show suggests that Lizzie’s violent side surfaced only inside her home, away from the world’s gaze.
While Monster stays close to the essential facts of the Borden case, it takes liberties. For example, Maggie’s window-washing alibi is portrayed as a performance for outsiders. A friend's accusation that Lizzie burned bloody clothing is shown as true within the story, while Lizzie’s real attempt to purchase prussic acid at a drugstore—one reason for her arrest—is dramatized as a failed murder attempt involving spoiled oysters and vomiting.
In 1893, Lizzie Borden was acquitted at trial, just as shown in the series. Over the years, other suspects have been suggested, including her maternal uncle John Morse (played by Joey Pollari), her father’s rumored illegitimate son, or even her sister Emma (Billie Lourd). Yet the Fall River community largely continued to believe Lizzie was responsible.
The series fabricates another killing: that of neighbor Bertha Manchester (Linda Reiter), depicted as a prelude for Lizzie and Maggie’s violence. In reality, Manchester was murdered after the Bordens’ deaths and before Lizzie’s trial—a crime for which Portuguese immigrant Jose Correa de Mello was wrongly convicted.
Trials, Friendships, and Lace-Covered Secrets
Monster introduces actress Nance O’Neil (Jessica Barden) as a guiding presence for Lizzie during her murder trial. However, historical records show that their friendship began in 1904—over a decade after Lizzie’s acquittal. Brennan admitted:
“When you’re doing a true-crime show, the trial episodes are always the ones I dread the most. They can lend themselves to the most tropes. They’re the hardest to dramatize. Trials are incredibly dry, incredibly boring. But this notion that Lizzie knew an actress, which she did, that suddenly really activated it for us.”
In reality, Lizzie presented herself as delicate in court on her legal team’s advice, not at Nance's urging. As Ella Beatty put it:
“At that point in the series, Lizzie is telling herself a story about her life and about why what happened needed to happen. Getting through the trial is about staying committed to that story.”
After her acquittal, Lizzie lived in Fall River with Emma until Emma’s disapproval of Lizzie’s relationship with Nance O’Neil separated the sisters permanently. Ostracized locally, Lizzie sought comfort in the company of high-society friends including Nance. Their bond triggered public speculation about Lizzie’s sexuality—a theme explored in the series through her fictionalized relationship with Maggie.
A Legacy of Female Rage
Monster connects Lizzie’s story with other notorious women, similar to last season's Monster: The Ed Gein Story. This is the series' first season built around a female subject, with the idea of “feminine monstrosity” woven throughout. Beatty explained:
“To be a woman in that time period in America was to feel confined sexually, spiritually, emotionally. For me, something as material as wearing the corset every single day … created a really rich given circumstance: the feeling of confinement and not getting enough oxygen to your brain.”
The series dramatizes Lizzie’s fascination with another legendary female killer: Elizabeth Báthory, the Hungarian noblewoman accused of bathing in virgins’ blood. In Monster, Maggie recounts terrifying bedtime stories, with Vicky Krieps portraying Báthory in flashback-inspired scenes.
Monster also leaps to the modern era, introducing Aileen Wuornos (Sarah Paulson) as another infamous woman who, within the show, finds inspiration in Lizzie’s legend. Wuornos is depicted staying at the Borden house with her partner Shelby (Jessie Lee), who reads to Wuornos in the same way Maggie did for Lizzie. Beatty said:
“The show is exploring a legacy of female rage and reaction to the set of circumstances that they are presented with. I think there’s a connection [between Borden and Wuornos] that Ryan and Ian were interested in mapping and exploring.”
While there’s no historical connection between Wuornos and Lizzie Borden, one detail holds true: the Borden home in Fall River, Massachusetts, is now a bed and breakfast. Perfect for true crime fans seeking a night in the shadow of history—just don’t expect turndown service with an axe.
