Innocent Until Proven Guilty

Lizzie Borden after she was acquitted in her murder trail of her father and stepmother Andrew and Abby Borden

Since I was about 15 years old (I am in my 30s), I have had an interest in Lizzie Borden- even dressed as her for Halloween. Honestly, I don't know how it happened- it was around the time of O. J. Simpson murder trial and the case was occasionally compared to Lizzie's. Also during that time, A&E and the History channels aired the 1975 TV movie The Legend of Lizzie Borden starring Elizabeth Montgomery who I loved (still) and she died in 1995 during that time too. So needlessly to say, Lizzie's legacy was in my face and being a history buff, I got interested. I read books (this was just before the Internet took over), although I didn't get obsessed about it as I did with The Beatles.

Both The Legend of Lizzie Borden and Lizzie Borden Took an Ax (2014 with Christina Ricci who made a miniseries of fictional life after the trail The Lizzie Borden Chronicles in 2015) had Lizzie killed her father and stepmother, like an 'What If?' scenerio. Many people do believe that Lizzie did the deed- her alibi was shaky and was changed a few times when she was questioned. When her stepmother was being hacked to death, Lizzie claimed to be in the backyard's shed eating pears and looking for sinkers as well as doing some ironing. With her father, I believe she claimed she was resting.
Lizzie certainly did have motive- her father, despite having money, was a cheapskate and refused to get into the modern times of the day of electricity and plumping and she did not get along with her stepmother, calling her Mrs. Borden. Not long after their deaths, Lizzie and her big sister Emma moved to a much bigger house in the neighborhood with its modern devices with the inheritance from their father.

Do I think Lizzie did it? Honestly, I do not know. The evidence was shaky as well as contaminated with countless people coming in and ruining forensics. Not to mention that some other evidence also disintegrated with age and being passed around to anybody who believed to have the answers, which also got lost. Thanks to those problems, now the security to gain evidence is tight and the technology these days can assure that the crime can be solved.
As I said, I don't know if Lizzie killed her father and stepmother herself- Mr. Borden did have some enemies floating around. I do have a theory that Lizzie was involved in some way, like requesting to put a hit out on them. Mrs. Borden had more hacks than Mr. Borden and due to the strain of the relationship between her and her step daughters, it wouldn't surprise me if Lizzie took it upon herself to end Mrs. Borden's life. There's some anger issues going on there. As for her father, I think the only major problem was him being a cheapskate. Other than that, Lizzie was Daddy's little girl- her middle name was Andrew. Perhaps he was the one who was killed by an outside enemy?

There is something else that drives me crazy: there's claims that the Borden house (now a bed & breakfast museum) is haunted; many believe that it's Lizzie but I highly doubt that. I could buy Andrew and Abby Borden, maybe even Mr. Borden's first wife Sarah. But not Lizzie. She hated that house- why would her ghost would want to be there? If there's any ghost hunters reading this and want to find Lizzie's ghost, I would suggest Maplecroft. It is the home Lizzie bought and moved in until she died, the house she lived. Yet, it is a private home so I don't know if the current owner would appreciate the intrusion unless special permission.