Lizzie Borden
The story of the Fall River Murders of 1892 has claimed its place as one of the biggest and most sensational cases in American history, with Lizzie Borden at the very heart of the gruesome mystery. In the summer of 1892, Borden found her father covered in blood and slumped dead on the coach, his left eyeball split in half. Her step-mother, Abby Borden, was found axed to death in similar style in an upstairs bedroom.
Borden was the prime suspect in the murders and her trial descended into a media circus. The evidence against her was overwhelming; police found a hatchet with a broken handle in the basement and knew that Borden had attempted to buy prussic acid and even burned one of her dresses two days after the murders.
Lizzie herself was inconsistent with her account of events and her maid Bridget Sullivan (who was there when the bodies were discovered) testified that Lizzie never mourned the loss of her parents. Despite this, Borden was acquitted and lived a long life, dying in 1927.
The crimes were never solved and Borden remained inextricably linked to them. She has became a notorious figure in American folklore as this rhyme shows:
Lizzie Borden took an axe
Gave her mother forty whacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one