The most jarring inconsistencies in Lizzie Borden’s account of the day her parents died

The Netflix show Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story has reignited interest in the deaths of Andrew and Abby Borden. True crime enthusiasts who believe the real Lizzie Borden was guilty often argue that Lizzie’s testimony was contradictory. So, here’s a deep dive into the inconsistencies in Lizzie Borden’s actual testimony at the inquest for Andrew and Abby Borden.

By the way, the Bordens’ doctor prescribed her morphine to help her sleep. He claimed the drug affected her memories and made her confused. Later on, Lizzie Borden‘s statements at the inquest were ruled inadmissible, so lawyers couldn’t use them in the trial.

Lizzie kept changing her mind about where she was when Andrew came home

Andrew returning to the house in Monster
(Image via Netflix)

Lizzie couldn’t keep straight where she was in the house when her Andrew returned home. This is important, because Abby seemed to have been killed before then. It’s very unlikely that anybody who was upstairs on the second floor at this point wouldn’t have been able to see Abby’s body.

According to Lizzie, that morning she tried ironing eight or ten handkerchiefs, which would usually take her 20 minutes. Apparently, Lizzie began ironing in the dining room when Andrew went out at around 9am. However, she hadn’t completed the task and was waiting for the irons to heat up when Andrew returned about an hour and a half later.

“I was doing in the kitchen … reading an old magazine that had been left in the cupboard, an old Harper’s magazine.”

A short time later, she said: “I am not sure whether I was there or in the dining room.”

Lizzie initially claimed that while her father was out, she only went upstairs once to “carry up some clean clothes”.

A few minutes later, Lizzie said that when her father rang the doorbell, she was “in [her] room upstairs”, and she “was on the stairs coming down when [Maggie/Bridget] let him in.”

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Lizzie Borden halfway down the stairs in Monster
(Image via Netflix)

The district attorney pointed out that Lizzie had just contradicted herself. She responded: “I don’t know what I have said. I have answered so many questions and I am so confused I don’t know one thing from another. I am telling you just as nearly as I know how.”

Lizzie then changed her tune and said she thought she was in the kitchen when Andrew returned, and she had been thinking of a different day when she described coming down the stairs as Maggie let somebody through the front door.

Er, apparently she was was picking pears when Andrew was killed

Lizzie claimed that after her dad had returned, she decided to go to the top of the barn to look for lead to make into sinkers for fishing lines. Oh, and she stopped on the way to pick some pears off the ground.

Lizzie Borden in her garden
(Image via Netflix)

Lizzie initially said she didn’t spend any longer in the barn than she had to, because it was “close”. (“Close” means the air was hot and stuffy.) The killings happened on a very warm day in August, and the district attorney described the barn as “the hottest place”. However, she then said she ate three pears in the barn, while “looking out of the window”, for 15 or 20 minutes.

If you think that sounds random, the district attorney seems to have thought so too – he spent a small age interrogating her about fishing equipment.

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Featured image credit: Netflix