The real Lizzie Borden’s time in prison wasn’t as glamorous as Netflix’s Monster

In the Netflix show Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, Lizzie spends time in prison between the deaths of her parents and her trial. The TV show makes this seem less like a jail, and more like a rural Airbnb. The real Lizzie Borden’s stay in prison wasn’t quite like this, funnily enough.

Lizzie Borden was sent to the Hodges Avenue Jail in Taunton. She spent ten months there, while waiting for her trial. The actual building is no longer there – it was used by a veterans’ group for a few decades, then demolished in the 1960s.

Lizzie Borden’s time in prison wasn’t quite as luxurious as it seemed in Monster. She didn’t stay in an atypical cell. However, because she was rich and her family were of high social standing, she seems to have gotten away with having some privileges. Members of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union – which Lizzie had been involved with for years – would visit her often. They brought books, nicer food and flowers. She was reportedly able to decorate her prison cell with pictures and rugs.

This looks leagues above most student accommodation
(Image via Netflix)

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In preparation for the trial, Lizzie was transferred to the Ash Street Jail and Regional Lock-Up in New Bedford, Massachusetts. This is one of the oldest prisons in the US – inmates are still held there before trials in New Bedford.

Lizzie Borden didn’t stay in a typical cell there. So she was separate from the other prisoners, she was put in  the matron’s quarters. These rooms aren’t actually in the prison, but in the Sheriff’s Home building next door. The space where Lizzie Borden stayed is apparently now used a break room for workers at the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office.

Staff believe they have the actual bed which Lizzie Borden slept on while she stayed there. Jonathan Darling, a worker at the Sheriff’s Office, told The Herald News: “It’s sort of like a Bristol County Sheriff’s Office legend … that was just the lore that was passed down for years and years and years at the Ash Street Jail. We’ve always thought it was Lizzie Borden’s bed.”