Emma Borden’s confused argument with a lawyer at Lizzie’s trial was very different in real life

In the seventh episode of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, Emma Borden took the stand to passionately defend her axe-murdering sister. 

Though she was initially hesitant in the Netflix show and could not get past Lizzie’s refusal to admit her guilt in private, Emma Borden eventually aided in her sister’s acquittal. In a particularly shocking moment, after Lizzie began to cry, Emma fiercely defended her younger sister, shouting and screaming about the fact that she was drugged. The change seemed to hinge on Emma’s earlier promise about keeping Lizzie safe. 

“That is entirely untrue,” she said, standing up in the stand. “There is no one closer to my sister than I, and she is innocent. She couldn’t have killed our father and Mrs Borden. I saw a man try to break into our house the week before the murders.”

As we know, Ryan Murphy takes more than a few creative liberties with history, and by that, I mean that he mostly makes it up. 

That being said, Emma Borden did testify during Lizzie’s trial; it was just quite different. 

Credit: Netflix

Emma Borden testified about the dress Lizzie burned 

Famous Trials is a website from Professor Douglas Linder and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. It collates transcripts from over 100 famous trials, including OJ Simpson, George Floyd, Charles Manson, Nelson Mandela, and Al Capone. Lizzie Borden’s trial is amongst them, and there’s an entire section dedicated to the various testimonies. 

Emma Borden’s testimony began with some questions about the family’s place of residence, the ring her father had given to Lizzie, and the police search at the property after the murders. 

“He told me the search had been as thorough as the search could be made unless the paper was torn from the walls and the carpets taken from the floor,” she told the defence when he asked about the police search. 

A great portion of her testimony was spent on the dress that we saw Lizzie burn in the show. The lawyers clashed over the answering of the question, but Emma confirmed that she was the one who told Lizzie to burn the “old” gown. 

She explained: “I was washing dishes, and I heard my sister’s voice and I turned round and saw she was standing at the foot of the stove, between the foot of the stove and the dining-room door.

“This dress was hanging on her arm and she says, ‘I think I shall burn this old dress up.’ I said, ‘Why don’t you,’ or ‘You had better,’ or ‘I would if I were you,’ or something like that, I can’t tell the exact words, but it meant, Do it. And I turned back and continued washing the dishes, and did not see her burn it and did not pay any more attention to her at that time.”

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She spoke about Mrs Borden and Lizzie’s relationship

Credit: Netflix

During the cross-examination, the prosecution asked about the relationship between Abby Borden and her stepdaughters. It was then that Emma confirmed tension over their father’s decision to purchase a property for Abby’s half-sister. The matter was eventually settled when Andrew Borden gave the girls their grandfather’s house. 

“And do you say that the relations were entirely cordial between Lizzie and your stepmother after that event?” the lawyer asked, with Emma responding, “Yes, I do.”

Though Emma did not have a massive breakdown like in the show, there was a tense moment over Lizzie and Mrs Borden’s relationship. 

For what seemed like minutes, the prosecution asked Emma the same question over and over again whilst referring to her earlier statements about Mrs Borden and Lizzie being “cordial.”

 “I don’t understand,” she confessed in one moment, adding in another, “I don’t seem to remember it. No sir, not if you say I did.”

At this point, the stenographer read out the earlier questions and answers. Afterwards, Emma returned to simple yes and no answers. 

Frankly, upon reading her testimony in full, I was a little bored – and that’s the issue with Monster. Its dramatisation of real-world events muddies historical facts, making the already murky waters of Lizzie Borden’s story even murkier. 

Emma Borden’s full court testimony can be read here. 

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Featured image credit: Netflix