Justice for Mrs Borden! Every egregious lie Netflix’s Monster told about Lizzie’s stepmum Abby

Lizzie Borden’s stepmother, Abby Borden, was killed alongside her husband, and yet Ryan Murphy turned her into a villain in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story. 

From Monster’s first season, it was clear Ryan Murphy wasn’t following history: Glenda Cleveland wasn’t Jeffrey Dahmer’s next-door neighbour, the Menendez brothers weren’t incestuous, and Adeline Watkins’ role in Ed Gein’s life was massively exaggerated for Netflix. 

We were primed and ready for more butchering of history, but he really went hard for the Lizzie Borden Story. It would be easier to tell you what it got right, rather than the other way around. 

Even with all that considered, Netflix’s portrayal of Abby Borden was straight up foul. 

Credit: Netflix

She wasn’t outright evil to Lizzie, like the show made out 

From the very first moment she popped up on screen, Abby Borden was nothing short of evil. She verbally assaulted Lizzie, killed her doves, abused her staff, and was just generally insufferable. 

However, in real life, Abby was quite different. There was never any reason to suspect “Abby was anything but kind to the two little girls whose stepmother she became, but they never returned her affection.”

Her own stepmother described her as a “closed-mouth woman” who could “bear a great deal and say nothing.”

Though Lizzie and Abby were never the best of friends, the former called the latter “mother” until a dispute over housing. 

Abby was not the abusive, callous woman we saw in the show. 

No historical records suggest she abused servants

Similarly, there’s no historical context to suggest that Abby Borden abused her staff. 

“Mrs Borden did not control the house,” family friend Alice Russell testified at Lizzie’s inquest. 

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Abby Borden never killed Lizzie’s doves

Credit: Netflix

A particularly graphic moment came when Abby Borden lost her cool. She marched out to Lizzie’s birdhouse and slaughtered each dove she came across with brutal efficiency, something which would seal her fate in the eyes of her stepdaughter. 

In reality, Lizzie never kept doves for Abby to kill. Her father did kill some pigeons once, which may be where the storyline came from. 

We don’t know much about her marriage 

The Borden house was a tumultuous residence in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, with Andrew and Abby constantly at odds. They didn’t seem to like each other, but shocker: There’s no evidence they even had a bad relationship. 

There was no affair 

In the Netflix show, Abby slept with Andrew’s brother-in-law, John, to get back at her husband – not that he really cared that much. 

In the real world, John arrived at the Borden property the day before the murders, so there wasn’t really any time for Abby to have an affair. This point is less dramatisation and more outright invention. 

Netflix has a lot to answer for. 

Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is streaming now. For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Featured image credit: Netflix