Real accounts of what Lizzie Borden’s maid Bridget Sullivan was like as a person

Bridget Sullivan is a key character in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, but what was she actually like in real life? Here are some historical accounts that describe her as a person.

In Monster, Ryan Murphy turned the maid into Lizzie’s lover and accomplice in murdering her parents, Andrew and Abby. She’s also made out to be quite a forward woman who was always standing up for herself and answering back to the Bordens. However, this isn’t accurate at all.

The real-life Bridget was quiet and kept herself to herself. She immigrated from Ireland and worked with the Bordens for three years, living in a small room in the attic, and kept things strictly professional.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

A 1970s account in The Hatchet collected memories from people who knew Bridget. Her great-niece Agnes Holm described her as “very quiet” but “strong willed”. She also said she “liked her wine” and was “always saying her prayers”. Her grandniece Dianna Porter later described Bridget as “strict”, “mean”, and having “no sense of humor”. 

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Bridget’s own testimony at Lizzie’s trial also gives a big insight into what she was like as a person. She spoke professionally, as if she got on with her job as a maid without getting involved in anything else. 

When asked what her relationship with the Borden family was like, she responded: “I got along all right.” She was also asked if it was unpleasant being wrongly called Maggie, and she said: “No sir, it was not.” At the trial, Bridget said she “liked” Lizzie as a person and thought the Borden family “lived very pleasantly together”.

Credit: Netflix

In her later life, Holm remembered her Aunt Bridget as being “tall, bent, and she used a cane”. She recalled Sullivan talking about a woman she worked for called Lizzie Borden, but said: “That didn’t mean anything to me then because I was just a high school girl when she lived with us. Besides, she never mentioned any murder.”

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