Monster creator gives blunt verdict on whether Lizzie Borden was actually guilty

While there’s still so much speculation about whether Lizzie Borden really did murder her parents or not, the co-creator of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story has given his verdict – and there’s no room for doubt in his mind. 

The true crime case is difficult to pin down, partly due to the fact that no one was ever convicted for the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden. Although Lizzie was arrested and attended a hearing, she was ultimately acquitted due to a lack of evidence. 

Then there’s the fact that it took place in 1892, long before advances in forensic science. This also means so much evidence has been lost to time. 

Finally, attitudes towards women during the Gilded Age complicated the investigation. The idea that a respectable, middle-class woman could brutally murder two people was difficult for many at the time to accept, and ideas about female modesty affected how closely Lizzie could be searched.

A prime example involves the bloodied cloths depicted in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story. This really did happen in real life, although they were found in a pail in the Borden house basement. Lizzie told officers they were menstrual rags, which detectives accepted at face value. 

Ultimately, Lizzie was legally acquitted, but that doesn’t prove she was innocent. The Netflix series certainly tells the version of the story where she’s guilty, and now Ian Brennan – who co-created the series with Ryan Murphy – has weighed in. 

Ian Brennan believes Lizzie Borden is guilty 

In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Brennan explained that he thinks Lizzie Borden did commit the murders of her father and stepmother all those years ago. 

Before making Monster season four, the only thing he knew about the case was the rhyme: “Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41.”

“That’s literally all I knew about it. I didn’t know until researching it that she got away with it. That was totally news to me. I was like, ‘Well, that’s interesting because if I don’t know this, probably most people don’t,’” Brennan said. 

“There are very few historical things like that where you can spring that on an audience. At a certain point, you just have to pick. You do as much research as you can, and then you’re like, ‘Okay, what do I think about this?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, she definitely did it. Like, of course she did it.’ 

“And it’s so fascinating that it didn’t even go to trial. It was a hearing, and they [the men of the jury] actually pretended they were deliberating for another 10 minutes because otherwise it was going to seem like they didn’t deliberate at all. 

“But they didn’t think a woman could do that at all, which is so, so wild to me. But she was very much a blank slate in my mind. I didn’t know the first thing about her.”

The writer also confirmed that’s why they decided to open Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story with the horrific scene of her hacking Andrew and Abby to death, making it clear where they stood on the debate. 

“Yes, that it wasn’t going to be ‘did she or didn’t she’ do it. I guess it’s similar to what we did with the Menendez brothers [in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story], where you need to see [the murders] first and then go back,” he added.

Brennan made similar comments to Showbiz Junkies, saying that it was “very plain” for him when he looked at the facts. 

“Even if she hadn’t been acquitted, we still don’t know what happened. You know, the story that comes out in either direction is still a story, and it may be based on facts, but you still don’t totally know what her journey was, even if she didn’t do it,” he said.

“And I think she did do it. I mean, that’s what you have to do with a show like this, a series like this, is to sort of look at what is there, what exists in sort of the public record. 

“And it’s just your responsibility as a writer and as creator to make a decision. And to me, it was just very plain. I was like, ‘No, no, no, she did this,’ and then you go from there.”

Lizzie Borden star Ella Beatty was not so definitive when it came to her response, but not because she doesn’t believe one way or the other. “I have my feelings. I have my thoughts,” she told Celestial Sylvia.

@celestialsylvia

I got to ask the star of Ryan Murphy’s Monster: the Lizzie Borden story on if she thinks the real acquitted woman is guilty. See Ella Beatty in the Netflix show streaming now! #netflix #ryanmurphy #truecrime #lizzieborden

♬ original sound – Celestial Sylvia

“But I didn’t feel like it was my job to take a stance on it. The show certainly posits a stance. Ian and Ryan created a show where she did. But for me, our show isn’t about if she did it or didn’t do it. It’s about if she did it, why?”

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Featured image credit: Netflix/Public Domain