Did Aileen Wuornos really stay at Lizzie Borden’s house? Here’s when it opened to visitors

If you watched Netflix’s Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, you might have been surprised to see Aileen Wuornos turning up at Lizzie Borden’s old house, so did she actually stay there?

In Ryan Murphy’s Netflix show, Aileen, played by Sarah Paulson, travels to the Borden home with her girlfriend Shelby, played by Jessie Lee. The house is now a bed and breakfast, and Aileen is shown as someone who has been fascinated by Lizzie for years. She even tells Lizzie’s ghost that she has “always been a fan” of her.

The scene is deliberately presented as a meeting between two women from completely different periods who have been connected by the show’s idea of female rage.

So, did Aileen Wuornos really stay at Lizzie Borden’s house?

No. The visit shown in Monster is fictional. The Borden house did not become a bed and breakfast until 1996. By then, Aileen had already been convicted of murder and was in prison in Florida. She was executed in 2002.

In fact, the timing makes the scene impossible. The house remained a private residence for decades after the 1892 murders. In July 1996, UPI reported that it was about to open to the public as a bed and breakfast. The report said the property had previously remained a private home.

So when Aileen was arrested in 1991, the house wasn’t a tourist attraction where she could book a room. And when it finally opened as a bed and breakfast in 1996, Aileen was already behind bars. She remained on death row until her execution on October 9, 2002.

Was Aileen Wuornos really obsessed with Lizzie Borden?

There is no evidence that she was. Netflix explains that the real Aileen Wuornos was not directly connected to Lizzie Borden. The series instead imagines Aileen as someone influenced by Lizzie’s story. And it uses her as a later link to the themes explored throughout the season.

Tudum also specifically says there is “no evidence” that the real Aileen was fixated on the Borden murders. It describes Aileen as an “inheritor” of Lizzie’s legacy. The show jumps forward almost a century to explore another woman accused of extreme violence.

Ella Beatty, who plays Lizzie, said the series was exploring “a legacy of female rage and reaction to the set of circumstances that they are presented with.”

Co-creator Ian Brennan also said that Aileen was such a fascinating figure that she could have been the subject of an entire season. Instead, the series uses her story alongside Lizzie’s to explore why women kill and how their stories are remembered.

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