{"id":9350,"date":"2026-09-22T12:08:53","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T11:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/?p=9350"},"modified":"2026-09-22T12:08:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T11:08:53","slug":"truth-behind-lizzie-borden-infamous-gay-note-amid-netflix-monster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/2026\/09\/22\/truth-behind-lizzie-borden-infamous-gay-note-amid-netflix-monster\/","title":{"rendered":"The disappointing truth behind Lizzie Borden\u2019s infamous ‘gay note’ amid Netflix’s Monster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story leans heavily into the theory that Lizzie Borden<\/a> was gay, but the truth is far less clear than you might think. And perhaps no piece of evidence demonstrates this more than the so-called \u201cgay note\u201d written by Lizzie herself. <\/span><\/p>\n

Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan\u2019s Netflix<\/a> series returned last week to investigate one of the most infamous unsolved true crime cases, which unfolded in 1892 when Lizzie\u2019s father, Andrew<\/a>, and stepmother, Abby, were brutally murdered with a hatchet. <\/span><\/p>\n

Although Lizzie was initially put on trial, she was ultimately acquitted and no one was ever charged for the killings. But as we\u2019ve seen with previous entries of Monster, the show plays hard and loose with the facts, and that includes Lizzie\u2019s relationship with the Bordens\u2019 live-in maid Bridget \u201cMaggie\u201d Sullivan<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Not only are they lovers in this version of events but also co-conspirators, despite there being no historical basis for this. The truth is Lizzie never got married, and she had a close friendship with actress Nance O\u2019Neil<\/a> after they met in 1904 – years after the murders took place.<\/span><\/p>\n

One piece of evidence that had so many people convinced arrived in 1984, when author Frank Spiering published a supposedly revealing letter in his book Lizzie.<\/span><\/p>\n

The truth about Lizzie Borden\u2019s \u2018gay note\u2019<\/h2>\n
\"Image
Credit: Public Domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The \u201cgay note\u201d is a real letter written by Lizzie Borden<\/a> in August 1897, five years after the murders, which has been cited as evidence that she may have been attracted to women.<\/span><\/p>\n

In it, Lizzie tells an unnamed friend that she had recently dreamed about them, before saying that she did not \u201cdare to put my dreams on paper\u201d. On its own, it certainly sounds suggestive – particularly when the recipient was later described to Spiering as a \u201cyoung woman\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a pretty major problem with this interpretation. The woman Lizzie was actually writing to was her dressmaker and friend, Mrs Cummings, and there\u2019s nothing explicitly romantic or sexual in the letter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here it is in full, as shared by historian Sherry Chapman in her piece for Volume 1 Issue 6 of the publication The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden<\/a> Studies:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy dear Friend, Where are you, how are you and what are you doing? I dreamed of you the other night but I do not dare to put my dreams on paper. Have you been away and has your little niece been to visit you? <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been home all summer. I spend much time on the piazza in my steamer chair reading and building castles in the air. I hope you have been away and are well and strong now. Do you expect to do much this fall and are you going to N.Y.? <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time we pass your corner the pony wants to turn down. The weather has been so warm and full of thunder storms I am quite ready for fall. I should be very glad to hear from you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Shen then signed off with \u201cSincerely, L. A. Borden, August 22, 1897.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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people are saying the new season of monster is inaccurate because lizzie borden wasn\u2019t proven to be a lesbian but this was found in a letter to a female friend that never got sent. pic.twitter.com\/eymrIf6Duu<\/a><\/p>\n

— sophia \ud83e\ude90 (@spaceisace) August 23, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n