Lizzie Borden
Lizzie Borden was a Massachusetts woman acquitted of murdering her father and stepmother with an axe in 1892, though public opinion largely presumed her guilt.
Her name survives mainly through a children's jump-rope rhyme: Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks.
The case remains a byword for unsolved domestic murder.
Small one-handed chopper
- axeBladed tool for chopping
- murderDeliberate unlawful killing
- bloodBody's oxygen carrier
- parricideSlaying one's own parent
victim · homicide · Massachusetts · gruesome · bludgeon · wounds · crime scene · motive
Having a terrible reputation
- notoriousFamous for negativity
- rhymeMatching terminal sounds
- folkloreInherited cultural narratives
- nursery rhymeTraditional poem for young children
sing-song · scandal · notoriety · mystery · unsolved · true crime · sensationalism · Victorian
Formal clearing of charges
- verdictOfficial court decision
- not guiltyCleared of charges
- juryLegal decision-making body
- courtroomJudicial proceedings chamber
prosecution · defense · evidence · testimony · witness · judge · alibi · cross-examination
Northeastern colonial state
- nineteenth centuryYears 1801-1900
- Victorian eraBritain under its longest-reigning queen
- spinsterUnmarried older woman
- socialiteProminent figure in fashionable circles
Sunday school · inheritance · wealth · recluse · historical figure · women in history · New England · suspicion
hatchet
Small one-handed chopper
parricide · victim · homicide · Massachusetts · gruesome · bludgeon · wounds · crime scene · motive · inheritance
infamous
Having a terrible reputation
nursery rhyme · sing-song · scandal · notoriety · mystery · unsolved · true crime · sensationalism · Victorian · spinster
acquittal
Formal clearing of charges
- verdictOfficial court decision
- not guiltyCleared of charges
- juryLegal decision-making body
courtroom · prosecution · defense · evidence · testimony · witness · judge · alibi · cross-examination · deliberation
Massachusetts
Northeastern colonial state
- nineteenth centuryYears 1801-1900
- Victorian eraBritain under its longest-reigning queen
- spinsterUnmarried older woman
socialite · Sunday school · inheritance · wealth · recluse · historical figure · women in history · New England · suspicion · society
- ParricidesOrestes, Oedipus, Nero, patricide, matricide
- American folklorePaul Bunyan, tall tales, folk heroes, John Henry, folk narratives
- mysteriesmystery, enigma, enigmas, puzzle, riddle
- criminalsmurderer, thief, burglar, criminal, killer
- Famous TrialsScopes Trial, Nuremberg Trials, Tokyo Trials, Ted Bundy
- homicidehomicide, murder rate, murder rates, homicide rate, homicide rates
Lizzie BordenFlorence Nightingale
Mother Teresa · saint · Clara Barton · Harriet Tubman · guardian angel