The Trial of Lizzie Borden, A True Story by Cara Robertson

The Trial of Lizzie Borden, A True Story by Cara Robertson. Simon and Schuster, 2019. Adult nonfiction.

On August 4, 1892, in Fall River, Massachusetts, the mutilated bodies of Andrew Borden and his second wife were found in their home on Second Street. The ensuing investigation pointed to his younger daughter, Lizzie. The sensational trial and her subsequent verdict of innocence made world wide news and has fascinated people ever since.

Cara Robertson started her research on the case as an undergraduate at Harvard and has continued since that time. She earned a JD degree and has had an illustrious career. This, her first book, is well researched and well written. A hefty list of sources are detailed in the back of the book.

Did Lizzie do it?  Robertson clearly tells about the setting, the people involved, and the aftermath. But, readers will have to make up their own minds about the verdict. We do know, that, changing her name to Lizbeth and moving up to the more elite part of town, Lizzie lived out her life in Fall River. Although some friends stood by her during the trial, she was "not welcome" in the Congregational Church where she had been so active in her youth. Naming her new home "Maplecroft" and etching the name into the concrete was considered to be showing off. Her sister, Emma, moved out in 1905, and apparently the two never spoke again. Lizzie died in 1927.

Robertson delves into the history of Fall River and the Borden family. She finds that Lizzie's lawyer died unexpectedly and his office still has the papers relating to the trial locked up, claiming lawyer/client privilege never ends. The prosecuting attorney's papers are mainly available at the Fall River Historical Society. Somehow, I suspect, if those first documents and notes are ever made public, Cara Robertson will be the first in line to examine them all.