Ryan Murphy’s Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story on Netflix plays a little part of the famous doggerel, “Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother forty whacks…”
The Lizzie Borden case is one of America’s most enduring true crime legends, bringing in the eerie verse that has followed Lizzie Borden for more than a century. Despite becoming one of the most well-known bits of American folklore, historians think the rhyme’s roots are unknown.
The most plausible theory is that it was established by media reporters covering Borden’s dramatic 1893 murder trial. Here’s what the song means and what could have led to the famous camping doggerel.
According to Smithsonian Magazine, the verse is factually inaccurate, or rather, uses generous creative license.
Lizzie Borden’s stepmother, Abby Borden, was struck about 18 or 19 times, while her father, Andrew Borden, suffered around 10 or 11 blows, according to trial records and historical accounts.
The other lesser-known verse, which comes after this, reads:
According to Boston Globe reporting, historians believe this second verse offers an important clue that the doggerel was written even before the trial concluded.
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Where did the Lizzie Borden song come from?
Megan Alves, a historian and tour guide at the Lizzie Borden House in Fall River, explained to the Boston Globe how the verse is technically a Doggerel.
Doggerel refers to informal, rhythmic verse that prioritises catchy cadence over literary sophistication. Alves explained that the lines are commonly sung to the tune of “Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay,” a popular song of the late nineteenth century.
According to Alves, the earliest evidence places the doggerel around the time of the trial itself.
“The earliest evidence that can be linked back to use of the doggerel is right around the time of the trial,” she told the Boston Globe. She added that historians generally believe “it was written by a newspaperman just for the sake of selling papers.”
According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the media frenzy surrounding the 1893 Lizzie Borden trial represents one of the earliest and most intense examples of “trial by newspaper” in American history.
According to Smithsonian Magazine, a large amount of circumstantial and prejudicial evidence was successfully barred from entering the actual courtroom. But the newspapers printed these details freely, eventually making a way for rhymes like these to emerge.
An article published in The Providence News during the trial observed that the press effectively convicted Borden in the court of public opinion well before the jury delivered its official “not guilty” verdict.
The newspapers had already convinced the public of her guilt; the catchy four-line verse solidified in American folklore.
The verse itself did not appear in The Boston Globe until 1933, when reporter Roger Batchelder referred to it while discussing actress Lillian Gish portraying Borden in a Broadway production.
Historians have also identified early variations. An Ohio newspaper published a version using “20 and 21 whacks” instead of the familiar “40 and 41.”
Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden in 1893 because prosecutors failed to prove her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. But she spent the rest of her life in Fall River as a social outcast because the public narrative never shifted.