Dan MedeirosThe Herald News
Sept. 18, 2026, 4:04 a.m. ET
- Netflix’s “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” is a fictionalized take on the historical figure.
- The series strays significantly from historical facts, altering timelines, characters, and events.
- While based on real people, the show invents relationships, such as a lesbian affair between Lizzie and her maid.
All eight episodes of Netflix’s “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” are now streaming, with Ella Beatty portraying the Fall River spinster accused of killing her father and stepmother with a hatchet.
With her is Vicky Krieps, portraying maid Bridget Sullivan, who in the show is Lizzie’s lesbian lover and partner in crime as they massacre Andrew and Abby Borden.
As with other seasons of “Monster” and other Ryan Murphy TV projects, “The Lizzie Borden Story” strays far from real history into outright fantasy. What did “The Lizzie Borden Story” get right, and what did it get wrong?
Be warned – major spoilers for all eight episodes below.
What did ‘Monster’ get right about Lizzie Borden history?
Almost nothing, except the names of people and places.
There’s a double murder on a house on Second Street in Fall River in 1892. Andrew and Abby Borden are killed, Lizzie is suspected and found not guilty, and moves to a house called Maplecroft. Sometimes she has a sister, Emma. Beyond that, it’s a free-for-all.
What did ‘Monster’ get wrong about Lizzie Borden history?
Pretty much … everything else? Calling “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” historically inaccurate would be putting it charitably.
Dates are changed, ages are wrong, characters invented, other characters totally opposite from their real-life counterparts. Adaptations deserve some “dramatic license.” This can’t explain why “Monster” makes Irish immigrant maid Bridget Sullivan “half-German” – other than perhaps an actress who couldn’t shake her native accent.
Even the famous hatchet murders don’t happen as depicted in the show. “Monster” drags them out across what appears to be multiple days. The real murders happened over about two hours.
The makers of the show acknowledge “Monster” isn’t meant to be a documentary. The show begins and ends with stage curtains opening and closing, theatrical flourishes. Yet “Monster” shows Lizzie frustrated that her story has been exploited and twisted by gossip – which this show itself has done, proudly, for eight straight episodes.
Is “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” a good show?
“Monster” is best considered fiction only marginally based on Lizzie’s real story. It’s also gory and lurid as hell, with multiple gross-out moments involving severed limbs, hacked heads, a teen-boy-level fascination with menstrual blood, projectile vomiting and diarrhea and lots of animal cruelty. It’s crudely sexual, arguably exploitative and deeply speculative. If that’s your bag, you’ll have a great time.
Was the real Lizzie Borden a killer?
Unknown. She was acquitted of the double homicide of Andrew and Abby Borden in 1893. The murders were never solved.
Was Lizzie Borden a lesbian?
Unknown. Lizzie was 32 when the murders were committed, and she never married or had children. She had several female friends. Multiple adaptations have made her out to be a lesbian. But there’s no historical evidence to suggest anything about Lizzie Borden’s sexuality one way or the other.
It’s worth noting that Emma, older than Lizzie, also never married or had children and had close female friends, yet hasn’t been whispered about in the same way.
Did Lizzie Borden have an affair with maid Bridget Sullivan?
Highly unlikely. In fact, they may not have even liked each other very much. Lizzie didn’t bother to call Bridget by her real name, and Bridget told police that Abby was “too good” for the Borden sisters.
Is “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” a feminist version of the story?
You decide. “Monster” aims for a darkly comic study of female repression and why women kill. No women are credited as writers.
Did Andrew Borden really make coffins? And did he chop people up to fit inside?
“Monster” depicts Andrew Borden as a coffin-maker who hacks people’s legs off at the shins to fit them inside the caskets.
Half-true. Borden, Almy & Co. made furniture and coffins. Part of the coffin-making business also involved undertaking and arranging funerals, but he did not handle the bodies – nor did he chop people to bits to fit them inside coffins.
Did Andrew Borden have a collection of axes?
“Monster” depicts Andrew Borden as a woodworker with a ridiculous accent-stutter combo and a beloved collection of axes and hatchets that he gives female names. It’s with these implements that Lizzie and Bridget kill the Bordens.
None of this is true. Andrew Borden apprenticed as a cabinet-maker and was a partner in the Borden, Almy & Co. furniture shop. He retired from the company in 1878, well before the murders. By 1892, he was in his 60s, far older than actor Charlie Hunnam. Borden owned property and interest in a cotton mill and was president of two banks.
Was Abby Borden an evil stepmother alcoholic?
“Monster” depicts Abby Borden as a preening, vicious evil stepmother who hates her family, hates her life and secretly drinks paint thinner and formaldehyde to get drunk.
Nope. Nothing in the historical record indicates Abby was as unhappy or mean as “Monster” makes her out to be.
Abby and the Borden daughters were not overly fond of one another in real life, but “Monster” has Abby physically abusing Lizzie and killing her pet birds. There’s nothing to suggest that happened, or even that Lizzie kept birds at that time.
The Bordens were part of the Temperance Movement, so it’s unlikely any of them drank alcohol.
Did Lizzie and Bridget Sullivan kill Bertha Manchester?
“Monster” shows Bridget being employed by Bertha Manchester — a despicable, wealthy dowager who lashes Bridget with a whip and an abusive tongue. Bridget and Lizzie get even by murdering her as a dry run for their murder of the Bordens.
Not even close. Bertha Manchester was a real person in Fall River, but she wasn’t an old woman – she was 22. She lived on a farm far from the Bordens, making it highly unlikely they knew each other.
Manchester was an innocent murder victim killed with an axe the year after the Borden murders, in 1893. Her killer, Jose Correa de Mello, was a Portuguese immigrant who came to America after the Borden murders. He was convicted of the crime.
Did uncle John Morse have an affair with Abby?
John Morse, played by Joey Pollari in “Monster,” is depicted as a schemer trying to wheedle and threaten Andrew out of a few hundred bucks to open a butcher shop. He has an affair with Abby, and deduces that Lizzie killed the Bordens and covers for her at the trial.
Not true. Morse was a farmer who spent much of his time in the Midwest. Little is known about him, but it’s not believed that he had any kind of tryst with Abby.
Did actress Nance O’Neil coach Lizzie Borden through the trial?
“Monster” shows stage actress Nance O’Neil, played by Jessica Barden, teaching Lizzie how to act innocent during the trial in exchange for a lifetime of patronage.
Not true either. In real life, O’Neil was a close friend of Lizzie, but it’s not clear if they ever met before the trial.
Did Aileen Wuornos ever visit the Lizzie Borden House?
“Monster” shows Florida serial killer Aileen Wuornos visiting the Lizzie Borden House when it became a bed and breakfast, with she and her lover having sex on the murder couch. The killer has a strangely large role in the show, including multiple interactions with Lizzie’s ghost.
None of that is even remotely possible. Leaving aside the ghost stuff, the Lizzie Borden House first became a tourist attraction in 1996. By then, Wuornos was already on death row for six counts of first-degree murder.
Monster is now streaming only on Netflix.
