Dan MedeirosThe Herald News
Sept. 13, 2026, 5:09 a.m. ET
- Netflix is releasing the fourth season of its “Monster” series, focusing on Lizzie Borden.
- The new season, titled “The Lizzie Borden Story,” premieres on September 17.
- Ella Beatty, daughter of Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, will star as Lizzie Borden.
- While Lizzie Borden was acquitted in court, the 1892 murders of her father and stepmother remain an enduring mystery.
Netflix is getting ready to unleash the fury of a woman scorned with the fourth season of Ryan Murphy’s killer biography series “Monster,” premiering on Sept. 17.
“The Lizzie Borden Story” promises to tell a chilling tale very familiar to those in Fall River: how on Aug. 4, 1892, Lizzie Borden allegedly took an axe and gave her stepmother 40 whacks, then did the same to her father with one more for good measure.
The story has baffled and tantalized amateur sleuths for well over a century, leaving the story open to interpretation – and based on the trailer, this latest interpretation may be loose.
Here are five things to know about the Lizzie Borden case and Netflix show.
Did Lizzie Borden actually kill her parents?
Let’s start off with an easy one, shall we?
As far as the criminal justice system is concerned, no she did not. Lizzie was acquitted of killing her father, Andrew, and stepmother, Abby, with a hatchet. However, the murder scene on Second Street was sloppily investigated, and too many questions remain for people to be satisfied even 134 years later. It’s why the story has remained an enduring mystery.
Who is Ella Beatty in “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story”?
Lizzie Borden is played by Ella Beatty, daughter of Hollywood royalty Warren Beatty and Annette Bening.
Beatty is 26 years old, a little bit younger than 32-year-old Lizzie at the time of the Borden killings. She made her debut in the film “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” and previously worked with producer Murphy on “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans.”
Will the Netflix show be faithful to the real Lizzie Borden story?
The eight-episode series has not been screened for critics yet, so it’s unknown how closely the show will follow what we know of Fall River history.
A teaser and the show’s trailer have suggested a lurid and darkly comic adaptation where Lizzie and maid Bridget Sullivan have an affair that turns deadly — but some aspects of the trailer suggest it could also involve some fantasy.
Who made the show?
The show is part of the anthology series “Monster,” which dramatizes the stories of notorious killers in American history. It was developed by Murphy and Ian Brennan. Most of the show’s episodes were directed by Max Winkler, son of actor Henry Winkler — he also directed the film “Jungleland,” shot in Fall River in 2018.
How many times has the Lizzie Borden story been told?
Too many to count. The story of the Borden murders was adapted as early as the 1933 Broadway play “Nine Pine Street,” set in New Bedford and starring Lillian Gish as “Effie Holden” — just the first of many inaccurate accounts of the story.
The story has become an American folk tale, told in musical form, on TV, even in ballet form in Agnes de Mille’s “Fall River Legend.”
More recent adaptations include 1975’s “The Legend of Lizzie Borden,” a made-for-TV movie starring Elizabeth Montgomery, 2014’s “Lizzie Borden Took An Ax” starring Christina Ricci, and 2018’s “Lizzie” starring Chloe Sevigny.
All eight episodes of the Netflix series premiere on Sept. 17.
