Lizzie Borden: Part 1 | My Life of Crime with Erin Moriarty

Lauren Malloy spent 30 years believing her mother died of natural causes. That's what everyone told her. That's what she believed. Until one day, she got a phone call that changed everything. A woman claiming to be her mom's best friend told Lauren that her mother was murdered and that no one had ever investigated it. So she did what the detectives wouldn't. She pulled the threads, knocked on doors, and confronted the contradictions. And what she found, it's worse than she imagined. Something happened to Lori Malloy. Someone killed her. And Lauren won't stop until she finds out who. The system may have given up on her mom, but family never will. Listen to My Mom's Murder wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all 10 episodes early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts. Let's be honest, everyone hates fees, right? That's where Chime comes in. Chime is completely changing the way that people manage their money. Unlike traditional banks that often pile on hidden charges, Chime offers fee-free banking with no overdraft fees, no monthly maintenance fees, and no minimum balance requirements. You actually get rewarded for everyday spending, earning 5% cash back in a category of your choice, like gas or groceries, all while building your career. Without a credit, without a credit check. And Spot Me has your back with up to $200 in fee-free overdraft protection when life gets expensive. Join the millions who are already banking fee-free with America's number one choice for banking. Head to Chime.com slash 48 hours. That is Chime.com slash 48 hours. Sign up now. It only takes a few minutes. Chime is a fintech, not a bank. Banking services and Chime card provided by Chime's bank partners. Qualifying direct deposits required. Terms and limits. Go to Chime.com slash disclosures for details. Hi, 48 Hours listeners. It's Erin Moriarty. As you may know, true crime fans are once again being introduced to the story of Lizzie Borden, the Massachusetts woman who was once acquitted of the hatchet murder of her parents in 1892. In 2019, we covered the Borden case in a two-part series in the first season of my 48 Hours podcast, My Life of Crime with Erin Moriarty. Here's part one in its entirety. And be sure to follow the series, My Life of Crime with Erin Moriarty, wherever you get your podcasts. Lizzie Borden took an ax and gave her mother 41. When she seen what she had done, she gave her father 41. This is Abby's autopsy photo. I mean, we're talking about, that's inside her skull. She was struck in the back of the head 17 times. Andrew was struck 11 times to the face. I'm Erin Moriarty, 48 Hours, and this is My Life of Crime. 21. 21? 21. 21. 21. 21? 21. 21. 21. 21. 21. 21. 21. 21. 21. 21. 21. 21. So I'm on a train on the way to Fall River, Massachusetts. Now, if that name sounds familiar, it's because Fall River is where one of the most sensational crimes of the 19th century took place, or in the vernacular of the day, one of the most dastardly and diabolical crimes of the 19th century. If all you know is what is the Lizzie Borden nursery rhyme. Then you don't know anything. That's what we've been learning as we decided we were going to reinvestigate the Lizzie Borden case. Did she do it? Did she not? And I thought I knew everything about the Lizzie Borden case from that nursery rhyme. It turns out it was completely wrong. Charles Osgood, you may remember him from CBS Radio, can help set the stage for us, as he did for a Sunday morning piece back in 2002. Andrew Borden, a leading businessman, was found murdered on his downstairs sofa, the victim of multiple blows to the head. His second wife, Abby, was found murdered in similar fashion upstairs. On the basis of largely circumstantial evidence, 32-year-old Lizzie Borden was arrested and charged with her father and stepmother's deaths. The murders actually occurred in August of 1892. Think about that. And yet what's odd is, who hasn't heard the name Lizzie Borden? 127 years later, 127 years, her name has become part of the popular culture. Yesterday in Old Fall River, Mr. Andrew Borden died. Now they got his daughter, Lizzie, on a charge of homicide. You're listening to Ronnie Graham. Others say, of course, she did. He's singing in the film New Faces of 1954. Because you can't chop your papa a pin. Massachusetts, not even if it's planned as a surprise. Now, I don't remember that movie. You probably don't either. But you may remember Elizabeth Montgomery. She was the witch from Bewitched. She also played Lizzie in a TV movie, The Legend of Lizzie Borden, back in 1975. Mrs. Churchill, do come in. Someone has killed father. And more recently, Chloe Sevigny played her in a 2018 film named, simply enough, Lizzie. To your knowledge, did your father have any enemies? This is America, Sarah. Every man with a pulse has enemies. With so much written about Lizzie, what's left to learn? I have a feeling we may have some surprises for you. So, let's start. First, I need to separate fact from fiction. So, like any good reporter, I'm actually going to take you to the scene of the crime. Believe it or not, the real Lizzie Borden house, where she grew up, still exists. And it doesn't just exist. It's actually a bed and breakfast. And here's the best part. We're all going to spend the night there. The actual Lizzie Borden house is kind of nondescript. It's a frame house right across from a courthouse in Fall River. It's painted dark green. Looks like any other mid-19th century house. Green shutters, green paint, two stories. But the side door is what they still use. When you go into the dining room, you definitely go back in time. Inside, the rooms are small, with flowery wallpaper everywhere. There are delicate white lace curtains and tablecloths, and armchairs covered in dark blue velvet. None of the original furniture actually exists. Just reproductions. And there is now electricity in the house. And that was something the Bordens didn't have. In the cramped kitchen, we find Rick Bertoldo. He's a tour guide. If you're crazy enough to want to spend the night in a house where two people were brutally murdered, Rick is more than happy to show you around. How many people come and spend the night here? Oh, God, over the years. I mean, we've had thousands of people from all over the world. And are there some people who leave in the middle of the night? Oh, quite often. We actually have a sign in the gift shop right near the register. There's no refunds for early departure. Time for a little honesty. In my career of 48 hours, I have never spent the night in a house, let alone slept in a room where a homicide has taken place. And as you can imagine, I'm getting very creeped out here. What do I face tonight? We're spending the night alone in the Lizzie Borden house where two people were brutally murdered. I'm sleeping in the room where one of them was chopped up, can I say? Keep the doors locked. Okay, so let's go back to August 4th, 1892. To best tell the story, we've turned to Kara Robertson. You must be Kara Robertson. Hi, nice to meet you. Very nice meeting you. And thank you for doing this. Oh, it's my pleasure. Kara is a lawyer. She first began researching the Lizzie Borden case nearly 30 years ago when she was a Harvard undergraduate. And she just couldn't let go of the story. She just finished a nearly 400-year career page book called The Trial of Lizzie Borden. How would you describe Lizzie Borden, how she looked, who she was? Lizzie Borden was pretty average looking. Attractive? Perfectly fine looking, not particularly glamorous. Many of the people who retell the story in a fictional way, whether it's film or theater, like to glamorize her and make a romance out of the story. But as the reporters at the trial noted, that she was about medium size, medium height. She had a very strong jaw. That was one of her noteworthy qualities. And Lizzie was also, at age 32, unmarried, as was her older sister Emma, who was 41. They live with their dad, Andrew Borden, and they're married. And they live with Abby Borden, who was actually their stepmom. Andrew married Abby after the girl's mother died when Lizzie was just two. And there was also the family's Irish maid, Bridget Sullivan. They were all living under one roof in that modest, not particularly happy, Victorian home. Andrew Borden was a self-made man, but he was descended from one of the founding families of Fall River. So, he had some claim to social status beyond his actual wealth. But he was known to be a miser, someone who was a lot more interested, as one journalist put it, in piling up dollars than in spending them. And it was thought that his daughters, Emma and particularly Lizzie, resented not being able to live in a higher style. Emma, however, was out of town on that August morning in 1892, it was around 11 a.m., just before lunch, when Lizzie says she discovered her dad dead on a couch in the dining room. He had been hit several times in the face with an axe. And one of them was so severe, it split his eye socket right in half. His eye popped out of his son's cheek. Hopefully, that was his first strike. He probably never even knew it hit him. That's Rick Bertoldo, our tour guide again. He's so anxious to describe what happened that day in the room where we're standing, that he shows me actual photos taken by investigators. I'm not kidding. There are real death photos hanging in the house, and not just of Andrew, but also of his wife, Abby. Most of her injuries are the back of her head, so they shaved the back of her head. Wait a minute, what am I, what am I seeing here? This is the back of Abby's head. Correct. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Because as it turns out, shortly after finding Andrew Borden dead, his wife, Abby, was also discovered. She was on the floor of the guest's bedroom. She had also been hit with an axe. She was caught completely off guard by this person that she actually knew. So whoever killed her, she knew this person. And what makes you say that? She wasn't afraid of that person. Right. Oh, because it was someone in the room with her. Right. But then you're saying that she was caught in the back of the head. You're saying, Rick, it had to be. Someone she knew. Either Lizzie. It's got to be either a family member or somebody else that she knew. Okay, let me clear something up here. Abby had actually been killed before Andrew, maybe an hour before, according to investigators who found the blood around her head congealed. Somebody was really angry? It certainly looked like a, yeah, passion. I think Abby's murder probably took only a second guess. It was that quick. It was that brutal. So there were only three people then. If you believe it's someone she knew, so it either had to be John Morse, right? Mm-hmm. Bridget Sullivan. Mm-hmm. Or Lizzie Bort. Mm-hmm. What I find very interesting at this point is that clearly our tour guide isn't convinced that Lizzie is the killer. One of the first suspects was John Morse. He was living with her. Lizzie's uncle. And he had been in the house the night before, but on the day of the murders, he had an alibi. So the police cleared him. And then remember Bridget Sullivan. She was the family's Irish maid. She was also known as Maggie. It turns out she had been outside talking to the maid who lived next door. So police also cleared her. It leaves Lizzie. Lizzie would have had plenty of time to kill Abby, to clean up, put on a dress, and even go out for a walk. But Andrew's murder, it's only minutes after Lizzie discovers her father's body that there are witnesses here in the house. Mrs. Churchill, the next door neighbor, she arrives within two to three minutes. When Dr. Bone arrives, the blood is still seeping from Andrew's wounds. And yet Lizzie has no blood on her whatsoever. Doesn't even look like she washed any blood off. And that's the thing that's really intriguing about it is, how could she have done this and not get any blood on her? She didn't have the time to do it. She didn't have the time to clean up. And the other strange thing about this case that nobody ever talks about, both murder scenes, there's no trail of blood leaving the scene of the crime. Whoever did this in both murders cleaned up right after themselves. That's why the police believe it was the same person that committed both murders. Because in both situations, there's no trail of blood leaving the scene of the crime. Whoever did this cleaned up right then and there. This lack of a blood trail is really one of the most perplexing parts of the case. Because not a trace of blood was found on Lizzie. So think about this. How could she hit her dad all those times and not be covered with blood spatter? So do you want to hear Lizzie's alibi? Andrew's murder? This is what Lizzie says. She says that she was in the barn at the time that her dad sat down on this couch to take a nap. Correct. True crime is full of unanswered questions, but earning your degree doesn't have to be a mystery. That's where Southern New Hampshire University comes in. SNHU offers more than 200 online degree programs with flexibility that puts you in the driver's seat and trusted support to keep you on track, even when life takes an unexpected turn. 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But on the other hand, there wasn't a lot of time between when she quote unquote discovers her dad and then the police are called and there's no blood found on her. They never found blood soaked dresses. And she would have had to be, if she was the one who was wielding that hatchet on her stepmom and her dad, wouldn't she have had to have blood spatter on her? The eternal question, where did the blood go? Now that's not the only question I have for Leanne. You know, I understand and couldn't even see why she might've turned the Lizzie Borden's house into a museum because this case obviously continues to fascinate 127 years later but what i don't get a bed and breakfast why is that why do people want to stay here you don't have any trouble renting out rooms here to you no i mean there are times you're full completely booked and have to turn people away have you ever encountered anything you really couldn't explain in this house oh yeah yes like what i was i was sleeping in bridget's room one night and i had i had my tea i had my book i'm in bed turn the light off like to sleep now in bridget's room to the left of her bed is this child's rocking chair and when i woke up in the morning the chair had moved around to the right of the bed and was facing me like it was watching me sleep all night what the chair moved yes or someone moved the chair either way it was it was not where i had uh left it when i went to bed oh my gosh what room are you in i'm in the room that abby was killed oh good you took my suggestion yes why why will there be anything i know no no you just i think he he you , you seemed a little hesitant so i was like oh put her in the murder room of course of course put the one who's most scared in the murder room you will be fine so at this point i say my good night grab my overnight bag and head for the hallway i don't think i'm gonna get a lot of sleep tonight check back for my next podcast part two to see what happened to see what happened i'm erin moriarty 48 hours and that's my life of crime this podcast series is developed by 48 hours in partnership with cbs news radio judy tygart is our executive producer nancy kramer is our executive story editor mike fillet the series producer editor this episode was produced by luis heraldo jamie howman and tamra whitewoods aidesman morgan canty and emma steel are our associate producers craig swagler the vice president and general manager of cbs news radio charles e pavlounis is the executive vice president of business development and the cfo of cbs news a special thanks to our guests cara robertson and the team of the lizzie borden bed and breakfast finally a shout out to all of you our fans we owe it to you the millions of fans of 48 hours in the u.s and around the world don't forget to join me online i am at ef moriarty on twitter and we are at 48 hours on twitter facebook and instagram tune in to cbs news every saturday night at 10 p.m eastern as we begin believe it or not our 33rd season of crime and justice original reporting on 48 hours this is jill schlesinger from money moves you started a business to follow your passion not to get buried in financial details zero makes managing your numbers simple by bringing accounting payments payroll and analytics together in one place instead of trying to sound smart zero is designed to make you feel smart with easy to read dashboards and smart insights that give you better control over your money join five million customers worldwide who trust zero to keep their business running smoothly without the hassle learn more at xero.com it was a gruesome discovery off a dirt road in georgia hunters had found a body was it immediately clear to you that this woman had been murdered yes but who was this mystery woman in the woods that looks like mindy i'm erin moriarty and from 48 hours this is the woman in the woods i have never wanted to be wrong like this in my whole entire life follow and listen to the woman in the woods wherever you get your podcasts