All Things Considered and Lizzie Borden
August 14, 2008. NPR. All Things Considered.
Lizzie Borden Museum Has Ax To Grind
by Andrea Shea
An 1890 portrait of Lizzie Borden, two years before her parents were murdered. She was accused, and acquitted, of the crime.
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Charles Krupa
A 2001 shot of the Lizzie Borden bed-and-breakfast museum in Fall River, Mass. Its owners believe a new rival museum will take away its tourists. APAll Things Considered, August 14, 2008 · In August 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally murdered in their Massachusetts home. Their daughter Lizzie was tried for the crime — and acquitted, sparking an enduring fascination.
Lizzie Borden is remembered as the woman who “took an ax and gave her mother 40 whacks.” The house in Fall River, Mass., where the Bordens met their bloody demise has been turned into a bed-and-breakfast museum. Visitors can take tours and, if they’re brave enough, spend the night.
But 80 miles away in the town of Salem, home of the witch trials, there’s a new museum billing itself as “The True Story of Lizzie Borden” that’s scheduled to open any day.
Dueling Borden Sites
Lee Ann Wilber, who co-owns the Fall River B&B, says Lizzie is about all the town has going for it.
More than 10,000 fans travel to the house each year. They buy “I Survived the Night” T-shirts and ax-wielding Lizzie Borden bobble-heads. Wilber worries that the museum in Salem will draw people away.
“Let Lizzie be the doorway to draw people in and then show them what else Fall River has to offer,” she says.
Although the town has long grappled with its gory past and the idea of capitalizing on “terror tourism,” Wilber’s partner, Donald Woods, filed a lawsuit last week to prevent the Salem museum from using the “Lizzie Borden Museum” trademark.
‘The Dark Side Of History’
Leonard Pickel, who is opening “The True Story of Lizzie Borden,” isn’t spooked. He says Fall River hasn’t fully embraced its resident attraction, and claims that his museum in Salem may even inspire people to drive to Fall River to visit her grave.
Pickel says sheer numbers drove him to create a Lizzie Borden museum in a city famous for its witches.
“There are 600,000 tourists who come to Salem, Mass., looking for the dark side of history, and we feel like we can share Lizzie’s story with more people here than we ever could in Fall River,” says Pickel, editor of Haunted Attraction magazine. He also designs and sells haunted houses.
Bizarre Murder Still A Mystery
Like a lot of people, Pickel is fascinated with the bizarre story of the 32-year-old “spinster” accused of hacking her parents to death. He calls it the O.J. Simpson trial of its day.
“It’s a murder mystery, and people can’t stand not to know the answer to it. So they’re constantly trying to fill in the gaps to figure out exactly how she did it, why she did, and if she did it — or who else could’ve done it,” Pickel says. “And we’ll never know for sure.”
But Pickel says the museum he’s building is based on reality. He plans to feature poster-sized images related to the slayings and even reproductions of the Bordens’ crushed skulls.
