Meet the Guests: A Complete Guide to the Lizzie Borden Podcast

When Richard Behrens passed away, his widow Anna Behrens made the decision to keep his legacy alive — the Lizzie Borden Girl Detective mystery series, and the podcast that grew up alongside it. I stepped in as host starting with Episode 12, and we just wrapped Episode 43. That’s more than thirty conversations with historians, authors, museum curators, playwrights, and a few genuine Borden-world legends.

If you’ve only caught an episode here or there, this post is your map. Below is every guest we’ve had on since I took over the mic, organized so you can jump straight to the conversations that interest you most — and find us on whichever platform you actually use, because we’re not precious about it: YouTube, Spotify, Podbean, Audible, and Amazon Podcasts all carry the show. It also appears on the website at LizzieBordenGirlDectective.com

The Guest Roundup

Fall River Historical Society & Case Research

• Episode 14 — Michael Martins, curator of the Fall River Historical Society, on The Jennings Journals 1892, the unpublished notes of Lizzie’s defense attorney.
• Episode 28, 29 & 30 — Dennis Binette (three-part conversation), assistant curator of the FRHS and co-author of Parallel Lives, The Knowlton Papers, and more, on decades of research technique and the stories behind the books.
• Episode 31 — Dr. Philip T. Silvia Jr., historian and professor emeritus at Bridgewater State University, on immigration and the Fall River news media of the 1890s.
• Episode 32 — Michael Martins returns for an update on FRHS’s ongoing projects, now in the Society’s 103rd year.
• Episode 41 — Dennis Binette returns to talk about the people behind Parallel Lives.

True Crime Authors & Historians

• Episode 15 — Dr. Patricia L. Bryan, co author of Midnight Assassin: a Murder in America’s Heartland, published by the University of Iowa Press. The book details the accusation of murder against Margaret Hossack, who was known at the Lizzie Borden of Iowa because she was accused of killing her husband with an axe. This true crime inspired Susan Glaspell’s play “Trifles.”
• Episode 16 — William D. Spencer, author of The Case Against Lizzie Borden and Lizzie Borden Uncut.
• Episode 20 — Tom Mauriello, retired U.S. special agent and professor of forensic science, offering an investigator’s read on the case.
• Episode 24 — Bill Pavao, in tribute to the late Leonard Rebello, author of the essential research bible Lizzie Borden: Past and Present.
• Episode 27 — William Spencer returns with The Other Fall River Tragedy: The Murder of Bertha Manchester. Bertha Manchester was murdered by multiple blows with an ax in her home in Fall River, in the north part of the city, on Memorial Day, 1893, almost exactly 9 months after the Borden murders and one week before the jury was chosen and sequestered for Lizzie Borden’s trial. Did the knowledge of this crime affect the verdict in Lizzie’s case?
• Episode 35 — Bruce Dorsey, author of Murder in a Mill Town: Sex, Faith, and the Crime that Captivated a Nation, the story of the Sarah Maria Cornell case and its societal ramifications, including social change, the birth of a new religion, popular culture, and jurisprudence.
• Episode 39 — Dr. C. Michael Hiam, author of Murder Aboard: The Herbert Fuller Tragedy, on a maritime case with eerie parallels to Borden.

Rory Raven & the Sarah Cornell Case

• Episode 17 — Rory Raven on the Spiritualism movement of the 19th century.
• Episode 21 — Rory Raven returns, author of Wicked Conduct, on the 1832 Sarah Cornell murder.

Sherlock Holmes Crossovers

• Episode 37 — Dr. Tracy J. Revels, Sherlockian and professor, on teaching students to investigate the Borden case the way Holmes would.
• Episode 38 — Anna Behrens returns for a deep dive into four different Holmes-meets-Borden novels.
• Episode 42 — Derrick and Brian Belanger, publishers of Belanger Books, on how Lizzie Borden fits into the world’s largest Sherlock Holmes small press.

Film, Theater & Media

• Episode 18 — Anna Behrens, author, publisher, and producer of the podcast itself. Anna’s company is Nine Muses Books and her most recent publication is the Monadnock Sherlockian Anthology, comprised of essays, poetry, plays and fiction about Sherlock Holmes, another interest she shared with Richard.
• Episode 19 — Karen Roggenkamp, professor of American Literature, on how 19th-century journalists shaped the Borden narrative.
• Episode 23 — Ricardo “Ric” Rebelo, filmmaker and director of the PBS documentary Lizbeth: A Victorian Nightmare.
• Episode 25 — Dr. Stefani Koorey (yes, me) on the campaign to erect a grave marker for Edwin H. Porter, author of the first Borden book ever published.
• Episode 33 — George Schwartz, curator of Conjuring the Spirit World at the Peabody Essex Museum.
• Episode 36 — Barbara Van Reed & Nicole Gaudette of the Samuel Slater Experience in Webster, MA.
• Episode 40 — Ric Rebelo returns to talk horror fiction and his newest Borden-focused books.
• Episode 43 — Steven Cheslik-deMeyer, co-creator of the rock opera LIZZIE, on its journey from a four-song experiment to a worldwide production.

Dramatized Readings (a different flavor — fiction, not interview)

• • Episode 12 — “The Audible Amnesiac,” performed by Wendy Almeida. Although Richard uses an authentic 1880s Fall River as a setting for his mysteries, as well as a teenage Lizzie Borden and her real family members as characters, the stories are pure comic invention, quirky fiction wrapped around an intriguing mystery. Many years before her infamous arrest and trial for the murders of her father and stepmother, Richard’s Lizzie Borden pursued a career as a private consulting detective, and her beloved cousin Sarah Borden, served as a chronicler of her adventures. In this story we meet Homer Thesinger, boy inventor, Lizzie’s stingy father Andrew, her jealous and ineffectual sister Emma, and Abby, her dour and stern stepmother. You have met Lizzie Borden before, but never like this.
  • Episode 13 — “The Scrooge of Second Street,” a Lizzie Borden Girl Detective Christmas Story, performed by me. Many years before her infamous arrest and trial for the murders of her father and stepmother, Richard’s Lizzie Borden pursued a career as a private consulting detective, and her beloved cousin Sarah Borden, served as a chronicler of her adventures. In this story we meet Homer Thesinger, boy inventor, Lizzie’s stingy father Andrew, her jealous and ineffectual sister Emma, and Abby, her dour and stern stepmother. You have met Lizzie Borden before, but never like this.
  • Episode 22 — “The Forlorn Maggie,“ performed by PeggyRae Johnson, award winning director and actor, and member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association. She has multiple voice-overs to her credit, including recordings for Simon and Schuster Publishers. She will perform a dramatic reading of The Forlorn Maggie. This is the first Lizzie Borden, Girl Detective Mystery written by Richard Behrens, and it was first published in The Hatchet: A Journal of Lizzie Borden and Victorian Studies in 2008.
  • Episode 26 — “The Melancholy Scion,” performed by PeggyRae Johnson, award winning director and actor, and member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association. She has multiple voice-overs to her credit, including recordings for Simon and Schuster Publishers. She will perform a dramatic reading of The Melancholy Scion. This story was first published in The Hatchet: A Journal of Lizzie Borden and Victorian Studies in 2007 and is now a part of The Audible Amnesiac and Other Lizzie Borden Girl Detective Mysteries, published in 2018.
  • Episode 34 — “The Purloined Curio. This is one of the earlier stories in the Lizzie Borden Girl Detective mysteries. The title is no doubt an homage to Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Purloined Letter.” The story includes a nefarious medium who is hired by a bereft widow in the hope that she may make contact with her departed husband. All is not as it seems, and it is up to Lizzie Borden, Girl Detective, to put things right. The story explores the spiritualism movement in late nineteenth century New England, which was of particular interest to the author. Richard Behrens also includes his usual wry humor and comic characters that make his stories so unique and enjoyable. The story is read by a voice conjured by artificial intelligence.

Where to Listen

• YouTube: @LizzieBordenChannel — subscribe and hit the bell; every subscriber helps us clear the threshold for removing ads (we see none of that revenue anyway).
• Spotify, Podbean, Audible, Amazon Podcasts — search “Lizzie Borden Podcast” or find direct links on lizziebordengirldetective.com.

If there’s a guest or topic above you’d like to see us revisit, or someone you think we should have on, let us know in the comments on the podcasts — we’re always building the list for episode 44 and beyond.