While there are literally hundreds of books and online videos about Lizzie Borden and the Borden murders (see our recommended books below), most of the material that has been produced over the years is riddled with inaccuracies and misshapen by the myths about Lizzie and the case. There are simply not a lot of truly objective sources of information about the case available; in fact, there is only one comprehensive, no-frills, just-the-facts resource out there and it’s online:

The Lizzie Andrew Borden Virtual Museum & Library 

lizzieandrewborden.com

Administered by Borden expert Dr. Stefani Koorey, Ph.D., this extraordinarily in-depth website is the primary resource for all things related to the Borden murders. It offers a one-stop visit for literally every source document on the case. You will find transcripts of inquest proceedings, the preliminary hearing and the trial as well as Witness Statements, crime scene photos, autopsy reports, house floor plans, timelines of the day of the murders, biographies of the people involved, newspaper accounts of the day, and so much more. Several items of interesting historical significance can also be found here, including the earliest writings on the case, from Edwin Porter’s Fall River Tragedy to Arthur Phillips’ memories of working on Lizzie’s defense.

This site is also where one can find the Lizzie Borden Society Forum, a message board that has been maintained for over 20 years, where people post all manner of thoughts and questions about the case. While wading through all the opinions there can be time-consuming, and most posters are not necessarily well-informed, many of the most dedicated students of the case have previously posted details of their own research, and with the forum’s search feature one can find bits of information about the case, such as old newspaper clippings, and information on secondary characters, available literally nowhere else.

The Hatchet Online

lizzieandrewborden.com/HatchetOnline

Also made available through the Lizzie Andrew Borden Virtual Museum and Library, for over ten years this magazine, archived online, published in-depth features by serious scholars of the case on many of its most interesting and mysterious aspects. The Hatchet is a treasure trove of well-researched information.   

Books

The Fall River Historical Society Press — Any book about Lizzie Borden and the murders published by the Fall River Historical Society is going to be fact-based and carefully researched, and several qualify as reference books of “source documents.” The Jennings Journals present the notes kept by Lizzie’s attorney, Andrew Jennings, as he prepared for her defense, while The Knowlton Papers compiles notes and letters retained by Hosea Knowlton which crossed his desk as he prepared his case against Lizzie. Both are fascinating reading, without any extra opinion on the meaning of the documents contained therein. An honorable mention goes to their seminal work, Parallel Lives, which has Lizzie Borden in its subtitle but is more about the city of Fall River in Lizzie’s day. (Although it does feature a number of new and interesting bits of information that give us insight into Lizzie’s life, especially after the verdict.)

Of course, sometimes we aren’t just looking for facts, we are looking for analysis of the facts as well, along with opinions from writers educated on the subject about how the facts fit together in a way that can answer the burning question “Did she or didn’t she?” This is where books on the case come in. It is nearly impossible to present information about the case in narrative book form without the author’s opinions filtering through. The case against Lizzie was almost entirely circumstantial, so much of the so-called evidence has an “eye-of-the-beholder” quality that pretty much requires a specific lens of guilt or innocence through which to consider it.

In keeping with our cultural bias toward Lizzie’s guilt, 19 out of 20 books published on the case are pro-guilt and their authors weave their tales in support of that assumption. In the process, most books include many of the oft-repeated myths that support a guilty conclusion, while leaving out facts that might point in another directions. Which is not to say that the few that lean toward Lizzie’s innocence are any different; they, too, are often loose with the facts or are based on wildly speculative theories. Further muddying matters in the last few years is an explosion in A.I.-generated books and videos, which simply regurgitate previous opinions and elevate previous myths. (It’s a good policy not to trust any of the dozens of self-published books on Lizzie or the Borden case that have appeared at a fast clip since 2024.)

However, the books listed below are journalistic in approach and have had the benefit of more recent Internet access to source documents (meaning they are more accurate). They also manage to be unusually objective (admittedly more objective than what you will find in this encyclopedia), allowing the reader more space in which to gather the facts and form their own opinions.

Recommended Books

The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden and The Trial of the Century

by Sarah Miller

The Case Against Lizzie Borden

by William Spencer

The Trial of Lizzie Borden

by Cara Robertson

(For more on books published throughout the 20th century that are often wildly inaccurate and full of conjecture and yet, historically speaking, created the legend of Lizzie Borden and shaped our common cultural understanding of the murders, see the Lizzie Borden Canon.)

Movies, Videos, and Podcasts

There is very little accurate information on the Borden case to be found in a work made for the screen, whether YouTube video or movie. The one exception might be Lizbeth: A Victorian Nightmare, a documentary made by Ric Rebelo. Decent information can also be found in older documentaries made for reputable TV networks, such as A&E Biography, or recorded talks by experts presented at, say, a library. These videos can now be found on YouTube, but they, too, can include more recently discredited myths and assumptions about the case; but hey, at least they have interesting visuals! If there is accurate fact-based analysis from individual true crime enthusiasts who have produced videos about Lizzie Borden and the murders over the past decade, I have yet to stumble into them; one mostly finds rambling opinions, snarky takes or supernatural hokum. And good luck wading through all the recent A.I. slop full of nonsense about the case that has flooded video platforms lately.

Not one of the movies or the few TV series that have been created around Lizzie and the Borden murder have much in the way of accurate information at all. (Ironically, the oldest of the lot, the 1975 TV movie, The Legend of Lizzie Borden, hews closest to the real story, but also popularized plenty of the myths about the case as well.) The movies are designed to be watched as entertainment, and what bare facts might be included are merely a jumping off point for the filmmaking team to let their imaginations run wild.

As for podcasts, the only accurate podcast, and the only one dedicated to the murders, is the Lizzie Borden Podcast, which has produced a number of wide-ranging episodes with reliable information on the case. As far as other podcasts, whatever turns up on when one searches for “Lizzie Borden” in any podcast platorm is usually a one-off introductory look at the case intended for people who don’t know much about it. And, more often than that, they begin with the assumption of guilt and are further filled with inaccuracies. The only exceptions would be episodes of a podcast in which a reputable author, such as Cara Robertson or Sarah Miller, is featured on the podcast to talk about their Borden-based books.