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Case file s1172 · Jailed and executed · 1892
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1892
Lizzie Borden House (Bed Breakfast) (3535957840): Erected in 1845, the home was originally a two family and was later made into a single family by Andrew J. Borden. Andrew J. Borde
Lizzie Borden House (Bed Breakfast) (3535957840). dbking from Washington, DC. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
4 August 1892 (Andrew and Abby Borden)
Place
Fall River, Massachusetts, USA
Field
business and property · Business and finance on the timeline
Legal tradition
Massachusetts inheritance law; order of death between spouses; acquittal leaves the right to inherit intact · Common law
Historical event
Borden murders and trial, 1892 to 1893
Jailed and executedMurder and sudden deathIndustry and empireNorth AmericaUnited States

Lizzie Borden was acquitted of killing her father and stepmother, inherited his fortune with her sister, and wrote her sister out of her will

Andrew Borden and his second wife, Abby, were killed with a hatchet in their Fall River house on 4 August 1892. His estate was valued at $300,000. Abby was found to have died first, so her estate passed to Andrew and, at his death, to his daughters, Lizzie and Emma. A considerable settlement was paid to resolve claims by Abby's family. Earlier in 1892 the sisters had bought a rental property from their father for $1 and sold it back to him for $5,000. Lizzie was arrested on 11 August 1892 and tried in New Bedford from 5 June 1893. The jury began deliberating on 20 June and acquitted her. After the trial the sisters bought a large house on The Hill that Lizzie named Maplecroft. In 1905 Emma moved out after a quarrel over a party Lizzie gave for the actress Nance O'Neil, and they never saw each other again. Lizzie died of pneumonia on 1 June 1927. Emma died nine days later in Newmarket, New Hampshire. Lizzie's will left her Stevens Manufacturing shares and cash to the Animal Rescue League of Fall River, for animals "because their needs are great and because there are so few who care for them." It left $500 for the care of her father's grave. It said: "I have not given my sister, Emma L. Borden, anything, as she had her share of my father's estate." Both sisters lie in the family plot at Oak Grove Cemetery.

What the law took from it

An acquittal leaves inheritance rights untouched; only a conviction or a civil finding can block them.

Record vs. record

The Springfield Daily News of 8 June 1927 gives the Animal Rescue League bequest as $20,000 and the estate as close to $700,000; Wikipedia, citing the New York Times, gives $30,000 and over $250,000:

us-data.orgWikipedia (English)
Sources
  1. us-data.orgPress
  2. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Lizzie Borden was acquitted of killing her father and stepmother, inherited his fortune with her sister, and wrote her sister out of her will,” story s1172, https://www.celebrity.estate/lizzie-borden-1892, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Jailed and executedMurder and sudden deathIndustry and empireNorth AmericaCommon lawUnited States