Netflix’s eight-episode drama Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story presents a confident answer to a question that has remained unresolved since the 1890s. Its version of Lizzie kills Andrew and Abby Borden, but the real woman was tried and acquitted—and no killer was ever judicially established. ([netflix.com](https://www.netflix.com/title/82068293?src=tudum&utm_source=openai))
The central facts are straightforward: Andrew Borden and his wife Abby were murdered in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1892. Andrew’s daughter Lizzie was charged but acquitted in 1893. Netflix builds a deliberately fictional narrative around that historical framework, inventing motives, relationships and additional crimes rather than reconstructing a proven sequence of events.
The most important difference: Lizzie Borden was acquitted
Monster treats Lizzie, played by Ella Beatty, as the murderer. Netflix’s own synopsis states that she kills her parents, and the episodes explore why its fictionalized version of Lizzie turns to violence. ([netflix.com](https://www.netflix.com/title/82068293?src=tudum&utm_source=openai))
That is the series’ answer—not the verdict reached in real life.
The historical Lizzie Borden was accused of murdering her father, Andrew, and her stepmother, Abby. A jury acquitted her after a highly publicized trial in 1893. Although theories about Lizzie and other possible suspects have persisted, none produced a legally established alternative perpetrator. The safest historical conclusion is therefore not that Lizzie was innocent or guilty, but that the prosecution failed to prove its case in court. ([netflix.com](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-true-story?utm_source=openai))
Even Ella Beatty has described the character as a “very fictionalized version” created from details of Borden’s life and the writers’ interpretation of the gaps in the record. ([netflix.com](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-true-story?inapp=true&utm_source=openai))
What Monster gets broadly right
The series retains the basic setting and principal figures from the case:
- Andrew and Abby Borden were murdered in the family home in Fall River, Massachusetts.
- Abby was Lizzie’s stepmother, not her biological mother.
- Lizzie became the principal suspect and was brought to trial.
- Bridget Sullivan was employed in the Borden household.
- Lizzie was acquitted and continued living in Fall River.
- Her case became an enduring part of American true-crime folklore, reinforced by the famous skipping-rope rhyme.
These facts provide the structure of the drama. They do not, however, validate the show’s private conversations, psychological explanations or depiction of the killings.
The Lizzie and Maggie romance is a dramatic invention
Vicky Krieps plays Bridget Sullivan, whom the series calls Maggie. Monster makes her Lizzie’s lover and places their relationship at the heart of its explanation for the murders. Netflix describes the relationship as passionate and shows Maggie encouraging Lizzie to embrace her darker impulses. ([netflix.com](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-ending-explained?inapp=true&utm_source=openai))
There is no established historical evidence that Lizzie and Bridget were lovers or that Bridget helped murder Andrew and Abby. Netflix’s own background article instead connects the storyline to later speculation about Lizzie’s sexuality, particularly speculation surrounding her friendship with actor Nance O’Neil. That is not evidence of an earlier affair with Bridget. ([netflix.com](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-true-story?utm_source=openai))
Viewers should therefore treat the romance and Bridget’s alleged complicity as the show’s fictional premise, not as a revelation supported by the surviving record.
Nance O’Neil was not Lizzie’s trial coach
In Monster, actor Nance O’Neil helps Lizzie construct the public performance that carries her through the murder trial. It is an effective dramatic device, but the chronology is wrong.
Lizzie and O’Neil did become friends, yet Netflix acknowledges that their relationship began in 1904—more than a decade after Lizzie’s acquittal. Series creator Ian Brennan has explained that bringing O’Neil into the trial gave the writers a more active way to dramatize the courtroom proceedings. ([netflix.com](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-true-story?utm_source=openai))
The real Lizzie could not have received trial advice from a friend she had not yet met.
The Bertha Manchester murder is moved in time
The series also links Lizzie and Maggie to the killing of Bertha Manchester, presenting it as an earlier step towards the Borden murders.
In reality, Manchester was killed after Andrew and Abby Borden and shortly before Lizzie’s trial. Netflix openly acknowledges that the show reverses this chronology and adds the crime to its fictional Lizzie’s record. ([netflix.com](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-true-story?utm_source=openai))
This change matters because it gives the character a pattern of escalating violence that the historical timeline does not support.
The Aileen Wuornos connection is thematic, not historical
Monster extends Lizzie’s story into the 20th century through Aileen Wuornos, played by Sarah Paulson. The series uses the two women to explore what its creators describe as a legacy of female rage.
Netflix’s historical guide states that there is no evidence the real Wuornos was preoccupied with the Borden murders. Their connection belongs to the show’s thematic structure, not to documented history. ([netflix.com](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-true-story?utm_source=openai))
The rhyme is folklore, not a reliable case summary
The familiar rhyme about Lizzie giving her mother and father dozens of blows has done more than almost any historical document to shape her public image. But Abby was her stepmother, the numbers in the verse are not a dependable account of the victims’ wounds, and the rhyme cannot identify who attacked them.
Its cultural influence helps explain why Lizzie is often remembered as a convicted murderer even though the only jury to decide the case found her not guilty.
Is Monster a true-crime reconstruction?
No. It is a historical horror drama that uses real names, a real murder case and the outcome of a real trial while supplying its own answer to the central mystery.
The clearest dividing line is this:
- Historically established: Andrew and Abby Borden were murdered; Lizzie was charged; she stood trial; and the jury acquitted her.
- The series’ interpretation: Lizzie committed the murders and her oppressive home life helped drive her to violence.
- Major fictional additions: a sexual relationship and criminal partnership with Bridget Sullivan, Nance O’Neil’s involvement in the trial, Lizzie’s role in Bertha Manchester’s death and a meaningful historical connection to Aileen Wuornos.
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story began streaming on Netflix on September 17, 2026. It works best as a provocative fictional theory about an enduring mystery—not as a substitute for the historical record. ([netflix.com](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-ending-explained?inapp=true&utm_source=openai))
Sources
- https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/how-netflixs-new-monster-hit-goes-spectacularly-off-the-rails/
- https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/tv-shows/who-was-bridget-sullivan-monster-the-lizzie-borden-story/
- https://www.womanandhome.com/life/news-entertainment/lizzie-borden-why-was-she-acquitted/
- https://www.tomsguide.com/entertainment/netflix/3-new-netflix-shows-you-should-binge-watch-this-weekend-september-18-20
- https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/tv-shows/who-is-ella-beatty-monster-the-lizzie-borden-story/
- https://www.netflix.com/title/82068293?src=tudum
- What’s the True Story That Inspired Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story? | Netflix Tudum — https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-true-story
- https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-ending-explained?inapp=true
- Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story Cast Guide | Netflix Tudum — https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-cast-guide
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Marcel Macko
I’m most interested in technology, the internet, bizarre news, and stories that make you stop and think, “There’s no way this can actually be true.” I follow what’s happening both at home and around the world and pick the topics I think are worth paying attention to. On Pitchoviny, I try to present them simply, factually, and without unnecessarily sensational headlines.
