Mad Over Stories Team Netflix’s Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story arrives September 17, 2026 — eight episodes, with Ella Beatty playing the first woman ever cast as the anthology’s “monster.” But before you watch the dramatization, here’s the part that matters: Lizzie Borden was tried and acquitted. More than 130 years later, the 1892 axe murders that made her a household name remain officially unsolved. Here’s the real story the series is built on — the facts, the myths, and where the drama takes liberties.
When does Monster Season 4 come out?
All eight episodes of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story drop on Netflix worldwide on September 17, 2026. It is the fourth season of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true-crime anthology, following seasons on Jeffrey Dahmer, the Menendez brothers, and Ed Gein.
The cast
- Ella Beatty as Lizzie Borden — the daughter of Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, and the first female subject in the anthology.
- Charlie Hunnam as Andrew Borden, Lizzie’s father.
- Supporting cast includes Vicky Krieps, Rebecca Hall, Jessica Barden, Joey Pollari, Billie Lourd, and Sarah Paulson.
Who was Lizzie Borden?
Lizzie Andrew Borden was a 32-year-old woman living in Fall River, Massachusetts, with her wealthy but famously frugal father, Andrew Jackson Borden, her stepmother, Abby Durfee Borden, and (at times) her older sister Emma. The household was tense — money, property, and Lizzie’s strained relationship with her stepmother are all part of the record. Lizzie taught Sunday school and was active in her church, which is partly why the accusation that followed shocked the country.
What actually happened on August 4, 1892
On the morning of August 4, 1892, Abby Borden was killed in an upstairs guest room, struck repeatedly with a hatchet-like weapon. Roughly an hour and a half later, Andrew Borden was found dead on the sitting-room sofa downstairs, killed the same way. Lizzie was the one who alerted the household’s maid, Bridget Sullivan, calling out that her father was dead.
The brutality is why the case never faded. But note one detail the folklore gets wrong (more on that below): the number of blows was far fewer than the famous rhyme claims.
Was Lizzie Borden guilty? The trial and the acquittal
Lizzie was arrested on August 11, 1892, and stood trial in New Bedford in June 1893. The prosecution’s case was almost entirely circumstantial: no murder weapon was definitively tied to her, no bloodstained clothing was produced in court, and the timeline left room for doubt. On June 20, 1893, the jury acquitted her after deliberating for roughly an hour and a half.
This is the crucial fact the headlines often skip: Lizzie Borden was never convicted of anything. No one else was ever charged either. Legally and historically, the case is unsolved — which is exactly why it still fascinates people, much like the other baffling unsolved cases we cover.
The evidence and the theories
Because the case was never resolved in court, everything beyond the acquittal is theory, not fact. Over the decades, researchers and armchair sleuths have proposed several possibilities — that Lizzie acted alone, that the maid Bridget Sullivan was involved, that an outside intruder or an estranged family member was responsible, or that the truth died with the people in that house. Each theory has supporters and holes. None has ever been proven. Treating any of them as settled fact is exactly the trap that good true-crime storytelling tries to avoid.
“Forty whacks”: fact vs. folklore
You know the rhyme: “Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks…” It’s catchy, and almost entirely wrong. The victims were her stepmother and father, not her mother; the weapon was closer to a hatchet than an axe; and the number of blows was nowhere near forty — Abby suffered roughly 18–19 wounds and Andrew about 10–11. The rhyme is schoolyard folklore that hardened into “common knowledge,” a reminder of how true crime mutates as it’s retold.
What the Netflix series changes
Remember that Monster is a dramatization, not a documentary. Ryan Murphy’s anthology is known for stylized, interpretive storytelling — inventing dialogue, compressing timelines, and taking a strong point of view on guilt or innocence. Expect the series to dramatize the Borden household’s tensions and the trial, and to make narrative choices the historical record can’t confirm. If you want the documented version, treat the show as a starting point, not a verdict. For viewers who like that legal-mystery tension, it sits alongside the courtroom docuseries like Making a Murderer and the crime dramas we keep returning to.
Want to go deeper than the show?
The Borden case has inspired shelves of serious research and narrative nonfiction. If the series pulls you in, the written accounts are where the real evidence, trial transcripts, and competing theories live — start with our guide to the best true crime books of all time. And if you’re wondering why a 130-year-old axe murder still grips millions, we get into exactly that in the psychology behind our true-crime obsession.
Frequently asked questions
When is Monster Season 4 released?
All eight episodes of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story premiere on Netflix on September 17, 2026.
Did Lizzie Borden actually kill her parents?
She was tried for the 1892 murders of her father and stepmother and acquitted in 1893. No one was ever convicted, so the case is officially unsolved. Whether she was responsible remains a matter of theory, not established fact.
Who does Lizzie Borden’s family in the show?
Ella Beatty plays Lizzie Borden and Charlie Hunnam plays her father, Andrew Borden, in the Netflix series.
Is the “forty whacks” rhyme accurate?
No. The victims were her stepmother and father (not her mother), and the actual number of blows was far lower — roughly 18–19 for Abby Borden and about 10–11 for Andrew Borden.
Is Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story a true story?
It is based on the real 1892 case but is a dramatized retelling, not a documentary — it invents dialogue and takes creative liberties with events the historical record cannot confirm.
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