Dennis J. Curran
The Trial of Lizzie Borden: Whacks and Hacks
This case presents one of America’s most notorious and enduring murder mysteries. When Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally hacked to death in Fall River, Massachusetts, in August 1892, the arrest of the couple’s younger daughter Lizzie turned the case into international news and her murder trial into a spectacle unparalleled in American history. Reporters flocked to the scene. Well-known columnists took up conspicuous seats in the courtroom. The defendant was relentlessly scrutinized for signs of guilt or innocence. Everyone — rich and poor, suffragists and social conservatives, legal scholars, and laypeople — had an opinion about Lizzie Borden’s guilt or innocence. Was she a cold-blooded murderess or an unjustly persecuted lady? Did she, or didn’t she?
An essential piece of American mythology, the popular fascination with the Borden murders has endured for well over a century. Told and retold in every conceivable genre, the murders have secured a place in the American pantheon of mythic horror. The trial of Lizzie Borden offers a window into America in the Gilded Age.
Justice Dennis J. Curran (judgedenniscurran.com) was a Massachusetts trial judge for more than 15 years, and presided over 450 civil and criminal trials. Justice Curran graduated from Boston Latin School, and received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and his law degree from the University of Virginia. His lifelong passion has been history. He has served as a Professor of the Practice at Tufts University, teaches at Brown University’s summer program, and lectures widely before historical groups, public libraries, senior groups, trial attorneys and fellow judges.
