Lizzie Borden was taken into custody after her parents were found dead in 1892. Notably, she had a sister named Emma Borden.
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Add BollywoodShaadis on GoogleMonster: The Lizzie Borden Story is the upcoming entry in Ryan Murphy’s crime anthology franchise on Netflix. The fourth chapter focuses on a murder case that happened in 1892, where 32-year-old Lizzie was arrested after being accused of killing her parents.
History undoubtedly remembers Lizzie, her trial, and how she was acquitted. As the trailer of Ryan Murphy’s show has arrived now, Lizzie’s sister, Emma Borden, has also become a topic of discussion.
Emma Borden was born March 1, 1851, in Fall River, Massachusetts, to Sarah Morse and Andrew Borden. She was the eldest of three children, and the only one of the siblings to reach adulthood. They had a younger sister, Alice, who died in infancy. The family traced English and Welsh roots on Andrew’s side.
By trade, Andrew was a bank president and director of three textile mills, and owned multiple properties in the city. Sarah died in 1863 when Emma was 12. At her mother’s bedside, Emma was asked to look after young Lizzie, who was nine years younger. That responsibility turned Emma into Lizzie’s closest companion and, in many ways, a maternal figure.
The household changed two years later when Andrew married Abby Durfee Gray. Emma never warmed to her stepmother. A house servant later noted that Emma and Lizzie rarely ate meals with Andrew and Abby. Tension over money grew in the 1880s. Andrew transferred real estate to members of Abby’s family, and in return Emma and Lizzie pressed for their own share. They were given the Second Street house.
Weeks before the 1892 killings, they bought a rental property from Andrew for USD 1, then sold it back to him for USD 5,000. Emma was raised in the Central Congregational Church and kept a private, church-going life. She was also said to have loved a man her father considered beneath the family’s standing, and Andrew opposed the match. That conflict added to the strain at home.
On August 4, 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were found hacked to death in Fall River. Emma was not in the house. She was in Fairhaven, about 15 miles away, visiting friends. A telegram brought her back that evening to a home surrounded by crowds and police.
With Lizzie arrested and held in Taunton Jail, Emma took over management of the family money. She hired a defense team led by former Massachusetts Governor George D. Robinson.
Emma also testified during the June 1893 trial in New Bedford. She described household routines and answered questions about items in the house, including a blue dress Lizzie had burned days after the killings. Lizzie was acquitted. After the trial, the sisters used their inheritance to buy a 13-room Queen Anne house on French Street, in Fall River’s “Hill” section. They called it Maplecroft and staffed it with servants.
Although the sisters lived together for a long time, their temperaments clashed. Emma was attracted to a quiet environment and religion, while Lizzie entertained actors, artists, and Broadway performer Nance O’Neil, and began using the name “Lizabeth.” The friction peaked in 1905 after one of Lizzie’s theatrical gatherings. Emma packed and left Maplecroft. She never returned, and the sisters did not speak again.
Emma relocated to Newmarket, New Hampshire, living under the radar and refusing interviews. Lizzie died on June 1, 1927, at Maplecroft from complications following gallbladder surgery. On June 10, 1927, Emma died in New Hampshire of chronic kidney disease at age 76. She was unaware that Lizzie had passed first. They were buried together with Andrew, Sarah, and Abby in the family plot at Oak Grove Cemetery in Fall River.
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