One of the great media sensations of the late 1800's was the arrest and trial of Lizzie Borden, a woman from Fall River, Massachusetts, accused of the gruesome axe murders of her father and stepmother. On August 4, 1892, Andrew Borden, Lizzie's father, left the house in the morning and attended to some business. He returned home about 10:45 a.m. Shortly after, Lizzie Borden called out to the family's maid, Bridget Sullivan, "Come quick, father's dead!"." Andrew Borden was on a couch in a parlor, the victim of a brutal attack. He had been struck numerous times, apparently with an axe or hatchet. A neighbor, searching the house, discovered Borden's wife upstairs. She had also been brutally murdered. .
A police investigation found the head of a hatchet in the basement of the Borden house, and that was assumed to be the murder weapon although it was free of blood. There was also a lack of other physical evidence, such as bloodstained clothing the perpetrator of such a bloody crime must have worn. After a couple days of investigating the house and speaking to people who had come in contact with the Borden's that day, the police had come up with enough evidence to file a warrant for Lizzie Borden's arrest. Lizzie Borden was indicted for the two murders in December 1892, and her trial began the following June.
The trial of Lizzie Andrew Borden was held in the city of New Bedford before the Superior Court for the County of Bristol, Massachusetts starting on June 5, 1893. The trial was noteworthy for the legal talent involved. Hosea Knowlton, forty-six at the time, was the lead prosecutor in the Borden trial. He was a well respected attorney in Massachusetts and had a lengthy history of public service, including fourteen years as the county district attorney. William Moody was the second chair on the Borden trial. Moody was forty when the Borden trial took place, making him the youngest attorney in the entire trial and later in life he would become the Attorney General of the United States and also serve as U.
