Lizzie Borden Motives

Lizzie Borden is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of slaughtering her father and stepmother in cold blood.

She had very compelling motives for doing this. One of her motives was that she had a lot to gain, including upwards of $10 million in today’s money (“9 things you may not know about Lizzie Borden” p. 1), which would be like winning the lottery if she got the money by legitimate means. This would be very good for her because, even though her father had $10 million (in todays money), he didn’t invest in amenities such as indoor plumbing and other such amenities (“9 things you may not know about Lizzie Borden” p.1). That coupled with the copious amount of money that she would have inherited would definitely make some one at least consider

Her alibi changed most of the times she told it, first stating she “...was in the barn...to get a piece of iron” , then she said she had been“...eating pears under a tree...” , and she also claimed she had “...been in her room mending lace...” (“Could A Women Do That?” p.43-45). When her alibi changed, it showed that she was possibly lying because if she was telling the truth, she would have a memory of what she was doing at the time and not have to try and memorize what she had said before. Unless Lizzie Borden had an amazing memory, she wouldn’t have been able to remember that, and she obviously didn’t because her alibi changed when she was asked about it. And she couldn’t have been doing all of that at the same

There was an axe that had a freshly broken handle and the blade was covered in ashes, implying that it had recently been cleaned and then put in a fire as to cover the fact that it had been cleaned (“Could A Women Do That?” p.45). Because the blade had been cleaned, it implies that it was used as the murder weapon because if it had been cleaned, it wouldn’t be suspected to have been used as the weapon because it didn’t have anything that could relate it to the crime. Also, some people say that Lizzie couldn’t have done it because she wouldn’t have been able to hide the weapon, but this shows that she just cleaned it instead of hiding it, which she would have had ample time for in the ninety minutes between