Before the O.J. Simpson trial, before the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, there was the gruesome double murder of a business man and his wife, made infamous through a child's nursery rhyme: "Lizzie Borden took an axe/And gave her mother forty whacks/And when she saw what she had done/She gave her father forty-one." This 1892 double murder provoked a media sensation and continues to raise questions still unanswered today.

Lizzie Borden was born on July 19, 1860 in Fall River, Massachusetts. Less than three years later, Borden's mother, Sarah died. Borden's father, Andrew soon thereafter married Abby Durfee. Lizzie never considered Abby her mother; however, she treated her stepmother with respect. Lizzie, along with her sister, Emma, led the typical uneventful lives of early nineteenth century women, keeping busy with housekeeping, visiting friends, shopping, and reading magazines. In 1892, on a quiet, hot summer day, Lizzie's uneventful life took a...