Filming for Season 4 of Netflix’s hit “Monster” series is already underway—with actress Ella Beatty taking on the complex role of accused ax murderer Lizzie Borden, marking the first time the show will center around a female lead.
Beatty, 25, whose role in the series was announced earlier this year, will be joined by co-stars Charlie Hunnam, Billie Lourd, Rebecca Hall, and Vicky Krieps in telling the sordid tale of the brutal Borden murders, which took place in Fall River, MA, in 1892.
Lizzie was famously accused of killing her father and stepmother with an ax inside their Massachusetts home. The case rocked her tiny hometown—and led to Lizzie being ostracized by the local community, even after she was acquitted by a jury in 1893.
To this day, the murders of Andrew Borden and his second wife, Abby Durfee Gray, remain unsolved. However, the details of the brutal killings have sparked a wave of speculation and conspiracy theories, while turning the Bordens’ former home into a tourist spot, particularly for those with a penchant for the paranormal.
For years, the property has operated as a business, even as it has passed from one owner to another, with each opting to continue its very lucrative legacy as “America’s most haunted house.”
The eerie abode last changed hands just four years ago, when it was sold to new proprietor Lance Zaal for $1.8 million, having been listed just a few weeks before for $2 million.
Zaal vowed to not only keep the property open to the public, but also to expand its offerings, transforming the dwelling into a bed-and-breakfast, offering guests “a mix of what the Bordens had” to eat on the morning of their murders.
Several “suites” are on offer inside the home, including the “Lizzie & Emma Suite,” which is made up of the bedrooms once occupied by Lizzie and her sister, Emma, and the “Andrew & Abby Suite,” which includes the late couple’s former bedroom and Abby’s former sewing room.
For those with a morbid fascination for the paranormal, there is the “John V. Morse Suite,” in which guests will find the exact room where Abby was found dead.
According to the website for “The Historic Lizzie Borden House,” the home is today exactly as it was when the bodies were discovered, with all of the original furnishings still intact.
“The décor has been painstakingly duplicated, and the original hardware and doors are still intact,” it states.
“Artifacts from the murder case are displayed while memorabilia from the era line shelves and mantel tops. A visitor is literally transported back to that morning when a perfect storm of events culminated in a double murder.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Lizzie and Emma moved out of the house soon after the murder trial came to an end. However, they remained in Fall River, despite facing continued suspicion from their fellow residents and neighbors.
According to multiple reports, the siblings moved into a larger property in a different part of town. The sisters later had a falling out over Lizzie’s extravagant spending, which prompted Emma to move into her own home.
Lizzie remained in their once-shared dwelling until her death at age 66 in 1927. Her sister died of unrelated causes just nine days later.
Reports vary about what became of the Bordens’ original property, which was passed to Lizzie after her father’s death. A few years after the murder trial, the address of the home was changed from 92 Second Street to 230 Second Street in 1896, according to historical archives.
In 1948, the home was purchased by the McGinn family, according to the Baltimore Sun. Martha McGinn later inherited the home from her grandparents when they died.
McGinn and her business partner, Ronald Evans, were the first to turn the property into a tourist attraction. The wildly popular B&B was opened in 1996, on the anniversary of the Borden murders.
At the time, McGinn called attention to the eerie activities that she claimed had taken place in the home during her childhood, including the discovery of unexplained blood stains, doors mysteriously opening and closing, and footsteps heard throughout the house despite nobody being in the areas where they were coming from.
In 2004, the home was sold to Donald Woods and Lee-Ann Wilbers for around $415,000, according to records. They continued to operate tours of the dwelling for nearly 20 years, before selling the house to Zaal.
What is unclear is whether the home will play a role in the upcoming installment of “Monster,” which is primarily being shot in Los Angeles, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Borden murders have been dramatized in multiple TV and movie projects over the years, including the 1975 TV movie “The Legend of Lizzie Borden,” the 2014 Lifetime special “Lizzie Borden Took an Ax,” and Chloe Sevigny and Kristen Stewart‘s 2018 movie, “Lizzie.”
