The notorious axe murders of Lizzie Borden’s parents still haunt, 134 years on

While the rhyme might misidentify the killer, it also exaggerates the number of blows as well as the weapon (it was a hatchet, a small axe that is light enough to use with one hand). But the sequence of events is accurate – whoever killed Andrew and Abby Borden on a hot summer morning in Fall River, Massachusetts, began with Abby. She was 64, Andrew’s second wife, and stepmother to his two unmarried daughters Emma, 41, and Lizzie, 32.