Lizzie Borden

Lizzie Andrew Borden was an American woman who was tried and acquitted of the August 4, 1892, axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. No one else was charged in the murders and, despite ostracism from other residents, Borden spent the remainder of her life in Fall River. She died of pneumonia at age 66, just nine days before the death of her older sister Emma.

thumb|1880s woman's paletot in black bengaline Bengaline is a rayon-and-cotton material which became fashionable for women and children to wear in the 1880s and 1890s. It offered the impression of genuine silk but was made with lesser amounts of silk than cotton. Lizzie Borden stated at her August 1892 inquest that she was wearing a dress made of bengaline silk on the morning she was accused of murdering her father and stepmother.