Wednesday, November 4, 2026 · 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM
The Center (COA) — 1 Ice House Rd., Medfield, MA
The Trial of Lizzie Borden: Whacks and Hacks with Honorable Dennis J. Curran, Justice Massachusetts Superior Court (Ret.) This case presents one of America’s most notorious and enduring murder mysteries. When Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally hacked to death in Fall River, Massachusetts in August 1892, the arrest of the couple’s younger daughter Lizzie turned the case into international news and her murder trial into a spectacle unparalleled in American history. Reporters flocked to the scene. Well-known columnists took up conspicuous seats in the courtroom. The defendant was relentlessly scrutinized for signs of guilt or innocence. Everyone – rich and poor - suffragists and social conservatives, legal scholars, and laypeople – had an opinion about Lizzie Borden’s guilt or innocence. Was she a cold-blooded murderess or an unjustly persecuted lady? Did she, or didn’t she? Or were darker forces at work? An essential piece of American mythology, the popular fascination with the Borden murders has endured for more than one hundred years. Told and retold in every conceivable genre, the murders have secured a place in the American pantheon of mythic horror. This program is being…