Who was Ryan Murphy’s Monster season four focus Lizzie Borden – and was she a lesbian?
Who was Netflix’s Monster season four’s Lizzie Borden? And was she a lesbian? (Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)
Who was Netflix's Monster season four's Lizzie Borden? And was she a lesbian? (Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)
Ryan Murphy’s divisive Monster anthology series has reportedly decided on its central figure for season four – but who was suspected axe murderer Lizzie Borden, and was she a lesbian?
Though its third season, which will see Queer as Folk star Charlie Hunnam as serial killer Ed Gein, has not yet been released, the fourth season of Ryan Murphy’s controversial true crime anthology series Monster has reportedly already picked its target.
The Netflix series first saw Evan Peters as serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in a contentious debut for Monster, with many family members of Dahmer’s victims claiming that the instalment “retraumatised” them.
Monster’s second, even more prominent season, The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, revolved around Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch as the brothers accused of murdering their own parents – but again, the series sparked discontent, with many viewers accusing Murphy of sexualising the siblings’ relationship and creating “incestuous fetish porn”.
And though season three does not yet have a release date, Variety has reported (8 July) that season four of Monster will be ‘The Lizzie Borden’ story.
Reps for both Netflix and Murphy declined to comment on the report – and Monster has not yet been renewed for a fourth season.
Who was Lizzie Borden, focus of Monster season four?
Lizzie Borden lived in the town of Fall River, Massachusetts, her entire life, from 19 July, 1860 to 1 June, 1927, when she died aged 66.
If Monster season four does indeed focus on Borden, it will be the earliest era for the Netflix series to date.
Borden is best known for being accused and tried – but later acquitted – of the axe murders of her father, Andrew and stepmother, Abby, in 1892.
Both Andrew and Abby were found brutally murdered on 4 August that year, with Abby suffering over 17 axe wounds to the head, and Andrew found slumped on a couch, struck 10 or 11 times – with one of his eyes split in two.
Borden’s trial was the subject of nationwide fame, and after 15 days, the jury acquitted Borden of both murders, and upon exiting the courthouse, told reporters that she was “the happiest woman in the world”.
Was Lizzie Borden a lesbian?
Though there is no concrete evidence to suggest Lizzie Borden was a lesbian, that’s hasn’t stopped Ryan Murphy before, who insinuated in Monsters series two that Erik was gay, and the brothers had a physical relationship, despite neither sibling identifying as gay.
Other adaptations of the murders, such as Lizzie (2018), which starred Chloë Sevigny as Borden, have stated that Borden had a relationship with Bridget Sullivan (Kristen Stewart), the Borden family’s live-in maid.
Mystery author Ed McBain, in the 1984 novel Lizzie, suggested that she murdered her father and step-mother after being caught in a tryst with Sullivan
Though in her later years, she was rumoured to be a lesbian, Sullivan married a man in Montana, before dying in 1948.
Monster season three and four have no release date yet.
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