Netflix’s Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story has reignited public fascination with one of America’s most infamous unsolved murder cases, but the series has also sparked intense debate over several startling medical and historical claims. The fourth season of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s anthology series premiered on September 17, 2026, with Ella Beatty starring as Lizzie Borden and Vicky Krieps portraying the family’s Irish maid, Bridget “Maggie” Sullivan. Among the most talked-about moments is a storyline in which Bridget diagnoses Lizzie with an imperforate hymen and introduces her to two devices: a Veedee vibrator and a Chattanooga machine. The question on many viewers’ minds is simple: did any of this actually happen?
No Historical Evidence for Imperforate Hymen Diagnosis
There is no reliable historical evidence that Lizzie Borden had an imperforate hymen. The condition, which is congenital and involves tissue completely blocking the vaginal opening, appears nowhere in the documented records of Borden’s life or medical history. In the Netflix series, Bridget tells Lizzie that this condition is responsible for her severe menstrual problems and then obtains a device called a Chattanooga to address it. While imperforate hymen is a real medical condition that can prevent menstrual blood from leaving the body and may require treatment, the diagnosis shown in Monster is a dramatic invention rather than a documented fact.
What is actually documented about Lizzie Borden and menstruation is far less sensational. During the investigation into the 1892 murders of her father and stepmother, investigators found what appeared to be bloody cloths or rags in a pail in the Borden home’s basement. When Lizzie stated she was menstruating, investigators accepted that explanation rather than closely examining the contents of the pail. The possibility that the material represented evidence of a cleanup has been raised by some researchers, but it remains a theory rather than an established fact. That theory should not be confused with any evidence that Lizzie had an imperforate hymen.
The Veedee Vibrator Was Real But Made After the Murders
The Veedee vibrator shown in the series was a genuine device, but its appearance in Lizzie Borden’s story is historically impossible. According to the Science Museum Group in the UK, the Veedee was a German-made mechanical vibratory massager marketed for “curative vibration,” massage, nerve stimulation, and blood circulation. It was advertised as a treatment for a wide range of complaints, from gout to head colds, and featured a hand-crank mechanism that made the end vibrate when turned. The name is thought to be a pun on the Latin phrase “Veni Vidi Vici,” meaning “I came, I saw, I conquered”.
The critical problem is timing. The Science Museum dates the Veedee’s manufacture to between 1901 and 1930, while Andrew and Abby Borden were killed in Fall River, Massachusetts, in August 1892. The device simply did not exist when the murders took place. In the series, Bridget arrives at the Borden home with the Veedee, symbolizing what the show portrays as an awakening within Lizzie. Vicky Krieps told Vanity Fair that Murphy envisioned Sullivan as “almost like a Mary Poppins that comes out of nowhere”. Murphy himself described the project as “women-driven, feminist, lesbian, dirty, unapologetic”.
Chattanooga Machine Lacks Verifiable Documentation
The Chattanooga device shown in Monster is even harder to verify than the Veedee. In the series, Bridget obtains the machine after supposedly diagnosing Lizzie with an imperforate hymen. The device is portrayed as a large, mechanical medical massager. Reporting on the series found references suggesting that a Chattanooga device did exist, including a 1999 New York Times article describing one that cost $200 plus freight in 1904. A 1904 work titled Mechanical Vibration and Its Therapeutic describes the Chattanooga as featuring perpendicular bars, jointed arms, a motor, and “vibratodes,” with attachments including a hard rubber rectal device, a throat attachment, and a rubber cup.
However, there is considerably less reliable documentation establishing the exact device depicted by Netflix or its supposed use in Lizzie’s treatment. The show’s version appears to draw partly from historical mechanical vibrators and partly from later stories and images whose provenance is uncertain. Like the Veedee, the Chattanooga was manufactured well after 1892, making its presence in the Borden household historically impossible.
What the Historical Record Actually Shows
The real Lizzie Borden case remains one of the most heavily documented murder trials in American history. Lizzie was acquitted of the 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother, but no one else was ever charged, and popular opinion has long held that she was responsible. The trial itself was marked by intense public scrutiny and conflicting testimony. Defense attorneys seized on the medical implications of Lizzie’s menstruation to explain her predictions of doom on the night before the murders. Dr. Dolan testified that a spot found on one of Lizzie’s undergarments might or might not have been menstrual blood.
There is also no evidence of a romantic relationship between Lizzie and Bridget Sullivan. Rumors that Borden was a lesbian have circulated for decades, but they remain unconfirmed, and there is no historical evidence of an affair between the two women. The series uses a theory put forward by crime author Evan Hunter in his 1984 novel Lizzie as a jumping-off point, which posits that Lizzie committed the murders after being caught in a tryst with Sullivan. This is a work of fiction, not a historical account.
Series Draws Heavy Criticism for Historical Inaccuracies
Critics have been largely unimpressed with the series’ approach to historical accuracy. The Hollywood Reporter described the season as “faux-feminist nonsense,” while the AV Club noted that Monster has never been about examining why certain crimes took place, calling the anthology “exploitative and exaggerated for shock value”. The Daily Record compiled a list of everything the series gets wrong about the real case, including the absence of any historical record of Lizzie bathing in blood, the fact that Lizzie actually built places for pigeons to roost in the family’s barn, and the absence of witnesses to the murders as depicted.
The addition of Sarah Paulson as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the eighth episode has also raised eyebrows. Wuornos, who was executed in 2002, appears in a scene that implies a similarity in the female rage that explodes in both Wuornos and Borden. The creative choice has been described as historically baffling by multiple outlets, though it fits Murphy’s established pattern of blending various true-crime elements for dramatic effect.
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What Viewers Should Take Away
The imperforate hymen diagnosis, the Veedee vibrator, and the Chattanooga machine are all dramatic inventions designed to heighten the series’ themes of female repression and awakening. None of them have any basis in the documented historical record of Lizzie Borden’s life. The Borden case remains a fascinating and heavily debated chapter of American legal history, but Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is a work of historical fiction that takes substantial creative liberties with the facts.
Also Read: Lizzie Borden and Nance O’Neil: What Netflix’s Monster Gets Right and Wrong
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