Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story premiered on Netflix on September 17, 2026, marking a major shift for Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan‘s true-crime anthology. For the first time in four seasons, the series centers on a woman, and for the first time, the subject was never convicted of the crime she was accused of committing. Ella Beatty leads the eight-episode season as Lizzie Borden, the Massachusetts woman tried and acquitted of the 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother. The season also introduces Sarah Paulson as Aileen Wuornos in a flash-forward storyline that ties the two women together through a shared theme of female rage.
Why Lizzie Borden Is Different from Past Monster Subjects
Previous seasons of the anthology focused on figures who were either convicted or strongly believed to have committed their crimes. Season one covered Jeffrey Dahmer, who was convicted of multiple murders. Season two examined the Menendez brothers, who were tried and convicted. Season three centered on Ed Gein, who was found legally insane but was responsible for the deaths he was linked to.
Lizzie Borden stands apart because she was formally acquitted. A jury deliberated for 90 minutes before finding her not guilty of the August 4, 1892 killings of Andrew Borden and Abby Borden. No one else was ever charged, leaving the case officially unsolved. This acquittal creates a different storytelling challenge, one that co-creator Ian Brennan acknowledged directly.
“The strange fact is that she was acquitted for something where what evidence there is seems to point to the fact that it was her,” Brennan said. “So from there, you have to look at the environment that’s around her.”
The show does not treat the acquittal as a simple answer. Instead, it builds a fictionalized version of events around the household pressures that may have driven someone to violence. Director Max Winkler explained that the series does not assume anyone is born evil.
“As you get to learn more about people and what the pressure cooker is that leads people to snap, anyone can kill anyone,” Winkler said. “It just is what are you willing to kill for, or what leaves you no choice, and this show is no different. It’s just the killers look different.”
Ella Beatty Leads the Cast as the First Female Monster
Ella Beatty takes on the role of Lizzie Borden after what Netflix described as an extensive casting search. The daughter of Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, Beatty previously appeared in Murphy’s Feud: Capote vs. The Swans and the Oscar-nominated film If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. Co-showrunner Ian Brennan said the decision became obvious once Beatty auditioned.
“We cast a super wide net and nobody could do it until we saw her,” Brennan said. “They say you can tell within the first five seconds if the actor has the role, and that was completely the case here, after watching very good actresses try.”
Beatty described the role as a chance to examine a figure who has become almost mythological in American culture.
“It has been a dream come true to investigate this complicated person’s psychology and to examine an American crime that feels almost mythic in proportion,” Beatty said. “This season gives us our first female Monster and delves into female rage and repression which I’ve found to feel strikingly relevant.”
The cast also includes Charlie Hunnam as Andrew Borden, Rebecca Hall as Abby Borden, Vicky Krieps as the household maid Bridget “Maggie” Sullivan, Billie Lourd as Lizzie’s sister Emma Borden, and Jessica Barden as Nance O’Neil. Hunnam returns to the anthology after earning an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Ed Gein in season three.
The Story Told Through Female Rage and Repression
The official synopsis describes the season as following a repressed daughter of a wealthy New England family and her rebellious maid who become trapped in a household built on humiliation and cruelty. Their search for escape leads them into a fantasy of sex, power, and revenge, culminating in the 1892 murders that shocked the nation.
Rebecca Hall, who plays Abby Borden, said she was surprised to learn that Lizzie was never convicted. “I didn’t know that she wasn’t convicted,” Hall said. “I didn’t know that there was all this mystery around the details of what happened, but she’s this kind of like folkloric figure almost”.
Director Max Winkler framed the season as an examination of the limitations placed on women in the 1890s. “You’re essentially treated like a piece of property, and your best role is to get married off and have as many kids as possible,” Winkler said. “Lizzie can’t get married off. She can’t find someone to take her”.
Sarah Paulson Joins as Aileen Wuornos
Sarah Paulson appears as Aileen Wuornos, the serial killer convicted of six murders in Florida between 1989 and 1990. Wuornos appears in scenes set decades after Lizzie’s trial, connecting the two stories through what Beatty called a “legacy of female rage”.
The trailer ends with a voice saying, “No one really knows what happened that day,” followed by Paulson’s Wuornos responding, “Oh, I f—ing know what happened”. According to Netflix, Paulson’s character plays a crucial role in the season’s thematic focus on why women kill.
The True Story Behind the 1892 Murders
Lizzie Borden was born on July 19, 1860, in Fall River, Massachusetts. Her mother died when she was young, and her father Andrew Borden, a wealthy banker and property developer, later married Abby Durfee Gray. Despite his fortune, Andrew was known for extreme frugality.
On the morning of August 4, 1892, Andrew Borden was found dead on a sofa in the downstairs sitting room, struck repeatedly in the head with a hatchet. His wife Abby was found murdered upstairs in a guest bedroom, killed earlier that same morning. The maid, Bridget Sullivan, said she heard nothing unusual.
Suspicion quickly turned toward Lizzie. In the days after the murders, she burned a dress in the kitchen stove, claiming it was ruined with paint. Police also learned she had tried to buy prussic acid from a local drugstore the day before the killings. Lizzie was arrested on August 11, 1892, and charged with the double murder.
Her trial began on June 5, 1893, in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The prosecution had motive and opportunity but could not produce a murder weapon or any blood evidence linking Lizzie to the crime. An all-male jury acquitted her after 90 minutes of deliberation. Lizzie Borden lived until June 1927, never convicted and never formally cleared in the public imagination.
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The House That Became a Tourist Attraction
The Borden home on Second Street in Fall River, where the murders took place, was reborn in 1996 as a bed-and-breakfast and museum. Visitors can stay in the room where Abby Borden was killed or sit in the chair where Andrew Borden was attacked. The house remains one of the more unusual tourist attractions in the United States, drawing true-crime enthusiasts from around the world.
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is now streaming on Netflix. The eight-episode season was filmed between September 2025 and March 2026 and represents the anthology’s first venture into a case where the legal system delivered an acquittal rather than a conviction.
Also Read: Monster Season 4 Cast Guide: Every Actor and the Real People They Play
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