Some of Lifetime's "Lizzie Borden Took an Ax" strays from what is known to be true of the real-life Bordens, for example, that Lizzie's slain father, Andrew Borden, was actually rich a man and not the penny-pincher depicted in the movie, and that their maid, Bridget Sullivan, was never a suspect in the case, per Time. While it is true that Lizzie was acquitted of the murders, in the film, Lizzie shocks her sister, Emma, with a twist, admitting to the murders post-trial, per Common Sense Media.
The case became so well-known that a schoolyard song was made of it, per Britannica, and inspired the title of the Lifetime movie: "Lizzie Borden took an ax / And gave her mother forty whacks / And when she saw what she had done / She gave her father forty-one."
Whether or not the real Lizzie Borden did commit the murders, evidence from a three-day inquest was pretty much stacked against her, though not allowed to be used in the trial, per Britannica. Still, Smithsonian Magazine wrote, "there is no doubt Lizzie Borden committed the murders." The outlet also noted that there were some inconsistencies with the schoolyard song, though, such as that they received fewer blows from the murder weapon, which was actually a hatchet — not an axe.
