Ryan Murphy's "Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story" is ready to drop on Netflix, promising thrills and twists for amateur sleuths fascinated by the unsolved murders.
Based on trailers, the show seems to be veering toward a loose interpretation of the Lizzie Borden case, with Lizzie and maid Bridget Sullivan as lovers conspiring to murder Andrew and Abby. Less is known so far about how the show will depict the other Borden sister: Emma.
Billie Lourd co-stars in the show as Emma, Lizzie's older sister who stood by her sister until a mysterious falling-out years later. Here are five things to know about the real Emma Borden:
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Emma Leonora Borden was born in 1851, the oldest of the Borden children born to Sarah Anthony Morse Borden. She was an older sister twice – not just to Lizzie, of course, who was born in 1860, but to the Bordens' second child, Alice Esther born in 1856. Alice Esther Borden died shortly before her second birthday.
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Though Emma was not known to be fond of stepmother Abby, she remained devoted to her mother Sarah – having promised her mother on her deathbed that she would keep watch over baby Lizzie.
And she did, acting as a maternal presence in Lizzie's life, standing by her during the murder trial, and living with her for years afterward until a rift drove the two apart.
She was also protective of her father's memory, telling the Boston Sunday Post in 1913 that rumors of his being a miser were a "wicked lie."
On the morning of Aug. 4, 1892, Emma was visiting her friend Helen Brownell in Fairhaven, about 17 miles away by train. When the body of Andrew Borden was discovered, Lizzie asked family doctor and neighbor Dr. Seabury Bowen to run to the telegraph office and send Emma a telegram summoning her home.
Because of the distance, and the difficulty she would've had in heading back and forth in 1892, Emma has long been considered clear as a possible murder suspect by all except the most outlandish theorists.
After the trial, Lizzie and Emma moved out of their Second Street home and into a large stately home at 306 French St. Both sisters shunned the public eye, just as upper-crust Fall River society shunned them.
Of the two sisters, Emma was considered quieter and more serious. Unattributed gossip printed in newspapers at the time depicted Lizzie as a free spirit while Emma was being driven insane, presumably by guilt.
But it wasn't nearly that way. By 1905, the slightly more outgoing Lizzie had struck up a friendship with actress Nance O'Neil and reportedly entertained theater folk at their home. After a good deal of soul-searching, and despite her promise to her mother, Emma decided to move away.
In a 1913 interview – evidently one of the few times Emma ever spoke publicly about the murder case and family matters – Emma told reporters that she only moved out after conditions became "absolutely unbearable," and insinuated that their split had been long brewing.
As for why, neither Emma nor Lizzie ever offered a deeper explanation.
The two sisters never reconciled, but Emma refused to slander Lizzie. Even though Emma told the press she admitted Lizzie was "queer" – meaning strange – she refused to believe her sister was a murderer, and decried the rehashing of the Bordens' unsolved murder in the Fall River papers every August.
Emma eventually settled in New Hampshire. Like Lizzie, she never married or had children.
When Lizzie died on June 1, 1927, Emma was too ill to travel to the private funeral at Maplecroft. She was evidently informed of her sister's death, but how she received the news has gone unrecorded.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: The real Emma Borden defended Lizzie for years before a bitter rift