Netflix’s Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story has brought one of America’s most notorious murder cases back into the spotlight, revisiting the 1892 killings of Lizzie Borden’s father, Andrew, and stepmother, Abby. While the series dramatizes the events and the woman at the centre of them, the real case remains filled with unanswered questions. Was Lizzie responsible for the murders, or was she wrongly accused? And how did a Victorian-era murder trial become a cultural obsession that has lasted for more than a century?

If Monster left you wanting to separate historical fact from dramatic interpretation, these documentaries offer different ways of looking at Lizzie Borden and the infamous case.

A&E’s Biography episode Lizzie Borden: A Woman Accused takes a straightforward historical approach to the case. Originally aired in April 1995, the documentary examines Lizzie’s life, the 1892 murders, and the controversial trial that ended with her acquittal.

Rather than focusing solely on the sensational details, the programme asks the central question that continues to surround Borden: did she actually kill her father and stepmother? Historians and other commentators contribute to the examination, making this a useful watch for anyone interested in the historical woman behind the Netflix dramatization.

Discovery Channel’s Lizzie Borden Had an Axe approaches the murders from a forensic perspective. The one-hour special aired on October 30, 2004, and applies modern investigative techniques to a crime that took place more than a century earlier.

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The documentary recreates the crime and examines competing scenarios, including the prosecution’s case against Lizzie and her claim that a mysterious stranger committed the murders. It also uses forensic experiments and crime-scene reconstruction to reconsider evidence from the original investigation.

A&E’s History’s Mysteries episode takes a historical and investigative look at the enduring mystery surrounding the Borden murders. Released in 2005, it revisits the familiar story behind the famous rhyme while emphasizing that there is much more to the case than the legend suggests.

For viewers coming directly from Monster, this offers a useful contrast: instead of a dramatized narrative, it examines the evidence, theories, and historical circumstances of Lizzie’s infamous trial.

For something considerably more unconventional, The Curse of Lizzie Borden moves from a historical investigation into paranormal territory. The 2021 documentary follows paranormal investigator Dave Schrader and a team investigating claims of a family curse and reports that Lizzie Borden’s ghost remains connected to the murder house.

It is less concerned with conventional historical evidence and more interested in the supernatural mythology that has grown around the Borden case. That makes it an intriguing companion to Monster for viewers curious about how Lizzie’s story evolved from a nineteenth-century murder trial into an enduring piece of American true-crime folklore.

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Which documentary will you watch next? Let us know in the comments.