Diksha Sundriyal
The fourth season of Netflix’s ‘Monster’ follows the story of the infamous alleged ax murderer, Lizzie Borden. Over the course of eight episodes, we get a fictionalized look into her life at the Borden House, the arrival of the maid, Bridget “Maggie” Sullivan, and the unfolding events that lead to the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden. In between this, the show also dips into the story of another infamous female serial killer, Aileen Wuornos. Instead of a full-length story, we get bits and pieces of her tale, which is intertwined with Lizzie’s. Considering that Lizzie and Aileen were born in different centuries and accused of different crimes, they appear to be worlds apart. The Netflix series, however, brings them together in an unexpected way. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Aileen Wornous Has No Known Connection to Lizzie Borden
Aileen Wornous was born in 1956, almost three decades after Lizzie Borden died in 1927. Lizzie was brought up in a wealthy family, while Aileen had a difficult childhood in a relatively low-income family. While Lizzie was accused but acquitted of the Borden murders, Aileen was convicted of killing six men and executed in 2002. The nature of the crimes that the two women are accused of is also very different, and it seems rather unlikely to put them in the same bracket. However, the creators of ‘Monster’ found a common denominator in their stories. The show assumes that Lizzie really did kill her parents, and from that angle, explores the question of what made her kill them. The same thread of questioning runs in Aileen’s story, and so emerges the unifying theme of female rage.
This is not the first time that the ‘Monster’ series has explored the influence of a serial killer on a figure separated from them by decades. In Season 3, an unexpected parallel runs between Ed Gein and Anthony Perkins, who researches the serial killer for his role in ‘Psycho.’ In ‘The Lizzie Borden Story,’ the thread stretches from Lizzie to the past and the future. As she reads the story of Elizabeth Bathory with Maggie, she starts thinking about bathing in blood, which eventually happens when she hacks Andrew and Abby to death. Much like she is influenced by a serial killer, Lizzie, too, becomes an inspiration for the next in line. Aileen’s fixation with her becomes an important part of the story, and the ghost of the Victorian woman stays with the Damsel of Death as she murders people and eventually meets her own end.
In real life, nothing confirms this fixation. Aileen isn’t known to have talked about Lizzie Borden, and she certainly didn’t stay at the B&B version of the Borden house. While the house has been around since the mid-1800s, it was not opened to guests as a bed-and-breakfast until 1996. By this time, Aileen was already in prison for six murders. In the show, she stays at the B&B with her girlfriend, Shelby. The real-life Aileen met her girlfriend, Tyria Moore, in 1986, and by 1991, she was already behind bars. While there is a chance she may have seen the Borden house, the likelihood that the events unfold the way they do in the Netflix series is slim to none.
Aileen Wornous’ Connection With Lizzie Borden Speaks to a Broader Theme
Despite being a show about real historical figures, ‘Monster’ doesn’t indulge in historical accuracy and is more concerned with the psychology of the killers. For its first female-led series, the series’ creators wanted to explore the “legacy of female rage and reaction to the hand they’re deal.” The season aligns with the overarching question of what makes a monster and explores it through a female lens. The stories of the three women are separated by centuries but show that “so much changes and so little changes at the same time.” Thus, we see Lizzie seeking a sort of unhinged empowerment through Elizabeth’s story, while Aileen sees Lizzie as a woman who refused to bow down to her abusers and killed them.
In connecting the intention of her own crimes with Lizzie’s, she seeks a justification, to tell herself that, like Lizzie, she, too, fought back. This makes her a survivor and not someone who killed six men in cold blood. To lend more weight to the story, the show ends with Aileen being welcomed to the other side by Lizzie and Maggie, the women who killed and got away with it. A major part of Aileen’s fascination was the getting-away part, which she didn’t get to do. The two stories end in stark contrast as Aileen is executed, while Lizzie spends her life after acquittal being a free and wealthy woman. The show’s creators used the intertwining of their stories to give Aileen a sense of a satisfying ending, if not a happy one.
Read More: Was Lizzie Borden Gay? Did She and Bridget Sullivan, aka Maggie, End Up Together?
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