As you can imagine, I did a deep dive into the Borden murders, even though much of the story takes place when Lizzie was eighteen. Clara, orphaned at fifteen, was sent to live with the Bordens for the summer before she is to be shuffled off to a fancy boarding school by her extensive, well to do and well-connected family. She and Lizzie spend time walking around Fall River and in order to get the setting as accurate as possible, I had did quite a bit of research on the city during the mid-Victorian era. The Fall River Historical Society was instrumental and through them I bought the biggest book I have ever seen on the history of Fall River. You can check them out here for all things Lizzie.
In addition to pouring over old court documents, I studied train derailments of the 1800’s, explored the gold rush in the Blue Mountains, and poked around old museums in Baker City, Oregon. I also discovered that the University of Michigan was the first to offer co-educational medical studies. All of those things made it into the book.
Then there were the newspaper archives. The Library of Congress is a treasure trove of Lizzie Borden stuff. You can check it out here. Here is another good newspaper source at Crime Archives.
And honestly, this is what gave me the idea for Fall River in the first place: Lizzie the Musical.
One of the most notorious crimes in US history set to punk music with an all female cast? Sign me up!
Interested in more? Pre-order Fall River here!
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