The burning question about Monster

Sarah Paulson plays serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Netflix's Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, leaving viewers wondering if the real Wuornos ever visited the Borden house or was inspired by Lizzie's crimes.

Who was Lizzie Borden

Lizzie Borden was accused of murdering her father Andrew Jackson Borden and stepmother Abby Durfee Gray Borden with a hatchet on August 4, 1892, in Fall River, Massachusetts. She was tried in 1893 but acquitted, making it one of America's most notorious unsolved murders.

Who was Aileen Wuornos

Aileen Wuornos was born in 1956 and killed seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. She was convicted of six murders and executed by lethal injection in 2002, nearly a century after Lizzie Borden's case.

No evidence of a real connection

There is no reliable historical evidence that Aileen Wuornos ever visited Lizzie Borden's house or was inspired by her story. No photographs, interviews, biographies, or credible accounts place Wuornos at the property.

A creative choice by Ryan Murphy

Wuornos appears in Monster as a thematic link between two women branded monsters by the public and media. The series explores female rage and asks whether women who commit violence are understood differently from male killers.

“a legacy of female rage and reaction to the set of circumstances that they are presented with”

First Monster season on female killers

This is the first season of Monster to focus on female killers. Lizzie was accused but acquitted, while Wuornos was convicted and executed, allowing the show to examine how society treats violence differently based on gender.