Exploring the spooky hotel profiting from a notorious American crime

Nestled in a stunning Massachusetts city is an eerie hotel with a chilling history.

One of America’s most infamous murder mysteries took place at the Lizzie Borden House, where visitors can now spend a night in the room where the brutal slayings occurred for just $250.

Back in 1892, the father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden were discovered brutally murdered with an ax at the hotel in Fall River.

She was charged with the gruesome double murder but sensationally acquitted. The homicide case remains unsolved to this day.  

The property was later purchased by Lance Zaal, founder of US Ghost Adventures, who converted it into a bed and breakfast catering to fans of true crime, keeping the historical essence alive even after 130 years.

The bodies of wealthy businessman Andrew Borden and his second wife Abby were found in the eight-bedroom mansion in the morning of August 4, 1892. 

Police photos taken of the scene showed Andrew lying on a living room couch with  bloody head that had been almost entirely caved in. 

Abby was pictured slumped over on the floor in a pool of blood and suffering from horrific head injuries in an upstairs bedroom.

Lizzie, then 32, found the bodies and alerted the housekeeper Bridget Sullivan, who was outside washing the windows. 

Her sister Emma was away at the time and Lizzie quickly became the prime suspect, with police at the time believing she had killed the couple to ensure they would get her father’s $300,000 fortune (worth over $10 million today).

Pictured: The Lizzie Borden House, which is now run as a museum, a bed & breakfast and supposedly, a prime location to see ghosts and spirits

On the morning of August 4, 1892, wealthy businessman Andrew Borden and his second wife Abby were found bludgeoned to death in the eight-bedroom mansion 

The net closed in on Lizzie when she was found to have burned a dress similar to the one she wore on the day of the murders in the week after her parents’ killings.

She claimed the dress had been covered in paint, but prosecutors said she was burning the blood-stained dress to cover-up the murders. Prosecutors also said she had bought a small ax the day before.

Witnesses at her trial would also later claim they saw Lizzie trying to buy prussic acid, now known as hydrogen cyanide, the day before the murders.

Lizzie was arrested and charged with the murders on August 11, 1892.

But after a widely publicized trial, she was acquitted on June 20 following just 90 minutes of jury deliberations.

It is believed jurors were swayed by the fact she was an active member of the local church 

Police had also refused to carry out fingerprint testing on the murder weapon found in the basement, claiming the technique was unreliable.

No one else was ever suspected or taken into custody and the case went cold. Most people still believe that Lizzie likely committed the murders. 

The Borden sisters went on to inherit their father’s estate and bought another home in 1894, now known as Maplecroft, where they lived together for many years before a falling out in 1905. 

Lizzie died from pneumonia in 1927 and was buried in the family plot next to her parents.

A police photo shows the body of Andrew Borden, with his head crushed and entirely unrecognizable after someone bludgeoned him with an axe

A similar fate befell his wife Abby Borden, who was found in her bedroom in a pool of blood and with a gaping wound to the back of her head

Today the house where the murders took place has been transformed into a museum by day and a B&B/paranormal ghost tour destination by night.

The cheapest room goes for around $250 a night. 

Many who have stayed over the years insist it is haunted, with some even refusing to spend the entire night. 

Julie Jordan, editor at large for People Magazine, along with Liz Beedle and Emily Penke visited the home on Halloween this year to see if the hype was real. 

Together, the trio call themselves Ghost Moms and post videos of themselves on social media supposedly interacting with spirits from the beyond.

They went on a daytime tour and heard all the grisly details about the murders, according to the article written by Jordan.

She and her friends stayed in the housekeeper’s bedroom in the attic, opting not to stay in the room where Abby died. 

Later, they braved Abby’s bedroom and claimed they set up some sort of system that responded to changes in electromagnetic energy.

They asked the supposed spirits in the room questions and nothing happened until ‘Emily wanted to know if anything minded that we were there. The lights immediately flashed,’ Jordan wrote.

Pictured: The bedroom where Abby Borden was found murdered. She was found on the floor in a pool of blood next to her bed

Julie Jordan (right), who is the editor at large of People Magazine, recently visited the Lizzie Borden House this Halloween with her friends Liz Beedle (left) and Emily Penke to see if it was as haunted as some say

‘We then all heard what sounded like a man’s gasp from out in the hallway. The house was empty except for those of us in the room,’ she added.

Her conclusion was that the home ‘is most definitely spooky and just might have a few spirits still hanging around, perhaps trying to solve the mystery of exactly what happened there.’

Some people have since questioned if the couch in the foyer is the same one that the deceased father was found lying on. 

However, this was completely soiled and destroyed after the trial so the one there today is a replica. 

Since launching as a bed and breakfast, the Borden house has run into disagreements with a local business owner, resulting in two court battles. 

The hotel owner sued Miss Lizzie’s Coffee, which is one door down from the Borden house on Second Street over alleged trademark infringements in September 2023.

In the suit, Zaal argued that the café’s use of hatchet logo and other similar iconography ‘deceptively confuses unsuspecting customers.’

However, US District Judge Leo T. Sorokin ruled on October 27, 2023, that the coffee shop did ‘nothing’ to imitate US Ghost Adventures’ business and said the company does not have a trademark on the word ‘Lizzie.’

Pictured: The entryway to the Lizzie Borden House, which changed hands in 2021

Right down the street is Miss Lizzie’s Coffee, which also uses aspects of the Lizzie Borden story in its business

Sorokin also pointed out that the hatchet logo used by Miss Lizzie’s Coffee was different from the one on the hotel’s sign.

Zaal appealed this decision but lost again in November 2024, when a three-judge panel with the First Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the lower court’s ruling.

‘Ghost Adventures’ challenge to the district court’s assessment of the strength of its marks is haunted by legal confusion,’ Judge Bruce Selya wrote in his opinion. ‘We need go no further.’

More recently Zaal filed a $50,000 defamation suit against Joseph Pereira, the owner of the Lizzie Borden-themed coffee shop, and an unknown author of a Facebook page that has posted scathing critiques of US Ghost Adventures.

Zaal brought the latter case to Bristol County Superior Court this July and alleged that Pereira defamed him in a March article that ran in New Bedford’s WBSM.

In the interview, Pereira blasted Zaal and his company for what he described as ‘bullying tactics’. 

He also warned potential witnesses who might plan on supplying supposedly false affidavits on behalf of US Ghost Adventures that he would sue them for perjury.

Pereira added that he would write a book titled Miss Lizzie & Me that will cover ‘some of the intricacies of all this and the truth of what really happens with these so-called ghost adventures.’

US Ghost Adventures argued that these statements are defamatory, particularly because Pereira accused Zaal’s company of perjury. 

As part of that case, Zaal also sued the person behind the Facebook page ‘Boycott the Lizzie Borden House.’ 

Pictured: The interior of Miss Lizzie’s Coffee Shop, which can continue to operate since both lawsuits against it are ongoing

Joseph Pereira, the owner of Lizzie’s Coffee Shop, is pictured here in a mugshot. After getting into a prolonged legal battle with Lance Zaal, the owner of the Lizzie Borden House, he claimed his criminal record was leaked by a witness for Zaal’s company in order to embarrass him

That since-deleted page called Zaal a ‘liar’ and the company ‘unethical and predatory,’ according to court documents.

No one appeared in court to represent ‘Boycott the Lizzie Borden House’ and Meta, Facebook’s parent company, declined to reveal the identity of the page’s creator ‘except in response to a valid subpoena,’ according to the civil complaint.

As for his part in the case, Pereira tried and failed to dismiss the defamation claims against him.

Pereira also argued in an appeals brief filed in July that a witness for US Ghost Adventures spread his ‘criminal record throughout the Internet and [sent] copies to several vendors and agencies that [Pereira] uses’ hoping to embarrass him.

He has been arraigned roughly three dozen times on larceny-related charges since 1982. He was last arrested in December 2019, reported The Herald News, a local Massachusetts newspaper.

In 1996, Pereira pleaded guilty to stealing more than $119,000 from more than a dozen people and spent 15 months in prison, The Herald News and The Standard-Times reported.

Both the federal trademark case and the defamation suit are open and ongoing, according to court records.

And the battle to be the one to cash in on the Lizzie Borden murders is expected to drag on as the murder case is one of Fall River’s main claims to fame.