At the Fall River Historical Society, where an entire room is devoted to Borden memorabilia, including police evidence and photographs from the separate murder scenes, assistant curator Dennis Binette won't commit.

Did she do it or not? asks one woman as she stares at the hairpiece hacked off Abby Borden's head in the attack (which, incidentally, included only 18 blows).

"Her testimony is filled with inconsistencies," Binette said. But, he adds, Lizzie's doctor sedated her, with morphine, not only in the days following the murders but during the 10 months she served in jail prior to the trial and during the 15-day trial.

Why did the trial get so much attention?

"The name Borden made the trial famous. There were multimillionaires in the country then named Borden," although they were not related to Fall River businessman Andrew Borden, Binette said.

What would be the motivation for killing her parents?

The House

Well, Lizzie's father, then 70, was said to be a successful businessman but miserly and thwarted her hopes for moving to and living the life of a Hill society member. Still, Lizzie was said to be extremely close to her father, who wore her high school graduation ring on his pinky.

Abby Borden had been Lizzie's stepmother for 30 years, since she was 2 years old. Lizzie and her sister, Emma, never enjoyed a good relationship with Abby, and house help described their relationship with their stepmother as tense.

What made them think she did it? asked another man looking at black-and-white photographs of the victims and of the bashed-in skulls.

There have been more than a dozen books on the subject, movies, TV specials and more, and the debate continues. But some of the points mentioned on the historic society tour and at the actual Borden house -- now the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast and Museum, where tours resume in a few weeks -- include:

All the doors in the house were locked against intruders, so the only entrance that day would have been through a screen door that Lizzie said she left open briefly when she went to the barn in back of the property.

Not long after the murders, Lizzie burned a dress in the kitchen stove that she said had paint on it. In those days, old or disused dresses were passed along to the help or used for rags. This sight convinced a friend to become a witness for the prosecution.

Abby Borden did not turn around while dusting the guest bedroom, as she might upon hearing an intruder. Therefore she seemed to know, and trust, her attacker. She was murdered on a morning when it was known in the family that no one would be home.

Lizzie was rumored to be cruel to animals and was widely believed to have beheaded her stepmother's cat, and witnesses said she tried to buy poison not long before the murder.

There was surprisingly little blood in the area of the murders, and none on Lizzie's clothes.

The weapon was never found, although police found the head of an ax in the basement covered with ash.

"They really couldn't get a conviction with the evidence they had," Binette said.