Lizzie Borden had an axe
She gave her mother 40 whacks,
When she saw what she had done
she gave her father 41.
Long before Amanda Knox, Casey Anthony and Jodi Arias, there was another young American woman on a trial for murder that became a media spectacle. I’ve learned exclusively that Christina Ricci has been tapped to play Lizzie Borden in a Lifetime original movie about the woman tried and acquitted in the 1892 ax murders of her father and stepmother. Directed by Nick Gomez and produced by Sony Pictures Television, the movie tells the story of Fall River, Mass., resident Borden, who finds herself on trial for the brutal murder with a hatchet-type weapon of her father, Andrew Jackson Borden, and his second wife, Abby Durfee Gray Borden, at their family home. She was acquitted at a trial, which drew national attention, though no one else was ever charged with the crime, which has remained unsolved. Despite being found guilty in the court of public opinion in her native town, at least in some circles, Borden lived in Fall River for the rest of her life. Judith Verno (Lifetime’s Drew Peterson: Untouchable) executive produces the movie, which joins such recent entries at the network as Amanda Knox: Murder On Trial In Italy, Prosecuting Casey Anthony and the upcoming Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret, which also is exec produced by Verno. Elizabeth Montgomery played Borden in the 1975 ABC movie The Legend Of Lizzie Borden. Additionally, Chloe Sevigny was attached to play the role in a miniseries for HBO two years ago.Source: Deadline