“Forty Whacks” — The Ballad of Lizzie Borden

Verse 1
In Fall River, Massachusetts,
On a summer day so still,
The Borden house sat silent
Till it echoed with a kill.
Andrew Borden lay there bleeding,
Struck down where he would nap,
With a dozen gashes in his face
And blood upon his cap.

Chorus ( Spoken whisper)
🎶 Lizzie Borden took an axe,
Gave her mother forty whacks,
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.
Or so the children sang in jest—
But was Lizzie like the rest?
In court she cried, “I did no wrong!”
Still the rumors linger on...

Verse 2
Abby Borden hit the floor
Upstairs before the rest,
A blow that cleaved her just above
The ear upon her left.
"Someone's killed father!" Lizzie screamed,
Though she showed no bloody trace,
No sign she'd seen the butchered scene
Or gazed upon his face.

Bridge (Spoken-style or sung with tremolo)

> “I was in the barn,” Lizzie said,
“Eating pears,” with calm reply.
No blood, no sweat, no panic
In her dress or in her eye.
Yet she burned a dress the very next day,
Said it had a paint stain—strange, they say...



Verse 3
The hatchet head was broken,
The handle gone to dust,
They said she might’ve cleaned the blade—
But where's the proof? Where's the trust?
Bridget, the maid, had heard a laugh,
A closing door, a call—
But no one saw the murder done
Inside that darkened hall.

Chorus (spoken whisper)
🎶 Lizzie Borden took an axe,
Gave her mother forty whacks,
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.
But on the stand, she swore it true—
“I didn’t kill, I never knew!”
Still shadows dance on Second Street,
Where truth and terror meet...

Verse 4
Twelve men upon the jury sat
And pondered what they’d heard,
But not enough to hang the girl
On whispers or a word.
They said: “You must acquit her,”
And free she walked that day—
But Fall River never did forget,
What blood washed down that way.

Final Chorus (slower, haunting)
🎶 Lizzie Borden took an axe...
Or maybe not—who knows the facts?
No witness came, no weapon found,
Yet evil lingers in that ground.
She lived alone, grew old and cold,
With secrets left untold...

Vocal effects like fuzz and extreme creaking, and vocal fry, eerie industrial rock, Gothic rock