Vicky Krieps gives the monsters lizzie borden cast its sharpest pivot in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, where Bridget Sullivan is written as close to Lizzie Borden. The problem is the history: there is no evidence that the relationship was more than employer and employee, which puts Netflix’s dramatization at odds with the record.
Vicky Krieps In Monster
The series makes Bridget Sullivan central to the drama, and that choice matters because she was not a symbolic figure in the Borden household. She was the family maid, often called Maggie, an Irish worker who had come from her home country to the U.S. to work for the Bordens.
Krieps, known for Phantom Thread, Corsage, and Old, plays Bridget in a version of the case built around Lizzie Borden’s life in the 1890s. Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan created the Monster anthology series, and this installment is the first one to focus on a female killer.
Bridget Sullivan In 1893
Bridget Sullivan was in her mid-20s when Andrew Borden and Abby Borden were killed with multiple ax blows. She had worked for the family for nearly three years, and at the time of the murders only Lizzie and Bridget were believed to be inside the house.
According to Bridget’s testimony, Lizzie said, “Maggie, come down! Come down quick; Father’s dead; somebody came in and killed him.” Bridget raised the alarm, fetched the doctor, and alerted the neighbors. In 1893, during the inquest and trial, she testified about what happened, but she did not say she saw the weapon, blood on Lizzie, or an intruder in the house.
Netflix And The Record
Netflix’s version goes further than the surviving testimony. The drama shows Bridget and Lizzie growing intimate together, yet there is no historical evidence that their relationship was anything more than employer and employee. The series also shows Mr. Borden and Bridget Sullivan in a sexual relationship, and there is no indication that happened in real life.
That gap is the issue for viewers who want a dramatization to track the historical record closely. Lizzie Borden was later acquitted of the murders, Bridget Sullivan moved to the West Coast of the U.S. rather than stay on to serve Lizzie and Emma, and she later had a family of her own. The cleanest reading of this Monster installment is simple: the cast sells a private relationship that the history does not support.
