Did Lizzie Borden inspire Aileen Wuornos? Netflixs Monster series says she did.

In a surprising twist, the Netflix series Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story not only delves into the life of Lizzie Borden but also explores the life of Aileen Wuornos, one of history's most notorious female serial killers. In the fourth episode, Wuornos, portrayed by Sarah Paulson, is introduced to viewers during her hitchhiking journey in Florida in 1988. A man picks her up, and she introduces herself as Lizzie Borden to him.

The scene shows Wuornos gleefully singing Suzi Quatro and negotiating sex work with the driver, only for the encounter to take a violent turn. She is taken to an empty lot where she is sexually assaulted before killing him with a pistol. In real life, Wuornos claimed that she was raped by one of her victims. The connection between Wuornos and Borden is then drawn by the show in a variety of ways, including Wuornos finding comfort in Borden's story and reading her biography aloud in a hotel room with her girlfriend.

Wuornos also celebrates Borden as a feminist icon and her direct inspiration for the killings she was accused of. The series takes it a step further by having Wuornos stay in the Borden house, a crime scene now turned into a macabre bed and breakfast, despite there being no evidence of Wuornos ever visiting the property. The show also includes Wuornos hallucinating Abby, the Borden's stepmother, during sex with her girlfriend.

These scenes are seen as inappropriate and forced connections by the showrunners, aiming to link Wuornos and Borden together as two notorious female killers whose suffering was caused by men.