BY DANIEL REYES

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Lizzie Borden, the notorious 19th-century school teacher who was accused of murdering both her parents with a hatchet, has returned to the spotlight after a series of journals written by her lawyer have surfaced.

Andrew Jackson Jennings, Borden’s lawyer, kept much of the evidence from the trial after Borden was acquitted, including the hatchet that was thought to be the murder weapon, ABC News reports.

The journals, which were willed to the Fall River Historical Society of Massachusetts by Jenning’s grandson along with the other items, are about 100 pages in length each and contain information from newspaper clippings to personal notes from interviews that Jennings conducted, according to The Herald News.

“It’s all new material, completely unpublished,” Michael Martins, the curator of the Fall River Historical Society told the Boston Globe. “It’s the only file Jennings retained, and it’s the first idea we have about how the defense went about building its case.

Borden was seen by many as a cold, withdrawn woman who showed little grief in the aftermath of the murders; however, letters from the journals show a sorrowful, grieving side of her.

Her father, Andrew Borden, was seen by many in the town as stingy, cruel and old-fashioned. Leading up to the murders, Andrew Borden argued with both his daughters about his estate when he was to die.

However, these journals paint their relationship in a different light.

“Lizzie Borden cared for her father very deeply,” Martins told ABC News. “There was a tremendous outpouring of grief in the letters, and that’s a new side to the story.”

Borden has been long been convicted in the court of public opinion for the murders of her parents, even spawning off a popular, yet cryptic schoolyard rhyme.

“Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks, and when she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41.”

This all may change with the new information coming out of the journals.

“Most of what is known about Lizzie Borden is based on legend, innuendo and outright lies,” Martins said in the International Business Times. “Fact has been suppressed by fiction, and the fiction is much more interesting to a lot of people.”