After seeing Garrett August Heater’s “Lizzie Borden Took an Axe,” for the first time I find myself wondering what would “Dateline” have done with the story of Lizzie Borden if the events had taken place now? How many true crime podcasts would breathlessly pore over police reports and forensic evidence?

As it is, the tale of the maybe murderess who, according to the jump-rope rhyme, “gave her mother 40 whacks,” in 1892 is an enduring American mystery. Borden, who was tried and found not guilty for the double murder of her wealthy father and her stepmother in Fall River Massachusetts, has become a figure of folklore, the center of a particularly New England brand of true crime story.

“Lizzie Borden Took an Axe” is a skillful retelling of the events surrounding the killings, blending a melo

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