Yooo Hoo??!!! Anybody a producer out there?? Below is a treatment, (a short synopsis) of a screenplay that I've finished and am currently editing. Copyrighted copies currently available upon request.

Treatment

Lizzie Borden
When only an Ax will do..

It was the summer of 1892 in Fall River, Massachusetts. A particularly scorching August with temperatures around 104 degrees. Ah, but the temperature wasn’t the hottest thing come from Fall River that year….. the hottest thing was the Trial of Miss Lizzie Borden in one of the most famous, and heinous, of histories unsolved crimes: the ax-butchering of Andrew and Abbey Borden in broad daylight. It was a serial killing that made headlines all around the country; a news frenzy rivaling the trial of O.J. Simpson. Scandalous stories were printed in The Boston Globe that nearly brought a newspaper to its knees. Children sang a song about it: “Lizzie Borden took an ax and gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one.” At every breakfast table, Irish pub and gentlemen’s smoking lounges all the talk raved about how a woman had never been accused of the crime of Murder before. Why they didn’t even have a jail to keep her in with the lack of a need for a woman’s prison and all. But the major whispering that went on was mostly focused on the father she killed, Andrew Borden, the most powerful and richest man in all of Fall River. The Borden name was chiseled on the A.J. Borden building, the most prominent building in all of downtown Fall River… a thriving monopoly of businesses that it was. A self-made millionaire by deception and miserly characteristics he had a reputation of being unsocialable and stern. For all of his wealth he lacked charm, love, and compassion for anyone except perhaps Lizzie on occasion. Abbey’s death was of little consequence to anyone other than that she was Lizzie’s stepmother and Andrew’s wife. Andrew’s death, on the other hand, caused many a mug of beer to be raised in celebration. But the matter of finding out who the killer was… I mean the real killer and the political conspiracy, pay-offs and subsequent other murders that occurred in the cover-up of this case haven’t been revealed until now.

On the morning of August 4th between 9 and 10 am Andrew and Abbey were murdered by several blows to the skull by what forensic experts believed to be an axe. The only people believed to be in the home at the time and listed so in court testimony was Bridget (or Maggie) the maid and Lizzie. On the morning of the murders when police had arrived it was often noted how Lizzie showed absolutely no emotion and seemed cold and distant. At the viewing of the bodies most men vomited and Lizzie didn’t even swoon which was considered unlady-like for the times since women were seen as being very emotional. A few days after the murders Lizzie started to behave oddly by burning a blue dress in the kitchen stove, which looked exactly like the dress she had been wearing the morning of the murders. It was rumored a woman fitting her description was seen trying to buy prussic acid or arsenic poison from a pharmacy across town 2 days before the murders. It was noted by the family physician that Abbey had come to him the day before her murder and said the whole family was sick and that she believes they were being poisoned. So the Chief Police arrested Lizzie requiring her to undergo an inquisition regarding her parent’s death, which lasted for a period of four days. Lizzie would be allowed to return home at the end of each night since there were no accommodations for a woman in jail. At this time a conspiracy was brewing between many parties, a silent government, in the private back smoking parlor of The Mellenhouse Hotel. A woman was seen entering and leaving one night from the back door of this private lounge of which included the company of the Prosecutor in the case, Hosea Knowlton; the Judge, Josiah Blaisdell; the Defense Attorney, Andrew Jennings and lastly, John V. Morse, Andrew’s brother-in-law by his first marriage. A deal had been struck to intentionally accuse Lizzie and pay-off’s were made. No explanation would be given as to the identity of the killer, why they were being protected, and by whom. And so the parties set out to create a trial against Lizzie Borden.
The inquisition and preliminary hearing delves into the private past of this family as Andrew and Abbey come alive in flashbacks depicting their strained relationships. It is a strange house with odd entrances and exits, furniture in front of locked doors, and completely lacking in creature comforts. Even the poorest in the community could afford gas lighting and indoor plumbing but Andrew wouldn’t have it, preferring instead to use the outdated kerosene lanterns; even then - he would sit in the dark rather than burn his kerosene. Abbey was seen as a fat oaf by her stepdaughters, Emma and younger Lizzie. Emma being 12 years older than Lizzie when their mother died, raised her like a daughter. She fostered a hatred for Abbey, which she handed down to Lizzie. They often ridiculed and scoffed at Abbey, who painfully grew accustomed to her miserable existence. After all, she was an old maid when Andrew, after a week of courting her, simply offered a business proposition of marriage in exchange for someone to run his home and raise his children. She was an obedient wife. Andrew was a strict head of the home. The girls were never allowed to have suitors for Andrew believed the only reason anyone wanted to marry his daughters was to get at his fortune. Therefore, the women were doomed to lead the life of spinsters letting the years pass in their father’s home with no social outlets or escape. Lizzie was greedy and a snob, however, and wanted to live amongst the other wealthy inhabitants of Fall River Society upon what was termed “the Hill”; a prestigious neighborhood of Fall River that resided on the steep hill in the Northern section of town. On occasion, Andrew’s confidante and brother-in-law, John Morse, would visit the Borden home and did so the night before the murders with a purpose in mind.Through the court scenes of Lizzie’s trial, the social drama of a nation caught up in the scandalous affair and the sub-plot of the truth, this tale is woven - leading up to a surprise ending of the killer’s identity, the massacre of the victims, and how Lizzie orchestrated the entire thing – all out of greed for money and high society. She manipulated the killer into performing the gruesome act, and he received the freedom from jail-time in exchange for his share of the inheritance making Lizzie extremely wealthy with a home on the hill. Little did she know the price she would pay for these murders and getting away with them …..