US Ghost Adventures under contract to buy Lizzie Borden House in Fall River
Lance Zaal, who founded US Ghost Adventures in 2018, was approved for the licenses to operate the museum on Wednesday, according to the statement.
The infamous Fall River home of Lizzie Borden, where her father and stepmother were gruesomely murdered with a hatchet nearly 130 years ago, was axed off the market Friday.
US Ghost Adventures is under contract to buy the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast and Museum, as the newest addition to its chain of haunts that stretches from San Francisco to Miami, the entertainment company said in a statement Friday.
The firm will continue operating the home as a museum and bed and breakfast, so visitors can tour the home and stay overnight in one of its six rooms — welcome news for those who were concerned new owners might alter the largely unchanged site of the grisly murders.
The bed and breakfast’s owners listed the three-story clapboard house with an asking price of $2 million in January after deciding to retire from their 15-year stint of owning the property, according to previous Globe reporting.
Lance Zaal, who founded US Ghost Adventures in 2018, was approved for the licenses to operate the museum on Wednesday, according to the statement.
The company is celebrating with a sweepstakes, offering transportation and a two-night stay at the home, which has been featured in movies, books, music and television shows for decades, helping to keep public interest alive.
“We have exciting plans for the house that we’ll announce in April,” Zaal said in the statement. “A healthy transition for the staff and preserving the historical site are our top priorities.”
The murders are considered to be among the oldest and most well-known unsolved slayings in the United States, according to the company. The mutilated bodies of Andrew Borden and his wife, Abby, were found on the morning of Aug. 4, 1892, at the home on Second Street.
Borden was accused of the murders and went to trial, where she became a national media sensation, but she was acquitted in 1893.
“Their heads smashed with a hatchet,” read a Boston Globe headline a day after the murders. “No clue as yet to this most atrocious and brutal crime.”
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