And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.
Folklore says that the rhyme was made up by an anonymous writer as a tune to sell newspapers. Others attribute it to the ubiquitous, but anonymous, "Mother Goose". In reality, Lizzie's stepmother suffered 18 blows; her father suffered 11 blows.
Read more about Lizzie