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Lovely and Lethal: Lavinia Fisher

America's First Female Serial Killer

By Jen ChichesterPublished 4 years ago 12 min read
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Beauty might be in the eye of the beholder, but beauty is also sometimes the beast. This is certainly the case with Lavinia Fisher, purportedly America's first female serial killer.

Lavinia's Beginnings

Born in 1793, Fisher's early years are shrouded in mystery. Some historians claim she never actually killed anyone, which adds more layers of intrigue to this woman. What is known is that Fisher and her husband ran with a gang of highwaymen who had two houses they operated in Charleston, South Carolina's back-country - the Five Mile and Six Mile Wayfarer Houses. The former was a hotel and that latter at least served as a safe haven for outlaws on the run. But... men began mysteriously vanishing within the Charleston area to the point where numerous reports were filed with the local police. And guess where these reports traced the men's last known whereabouts to? The Six Mile Wayfarer House.

An investigation commenced, but there was evidently no evidence of foul play from the Fishers. The Fishers were well known about town and commanded a certain level of respect. Plus, how could someone as strikingly beautiful as Lavinia Fisher possibly help kill anyone?

Looks, as we all know, can be deceiving.

David Ross Gets Dragged

But time marched ever on, and the number of missing men increased. By February of 1819, locals had had enough and formed their own vigilante group. Among them was David Ross, who ended up standing guard after the rest of the group left the Fishers' property to return to Charleston. Ross was still standing guard when two men - and Lavinia herself - attacked him and began to drag him. He called for help, but none came. Lavinia and the men beat him, smashing his head through a window in the process. Though battered, Ross was managed to break free and file a report.

John Peeples Gets Startled

It was right about that time when a man named John Peeples stopped to the Six Mile Wayfarer House. He was tired and on his way from Georgia into Charleston. Unfortunately, Peeples would get no rest.

Lavinia greeted him and, although she claimed there was no room available, invited him in for tea and a hearty meal. Of course, Peeples accepted. He disliked tea but wanted to be polite and accepted Lavinia's hospitality. So, in he went.

As he was settling in, Peeples was bombarded with questions by the couple and, trying to be a decent human being, answered them as best he could despite being weirded out by them. Lavinia excused herself to grab the tea and food, then returned to inform Peeples that a room had suddenly opened up.

Strange, Peeples thought to himself. But, again, he was trying to be polite and took the tea. But, thankfully, he did not drink it. Instead, when Lavinia and her husband John were not looking, he poured the tea out. Lavinia eventually offered to show Peeples his room, still asking him questions. Peeples thought this to be highly odd and wondered why John had been staring so intently at him the entire evening.

Lavinia left Peeples to settle himself into a chair by the bed and take a well deserved snooze. But that doze was short-lived, as he was awoken by a loud noise. That loud noise was the bed he was supposed to have slept in giving way to an opening in the floor. Peeples ran for it, leaping through a window to escape. He quickly mounted his horse and made it into Charleston where he reported the incident to police.

The police finally took action, arresting John, Lavinia, and their two accomplices. The police investigated the Six Mile Wayfarer House and, to their surprise, found a maze of hidden passageways and, yes, trick beds. They also found paraphernalia related to the disappeared men and the tea that was laced with an herb that would knock a grown man out.

In the basement, investigators found at least a hundred sets of remains. Human remains.

The Trial & a Near Escape

The Fishers decided to plea 'not guilty', but nobody was buying it. They were forced to stay in Old Charleston Jail. The two men who co-conspired with them were let go on bail, which probably did not sit well with John and Lavinia. In May of 1819, they held their plea against a jury, but the jury found them guilty for numerous murders and robberies. Their sentence? To be hanged, of course!

The Fishers were given some time to put forth an appeal, but they instead devised a (rather stupid) plan to break out of jail. They took a bunch of bed linens from the not-so-well-guarded jail, roped them together, and tried to make a getaway. John got down, but the makeshift rope fell to the ground before Lavinia could get out. Not wanting to abandon his wife (d'aww, how sweet), John returned to the jail. This time, guards keep a closer watch on the mischievous pair.

In February of 1820, their executions were scheduled after the Constitutional Court rejected their appeal. Rev. Richard Furman - a local man - was sent to counsel the couple should they desire it. John decided to accept the priest's offer of counsel and asked Furman to save his soul from damnation. Lavinia, however, refused counsel.

Execution Day

The couple was taken from Charleston Jail on February 20, 1820 to the gallows out back. John and Furman quietly prayed together before Furman addressed the 2,000-something attendees with a letter from John. John pleaded his innocence one more time and begged to be forgiven, stating that the justice system had failed him. He then verbally begged forgiveness from the crowd before being hanged.

Lavinia wasn't going to beg anyone's forgiveness.

She demanded to wear her wedding dress and had to be carried to the gallows as she ranted at the crowd. She singled out the city's socialites and blamed them for wrongfully convicting her and John of murder. The hangmen began tying the knot around her neck, and as they did so, she yelled, "If you have a message you want to send to Hell, give it to me – I’ll carry it."

Before the knot was even finished, Lavinia leapt from the scaffolding and plummeted herself toward the crowd, where she dangled and twitched before finally expiring. The 27-year-old left this world with what onlookers thought of as the most snide and sinister grin they had ever witnessed.

The Fishers were later buried in the Potter's Field Cemetery next to the Unitarian Church Graveyard in Charleston. This is where the poor and criminals were buried when families could or would not claim the bodies.

All Tea, All Shade!

Let's make like Peeples and spill the tea ("truth", for those who don't use drag lingo like I do). Historical records only support portions of this magnificent legend.

A few bodies were found on the Fisher's property, but there was insufficient evidence linking them to the Fishers themselves. The Fishers were never actually charged with murder either, from what researchers can find. So, if Lavinia did not help kill a bunch of men, the title of America's First Female Serial Killer goes to "Jolly" Jane Toppan.

Did the Fishers commit highway robberies (a crime then punishable by hanging)? Research says "Yes."

Check this shit out. After the Fishers' arrest, the Charleston Courier ran this article (dated February 22, 1819):

“In Saturday’s Courier, we gave some particulars of the conduct of a set of outlaws, who have for a long time past infested the road in the vicinity of this city, and whose outrageous conduct had of late become insupportable. We then stated that the occupants of a small house five miles from town, had been driven out, and the building burnt to the ground and that certain others, in possession of a house one mile above, had been compelled to leave it and another person put in possession of it by the owner. It now appears, that as soon as the citizens had returned to town, the persons who had been thus compelled to leave the last-mentioned house, returned to it in the evening, and beat the person who had been put in possession in a most inhuman manner, when he escaped into the woods and made the best of his way to town. The next morning, the same gang stopped a traveler up the road, beat him cruelly, cut his head in several places, and then robbed him of about 30 or 40 in money. These circumstances being made known to the civil authority, the Sheriff of this District collected a posse of citizens, and proceeded on Saturday afternoon to the spot, surrounded the house, and seized upon its occupants, [three men and two women] after which they burnt the house and outbuildings to the ground, without allowing the occupants to removed an article of its contents; brought the offenders to town, and committed them to jail. The posse found in an outhouse, the hide of a cow, which had been recently killed, and which was identified to be the property of one of our citizens. She had been missing for several days. This accounts for the manner in which the cows are disposed of which are so frequently stolen and never afterward heard of. The inmates of the house were armed with 10 or 12 muskets and a keg of powder, but the force which went against them was too imposing to admit of any chance of success in a resort to arms. One of the leaders in these high handed depredations was arrested into town on Saturday afternoon and likewise committed to jail. We trust that these decisive steps will restore quiet to the neighborhood, and enable our country brethren to enter and leave the city without the fear of insult or robbery.

The following is a correct list of the members of the gang who were apprehended and committed to prison on Saturday night. John Fisher, Lavina Fisher, his wife, Wm. Heyward, James M’Elway, Jane Howard and Seth Young. It is supposed there are more of them lurking about and is hoped the vigilance of the police and citizens will ferret them out and bring them to justice.

We are informed and requested to state that Mr. John People, who was robbed and unmercifully beaten by the villains mentioned above, is an honest, industrious young man from the country, and had a sum of money entrusted to his care, which the robbers took from him.”

So, here's where things reek of fish. In total, about a dozen people were actually arrested for brawling with the mob of vigilantes that came to the Six Mile Wayfarer House. The house's gang was trying to reclaim the house from these vigilantes after they'd been forced to flee. Nobody was killed in the fight.

Only the Fishers and the home's co-owner, William Heyward, were sentenced to hang. Also, they had been arrested and tried for assault and intent to murder, but then were sentenced for highway robbery - something which they had never been tried for!

If you want to do some extracurricular reading, pick up a copy of Bruce Orr's Six Miles to Charleston: The True Story of John and Lavinia Fisher. In this book, Orr presents a possible alternative motivation for getting rid of the Fishers: their property. The government could have wanted to take it for themselves and use it as a naval base. I mean, the Charles Naval Hospital does now sit atop the land where Six Mile Wayfarer House once existed...

The one bit of truth we do know is that Lavinia's last words really were about taking messages to Hell. But did she meet the devil?

Haunting Results

This horrific tale wouldn't be complete without a ghostly component. Book yourself a ghost tour and hear all about where and how John and Lavinia Fisher lived out their final days in Old Charleston Jail. It is undoubtedly a creepy place with a heavy, oppressing atmosphere. But don't let any tour guide tell you the Fishers were buried in the church cemetery. They 100% were not.

The Potter's Field was built over in order for the Porter Military School (huh, there's the government again...) to come into being. In 1964, however, this school was shut down and replaced by the Medical University of South Carolina.

Right after she died, locals said they saw Lavinia's face floating behind the bars of the jail cell she was once held in. After the Great Earthquake of 1886, she apparently started wandering around the neighborhood and even the Unitarian Church Graveyard where she was rumored to have been buried. (Again, she wasn't, so why the fuck would she go there after death?)

Old Charleston Jail, which served its purpose from its construction in 1802 until 1939, was part of a plot of land where construction of the city began in 1680. The property had a long, dark history of cruel punishments. Criminals were kept in one area while non-criminals (like beggars) were kept separate. Punishments ranged from horse thieves having their ears sliced off to being hanged or drawn-and-quartered (think of Braveheart's ending if you need a visual cue), which was reserved for the worst of all criminals. Over the years, many people died here, some deaths being obviously quite violent while others were just... sad - especially those who were confined for being "mad". (I wrote an entire fucking Master's thesis on this topic, so don't even get me started.)

In 2000, efforts began to restore the Old Charleston Jail. Workers reported seeing footprints in a part of the building that had been closed down for months due to lead paint contamination. There were more reports made straight on through to its opening for tours.

On the third floor, workers spotted a jailer dressed in old-timey garb with a rifle in his hand. A black man in tattered clothing has been seen wandering through the halls. And, of course, there's Lavinia herself, sauntering on through in her wedding dress.

Some have experienced choking sensations around their necks, as if being asphyxiated by a rope. Some have been touched, grabbed, and even pushed by unseen hands. In the basement, one tourist had his sunglasses violently ejected from his head by a ghost who apparently thought they did not go with the man's shirt (okay, just kidding about the last part of that sentence).

Of course, people also still talk about Lavinia haunting the Unitarian Church Graveyard. But this really seems unlikely since we know she was not buried there.

A Grave Conclusion

We might never know for sure whether Lavinia Fisher really was America's First Female Serial Killer. But does it matter? I mean, this ain't America's First Female Serial Killer Race! Or... is it?

Lavinia's life was cut short, we know that much. A wrongful accusation could drive a person mad. How would you react if you had reason to believe the government wanted your land and would have no problem executing you to get you out of the way?

I don't think I would've reacted all too differently than Lavinia. But the spiteful b/witch in me would've cursed the entire damn town before peacing out.

I kinda think Lavinia was a bad-ass, serial killer or not.

fact or fiction
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About the Creator

Jen Chichester

Greetings, Readers of Quality!

I am your humble host, Jen Chichester, also known as That Crime Writer Chick - bringing you true crime news in real time.

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