"Hotel of death" Lavinia Fisher: the first female serial killer in USA

Serial killers are male in history a few hundred and the army of the villains being added regularly. But among women, "serial numbers" quite a bit, but they are especially effective. Due to the large number of victims just very few ladies cut, hammered and fired, they often acted quietly using poisons. That is what killed Lavinia Fisher — first in the history of the us female serial killer first female executed on the gallows.

The first years of life of Lavinia Fisher in the dark. It is believed that she was born in 1792 or 1793 in an intelligent or even aristocratic family. This conclusion was made because of the name, which almost never met in the environment of ordinary Americans and good manners, which was noted by all who have encountered this woman (and survived).

Charleston in the mid-19th century

It is not even known whether the woman is a native of the North American continent or arrived baby with parents from Europe. No authentic images of Lavinia. The portrait of a beautiful girl with a parrot the work of Joshua Reynolds, which the authors of the articles often give a picture of the Queen really shows its namesake kitty Fisher, who died at least a quarter of a century before the birth of Lavinia.

Even less reliable is a picture of a handsome blonde in a satin dress which is also often issued for Fisher. The fact that the killer can not exist, because it hanged for almost 20 years before the invention of dagerotipii. So we can only guess how this woman looked like in reality.

Upon reaching adulthood, Lavinia married a younger man — John Fisher, who gave her surname. The couple opted for the life of the rich port city of Charleston in South Carolina. John had found some money and the couple opened a small coaching Inn on the road out of town. It was called the Six Mile Wayfarer House, which means the "House of pilgrims on the sixth mile".

The documents preserved in the archives of the Charleston, testify to the fact that people around the city began to disappear in 1819. Complaints to the local police acted regularly, and two of them were from Lavinia and John. The owners of the family business complained about the dishonest lodgers, disappeared from their hospitable hotel without paying for accommodation, meals and drinks.

It soon became clear that the approaches to Charleston wielding gang attacks on travellers, robbing and killing. The police were powerless in the face of daring criminals and the locals decided to deal with the villains. Farmers, hunters and traders of the city of Charleston made a small, but heavily armed cavalry unit, which is constantly patrolling a dangerous area.

A couple of days Ross, who is strictly forbidden to drink and play cards, bored at the window of a hotel tavern. But then the Six Mile Wayfarer House came a noisy group of angry men who badly beat up David. His guys told him that if I catch him at the hotel, I break all the bones.

But Ross was nerobkie a dozen, and returned to his post. There he waited for the mistress, miss Lavinia Fisher, was not less adept in fighting. The woman was hit several times by David head on the window, and then began to choke. The man miraculously managed to escape and run. Finding companions, he told them about his misadventures, but they just raised him to scorn, suspected of drinking and card game.

Did not help Ross and the local Sheriff, who knew the couple Fishers as power and friendly young people. In General, as would say now, business "softened". But the Sheriff still had to deal with the hotel, as it received a statement from a Mr John Pipls, solid non-drinking merchant.

Excited salesman told the Sheriff that arrived at the Six Mile Wayfarer House for the night, but the hostess said no seats available. At the same time, so as not to seem inhospitable, Lavinia Fisher poured a Cup of tea. As John pipls prefer a coffee, a drink he quietly poured into a pot with ficus, so as not to offend a good hostess.

It looked like Inns in the United States of the 19th century

Soon, the woman told the dealer that one of the guests suddenly went and checked out. Pipls lived in a small neat room, furnished only with a bed, a washstand and a nightstand. But John did something alarming in the behavior of Lavinia, so he decided not to lie down and NAP on the floor near the door.

It's after midnight I dozed off a guest was woken by the rattle and he saw the bed beneath the floor, dragged down by some ingenious mechanism. People knew it was time to save his own skin and leaving things, what was leaped out the window. An hour later he landed punching and kicking the door to the Sheriff's house, and in two — a group of gentlemen with guns stood at the entrance to the robber's hotel.

Others claimed that the killings were put on stream and the bed just fell down, throwing the sleeping on sharp stakes, and the hosts then only robbed the bloodied bodies. Was and romantic the version according to which Lavinia was a runaway slave, and her spouse is in love with her the son of a planter, who organized the escape. Pipls in this drama was given the unpleasant role of a villain — he played the role of a blackmailer, who wanted to obtain money from lovers for silence.

This story seems fantastic due to the fact that Lavinia was still white, but do not jump to conclusions. Until the abolition of slavery in the U.S. black believed anyone was in the veins of at least a drop of Negro blood and a slave could be a blue-eyed blonde who once had no luck with relatives.

True or not — to say this is impossible, but it is known that Lavinia and John were arrested. In the 19th century in the United States, the court was quick to judge and murderers could be condemned and hanged on the second day after his arrest. But the number of victims of the criminal family was so great that the trial dragged on for weeks and criminals barely escaped.

Old jail of Charleston

September 13, 1819 John Fisher had woven in the sheets and his clothes on the rope, lost the window bars and came down the stairs, but Lavinia was not able to repeat this trick. It is said that after this the husband knocked on the prison gate and asked the guards to return him to his cell to his wife.

In the end, the spouses were sentenced to be hanged, but Lavinia barely escaped death. At that time, by law a married woman could not be executed and the murderer could count on perpetual servitude. But the judges still found a loophole in the law — they first lifted John Fisher, and then, declaring Lavinia a widow, hanged her.

Of course, all of the stories — such laws of pardon does not exist, and dress miss Fisher could not wear though, because in the day of their husband's arrest, local residents burned their hotel down along with all his possessions. But without this ending it would look so corny, isn't it?