Bryce Bethea, Amanda Dobrucky, Maria Miller, & Lily Russo

The Woman in Black

A crime about, love, scandal, and insanity

Follow the life of Laura Fair as she meets the love of her life Alexander Crittenden, a married man, and murders him in a crime of passion on November 3, 1870.

The story will have you questioning the role of gender in the criminal justice system in the 19th century, as well as the use if insanity in murder cases.

While most of her life is a mystery, Laura Fair left her mark on the nation with her growing media presence that covered the two trials and the public reaction after the fact.

Is she guilty of killing her former lover? Find out by exploring this webpage and the twists and turns of the case.

Who was Laura Fair?

Laura D. Fair [born Hunt] was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on June 22, 1837. Her family moved around the American South before settling in New Orleans. Her father passed in 1853, and at the age of 16 Laura married a man named William H. Stone. Two years later, the two divorced, with Laura claiming that Hunt was a drunk and "would not stop drinking."

After the divorce, Laura moved to Mobile, Alabama, and entered a convent, planning to become a Christian teacher, but soon left due to a relationship with Tom Grayson, whom she married. This marriage was also short-lived, with the two divorcing several years later.

After her second divorce, in the mid-1850s, Laura and her mother moved to San Francisco to open a boarding house, but did not find success. In 1859, at age 22, she and her mother left for Shasta, California, where Laura met the man who would become her third husband, William D. Fair.

William Fair appeared to be wealthy and respectable, someone who Laura believed would finally give her the lifestyle she wanted. Unfortunately, she learned soon after their marriage that his law practice was not very profitable, and he had lied about many life details, including his military experience and education. Despite this, the two stayed together, had a daughter together in 1860, and moved to San Francisco in November of 1861. Just a month later, in December of 1861, William got into an altercation over financial disagreements and was found dead from a gunshot wound. While his death was ruled a suicide, Laura insisted that he was murdered, but she did not press charges, stating years later that she had been pressured into not pursuing a case. The media reported the death as a suicide, suggesting marital issues that Laura Fair denied.

These past tumultuous relationships allowed the media to portray Laura Fair as an immoral she-devil, and ultimately causing major problems in the case to prove Fair's innocence.

Sources

"The Case of Laura Fair, San Fransisco 1870" SFGATE June 27 2014 https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/The-case-of-Laura-Fair-San-Francisco-1870-5585715.php
Wilmington Journal. [volume], July 14, 1871 Image 1. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026536/1871-07-14/ed-1/seq-1/?date1=1860&index=13&date2=1880&searchType=basic&sequence=1&state=&rows=20&proxtext=laura+fair&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange#words=%5Bu%27Fair%27%2C+u%27Laura%27%5D
Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Fair
Image: http://www.murderbygaslight.com/2013/04/the-woman-in-black.html

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