The Backstory: The First Female Serial Killer?

Fake news has cost a lot of people their reputations...and even their lives. Was that the case for America's so-called first female serial killer?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hmm. Was America's first female serial killer just the victim
of fake news. I'm Patty Steele, executed thanks to public opinion.
Next on the backstory, We're back with the backstory. Well,
we're all experts on fake news these days, right, But

(00:21):
that's really been a thing from the time news was invented.
It's called marketing. Somebody has an agenda, and there's nothing
better than mass media to get your point across, even
if it's a crock of well, you know, victims of
fake news have included everybody from Julius Caesar to Marie
Antoinette to pretty much every US president on both sides

(00:42):
of the aisle. And then there are people who are
falsely accused of crimes who pay the price, only to
be found not guilty, sometimes years and years after the fact.
That's where the Innocence Project gets involved. Now here's a
story somewhere in the middle, has a lot of shades
of gray in it. Journey takes us to the early
nineteenth century to Charleston, South Carolina, Lavinia. Fisher and her

(01:07):
husband John are accused of highway robbery, a crime punishable
by death at that time, but she was also suspected
of being America's first female serial killer. She and her
husband were hung. But were they simply victims of an
anxious press, hearsay, or even a flawed justice system. The
year is eighteen twenty. Charleston was a powerful city, a

(01:30):
hub of commerce, second only to New York City at
that time. Lavinia Fisher was a gorgeous young woman twenty
six years old, who, along with her husband, John Fisher,
ran the six Mile Wayfarer House, an inn for travelers
located just outside Charleston. But there's a problem in this
comfortable inn. Some crazy stuff is happening. Legend has it

(01:54):
Lavinia was also a cold blooded killer. There was talk
that she would charm the guests, talk to them about
their travels and gather information about their possessions. Night would fall,
she'd continue to chat with them and then serve them
some warm tea before bed, But that tea was laced

(02:14):
with an herb that would send them into a very
deep sleep. Gossip had it that the traveler, now fast asleep,
would be laid on a bed that, with the pull
of a lever, would open a trap door and drop
the body into a pit, maybe one lined with spikes.
To finish the job. One person at the Fisher's trial

(02:34):
testified that she had offered him some tea, but he
wasn't a fan of tea. Not wanting to seem rude,
he took it, but he dumped it out when she
wasn't looking. He said he was nervous about her and
her husband and decided to sit all night in a
chair propped against the door of his room rather than
get into bed. Then in the middle of the night,

(02:55):
he said he heard a loud crash and he watched
his bed fall through the floor. But here's the question,
how much of this is true. Historical records show that
Lavinia and John Fisher were arrested, but actually not for murder.
They were snagged on charges of highway robbery, which in fairness,
again was a serious crime in those days, often ending

(03:17):
in execution, and nobodies were ever found, nor were any
tunnels underneath the bedrooms found while they were locked up.
Gossip about the Fisher's crimes grew morphing into a crazy
story of robbery and serial killings. Now, the problem is
the trial that followed was less about factual evidence and

(03:38):
more about the kind of theater of public outrage and
fear kind of reminds you of the Salem witch trials. Right,
once the gossip grew loud enough, everybody wanted their pound
of flesh. Anyway, that's likely what happened to Lavinia and
her husband bad press. But were they bad folks, Oh
you bet they were? Were they killers? Probably not. Records

(04:00):
from the trial are pretty nonexistent, and again no bodies
were found at the six mile wayfarer house or many tunnels. Ultimately,
they were found guilty of highway robbery. After a very
fast and tumultuous trial. There was an appeal, but no surprise,
Lavinia and John Fisher were finally sentenced to hang. So

(04:23):
why was Lavinia Fisher remembered as a serial killer. Most
historians think she was absolutely a criminal, but likely not
a killer. You see, forensic information in the early nineteenth
century was very different from what we have today. And
as far as the news goes, we have instant access now.
Back then you really only had two options for taking

(04:45):
in the news print like newspapers and pamphlets. And after that,
word of mouth gossip was huge. And let's not be
too judgy. Today we may have a million different sources
of information, but did you ever stop to think how
many of those stories feed off the same source. The
problem is, just like today, stories could get blown way

(05:06):
out of proportion, and again, just like today, public opinion
could sometimes sway the justice system and the outcome of trials.
So what's Lavinia's real story? Well, we do know she
was a member of a big gang of highwaymen outlaws
who terrorized the area with targeted robberies. Apparently, the six
Mile House that's the inn owned by Lavinia and her

(05:28):
husband was a notorious hangout for outlaws in the Charleston area,
and the couple definitely targeted travelers for robbery. Funny enough,
Lavinia and John Fisher thought they were going to get
out of this mess right up until the end. Housed
in the same tiny cell they plotted and escape late
one night using bed sheets tied together, John slipped out

(05:51):
of the window in their cell and made it most
of the way down to ground level until the sheets
tour trapping Lavinia above us to leave without her and
was caught. After that, they were held more securely. Eventually,
John found god, Lavinia not so much. She still thought
she'd find a way out as they headed to the

(06:12):
gallows with a crowd of two thousand watching the festivities,
John begged for mercy. He told people he was not guilty,
that they were making a mistake. He had a reverend
read a letter to the crowd in which he said
he was a Christian and simply the victim of a
flawed justice system, although he then sort of contradicted himself
by asking for forgiveness for what he'd done. As for Lavinia,

(06:36):
she stayed coldly composed, but in her final moments, as
the noose was slipped around her neck, her last words
were kind of scary. She said, if you have a
message for the devil, tell me now, for I shall
be seeing him shortly. I'm Patty's Tear. The Backstories a

(07:01):
production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis Duran Group, and
Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our writer
Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday.
Feel free to reach out to me with comments and
even story suggestions on Instagram at real Patty Steele and
on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the

(07:23):
Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of history you didn't
know you needed to know