Six Miles to Charleston: The True Story of John and Lavinia Fisher

by Bruce Orr, John Laverne

Overview

The shocking true story of America’s first female serial killer, half of a husband and wife team who terrorized Charleston, SC, in the early 19th century.
 
On February 18th, 1820, John and Lavinia Fisher were executed in front of some two thousand South Carolinians. To this day, legends of the husband-and-wife serial killers range from the fearsome to the fantastical—and many swear they have encountered Lavinia’s ghost haunting the Old Charleston Jail House. But in Six Miles to Charleston, local historian and former homicide investigator Bruce Orr uncovers their horrifying true story.
 
When a young man outwitted John and Lavinia in 1819, he escaped death and went straight to the authorities. Orr recounts the investigation from the initial police raid on the murderous couple’s Six Mile Inn—with its reportedly grisly cellar—to their capture, incarceration and dramatic last moments of life. But as Orr reveals, there still may be more sinister deeds left unpunished. An overzealous sheriff, corrupt officials and documents only recently discovered all suggest that there is more to the tale.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781614232810
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	09/12/2016
Series:	Murder & Mayhem
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	131
Sales rank:	455,429
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Bruce Orr was raised in the Lowcountry of South Carolina and grew up hunting and fishing the plantations of Berkeley County with his father and brothers. It was during those times he spent many evenings listening to the tales and legends surrounding this historic area. As a young boy, he had an insatiable appetite for the bizarre, unexplained and paranormal and was always searching for answers behind the events he heard at the hunt clubs and fish camps. As he grew into an adult, this natural curiosity in seeking the facts brought him into law enforcement where he eventually became a detective and a supervisor within his agency's Criminal Investigative Division. Now retired, he uses the skills he obtained in his career to research some of the most notorious cases within the Charleston area. He seeks answers through historical documentation in an effort to separate fact from fantasy and to keep the truth from being lost in legend.

Table of Contents

Foreword John La Verne 9

Acknowledgements 13

Introduction: Lost in Legend 15

1 The Time: 1819 21

2 The Victims: Two Corpses and a Cow 33

3 The Gang: The Forgotten Members 47

4 The Trial: Colonial Justice Is Not Criminal Justice 57

5 The Escape: A Last Bid for Freedom 63

6 The Sentencing: Colonial Justice Equals Colonial Corruption 69

7 The Execution: In the Words of Those Who Witnessed It 75

8 The Method: Death by Hanging 83

9 The Allegations: Colonial Justice versus Criminal Justice 87

10 Power and Greed: Politics at Its Best 95

11 Land Swindling: The Keys May Be Key 99

12 Motive: The Sins of the Father 103

Conclusion: Things Are Not Always as They Appear 113

Bibliography 123

About the Author 127