Lavinia Fisher

Name

Lavinia Fisher

Legal outcome

Lavinia Fisher was executed by hanging on February 18, 1820.

The offence

The Fishers were charged with highway robbery. Lavinia Fisher pleaded not guilty to the charge of highway robber, but the jury found her guilty of highway robbery.

Trial

Lavinia Fisher was found guilty of highway robbery.

Aftermath

After their conviction, John and Lavinia planned to appeal their conviction to the Constitutional Court. While they awaited the hearing, they were kept in the Charleston jail. Because they were a married couple, John and Lavinia were kept in the debtors’ quarters in the upper part of the jail rather than the heavily guarded lower floor.

On September 13, they attempted to escape through a hole they made under the window of the cell. John went first down a rope made of blankets but it broke before he reached the ground. John could have escaped alone but chose to stay behind with Lavinia. Their motion for a retrial was rejected by the Constitutional Court, and the Fishers could do nothing now but wait for execution.

The Reverend Richard Furman would visit them often to help them make peace with their maker. Furman appeared to make some headway with John, but Lavinia was more likely to curse than pray.

On February 4, 1820, they were taken to a gallows erected on Meeting Street just outside the city limits of Charleston. Each was wearing a loose-fitting white robe over their clothes, possibly the source of the “wedding dress” myth. It was a public execution and everyone, including the fine ladies of Charleston, came out to see Lavinia Fisher hang.

John mounted the gallows peacefully, but Lavinia had to be physically dragged to the platform where she beseeched the crowd. Lavinia Fisher “beseeched the crowd to help her.”

According to one historian:

“She stamped in rage and swore with all the vehemence of her amazing vocabulary, calling down damnation on a governor who would let a woman swing. The crowd stood shocked into silence, while she cut short one curse with another and ended with a volley of shrieks.”

When Lavinia was quiet, Reverend Richard Furman read a letter from John Fisher in which he thanked the reverend for “explaining the mysteries of our Holy Religion.”

John then told the crowd he was innocent and blamed Colonel Cleary for coaching the witness who accused him.

Lavinia Fisher’s last words were:

“If you have a message you want to send to hell, give it to me—I’ll carry it.”

The Fishers were burried in a potter's field, not the Untiterian Cementery Lavinia supposedly haunts.

Lavinia Fisher was included in Murder by Gaslight because of her legend as a murderess. The case narrative also stated that it was unlikely that she ever murdered anyone.

The legend of Lavinia Fisher had probably already started, and the narrative stated that her “true” last words to the crowd at her hanging guaranteed her immortality.

Other details

During their life as a highwayman and during their year in Charleston jail, questions were raised about when Lavinia Fisher posed for an alleged portrait. Written stories of Lavinia Fisher were usually accompanied by a painting—alleged to be a portrait of Lavinia—and it was asked: “when did she pose for it?” The narrative gave two possibilities: during her life as a highwayman in the squalor of Six Mile House, or in the year she spent in Charleston jail. The record also included navigation boilerplate that was not part of the case narrative.