 Good evening. This is crime classics. I am Thomas Highland with another true story of crime listen The good ship El Capitan used to sail the bay between Oakland and San Francisco in the 1870 Mostly in the fog It's gipper was captain Bill Transhell and he was known among the ferry boats set as having a heavy hand on the whistle He found any number of excuses for tooting that whistle But the one excuse which he never forgot was the time he was entertaining mr. And mrs. Crittenden on the bridge And an uninvited lady named mrs. Laura D fair suddenly threw open the door Walked over to mr. Crittenden and shot him through his heart Captain Bill Transhell it must be admitted for once lost all control And Unwittingly gave the nautical signal for icebergs in San Francisco Bay Which caused much hoisting of flags and batting of hatches But could not change the fact that mr. Crittenden was lying face downward on the deck So tonight my report to you on the incredible trial of Laura D fair Crime classics a series of true crime stories taken from the records and newspapers of every land from every time Your host each week. Mr. Thomas Highland Connoisseur of crime student of violence and teller of murders now once again Thomas Highland And Francisco in the 1800s 70s was coming of age. It was getting civilized By this I mean that gentlemen who carried guns wore them beneath their coats and the can-can could be viewed by mixed company And mixed company was the theme of the day It was a very romantic time and a time of elegance of crystal chandeliers Reflecting swirls of silk and gowns and from another angle. So did polished brass cuspid ores Already the names Barbary Coast Nob Hill Gold Coast and Chinatown were becoming legends And if we are to believe all we hear Grandfather didn't have it so tough If he chance to look over a certain fence on a spring day in 1870 he would have seen this a Lovely lady on a swing Dipping swooping gliding soaring a lovely lady with a lovely name Lara Lara with a rose twisted in her hair and on the ground And mr. Crittenden plate of West Point Kentucky and Virginia City truly the fairest of the bare Mrs. Lane Bewitching if I didn't know otherwise, I'd say she'd been bred in the blue grass My daughter's first husband was from the blue grouse country. Yeah, how about her second husband? He never did say there was no one around who would ask me mother He was forever shooting things wall chickens Your fair daughter has lived a fulsome life look at her up there like a lady Hello Laura up there like a lady bird You're going to marry my daughter mr. Crittenden. I fear she still grieves for her late husband Her third husband was tragic Poor colonel there. That's the one who blew out his brains. Isn't it? I wonder why? Mr. Crittenden yeah, you're going to marry my daughter if she weren't still grieving for the colonel Why does she still bear his name? Why does she still call herself Laura fair? Why not? Look at her swinging like she does. Have you seen a woman more fair? No Laura Laura come down here All the grace of my daughter. She is lovely about 32 Going on 323 and she doesn't Swing as high as she used to Mr. Crittenden Forgive me for being rude. I forgot to ask you. How is your wife in the best of health? Thank you. You must tell her soon that you get on the swing mama dear and mr. Crittenden will give you a star Oh some other time Mr. Crittenden and I were just talking about Mrs. Crittenden dear. Oh, how is she in the best of health? Thank you Have you told her? I told her you bore her no malice. What did she say that she likes you too? Oh, I'm so happy now you go home and tell her you want to marry me My dear Laura you go home and tell your wife you want to marry my daughter come along Laura dear Let's and while they're doing this. Let me fill you in with some background notes Laura and mama had newly arrived from Virginia City where their family style rooming house had netted them $45,000 During the years and the welter of collecting the rents changing sheets and towels and setting the board with succulents Mama had gained and lost three sons-in-law It seemed the fate consistently made her daughter a hard woman to be married to Laura's three husbands each of them died And as to our other principal Alexander Parker Crittenden He was a corporation lawyer with a wife and seven children and two grandchildren Once hot and dusty and alone in Virginia City He happened into Laura's house made known his desire for a bath and rest No sooner had he changed into fresh linens and had listened to Laura's tale of how she had become widowed recently Then he became that weekend her starboarder and in turn Laura and mama were so taken with his quips and twinklings That they followed him to San Francisco They took a house on Knob Hill and there tatted and waited for a proposal of marriage They understood the delay they comprehended that mr. Crittenden's wife was of a peculiar mold How is Laura Alexander fine ma'am just fine and her mother eager Eager yes, ma'am. She wants me for her son-in-law and no wonder You're a fine man Alexander. Thank you, ma'am and a good father. I try to be and an excellent husband Yes, ma'am such a man as you is hard to come by Alexander dear. I should miss you I should miss you then it settled Laura and her mother will be our good friend, but Laura wants me for her husband. She keeps asking me and her mother too Dear what tell them no, but nicely. I've told him keep telling them You're a remarkable woman Thank you Alexander to be friends with a woman who wants to take me away from you I respect ambitions and honesty Laura has both that she should love you has my complete understanding Ma'am. Yes, Alexander. I must tell you that you are a flower Womanhood should be proud to number you among its sisters How many is the time Alexander? We have an appointment for dinner tonight. Yes, ma'am Ma'am. What is it Alexander? Laura loves me and I think I might love her right back Why then eat your heart out Alexander Now hurry dear. We're going out to dinner. Oh, I've sent a message to Laura to meet us at furbishes for dinner Oh, I do so enjoy watching her eat. She's so rather than it Well, hurry hurry along a pleasant one though every day is pleasant when I'm near you dear Laura and last night How wonderful sitting between you and your wife What a wonderful woman she is. I wish you two wouldn't like each other so much We both have the same consuming interest in life. Mr. Crittenden Laura, yes, I must tell you that you are a flower Womanhood should be proud. When are we going to get married soon upon your honor upon my You're a liar mr. Crittenden I shall not see you again I thought it over and that's the way I love you Laura and you love your wife, too Oh, I die without you love your wife more than you love me. No Where is I swear liar? I mean it Laura. You'll see I'll get rid of her somehow and I'll marry you I'll make her see that I don't love her. I won't even kiss her anymore Where is I swear I'll race you to the tree mr. Crittenden. All right. Come on. Is he going to marry you Laura soon? And much swinging in the garden. Has he set the date for your marriage yet Laura? Laura come down out of there and talk to me and the patting session Mama what I'm weary of his excuses and one day we're at least she wandered down Market Street There was a shop on Market Street run by a fellow who specialized in four shooters Now a four shooter is the same thing as a six shooter, but it's for ladies because it weighs two shots less Now this fellow who specialized in four shooters was such a persuasive salesman that no sooner had Laura pressed her Purt little nose against the shop window that he had her inside Measuring her palm for pistol grips When this chap let her go Laura was the proud owner of a pearl handle pistol Which this chap personally guaranteed and that was in the days when a guarantee meant something Also, you must be told that on the morning the purchase was made Laura had been without a husband for one whole year Laura had never experienced this omission since she was 18 years old So gun in purse she took to following mr. Crittenden around One night she followed the gentleman and his wife through the fog onto a boat called El Capitan This was the ferry boat between Oakland and San Francisco its skipper you remember was Bill Transhell The heavy-handed fellow who liked to entertain on his glass and closed bridge a toast Thank you captain. Thank you very much. You're very good help, sir And to the health of your very charming wife and to yours captain. Thank you, man This place is getting overrun with tugboats Oh Shall we drink ma'am? Yes, Alexander tonight somehow You appear radiant Dear Alexander ma'am You're very dear to me Captain you don't mind if I kiss the lady You just go right ahead dear lady for the moment with this note Though he died face to the deck mr. Crittenden was not buried at sea You are listening to crime classics and your host Thomas Highland and his report to you on the incredible trial of Laura D Fair and Francisco was a city where violence was commonplace But this violence was by far Predominantly of the species male slaughtering male or male doing in female So when Laura fair shot mr. Crittenden on a ferry boat Practically invented a category and thereby caused a stir It planted ideas in feminine minds where such ideas never dared to be the sale of four shooters Skyrocketed and somehow the sale of marriage licenses likewise The episode on the ferry boat was a shot in the arm for the suffragette movement to the entertainment business slump as Many a husband spent more evenings in the bosom of his family It was a city seething with unrest with slow change with static passion It was a city whose entire attentions were focused on the trial of Laura D fair for the murder of Alexander Parker Crittenden There will be order in the court You may continue with your testimony, Captain Finchell There he was Kissing that lady over there. I refuse to be referred to as fat lady over there I was his wife Mrs. Fair How do you explain you were mr. Crittenden white? I was not that woman over there I will get your chance to testify. Mrs. Crittenden This is fair. We'll answer the question. I thought I was on the witness box here. You're wrong in an open captain I wish to hear why Mrs. Fair considered herself to be the wife of mr. Crittenden Since the moment we were both born our love was made in heaven and our marriage May cause me to clear the court Go on. This is fair. Thank you. You're quite welcome My feelings for mr. Crittenden would have been profane had they not been made sacred in heaven Forward immediately the parties that are brought in sergeant at arms will bring forward that lady Disturbance well judge human nature could not stand the denial of the truth by that lady over there It was I what is your name sir Did you applaud? I stand my foot. Why did you stand your foot? I Felt the compulsion why I was carried away with what mr. Fair said. I felt the compulsion I find you twenty five dollars judge Yes, Mrs. Fair. I will pay it. You are dismissed. Mr. Hughes. Oh, bless you, Mrs. Fair Thank you, Mr. Hughes And your name madam Emily Pitt Steven. Did you applaud? I stand down on the bench in front of me You are fine twenty five dollars, but I made no noise with my feet, but with your hand you did and I did you are fine Twenty-five dollars. I rather believe you This is fair You will have to draw heavily upon your bank if you will pay the fines of all As long as you find them for cheering me Just a moment captain. I Just wanted you to know what could happen. This is fair. Thank you your honor. You're welcome Captain you may proceed and mrs. Fair came in and shot him with a foreshooter You may step down of the court reports here and that's what they say And if you think this was an unseemly way to conduct a trial. I have something else here I'd like to read it to you. This is a consensus of legal opinion of the time and I quote The trial was conducted in the main thoroughly and well with somewhat less regard for the decorum of the courtroom than his Customary and most eastern cities though far in advance of the practice in New York City in this respect unquote And now that we have resolved any uneasiness you may have had about the conduct of the trial Let's listen in again Mama on the stand is an imposing figure She wears brocaded black and a great veil that drops from her hat to her waist her feet. However, we're cold Bring the lady a foot walk That cushion Thank you, my neck I Think that'll be much better judge. Thank you. Your feet will warm up in no time at all No, I'm sure of it and now what will you saying about your daughter? I've always had trouble with her. I know what you mean being a parent myself. Oh not like Laura. What do you mean? doctors doctors My daughter has tried to kill herself on numerous occasions There's madness in the family Besides my daughter's second husband was mad. I don't think that helped Grief and doctors and madness. I tell you raising Laura was trying But I think I did a pretty good job Although my daughter is not sane, you know Crazy Doctors were called to corroborate and this they did little known facts about Laura fair were brought to light and caused more nudging of elbows than applause Some of her ailments described by the learned physicians had symptoms that weren't talked about very much in those days One medical described the raving exhibition put on by Laura a recounting of which held spellbound his students at medical college Another doctor described the melody owned by Laura fair so vividly in one of the trade journals that he was considered 20 years ahead of his time when faced with these revelations Laura accepted them by lowering her eyes modestly Dr. Leonard Bifrosser chief spokesman for the doctors Summed up medical testimony by suggesting strongly that Laura was unconscious when she shot mr. Critt Just a moment That's what it says Laura was unconscious when she shot mr. Crittenden Back to the trial now and the lady who became mrs. Crittenden by marrying Alexander in the city hall somewhere in Kentucky It is ridiculous to believe there is madness in that woman over there She's vicious predatory and since the moment she was thrown in contact with my husband She pursued him worried him and pledged with him to marry her That this necessitated getting rid of me didn't worry her ever least She killed my husband out of frustration and anger The high spot of the trial was on a morning in November The court had denied Laura permission to lie on her lounge upon which she had reclined throughout the trial So Laura has been made to arise and take the stand was so sworn in Demanded and received a foot warmer and said interesting things like this I told mr. Crittenden to let his wife keep the furniture I told him we could get new furniture and a new home and In every corner in each room We could kiss and he could hold me in his arms in each chair Dip by me on the sofa hang over me while I played his favorite March on the piano In the afternoon she enthralled listeners with this and I remember well when mr. Crittenden took me on his knees Put arm about my neck his dear face close to mine and he whispered Shall I say it yeah, please do He whispered that he would cross mountains unsharp walk through storm uncovered to come to me He said he cared not for hardship nor exposure for every step he took brought him nearer to me To the other and better half of his own soul. He would tell me Shall I go home? Please do The night he said I shot him I can remember only glass glass cold is the touch and Through it a disagreeable and peculiar voice. Did you recognize the boy? That woman over there Continue I put my hand against his glass and it opened and I saw mr. Crittenden leaning close to a woman and kissing her and I felt myself slipped into an awful pit of blackness. I Do not remember how I got away from there What was done to me after? Surprising young reporter of the time Garth preples interviewed her in her cell where he learned and had published the fact that Mrs. Fair had spent $12,000 in her defense Chicken feed to what she spent on her second trial which was in the amount of $30,000 and which broke her Where this $30,000 went to is a mystery since the second trial was not nearly so spectacular as the first Captain Billy Transhell of the ferry boat out of Capitan somehow was not there as the witness There was a new judge to who in later years became known as Kindly judge Reardon and the new jury 12 men and true out of 400 examined and our love was a greater love than is given to most women That was the second trial and that was Laura again and this time another verdict not guilty So after a quittle she went on a lecture tour and told of her hardships That was mama tambourine handler advance man and Treasurer, how did we do mama a dollar 85? When you let you tonight, honey Very tough a little promise mama. Will you I'll make it real peppy mama In one cold winter's night in Sacramento in the year 1889 but Laura lived on she lived until the age of 82 after another husband and another long period of widowhood Until the moment of her death she insisted that mr. Crittenden had only been her very good friend and once in a moment of mutual transgression They held each other's hand That's what it's a right here In just a moment Thomas Highland will tell you about next week's crime classic Laura the fair tonight's crime classic was adapted from the original court reports and newspaper accounts by Morton fine and David Freakin The music was adapted from themes of the period and conducted by Bernard Herman and the program is produced and directed by Elliott Lewis Thomas Highland is portrayed on radio by Lou Marrow in tonight's story Mary Jane Croft was heard at Laura and Florence Walker His mama featured in the cast were her Butterfield William Johnstone Paula Winslow Jean Wood and Joseph Granby you Douglas speaking and here again is Thomas Highland next week Ham England in the air 1673 a time of money-cutting and highwaymen and of course violent death my report to you will be on the All-South family how it diminished and grew again. Thank you. 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