The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1871-06-01
LAURA FAIR.
A Modern Lucretia BOrgia-The
Great California Murderess-
AFuU Sketch OfHer Career.

Great California NlUFOereSS"
AFuu Sketch of Her Career.
The lesson from the career of thi
woman cannot be emphasized b!
minute details of crimes, hence tn
| full record of the trial has found NJ
place in our columns. Her life, how
ever, is too strongly suggestive to b
passed without a glance. She wa,
born in Alabama, and, through pov
erty and neglect, reached woman
hood without knowing the whole
Isome atmosphere of home. The
family removed to New Orleans
when Laura was sixteen, and here
the girl resolved to enter the world
under new circumstances. Bright in
mind and exceedingly comely in
person, she soon found investment
for her capital. She caught rich
husband. She was eighteen and he
was eighty. His senile jealousy
drove her to the remedy of divorce
but while the action was pending,
the dotard died in delirium tremens,
and the adventures found herself
the mistress of an ample fortune.
She married within month, and in
less than three was the widow Of a
suicide. With the semblances fde-
cent tsorrow fresh upon her, she took
another husband, Col. Fair, and the
fortune of the first running low, she
emigrsted with this one to Virginia
City, Nevada, where she set up
hostelry, styled the "Fair House. "
The amiabIe Colonel made way for
some one else by blowing his brains
out, and the incorrigible widow, sat
ed with her matrimonial ventures,
essayed fame and fortune on the San
Francisco stage. Hers were the arts,
however, which do not show to full
advantage on the mimic scene, and
her first appearance as Lady Teazle
was also her last. One conquest she
made was the final cause of the pres
ent scandal. She captivated the
susceptible heart of A. P. Crittenden.
an ex-Judge and an eminent lawyer.
Practising all the arts of matchless
cunning, she lured him from wife
and home, robbing him, meantime,
of all she could get. With his money
she pensioned her mother comfort
ably and re-established herself in
the Fair House in Virginia City.
While still intriguing with Critten-
den, she met some one else possessed
of money and made herself his wife.
Without identity or apparent pur-
pose this fourth s'husband" fits aim
.lessly across the hideOus scene. II
suited the whim of Jezebel to re-
move this Naboth, that she might
make her way into neighboring
vineyard, so she shot him. This, at
any rate, was candid; but even Ne
vada justice frowned at it, and the
.enchantress was brought to trial.
She was defended by Crittenden SO
eIoquently and ably that the judge
seems to have forgotten the law and
the jury the facts, for she was trium-
phantly acquitted.
The favorite of fortune and favor.
ed of justice supported her melan-
choly widowhood for few months,
and in 1868 made a new marriage
feast, taking 10 her a man of doubt
full morals, but undoubted wealth,
who figures on the scene as "Sny-
der" She looked upon Snyder's
money as if it was wood she looked
upon Snyder and thought that Crit
tendan was better. Tired of the
sanguinary method she gave sny-
der the choice of a divorce, and he,
amiable man, furnished a situation
which, when brought into court,
achieved a legal separation within a
month.
Crittenden, during these matrimo-
NAL transformations, still manifested
his fatuous devotion to the advent
uress. He gave her something like
$40, 900 altogether. At the time OF
the Snyder episode, he, however,
seems to have realized the part he
was playing. He sent for his wife
and family, and meantime Informed
Mrs. Fair that he could have moth
ing more to do with her. She flooded
him with letters and denunciations
She threatened an exposure of his
relations with her. Receiving nc
answer to these rawlings, she thrust
herself upon him in his office, and
vowed herself his wife. She dared
him to cast her off. The next day
she shot him dead as he sat by his
wife and children.