Laura D. Fair

Laura Ann Fair (Hunt)

• Find A Grave Memorial ID # 200261201
• The Sordid Trial of Laura D. Fair: Victorian Family Values
• Laura Fair's Wikipedia Page
• The Case of Laura Fair, San Francisco 1870 - SF Chronicle

Laura Snyder (Fair), 82 Years Old, Dead

Laura A. Snyder, who was Laura Fair, died Monday from heart failure at 3143 Market Street. She was 82 years old. It was only after the death had been reported to the public administrator that it was discovered that the aged woman, who had been living alone at the house where she died, was the Laura Fair who in 1870 startled San Francisco by shooting Alexander Parker Crittenden. After she had been convicted and sentenced, she was given a new trial and acquitted. It was found yesterday that she had left $1,100 in the Bank of Italy. Public Administrator Hynes was told yesterday she had a nephew in Salt Lake City and a niece in Alabama, where she was born in 1837. The funeral will be held today.

San Francisco Chronicle, October 19, 1919, page 1

A Very Celebrated Case

The passing of Laura D. Fair drew from the press but a casual reference to the tragedy in which she figured so banefully, albeit it was well up in bad eminence among the striking events of San Francisco's earlier history, being second only to the shooting of James King of William, which led to the doings of the famous vigilance committee of 1856.

A.P. Crittenden, of the noted Crittenden family of Kentucky, an eminent attorney, who had philandered with this woman but had sought to end it, went across the bay to meet his wife, son and daughter on their arrival from the East. Returning with them and while sitting between his wife and daughter on the ferryboat El Capitan, Mrs. Fair made her appearance and, drawing a revolver, shot him through the breast. This was on the 3rd of November, 1870. Three days later he died.

She was brought to trial on March 21 of the following year, and on April 26 a jury brought in a verdict of murder in the first degree, and she was sentenced to be hanged. Her attorneys, Elisha Cook and Leander Quint, appealed on several counts, and the Supreme Court took cognizance of one, sustaining the contention that she was entitled to a new trial because the prosecution had introduced testimony as to her moral character! The court held, Justice Wallace writing the opinion that "the chastity, or general character for chastity, of a female charged with such an offense, is no more necessarily involved than her general character for honesty of dealing in pecuniary transactions."

The decision of the lower court was reversed, and the case remanded for a new trial. In the new trial emotional insanity was urged as a defense, and a jury brought in a verdict of acquittal. I believe it was the first notable case in which such defense was made; but it was such a signal success that emotional insanity has been made to serve ever since whenever a handsome woman shoots a man.

Judge S. H. Dwinelle presided at the trial in the lower court. But Judge J. W. Dwinelle figured in a unique way in the case. There was a question at first whether the crime was committed in Alameda or San Francisco County. It depended on whether the ferryboat had crossed the line when the fatal shot was fired.

Judge J. W. Dwinelle contended that it had not, being still in Alameda County waters. The services of the state surveyor-general were called in. That official, under elaborate investigation and calculation, decided that the fatal shot was fired in San Francisco waters.

The case attracted national attention. It is not remembered that California was particularly abashed by the astonishing reversal. It rather seems to have enjoyed the national amazement over it, relishing in a way the unprecedented legal antic that it had turned.

Oakland Tribune, October 26, 1919, page 30

Name Laura Ann Fair
Maiden Name Hunt
Gender Female
Birth Date 22 Jun 1837
Birth Place Holly Springs, Marshall County, Mississippi, United States of America
Death Date 19 Oct 1919
Death Place San Francisco, San Francisco County, California, United States of America
Cemetery Woodlawn Memorial Park
Burial or Cremation Place Colma, San Mateo County, California, United States of America
Has Bio? Y
Spouse William D. Fair

U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current

Name Laura A Snyder
Birth Year abt 1837
Death Date 13 Oct 1919
Age at Death 82
Death Place San Francisco, California, USA

California, U.S., Death Index, 1905-1939

GRIEF OVER DAUGHTER’S DEATH CAUSES MOTHER OF LILLIAN HOLLIS TO ATTEMPT SUICIDE

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. S.—Mrs. Laura D. Snyder, mother of Lillian Lorraine Hollis, who recently died of poverty in New York, attempted to kill herself by cutting her throat in Richmond today. Physicians say she will probably recover. Grief over the death of her daughter, friends say, affected Mrs. Snyder’s mind.

Mrs. Snyder, whose maiden name was Fair, figured more than 40 years ago in a famous criminal ease on a ferry boat enroute from San Francisco to Oakland. She shot and killed Judge A. K Crittenden, whom the woman claimed was the father of her child, Lillian.

Laura Fair was sentenced to be hanged for murder, but a new trial was granted her and she was acquitted. The daughter was noted for her beauty. In 1892 in a newspaper voting contest, she was selected as the most beautiful woman on the Pacific coast. She became an actress and went east.

Morning Union, 9 February 1913

References

• "Louisiana Parish Marriages, 1837-1957," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKJ8-KF4V : 18 February 2021), M E Hunt in entry for Wm H Stone and Laura A Hunt, 27 Oct 1853; citing Orleans, Louisiana, United States, various parish courthouses, Louisiana; FHL microfilm 906,336.
• Moss L Fair in the 1860 United States Federal Census < AncestrySharing >
• Laura Fair in the 1880 United States Federal Census < AncestrySharing >
• La Snyder in the 1900 United States Federal Census < AncestrySharing >
• Annie Snyder in the 1910 United States Federal Census < AncestrySharing >