I’ve messed up! I’m sorry, my beautiful Chime, but I was rereading some old posts and I realized I made some mistakes, and left some things out! Quotes. Do you realize how many posts I’ve finished without adding a quote at the end? What is wrong me? I’ve also forgotten to mention that I need subscribers, but I don’t think any of us care very much about that, but I should warn you, I have finished a subscribers only post, and it is scheduled for release on August 1st, and I will be planning to continue to release subscriber only posts on the 1st of every month. Just to let you know, I talk about some Greek mythical creatures, which, to me, is super entertaining, but if it’s not your cup of tea, I understand.
For this weeks post, we are continuing with our investigation into female serial killers. (I don’t know if it counts as an investigation if I’m only retelling their stories in my own words, but I can’t think up the right word for that.) As per usual (whatever that means) I will pick a number of ladies to write about for this post, and where I stop depends on the information I can find.
Lavinia Fisher
Not much is actually known about Lavinia’s life before she was married. It’s reported that she was born in 1793, but with the information of her birthplace, parents, and family life missing from any record, I find it difficult to believe that we just so happen to know when she was born. The first account of her life that historians can find is her marriage to John Fisher, who apparently has as little information about him as Lavinia does.
After the two were married, the moved to Charleston, South Carolina to operate a hotel for travelers. Soon after they opened, however, men began to disappear somewhere along the road. The investigation was dropped, however, because no evidence of the men could be found anywhere, and the primary suspects, the Fishers, seemed like such nice people, they couldn’t possibly have done something as horrible as murder dozens of men.
As men continued to disappear, the residence of Charleston came to their own conclusions about what must have happened to their friends, and decided to confront the Fishers themselves. No one really know how the conversation went, probably along the lines of “Did you kill those men?” “No, that’s outrageous!” “Well, we think you did it.” “Do you have any proof?” “No, but we’ll leave this guy behind to keep an eye on you.”
David Ross was the unlucky individual to be left at the hotel to keep watch. Sometime in the middle of the night, he was jumped by two men and dragged before a gang, with Lavinia Fisher standing front and center. He’s said to have begged her for help or mercy, but Lavinia chose violence. She strangled him, smashed his face threw a window, and beat the living shit out of him, but somehow, poor David was able to get away and ran to tell the authorities.
It’s said around the same time, a man by the name of John Peeples stayed a night at the hotel. Lavinia was nice enough to invite the man to dinner with her and her husband after his long journey, and Peeples happily accepted. Lavinia was a beautiful and charming woman, and used these traits to act as the perfect hostess. Peeples had a great time, delicious food, and the conversation was better than he’d had in weeks, which is why he chose to ignore the odd looks he received from Mr. Fisher. Peeples suspected Fisher was just jealous of the way Lavinia was acting towards the travelor.
After dinner, Lavinia offered Peeples what she claimed was her famous cup of freshly brewed tea. Peeples didn’t know what that meant, but he didn’t actually like tea. Instead of saying no thanks, because he didn’t want to be rude, he accepted the cup, but when the couple wasn’t looking, he quickly dumped it out. The couple was so nice to him, he just didn’t have it in his heart to hurt their feelings.
Then it was off to bed for them all. Lavinia showed Peeples to his room, and something about it made him instantly uncomfortable. He couldn’t quite put his finger on what in the room had set off the feeling, but he knew the way the couple had acted definitely felt suspicious. The odd looks from Mr. Fisher, the many, many questions about his personal life from Lavinia, and the tea had him worried that they might try to rob him. Instead of sleeping in the bed, Peeples chose to sleep in a chair by the door, so if it opened, he would hear it and be able to act faster than if he was in the bed.
He dozed in out of sleep all night, listening carefully for anything out of the ordinary. In the middle of the night, he claimed to hear a loud bang and when he looked around his room, he found the bed had disappeared through a hole in the floor. Naturally, the man freaked out, jumped out the window of his room, and rode his horse straight to the police to tell them what had happened.
With enough testimony, the police finally took action and arrested the Fishers’ along with two men they believed to be working with the Fishers. A search of the house revealed not only valuables the couple had stolen, but also hidden passage ways in the walls, a system that dropped the floor out from underneath the bed in some rooms into the basement, and hundreds of bodies. Not all of them could be identified, but the valuables could be traced to dozens of missing travelers, some who weren’t even supposed to be staying at the couple’s hotel. Police concluded that the couple wasn’t only killing their guests, they were killing travelers they could find on the road. The police also believed the couple to be in highway gang, but they couldn’t prove it.
The couple plead not guilty to all accusations made against them, but the judge ordered them to be held in jail until their trial. Their supposed accomplices were released on bail, and that’s the last I hear of them in my research. A few months later, the judge delivered a guilty verdict and sentenced them to death by hanging. Mr. Fisher, throughout all proceedings up until the day he died, only proclaimed his own innocence. The city had a priest visit the couple, and Mr. Fisher only wanted the man to pray for his sins and save his soul from an eternity in hell. Even as he stood at the gallows, he still claimed his own innocence, but he went willingly to his death and is claimed to have asked the crowd for forgiveness right before he died.
Lavinia had no plans of being a quiet prisoner. She refused to speak to the priest at all, and demanded that she wear her wedding dress to her hanging. When the time came, she refused to walk, and had to be carried to the gallows. She screamed the whole time about the unfairness of it all, how the rich were to blame for her actions, and not once did she ever apologize or ask for forgiveness from them. As they placed the noose around her neck, she is reported to have said, “If you have a message you want to send to hell, give it to me. I’ll carry it.” Before the executioner could knock the stool out from under her, Lavinia jumped, choosing to go out on her own rather than let someone else have control. The crowd that witnessed her death said she died with the most evil expression on her face any of them had ever seen.
This sounds like something straight out of the conjuring, and to make it even more spooky, there are reports in Charleston of people seeing her ghost. I’m a believer in the paranormal, so that freaks me the fuck out.
Kristen Gilbert
Kristen was a smart student in her younger years. She excelled in her classes which might explain how she became a nurse. However, being a great student didn’t stop her from being a frequent liar. Family and friends couldn’t keep up with her and her stories, or why she felt she had to lie about taking food or going to the park. Based on what I can find, her family noted the behavior, but didn’t do much about it, probably because of her excellent academics and that she managed to otherwise stay out of trouble.
After grade school, Kristen studied in college and managed to become a registered nurse, and was employed at a veterans hospital. In the same year, she married Glen Gilbert. She was an excellent worker, and after a few years, she was even recognized in a magazine. She seemed to be doing really well in life.
Until staff at the hospital noticed that she treated an unusually high number of cardiac arrests. They brushed it off, she was probably just really unlucky. But, then, what was happening to all the epinephrine, it seemed to disappear at extremely fast rate. It was odd, but they didn’t have any real reason to do anything about it. Most of her patients survived, and none of them complained about her. They actually spoke very highly of her bedside manner. It was when they started dying that staff became concerned. Eventually, three different staff members spoke to supervisors about their concerns.
A full investigation into Kristen’s patients was underway when a strange call came in. A woman on the other wouldn’t give her name but claimed that there was a bomb hidden a few miles away that was about to go off. There was no bomb. It turned out to be Kristen trying to distract investigators from discovering what she’d done.
Turns out, the greatest nurse in the hospital was also a murderer (surprise! but not really, right?) There many speculations as to why she did it, but my personal preference falls into the idea that she became obsessed with being the best. After she was interviewed and featured in the magazine, she wanted more fame, and she thought if she treated worse and worse conditions, then she’d have a better chance of being recognized as the best nurse. She was mostly successful in treating them too, saved a lot of the lives she put in danger, but when messing with something as risky as giving someone a heart attack, of course she’s going to lose a few patients. Other theories are that she was bored and wanted spice up her work environment, and that she was trying to get the attention of a police officer that visited her frequently enough to have an affair with her.
In the years that she was going on her deadly crusade, she’d also had children, and because of her crazy work hours and her husbands discovery of her extramarital activities, she and her husband got a divorce. When she was arrested, she had no one to turn to for support or to defend her. Even the police officer turned against, claimed that she had confessed to him of at least one murder. Without any evidence, though, the court couldn’t charge her for it.
Despite this one charge she escaped, she was later convicted of three first degree murders, one second degree murders, and two attempted murders, though speculations say that she could have caused eighty deaths in her time at the hospital.
She was sentenced to life in prison without parole. She was transferred from Massachusetts to Texas, where has she been ever since.
Not as interesting to me as my other stories, but I promised to keep writing, so here I am, writing. Sorry, chimers, I’m just tired I guess.
Until next time, fly high, chimers!
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
― Mark Twain
Diary of a Bipolar Pixie 