America's First Female Serial Killer

She is often called America's first female serial killer. But like so many stories of crime and murder from hundreds of years ago (the murderous Harpe Brothers among them), this case is more legend than fact.

The legend goes something like this: a beautiful innkeeper, Lavinia Fisher, just outside Charleston, South Carolina, spent years luring wealthy travelers into her roadside inn, charming them over dinner before poisoning their tea. The tea would either kill them as they slept or simply put them to sleep, at which point Lavinia would hit a switch, activating a trapdoor beneath the bed, making the body of the traveler fall into a pit, where Lavinia’s husband was waiting to finish the job. It’s like an American twist on Sweeney Todd.