Carole Haber

The Trials of Laura Fair Carole Haber

On November 3, 1870, Laura Fair shot and killed her married lover, Alexander Crittenden. In the two trials that followed, Fairs lawyers, supported by expert testimony from physicians, claimed that the shooting was the result of temporary insanity caused by dysmenorrhea, a painful menstrual cycle. After a guilty verdict the first time around, Fair was later found innocent, though she remained an outcast for the rest of her life. Carole Haber uses Fairs story to discuss reputation in the American West and to examine the eras most controversial issues, opening the door to a broader discussion about the ways in which reputation, especially female reputation, is shaped and accepted.