![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Vn08eRlZBpWbwKoXdMWB44xjyH8fLhklRe0x_pS3TppS2rzZF1ag_eWJQF9k-8iERNNC-042leLlRszBOzSqM-D7AgRg09sovg_AKgdIEwWgz5i5KjvXT9K4To9FnbpiQXWkJZ_5JQEW/s400/Laura-D-Fair.jpg)
A prominent California legislator was sitting with his wife and son on board the Oakland-San Francisco ferryboat El Capitain the evening of November 3, 1870. They did not notice the woman, dressed entirely in black, wearing a broad brimmed black hat with a black veil covering her face, as she approached them. From the folds of her dress the woman pulled a derringer and shot the man in the chest. The family recognized the woman in black then; it was Laura Fair and she was finally ending her tumultuous affair with Alexander P. Crittenden.