Laura and Alexander.

 

Laura D. Fair and Alexander P. Crittenden

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 approaching them, dressed entirely in black, wearing a broad-brimmed black hat with a black veil covering her face. 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.

Read the full story here: The Woman in Black.