by Bruce Orr
The tale of what actually did occur six miles from Charleston has now been told, and the legend of the most infamous couple in Charleston’s history, John and Lavinia Fisher, has been reexamined. Based on the facts, the reader is left to draw their own conclusion as to what actually did transpire in the case of the Fishers. That conclusion is obviously quite different than what the legend has taught us and many before us over the past 190 years.
Just as the plaque outside St. Luke’s Church is dedicated to those who died of disease during the same year the Fishers were arrested and executed, may this book also be a solemn reminder of the suffering of persons, like William Heyward and the Fishers, in an earlier judicial system. May it be an incentive to those who seek to investigate crimes and render justice today to not be swayed by bias, politics or by prejudice. May it also serve as a reminder that not everything you are told is true and that the truth is often overshadowed by time and lost in legend.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Courtesy of Kayla Orr.
Bruce Orr was raised in the Lowcountry of South Carolina and grew up hunting and fishing the plantations of Berkeley County with his father and brothers. It was during those times he spent many evenings listening to the tales and legends surrounding this historic area. As a young boy, he had an insatiable appetite for the bizarre, unexplained and paranormal and was always searching for answers behind the events he heard at the hunt clubs and fish camps.
As he grew into an adult, this natural curiosity in seeking the facts brought him into law enforcement where he eventually became a detective and a supervisor within his agency’s Criminal Investigative Division. Now retired, he uses the skills he obtained in his career to research some of the most notorious cases within the Charleston area. He seeks answers through historical documentation in an effort to separate fact from fantasy and to keep the truth from being lost in legend.
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