Massachusetts Mystery

On May 18, 1801 eighteen-year-old Elizabeth Fales died in a pasture in Dedham, Massachusetts. That August her twenty-year-old boyfriend Jason Fairbanks went on trial for her murder. The Fairbanks/Fales case was the celebrity trial of its day, captivating the American public with its gory tale of love and betrayal. "The Report of the Trial of Jason Fairbanks" and "The Solemn Declaration of the Late Unfortunate Jason Fairbanks" were published within months of Jason's execution. They present the cases for the prosecution and the defense, telling a true crime story as mysterious today as on the day Elizabeth Fales died.