On a spring day in May 1801, Jason Fairbanks appeared at the doorstep of his sweetheart’s home, covered in a crimson stain of their blood.
***
This is not a happy story.
It’s a story about young lovers; teenagers, really.
There’s a little of everything here.
Unrequited love. Bitter family feuds. A suicide pact. A daring midnight jailbreak. A cross-country cat-and-mouse chase. And a sensational trial that held the public’s attention for years.
***
At the heart of this story is a bizarre, grisly mystery.
One that sent tremors throughout a harmonious farming community of Puritan peasants.
Soundtrack
Surrender — Dan Lebowitz
Court and Page — Silent Partner
Allegro — Emmit Fenn
№2 Remember Her — Esther Abrami
Tragic Story — Myuu
Elegy — Asher Fulero
The Awakening — Patrick Patrikios
On Foot — Underbelly & Ty Maye
Lazy Boy Blues — Unicorn Heads
Wistful Harp — Andrew Huang
On the Hunt — Andrew Langdon
Sources
Anonymous, Report on the Trial of Jason Fairbanks, on an Indictment for the Murder of Elizabeth Fales, 1801.
Cohen, Daniel A. Pillars of Salt, Monuments of Grace. Liverpool University Press, 2006.
Compiled by the The Fairbanks House, Dedham, MA; the Dedham Historical Society, A Massachusetts Mystery: The 1801 Tragedy of Jason Fairbanks & Elizabeth Fales, Applewood Books, 2009.
Freeman, Dale H. “Melancholy Catastrophe!” The Story of Jason Fairbanks and Elizabeth Fales in Public and Private Writings. Historical Journal of Massachusetts Volume 26, No 1 (Winter 1998).
Parno, Travis Gordon. “With the Quiet Sturdy Strength of the Folk of an Older Time”: An Archaeological Approach to Time, Place-Making, and Heritage Construction at the Fairbanks House, Dedham, Massachusetts. Boston University, 2013.
