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February air had to be bad. Add in the fact that it was inside a castiron cage on dirt and cobblestone roads—it had to make the trip grueling. It apparently was the beginning of a very harsh existence for the Fishers inside the city jail.

    Paddy wagon used to transport prisoners in Charleston. The open cage allowed objects to be thrown at prisoners by spectators. Courtesy of author.

    The Fishers’ introduction to colonial justice began at the rear entry to the paddy wagon. Courtesy of author.
    This story is quite a different one from the legend. The statements of both victims have been furnished in their entirety just as they were written. There are no accounts of trapdoors, poisoned tea or a cellar full of skeletons. In fact, quite a lot of research went into trying to document the numerous bodies alleged to have been uncovered in the cellar. Legend has it that the cellar was uncovered in June 1819 and that numerous skeletal remains were found. A member of the gang, William Heyward, would later be captured and hanged in August 1820. His charges did not reflect the fact that numerous bodies had been located. Surely with a year and two months’ time since this alleged gruesome discovery, the murders would have reached the media and been reflected in the charges against Mr. Heyward. That never happened, and the reason that it never happened is because the story of a cellar full of corpses, just like the oleander poisoned tea, is fabrication and fiction.
    A search of the death records of 1819 and 1820 found no such evidence of a mass grave of skeletal remains. No records at all were found even remotely similar to this claim. What was found was an article in the Charleston Courier dated February 26, 1819, less than a week after the arrests. It is the only account of bodies contributed or associated with the Six Mile House.
    The coroner for the Charleston district was Jervis H. Stevens. He had received information that a fresh grave was found in the woods near the Six Mile House. It was believed that the gang of robbers had buried a man there approximately ten days prior to his receipt of the information. The man had been reported to have been shot to death.
    Coroner Stevens went to the location, and during his search, he did indeed locate a fresh grave. Much to his surprise, the excavation of the gravesite revealed not one, but two bodies. The first appeared to have long hair and to be a white male buried in a box made of rough slabs. The other body, which had been located buried beside the first, appeared to be the remains of a young Negro female. The remains of the woman were alleged to have been placed in the grave two years prior. Nothing remained of her but her skeleton. She is the only skeleton associated with Six Mile House. She was not discovered in a cellar. She was simply buried on the property in an unmarked grave, not at all uncommon for slaves in 1819. Today we may find this appalling, but in 1819, this was a daily occurrence.
    No one was ever charged with either of these deaths. In fact, the person shot was never attributed to being a victim of any crime at all. Could perhaps he had been a member of the gang who was mortally wounded in a self-defense act by a potential robbery victim? More than likely he was killed in the assault on the Five Mile House or the initial assault on the Six Mile House by the lynch mob. He may have been the missing “F. Davis” or William Andrews listed on Peoples’s affidavit.
    The Charleston Courier article states that the person was said to have been shot about ten days prior. This was February 26. The raids on the Five Mile House and the Six Mile House had occurred on February 18, eight days earlier, putting it in the same time frame. It is highly possible this man was killed in the assault upon the Five Mile House since there was resistance and it was burned to the ground that night in order to drive those occupants out.
    The report of the bodies in the