Sarah Althea Hill produced a marriage contract and a will from San Francisco's richest man, federal judges ruled them forged, and her husband was shot dead attacking a Supreme Court justice

William Sharon was a US senator and the richest man in San Francisco. He owned the Palace Hotel and the Grand Hotel. In 1880 he began an affair with Sarah Althea Hill, paid her $500 a month and gave her a room at the Grand. In 1881 he ended it and had her evicted. On 8 September 1883 she had him arrested for adultery. She then sued for divorce in the San Francisco superior court, producing a secret marriage contract dated August 1880. Sharon sued in federal circuit court, claiming Nevada citizenship, to have the contract declared a forgery. In December 1884 state Judge Jeremiah Sullivan declared her Sharon's wife and awarded alimony. Sharon died in November 1885, and Hill produced a handwritten will leaving her his estate. A federal decree of January 1886 found the contract fraudulent and void. She married her lawyer, David Terry. In September 1888, as Justice Stephen Field read a ruling for Sharon's executor, she shouted accusations at him; Terry struck a marshal and reached for a bowie knife, and both went to jail for contempt. In July 1889 the California Supreme Court ruled the marriage invalid. On 14 August 1889, at Lathrop, Terry struck Field, and Deputy Marshal David Neagle shot him dead. The Supreme Court held Neagle immune from state prosecution. Sharon's son-in-law, Francis Newlands, ran the estate and moved the heirs to Nevada to keep federal protection. Hill was committed to the Stockton asylum in 1892 and died in 1937.